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THE 


HISTORY 


OF    THE 


CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND, 


FROM    THE 


^Reformation  to  m  present  Cime. 


BY 

THOMAS   STEPHEN 

■  It 

MED.  LIBRAELUJ,  KING'S  COLLEGE,  LONDON; 
ADTHOR  OF  "THE  BOOK  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION;"  «  THE  G 


OF  THE  CHn«r„  „.  "'"^  ''°  ^'^  "OWNING  AND  EVENIKG  SEaVICS 

Oi  THE  CHORCH  OF  ENGLASD,''  ETC.  ETC. 


VOL.  I 


LONDON: 

JOHN  LENDRUM,  7,  WARWICK  SQUARE; 

SIMPKIN,  MARSHALL,  AND  CO. 

AND     TO     BE     HAD      OF     ALL    BOOKSELLERS. 


MDCCCXLIir. 


WILSON  AND  OO 


;x.vv,«KnNr.R  st'h.e;,  snowh.li.  londox. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

V&ge 
Primacy  of  Archbishop  James  Beaton — from  1522  to  1539    ...       1 


CHAPTER  II. 
Primacy  of  Archbishop  David  Beaton,  Cardinal,  Legatus  natus, 

and  Legate  a  Latere — from  1540  to  1546 12 

CHAPTER  III. 
Primacy  of  Archbishop  Hamilton — from  1546  to  1558  36 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Primacy  of  Archbishop  Hamilton — from  1558  to  1560   65 

CHAPTER  V. 

Government — Worship — Faith — Opinions  of  the  Scottish  and 

Foreign  Reformers — 1561 105 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Superintendents — from  1561  to  1567 149 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Superintendents  and  Titular  Bishops — from  1568  to  1574...  206 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Titular  primacies  of  John  Douglas  and  Patrick  Adamson. 
From  the  first  proposal  of  Presbytery  to  the  erection  of  the 
first  Court  of  Presbytery — from  1575  to  1592 256 


JV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Page 

The  Death  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots 349 

CHAPTER  X. 
The  Presbyterian  Establishment — from  1593  to  1600 371 

CHAPTER   XI. 

From  the  Restoration  of  Titular  Episcopacy  to  the  Consecration 

of  Three  Bishops  in  London— from  1600  to  1610 417 

CHAPTER   XII. 
Primacy  of  Gladstanes  and  Spottiswood — from  1611  to  1625  ...  459 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Primacies  of  Archbishop  Spottiswood,  from  the  Accession  of 
Charles  I.  till  the  Riot  on  account  of  the  Liturgy — from 
1525  to  1637 511 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Primacy  of  Archbishop  Spottiswood — the  Tables,  the  Covenant, 
the  Glasgow  Assembly,  and  the  Destruction  of  the  Church 
—  1638 565 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Conclusion  637 


PREFACE. 


In  submitting  to  the  public  a  new  history  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical affairs  of  Scotland,  it  will  perhaps  displease  some  readers 
to  find,  in  the  contents  of  this  volume,  so  much  that  is 
opposed  to  the  opinions  and  representations  of  other  historians 
of  the  period  embraced  therein  ;  but  facts  have  been  honestly- 
detailed,  as  they  have  been  vouched  for  by  the  contemporary 
authors  on  both  sides  of  politics.  The  episcopalian  Spottis- 
wood,  and  the  presbyterian  Calderwood,  correspond  exactly 
in  their  accounts  of  the  most  material  facts,  although  they 
differ  most  essentially  in  their  opinions,  and  in  their  deduc- 
tions from  the  same  premises.  Facts,  however,  are  stubborn 
things,  and  cannot,  without  detriment  to  truth,  be  turned  and 
moulded  to  suit  peculiar  or  sectarian  views.  The  truth  ot 
history  has  been  strictly  adhered  to,  without  respect  of  persons; 
quotations  have  not  been  garbled  ;  nor  have  either  friends  or 
adversaries  been  designedly  misrepresented.  Such  disin- 
genuousness  was  foreign  to  the  principles  on  which  this  work 
was  written  ;  for  if  an  account  shall  be  demanded  at  the  day 
of  judgment  for  every  idle  word  that  we  speak,  how  much 
stricter  will  the  scrutiny  be  into  those  falsehoods  or  wilful  mis- 
representations which  we  may  commit  to  writing. 

Both  Knox  and  Melville  were  straight-forward  and  con- 
sistent in  the  establishment  of  their  different  systems.  The 
former  was  too  fearless,  in  the  means  which  he  adopted  to 
accomplish  his  ends,  to  create  any  ambiguity  to  the  historian 


Vi  PREFACE. 

who  honestly  intended  to  write  the  truth,  and  nothing  but  the 
truth.  The  latter  appeared  on  the  scene  at  a  later  period,  and 
with  other  and  more  democratic  views.  He  introduced  an  en- 
tirely different  system,  utterly  subversive  of  Knox's  discipline. 
He  created  dissention,  and  lived  in  contention.  He  was  repub- 
lican in  his  views,  but  ambitious  of  more  than  papal  supre- 
macy in  his  own  person ;  and  he  laid  the  foundation  of  that 
religious  discord  which  may  be  traced  in  the  following  pages, 
and  of  that  separation,  schism,  and  consequent  bloodshed  and 
persecution,  which  has  yet  to  be  detailed. 

The  conduct  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  ministers  who 
had  been  bred  at  the  feet  of  these  men,  or  had  adopted  their 
views,  will  admit  of  little  palliation ;  for  the  passions  of"  hatred, 
variance,  emulation,  wrath,  strife,  seditions,  heresies,  envy- 
ings,"  by  which  they  were  actuated,  were  works  of  the  flesh 
which  inferred  the  pains  of  disinheritance  from  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  but  which  were  then  extremely  common.  Their  vio- 
lence is  admitted  by  Dr.  Robertson,  himself  a  presbyterian 
minister,  who  says,  "  the  pulpit  was  disgraced  by  being  used 
as  a  vehicle  to  revile  the  sovereign,  and  to  stir  up  contention 
among  the  people."  The  circumstance  which  will  make  the 
following  history  more  interesting  to  English  readers  is, 
that  the  destruction  of  the  church  of  England,  and  the  per- 
secution of  her  clergy  in  the  seventeenth  century,  were  the 
effects  of  the  Scottish  Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  The 
same  agency  was  at  work,  and  the  same  objects  contemplated, 
by  the  Jesuits,  when  they  instigated  the  covenanters  to  ex- 
tirpate the  reformed  Catholic  church  in  all  the  three  kingdoms, 
and  their  maxim  that  the  end  justifies  the  means  was  then 
fully  verified. 

The  extensive  and  better  cultivated  estates  of  the  prelates 
and  monastic  bodies  excited  in  the  breasts  of  the  nobility 
that  desire  for  plunder  which  was  the  great  and  enduring  sin 
of  the  Scottish  reformation.  Every  man  at  that  time  did  that 
which   was   right  in  his  own  eyes,  indifferent  whether  he 


PREFACE.  vii 

robbed  God  or  his  neighbour ;  and  the  sceptre  was  wielded 
by  too  feeble  hands  to  be  any  restraint  on  powerful  and  law- 
less barons,  at  the  head  of  their  feudal  vassals.  Each  reforming 
baron,  therefore,  seized  on  the  lands  nearest  to  his  own  here- 
ditary property  ;  while  the  abbots  and  priors  then  in  posses- 
sion secured  what  remained,  and  procured  their  erection  into 
temporal  lordships,  descendible  to  their  children  or  heirs. 
Nearly  one-third  of  the  land  of  the  kingdom  was  thus  appro- 
priated ;  and  Knox's  efforts  to  recover  a  maintenance  for  his 
hierarchy  out  of  the  wreck,  was  ridiculed  as  a  devout  imagi- 
nation. This  spoliation,  with  the  withholding  of  the  tithes, 
the  subsequent  uniting  of  contiguous  parishes,  and  the  ex- 
treme scarcity  of  men,  able,  either  for  learning  or  morali  y,  to 
undertake  the  ministerial  office,  left  the  people  scattered  as 
sheep  on  the  hills  without  a  shepherd,  and  kept  them  for  a  time 
in  a  state  of  knowledge  and  morality  little  superior  to  heathens, 
that  has  ever  since  operated  most  injuriously  on  the  Scottish 
church.  The  attempt  of  the  crown  to  secure  a  moderate 
revenue  for  the  clergy  instantly  created  the  utmost  alarm  in 
the  minds  of  the  nobility,  lest  they  should  be  stript  of  the 
whole  of  the  property  which  had  formerly  belonged  to  the 
church,  and  which  they  tenaciously  grasped.  Divine  wrath 
visited  their  sacrilege  with  the  national  punishments  of  the 
sword,  famine,  and  pestilence,  the  extirpation  of  the  esta- 
blished churches  of  the  three  kingdoms,  the  prostration  of 
monarchical  government,  a  bloody  revolution,  the  murder  of 
the  king,  and  the  establishment  of  a  military  despotism. 


King's  College,  London, 
18  October,  1843. 


CAIEBHMAIL     BEAT(Q)1 


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FROM  ^N  ORIBHOL  FAINTING. 


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ARCEBISEOP  OF  S7  JNDKBWS  ■ 


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oaoon,- J.  Lendriun  7   Warwicit  Sq^uax-e  . 


HISTORY 


CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND. 


CHAPTER  I. 


PRIMACY  OF  ARCHBISHOP  JAMES  BEATON. 

Reformation  necessary. — James  Resby — Paul  Craw — Lollards  of  Kyle  prose- 
cuted— Subjects  of  their  Discourses. — Hamilton  Abbot  of  Ferme — his  preach- 
ing— trial  and  burning. — John  Knox. — William  Arithe. — Alexander  Seton's 
preaching. — Alexander  Aless. — Many  tried  for  heresy. — The  tenth  of  benefices 
granted  to  the  king. — Return  of  Bishop  David  Beaton. — An  episcopjd  synod — 
Several  tried  for  heresy — Six  burnt  in  one  fire. — Anecdote  of  the  Bishop  of  Dun- 
keld  and  the  Vicar  of  Dollar — the  vicar  of  Dollar  burnt. — Russell  and  Kennedy 
burnt — Russell's  speech  at  the  stake. — George  Buchanan. — Cardinal  Beaton. 
— More  burning. — Death  of  Archbishop  James  Beaton. — Reflections. 

At  the  period  when  the  reformed  doctrines  were  first  intro- 
duced into  Scotland,  the  papal  hierarchy  enjoyed  the  most 
profound  repose,  and  possessed  the  greatest  possible  security 
in  the  support  of  the  throne  and  of  the  aristocracy.  The 
alterations  of  religion  which  took  place  during  two  minorities 
of  the  crown,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  have  rendered  the 
history  of  the  Scottish  Reformation  one  of  considerable  in- 
terest, and  of  some  importance,  both  in  its  immediate  effects, 
and  also  in  the  consequences  which  have  flowed  from  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  conducted.  Some  of  the  first 
preachers  of  the  reformed  doctrines  were  Romish  priests,  but 
many  of  them  were  merely  zealous  laymen  who  undertook  the 
sacred  office.  The  numl3er  of  ecclesiastics  at  that  time  in 
Scotland,  of  every  description,  exceeded  two  thousand,  al- 
though the  general  population  of  the  kingdom  did  not  much 
exceed  a  million  of  souls.     To  the   Scottish  prelates    that 

VOL.  I.  B 


2  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  I. 

kingdom  is  indebted  for  most  of  its  improvements  in  the  arts 
and  sciences  known  to  the  age  in  which  they  lived.  "  We 
are  not,  however,"  says  Mr.  La\vson^  "  to  view  the  ecclesi- 
astics of  the  Scottish  hierarchy  merely  as  the  founders  of 
cathedrals,  colleges,  and  religious  institutions.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  they  rendered  essential  services,  by  their  continued 
improvement  of  the  kingdom,  in  agriculture  ;  in  the  erection 
of  bridges,  hospitals  for  the  aged  and  infirm,  many  of  which 
still  remain  ;  and  they  were,  in  many  cases,  the  promoters 
of  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  domestic  life.  They  were  the 
discoverers  of  that  invaluable  mineral  coal,  a  constant  and 
never-failing  source  of  internal  wealth ;  they  were  long  the 
only  ship-owners  of  the  kingdom;  and  some  of  the  most 
useful  inventions  issued  from  the  monastic  cloister.  Secure 
in  their  hold  over  their  numerous  vassals  and  retainers,  the 
dignitaries  of  the  Scoto-Catholic  hierarchy  appear  never  to 
have  contemplated  the  possibility  of  attack." 

In  every  age  of  the  Church,  even  in  its  most  corrupt  state, 
the  Lord  of  the  Vineyard  never  left  himself  without  some  wit- 
nesses for  the  truth  ;  and  His  all-seeing  eye  could  reckon  the 
thousands  in  Israel  who  had  never  bent  their  knees  to  the  cor- 
ruptions of  the  church  in  their  several  generations,  but  who 
secretly  worshipped  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth.     He  raised 
up  WicklifF  in  the  fifteenth  century,  to  protest  against  the 
corruptions  of  the  papal  system,  and  to  sow  some  seeds  of 
truth,  which  sprang  up  and  bore  fruit  in  a  subsequent  gene- 
ration.     The  general  degeneration  of  the  Popish  clergy  in 
Scotland  disgusted  all  men  in  whom  the  least  spark  of  true 
religious  feeling  remained  ;   but  the  monastic  orders  appear 
to  have  been  wholly  given  up  to  the  most  impure  lusts,  and 
to  all  the  works  of  the  flesh.     Notwithstanding  they  made 
the  most  unbounded  pretensions  to  austerity  of  manners  and 
sanctity  of  heart,    in  reality  they    were  universally  stained 
with   the  deepest  hypocrisy,  and  they  privately  indulged  in 
unrestrained  sensuality  and  lust.    Wicklifi's  attempt  to  trans- 
late  the  Holy  Scriptures  into  the   vulgar  tongue,   and  his 
exposure  of  some  of  the  errors  of  Popery,  made  many  secret 
converts  in  England,  who  were  denominated  Lollards ;  and 
many  of  whom  were  driven  by  persecution  into  Scotland,  to 
seek  protection  from  the  fury  of  their  papal  oppressors. 

The  first  of  these  was  James  Resby,  a  priest ;  who  was 
summoned  before  Lawrence  Lindores,  who  then  held  the  office 
of  Papal  Inquisitor-General,  in  the  year  1422.     He  is  said 

'  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Scotland,  p.  15. 


1494.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  3 

chiefly  to  have  taught  '•  that  the  Pope  was  not  the  vicar  of 
Christ ;  and  that  a  man  of  a  wicked  life  ought  not  to  be  ac- 
knowledged as  Pope."  He  was  pronounced  guilty  of  heresy, 
and  committed  to  the  secular  arm,  and  burnt  alive,  at  St. 
Andrew's,  during  the  primacy  of  Henry  Wardlaw,  then  the 
primus  Scotice  Episcopus^. 

Some  years  afterwards,  a  Bohemian  physician,  named  Paul 
Craw,  a  deputy  from  the  reformers  of  Prague,  ventured  into 
Scotland,  to  open  a  communication  with  the  opponents  of 
Popery ;  from  which  it  would  appear  that  Resby's  doctrines 
had  made  some  progress.  Craw  was  apprehended  in  St. 
Andrew's,  and  arraigned  before  Lindores  as  a  heretic.  He 
was  accused  of  following  the  heretical  opinions  of  Huss  and 
WicklifF  respecting  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar,  and  of  having 
denounced  auricular  confession  and  prayers  to  saints  departed. 
He  was  of  course  condemned,  and  burnt  alive  at  St.  Andrew's, 
in  the  year  14312. 

Although  the  government  took  no  notice  of  these  cruel 
proceedings,  yet  they  seem  to  have  had  a  sedentaiy  effect 
upon  the  people,  for  no  farther  opposition  appears  to  have 
been  given  to  the  papal  doctrines  till  the  year  1494,  in  the 
sixth  year  of  the  reign  of  James  IV.,  when  no  less  than  thirty 
persons  of  both  sexes  were  summoned  before  Robert  Black- 
adder,  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and  accused  of  heretical 
pravity.  They  w'ere  chiefly  from  Kyle,  a  district  of  the 
county  of  Ayr,  and  hence  they  were  denominated  the  "  Lollards 
of  Kyle."  Knox  enumerates  thirty-four  articles  which  were 
preferred  against  them :  some  of  which  were,  that  they 
maintained  "  that  images  were  not  to  be  had  in  the  Kirk, 
nor  to  be  worshipped  ;" — "  that  the  relics  of  saints  are  not 
to  be  worshipped ;" — "  that  it  is  not  lawful  to  fight  for  the 
faith  ;" — "  that  Christ  gave  power  to  bind  and  loose  to  all  the 
Apostles,  and  not  to  Peter  alone,  and  his  successors  f — "  that 
after  consecration  there  remains  bread,  and  that  there  is  not 
in  the  mass  the  natural  body  of  Christ ;"— "  that  the  Pope 
deceives  the  people  by  his  Bulls  and  Indulgences,  and  that 
the  souls  said  to  be  in  purgatory  are  not  profited  by  masses ;" 
— "  that  the  Pope  exalts  himself  against  and  above  God ;"  — 
"  that  priests  may  have  wives ;" — that  faith  should  not  be 
given  to  (Popish)  mu-acles ;" — "  that  prayers  should  not  be 
addressed  to  the  Blessed  Virgin ;" — "  that  such  as  worship 
the  Sacrament  (of  the  Altar)  commit  idolatry,"  &c.  It  ap- 
pears that  the  king  himself  was  present  at  their  trial,  and 

^  Knox's  Hist,  of  the  Reformation,  p.  63.  ^  Knox's  History. 


4  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  I. 

recommended  a  merciful  course  to  be  adopted,  and  the  Arch- 
bishop dismissed  them  with  an  admonition  merely  to  beware 
of  false  doctrines  and  novelties  in  religion  i. 

1528, — There  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any  farther 
notice  taken  of  religious  opinions,  and  men  seem  to  have 
enjoyed  them  in  secret.  The  fatal  battle  of  Flodden  deprived 
the  country  of  the  king  and  its  principal  nobility,  and  the 
distractions  of  the  regency  gave  another  direction  to  public 
opinion.  The  alterations  in  religion,  made  by  the  caprice 
of  Henry  VIII.  in  England,  however,  alarmed  the  Scottish 
bishops,  and  induced  them  to  make  more  particular  inquiries 
after  heretical  pravity.  The  renown  of  the  bold  monk 
who  shook  the  papal  throne  to  its  foundation,  had  reached 
the  northern  kingdom  ;  and  Mr.  Patrick  Hamilton,  travelling 
into  Germany,  imbibed  the  reformed  doctrines  from  the  lips 
of  Melancthon.  Hamilton,  whose  father  was  the  laird  of 
Kinkavil,  and  captain  of  the  State  Prison  of  Blackness 
Castle,  was  promoted  by  royal  favour,  while  only  a  boy,  to  be 
Abbot  of  Ferme,  in  Rosshire.  On  his  return  from  the  con- 
tinent, in  his  public  discourses,  although  not  in  holy  orders, 
he  exposed  the  gross  and  unconcealed  corruptions  of  the 
church,  and  the  errors,  both  of  doctrine  and  worship,  which 
had  polluted  the  face  of  religion.  He  first  converted  his 
brother  and  sister-in-law,  with  some  of  their  neighbours  in 
the  county  of  Linlithgow,  of  which  the  elder  Hamilton  was 
the  sheriff.  He  preached  chiefly  in  those  parts  where  he 
could  enjoy  the  protection  of  the  powerful  house  of  Hamil- 
ton ;  and  "  his  addresses  produced  a  wonderful  impression 
on  his  hearers,  who  listened  with  astonishment  to  the  bold 
and  startling  truths  of  the  undaunted  preacher.  His  youth, 
his  high  connexions,  his  superior  genius  and  learning,  ad- 
mitted by  all  writers,  which  had  become  refined  by  the  litera- 
ture and  philosophy  of  the  continent,  and  his  interesting  and 
elegant  appearance,  for  it  is  said  his  external  accomplish- 
ments were  of  no  ordinary  description,  produced  an  impres- 
sion as  favourable  for  the  dissemination  of  the  truth  as  it  was 
calculated  to  alarm  the  authorities  of  the  church  2." 

His  success  alarmed  the  Archbishop  of  St.-  Andrew's,  who 
deceitfully  invited  him  to  a  conference,  and,  the  more  readily 
to  deceive  him,  admitted  that  many  things  as  then  practised 
in  the  church  required  reformation.  Alexander  Campbell,  a 
friar,  treacherously  drew  from  him  his  whole  opinions  respect- 

1  Knox's  History,  pp.  64,  65. 

2  Lawson's  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Scotland,  37,  38. 


1528.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  5 

ing  the  state  of  the  church,  and  appeared  against  him  as  his 
accuser  at  his  trial.  He  was  arraigned  before  Archbishop 
James  Beaton,  assisted  by  Gavin  Douglass,  Archbishop  of 
Glasgow,  and  condemned  on  the  usual  charge  of  heresy,  on 
the  last  day  of  February,  1528  ;  and  was  burnt  alive  that 
same  afternoon,  before  the  gate  of  St.  Salvador's  College. 
His  sufferings  at  the  stake  were  great ;  for,  from  the  freshness 
of  the  combustibles,  the  unhappy  youth  was  only  partially 
burnt,  and  it  was  necessary  to  send  for  gunpowder  to  finish 
the  tragedy.  Whilst  suffering  the  excruciating  agonies  of  a 
slow  fire,  Hamilton  prayed  firmly  for  the  enlightenment  of 
his  country  and  the  forgiveness  of  his  implacable  enemies, 
and  died  faintly  uttering,  "  Lord  Jesus,  7'eceive  my  spirit  ;'* 
wdiich  it  is  fervently  to  be  hoped  that  He  did.  "  His  pa- 
tience and  constancy,"  says  Bishop  Keith,  "  in  the  midst  of 
the  flames,  were  so  remarkable  that  many  persons  scrupled 
not  to  say  that  he  died  a  true  martyr  of  Christ^." 

He  was  humed  to  the  stake  the  same  afternoon,  lest  the 
king,  who  had  gone  on  a  pilgrimage   to    St.   Duthacs,    in 
Rosshire,  should  have  prevented  that  horrid  tragedy,  which 
was  intended  to  strike   terror  into  the  minds  of  those  who 
might  be  inclined  to  adopt  the  reformed  doctrines.     It  had, 
however,  the  opposite  effect ;  for  Keith  says,  in  all  quarters  of 
the  country,  men  began  to  inquire  into  the  articles  for  which 
he  had  been  so  severely  treated.     The  youth,  intelligence,  and 
resignation  of  the  sufferer,  excited  an  unusual  sympathy  in 
his  favour,  and  of  odium  towards  his  judges  and  the  perfidious 
friar  who  had  been  his  accuser,  and  tended  greatly  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  reformed  doctrines  on  the  minds  of  those 
who  saw  or  heard  of  this  unchristian  deed.     Among  those 
who  witnessed  the  martyrdom  of  Hamilton,  was  the  cele- 
brated John  Knox,  who  was  then  a  divinity  student  at  the 
University  ;  a  man  made  of  sterner  stuff  than  the  amiable 
martyr,  and  destined  to  uproot  and  destroy  that  church  of 
which  he,  soon  after  this  event,  became  a  priest.     In  all  re- 
spects, says  Mr.  Lawson,  "  Hamilton  was  the  mildest  and 
the  most  devoted,  as  he  was  the  most  highly  descended,  of 
those  who  suffered  for  religion  in  Scotland  during  the  last 
days  of  the  Romish  hierachy.     While  the  others  have  been 
generally  either  too  obscure,  or  too  much  connected  with 
political  events,  to  have  their  characters  fairly  represented, 
that  of  Hamilton  is  without  a  single  stain  or  reproach.     His 

1  Keith's  Hist,  of  Ch.  and  State,  p.  8.— Lawson's  R.  C.  C.  in  S.,  p.  47.— 
Klnox's  Hist.  66. 


6  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  I. 

oJfFering  seems  to  have  been  pure  and  spontaneous  to  the 
cause  of  truth.  When  Luther  heard  of  his  fate,  that  bold 
reformer  burst  into  tears  ;  and  Melancthon  also  wept  over  one 
vphose  mildness,  gentleness,  and  inquiring  mind,  had  interested 
their  attention  during  his  short  stay  at  Wittemberg  ^ ." 

The  author  of  Knox's  History  alleges  that  the  re-action  now 
became  general,  and  that  even  in  the  University  of  St.  Andrew's 
a  professor,  Gavin  Logic,  began  to  admit  some  glimmerings 
of  the  truth  into  his  class-room.  He  mentions  a  friar,  of  the 
name  of  William  Arithe,  who  preached  publicly  at  Dundee, 
and  exposed  the  abuses  of  the  whole  ecclesiastical  state,  but 
especially  the  most  immoral  lives  of  the  Conventual  Orders  of 
both  sexes.  He  was  supported  by  John  Major,  a  man  of 
European  reputation,  and  he  delivered  the  same  discourse  at 
St.  Andrew's,  when  he  especially  denomiced  the  Chapel  of  our 
Lady  of  Karsegrange,  which  was  a  favourite  resort  of  female 
penitents  for  confession ;  but  he  strongly  recommended  the 
"  honest  men  of  St.  Andrew's,  if  ye  love  your  wives  and 
daughters,  hold  them  at  home,  or  else  send  them  in  good 
honest  company ;  for  if  ye  knew  what  miracles  were  wrought 
there,  ye  would  neither  thank  God  nor  our  Lady."  After  such 
an  exposure  of  their  immorality,  in  which  he  openly  accused 
the  clergy  of  adultery  and  fornication,  he  fled  into  England ; 
and  we  hear  nothing  farther  of  him  2. 

The  cruel  martyrdom  of  Mr.  Hamilton  made  a  profound 
impression  on  the  people ;  and  some  even  of  the  monks 
themselves  began  to  declaim  openly  against  the  lewdness 
and  immorality  of  their  brethren.  In  the  season  of  Lent 
which  succeeded  the  burning  of  Hamilton,  Alexander 
Seton,  a  Dominican  friar,  and  confessor  to  king  James  V., 
was  appointed  to  preach,  and  he  intrepidly  advanced  some 
of  the  new  doctrines,  and  boldly  declared  the  virtues  which 
St.  Paul  requires  in  a  faithful  bishop.  He  insisted  likewise 
that  the  law  of  God  was  the  sole  rule  of  righteousness,  and 
that  the  pardon  of  sin  could  only  be  obtained  by  sincere  repen- 
tance, through  the  alone  merits  of  our  crucified  Saviour. 
His  uncompromising  rebukes  of  the  besetting  sin  of  the  clergy 
of  that  age,  gave  deep  offence  to  the  archbishop,  but  his 
station  in  the  king's  household  protected  him  from  immediate 
vengeance.  Little  difficulty  was  found,  however,  in  accom- 
plishing his  disgrace  at  court,  as  the  king  had  already  begun 
to  look  coldly  on  him  for  having  reproved  his  own  loose  and 

»  The  Roman  Cath.  Ch.  in  Scotland,  50.— Keith's  Hist.  8.— Knox's  Hist.  66. 
2  Knox's  Hist.   72,   73. 


J  534.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  7 

immoral  life.  He  judged  it  prudent,  therefore,  to  retire  into 
England,  where  he  experienced  that  persecution  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Mary,  which  he  strove  to  avoid  at  home.  He  officiated 
as  chaplain  in  the  family  of  the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  and  died 
in  the  year  1542  ^. 

The  next  victim  was  Henry  Forrest,  a  Benedictine  monk, 
who  was  burnt  alive  for  maintaining  that  the  doctrines  taught, 
by  the  abbot  of  Ferme  were  good  and  commendable,  that  they 
might  be  defended,  and  that  he  died  a  martyr.  These  senti- 
ments were  uttered  in  the  confidence  of  auricular  confession, 
and  which,  contrary  to  the  oath  of  secresy,  were  produced 
against  him  on  his  trial.  As  the  Church  of  Rome  wages  a 
war  of  extermination  against  the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  were 
written  for  our  learning,  a  prominent  count  in  his  indictment 
was  that  he  had  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament  in  his  pos- 
session. He  was  condemned  and  burnt  alive  at  the  north 
gate  of  the  Priory.  Whilst  deliberating  on  the  place  where 
he  should  be  burnt,  John  Lindsay,  one  of  the  archbishop's 
gentlemen,  recommended  that  Friar  Fon-est  should  bfe  burnt 
in  some  cellar,  for  he  assured  the  clergy  that  "  the  smoke  of 
Mr.  Patrick  Hamilton  hath  infected  all  them  on  ivhom  it 
blew  /"2  Alexander  Aless,  whom  Heylin  justly  calls  "  a  right 
learned  Scot^''  John  Fife,  John  Macbee,  commonly  called 
Dr.  Macabeus,  and  one  Macdougal,  were  summoned  to  an- 
swer to  charges  of  heretical  pravity ;  but  not  coveting  the 
crown  of  martyrdom,  they  fled  into  Holland  ;  and  not  ap- 
jjearing,  they  were  sentenced  to  suffer  the  usual  pains  and 
penalties  of  heresy.  In  the  year  1534,  Archbishop  James 
Beaton  held  a  court  for  the  trial  of  heresy,  at  which  James  V. 
himself  presided  ;  and  James  Hay,  bishop  of  Ross,  sat 
as  commissioner  for  the  archbishop.  Sir  William  Kirk, 
Adam  Davis,  Henry  Kemes,  John  Stewart,  William  John- 
ston, advocate,  Henry  Henderson,  school-master,  and  several 
others,  were  placed  at  the  bar.  Most  of  these  abjured  their 
opinions,  and  burnt  their  faggots  or  bills,  as  they  were 
called.  The  court  condemned  David  Straiten,  gentleman, 
and  Norman  Gourley,  to  be  burnt,  although  the  king  urged 
them  much  to  recant  and  burn  their  bills.  They  \\  ere  both 
burnt  alive  at  the. same  fire,  on  the  same  afternoon,  at  the  Rood 
of  Greenside,  which  now  makes  part  of  the  New  Town  of 
Edinburgh.  To  render  the  king  more  hearty  in  spreading 
the  scarlet  mark  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  to  excite  his 
cupidity,  the  pope  granted  him  the  tenth  of  all  ecclesiastical 

'  Keith's  Hist.  ;  Knox's  do.  76.  2  j  Keith,  8.  Spottiswood's  History. 


8  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  I. 

benefices  for  the  space  of  three  years.  In  consequence  several 
acts  of  parliament  were  passed  in  the  year  1535,  against 
"  the  damnable  opinions  of  the  great  heretic  Martin  Luther  i." 

1539. — Bishop  David  Beaton,  who  was  also  abbot  of  Ar- 
broath, had  been  absent  on  the  continent,  but  in  May  of  the 
preceding  year  he  returned,  accompanied  by  Mary  of  Lor- 
raine, widow  of  the  Duke  of  Longueville.  She  was  mamed 
to  James  V.  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Andrew's  by  the  abbot  of 
Arbroath,  and  was  the  mother  of  the  unfortunate  Queen  Mary. 
An  episcopal  synod  was  held  in  Edinburgh,  where  the  affairs 
of  the  church  were  investigated,  and  several  individuals  tried 
for  heresy.  John  Lynn,  a  grey  friar,  John  Kellore,  and  John 
Beveredge,  black  friars.  Sir  Duncan  Simpson,  priest,  Robert 
Forrester,  gent,  and  dean  Thomas  Forrest,  a  canon  regular 
of  St.  Colms-Inch  and  vicar  of  Dollar,  in  Perthshire,  were 
cited  to  answer  to  charges  of  heresy,  and  condemned  to  die, 
and  were  all  cruelly  burnt  alive  in  one  fire  on  the  Castle-hill 
of  Edinburgh,  on  the  28th  of  February.  Some  time  pre- 
viousl)'^  the  bishop  of  Dunkeld  challenged  the  vicar  of 
Dollar  for  preaching  every  Sunday  to  his  parishioners  on  the 
Epistle  and  Gospels  for  the  day.  The  bishop  advised  him 
to  discontinue  this  laudable  course,  adding,  that  if  the  vicar 
"  could  find  a  good  epistle  or  good  gospel,  that  setteth  forth 
the  liberty  of  the  holy  church,  he  might  instruct  his  people 
in  that;  but  to  let  the  rest  alone:  for,  I  thank  God,"  con- 
tinued the  bishop,  "  that  I  have  lived  well  these  many  years, 
and  never  knew  either  the  Old  or  New  Testament.  I  am 
contented  with  my  missal  and  my  breviary  ;  and  if  you,  dean 
Thomas,  leave  not  these  fantasies,  you  will  have  cause  to 
repent."  2  The  good  vicar  pulled  a  copy  of  the  new  Testa- 
ment from  his  pocket  at  the  stake,  which  was  rudely  snatched 
from  him  by  Lauder,  the  official  or  archdeacon  of  Lothian, 
who  impiously  called  it  a  book  of  heresy !  "  God  forgive 
you,  brother,"  said  Forrest ;  "  you  ought  not  to  call  the  book 
of  the  evangel  of  Jesus  Christ  the  book  of  heresy."  But, 
true  to  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  Lauder 
retorted,  "  knowest  thou  not  that  it  is  contrary  to  oiir  canons 
and  express  commands  to  have  a  New  Testament  or  Bible  in 
English,  and  that  this  of  itself  is  enough  to  condemn  thee  9^''' 

The  next  victims  w^ere  Jeremy  Russell,  a  priest  of  the 
order  of  the  grey  friars,  and  a  young  gentleman  of  the 
name  of   Kennedy,  a   youth  under  eighteen  years  of  age, 

1  Spottiswood— Knox,  77-78;  Keith,  9.  ^  Spottiswood.  Keith— Knox. 

^  Spottiswood,  Keith — Knox. 


1539.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  9 

a  native  of  Ayr,  who  were  likewise  accused  of  heresy.  Arch- 
bishop Dunbar,  of  Glasgow,  was  suspected  of  backwardness 
in  prosecuting.  A  commission,  consisting  of  John  Lauder, 
official  of  Lothian,  Andrew  Oliphant,  and  a  friar  of  the  name 
of  Maltman,  were  therefore  despatched  to  assist  at  the  trial  as 
assessors;  for  the  archbishop  had  said  in  open  court  tliat  he 
disapproved  of  these  cruel  persecutions,  which  were  nuich 
more  likely  to  advance  the  cause,  he  said,  than  to  extirpate 
the  heresy.  But  his  merciful  disposition  was  overruled  by  the 
assessors,  and  these  innocent  men  were  condemned  to  be 
burnt  alive.  Kennedy  and  Russell  were  bound  to  one  stake  ; 
and  while  the  fire  was  preparing,  the  latter  comforted  his 
youthful  fellow-sufferer,  who  shewed  some  symptoms  of  na- 
tural fear  in  the  hour  of  trial:  "  Fear  not,  brother,"  said  he  ; 
"  for  He  is  more  mighty  thai  is  in  us,  than  he  that  is  in  the 
ivorld.  The  pain  which  we  shall  suffer  is  short  and  light ; 
but  our  joy  and  consolation  shall  never  have  an  end.  Death 
cannot  destroy  us,  for  it  is  already  destroyed  by  Him  for 
whose  sake  we  suffer.  Therefore  let  us  strive  to  enter  in  by 
the  same  strait  way  which  our  Saviour  hath  taken  before  us." 
Having  commended  their  souls  to  God,  the  fire  was  kindled, 
and  they  were  added  to  the  noble  army  of  martyrs  ^ 

The  persecution  was  now  so  hot  that  many  on  whom  the 
spirit  of  martyrdom  had  not  fallen  fled  into  England,  then 
the  common  sanctuary  of  the  afflicted,  to  escape  ihejiery  trial 
to  wbich  they  would  have  been  subjected  for  their  alleged 
heresy.  Among  the  refugees  was  the  celebrated  George 
Buchanan,  who  made  a  narrow  escape  from  the  honour  of 
martyrdom,  for  having  written  some  sarcastic  verses  on  the 
immoral  lives  of  the  Franciscans :  he  was  committed  to 
prison  in  the  Sea  Tower  of  St  Andrews,  but  made  his  escape 
by  a  window,  and  fled  into  France.  Archbishop  James 
Beaton  had  long  committed  the  whole  ecclesiastical  affairs 
of  the  kingdom  to  his  nephew  Cardinal  Beaton,  a  man  of 
extraordinary  talents,  who  had  been  elevated  to  this  dignity  by 
Pope  Paul  III.,  and  who  had  acquired  a  complete  ascendancy 
over  the  mind  of  the  king,  and,  in  fact,  he  exercised  the 
whole  powers  of  the  primacy.  Buchanan  had  made  himself 
peculiarly  odious  to  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  on  account 
of  more  than  one  poetical  satire  upon  their  lewd  and  immoral 
lives,  and  he  would  unquestionably  have  suffered  at  the  stake 
had  he  not  made  his  escape.  ^      Balfour  says,  "  This  year 


'   Keith,  Spottiswood — Knox. 
^  Lawson's  Life  of  Buchanan,  Knox's  Hist. 
VOL..  I 


10  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  II. 

also  a  canon  regular,  two  Dominican  friars,  and  three  com- 
moners, were  burnt  at  Edinburgh  for  profession  of  the  gospel ; 
and  this  year  also  the  king  gives  George  Durrey  the  abbey  of 
Dunfermline.  This  year  the  queen  was  delivered  of  a  son, 
who  was  baptised  James  ^ 

In  the  latter  end  of  this  year  Archbishop  James  Beaton 
died,  in  the  thirty-first  year  of  his  consecration,  and  was 
interred  with  great  pomp  in  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Andrews. 
He  sat  fourteen  years  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and  seven- 
teen years  in  St.  Andrews  ;  and  he  was  besides  lord  chancellor 
of  the  kingdom.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  good  easy  sort  of 
man,  and  was  not  disposed  to  have  been  a  persecutor ;  but 
having  long  committed  the  government  of  the  church  to  his 
nephew  the  Cardinal,  the  atrocities  of  his  primacy  were  com- 
mitted in  his  name,  but  not  by  his  authority.  He  recom- 
mended the  Cardinal,  who  had  been  his  coadjutor  since  his 
return  from  France,  to  be  his  successor,  and  which  the  king 
confirmed  out  of  respect  to  his  memory  and  for  the  injuries 
which  the  old  archbishop  had  sustained  from  the  faction  of  the 
Douglases  during  the  king's  minority.  His  most  reverend 
and  most  worthy  successor  has  happily  drawn  his  character 
as  one  rather  lukewarm  than  zealous  in  repressing  the  re- 
formers :  "  Seventeen  years  he  lived  bishop  of  this  See,  and 
was  herein  most  unfortunate,  that  under  the  shadow  of  his 
authority  many  good  men  were  put  to  death  for  the  cause  of 
religion,  though  he  himself  was  neither  violently  set,  nor 
much  solicitous,  as  it  was  thought,  how  matters  went  in  the 
church^." 

In  the  prosecutions  which  have  been  already  mentioned,  it 
is  curious  to  observe  that  the  burning  article  of  the  Romish 
Church,  namely,  transubstantiation,  has  seldom  or  ever  been 
charged  against  those  who  suffered  for  conscience  sake.  The 
chief  charge  against  them  seems  to  have  been  adherence  to 
the  doctrinal  reformation  of  the  Church  of  England  under 
the  illustrious  Cranmer,  and  it  has  been  seen  that  the  first 
impulse  of  the  reformation  came  from  England.  The  entire 
dissolution  of  morals  among  the  clergy  of  all  ranks,  both 
secular  and  regular,  furnished  a  never  ceasing  and  most  popu- 
lar subject  of  declamation  to  those  to  whom  God  had  given 
the  grace  of  greater  purity  of  heart  and  correctness  of 
manners-  It  is  true  that  Knox's  virulent  declamatory  accu- 
sations must  be  taken  with  caution ;  yet  the  living  monuments 


*  Balfour's  Annals  of  Scotland,  I.  270,  271. 
Spottiswood. — Keith's  History,  9-10. 


1539.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  11 

of  their  guilt,  the  illegitimate  sons  and  daughters  of  church- 
men, who  figured  in  history,  form  a  sufficient  evidence  of  their 
adulterous  lives,  and  of  the  utter  prostration  of  female 
chastity  which  the  licentious  and  unbridled  lust  of  an  un- 
married priesthood  had  accomplished.  The  efiects  of  these 
"  seducing  spirits,"  that  is,  of  those  wicked  men  who,  pre- 
tending to  act  by  the  Divine  Spirit,  had  imposed  that  "  doc- 
trine of  devils"  on  the  whole  western  church — ^^  forbidding 
to  marry''' — were  more  conspicuous  and  deleterious  in  Scotland 
than  in  any  other  portion  of  Christendom.  Even  the  external 
appearance  of  decorum  and  decency  was  wanting  in  the 
wealthier  monasteries  and  nvmneries,  whose  inmates  exhibited 
to  the  world  the  most  scandalous  examples  of  luxury,  igno- 
rance of  religious  duties,  licentiousness,  and  immorality. 
Their  wealth  tempted  the  cupidity  of  all  ranks,  and  their 
wide-spreading  domains  excited  the  envy  and  the  avarice 
of  the  aristocracy.  No  doubt  there  were  good  men  amongst 
them  who  saw  and  lamented  the  immoralities  of  their 
brethren,  as  the  dying  speech  of  Russell,  replete  with  Catho- 
lic doctrine,  amply  attests ;  but  the  mass  of  the  conven- 
tual orders  of  both  sexes  who  were  the  victims  of  that  doctrine 
of  devils,  were  sunk  in  the  most  imbrutalized  debauchery  and 
lost  to  all  sense  of  shame  at  that  period. 


12 


CHAPTER  II. 

PRIMAUf  OF  ARCHBISHOP  DAVID  BEATON,  CARDINAL,  LEGATUS 
NATUS,  AND  LEGATE  A  LATERE. 

The  succession  of  Cardinal  Beaton. — Sir  John  Borthwick — Condemned- 
Burnt  in  effigy. — Acts  of  parliament. — King  James  V. — Opinions. — Henry 
VIII. — Defender  of  the  Faith — Head  of  the  Church. — Mission  of  the  Bishop 
of  St.  David's. — Conference  proposed  between  the  kings  of  England  and  Scot- 
land.— The  Pope  courts  James — Second  interview  proposed — Artifices  of  the 
clergy  to  prevent  it — King's  speech  to  the  clergy. — The  king  breaks  faith  with 
Henry. — Sir  James  Hamilton  made  Inquisitor  General. — Death  of  James  V. 
— Birth  of  Queen  Mary. — Cardinal  produces  a  surreptitious  will — King's 
will  proclaimed. — Earl  of  Arran  proclaimed  regent — Favourable  to  the  Re- 
formation— His  chaplains. — Scottish  nobles  at  the  court  of  Henry  VIII. — 
Proposals  for  a  marriage  betwixt  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  the  Queen. — 
Parliament. — The  Cardinal  imprisoned. — Kingdom  laid  under  an  Interdict. — 
Marriage  treaty  signed.  —  The  clergy  contribute  towards  the  expense  of  a 
war. — Change  in  the  Regent's  politics — Renounces  the  Reformation,  and  is 
publicly  absolved — Effects  of  this  change. — Arran's  legitimacy  called  in  ques- 
tion.— Act  authorising  a  translation  of  the  Scriptures. — Patriarch  of  Venice.-^ 
Act  for  reading  the  Bible  repealed — The  Regent's  threat. — The  Cardinal's 
progress. — Executions  at  Perth — Provincial  council — George  Wishart — The 
Cardinal's  proceedings — Wishart  tried — Condemned — Burnt  alive — Not  en- 
titled to  the  honour  of  martyrdom. — Marriage  of  the  Cai'dinal's  daughter — 
Conspiracy  against  his  life — His  murder — Character. — Concluding  reflections. 

1540. — Archbishop  David  Beaton  was  the  second  sub- 
ject of  the  crown  of  Scotland  that  had  held  the  papal  rank  of 
legate  ;  Ralph  Wardlaw,  who  sat  bishop  of  Glasgow  from 
1308  to  1389,  being  the  only  other  prelate  who  had  ever  en- 
joyed this  nnecclesiastical  rank,  to  which  Beaton  was  ele- 
vated in  December,  1538,  by  the  title  of  the  Cardinal  of  St. 
Stephen  in  Monte  Ccelio  ;  and  which  conferred  on  him  ab- 
sokite  power  in  the  church.  Beaton  was  firmly  attached  to 
the  papal  interest ;  and  the  pope  could  npt  have  bestowed 
his  titles  on  one  more  worthy  of  the  honour,  or  one  better 
fitted  from  his  talents  and  inclination  to  preserve  the  papal 
power  and  influence  in  Scotland. 

At  this  period,  the  reformers  carved  out  abundance  of 
work  for  the  ecclesiastical  courts, — few  days  passed  without 
some  commitments  and  prosecutions  for  heresy ;  but  the 
hotter  and  more  violent  the  persecution,  the  greater  was  the 
increase  of  the   converts.     Immediately  on  his  translation. 


1541.]  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  13 

the  cardinal  assembled  a  splendid  company  of  tlie  nobility 
and  churchmen  at  St.  Andrews  ;  to  which  place  he  had  at 
the  same  time  cited  Sir  John  Borthwick.  Being  seated  in 
the  cathedral  on  a  throne  or  elevated  chair  of  state  in  his 
right  as  a  Cardinal,  and  surrounded  by  the  most  illustrious  of 
the  nobility  and  prelates,  he  expatiated  on  the  dangerous 
tendency  of  the  new  doctrines  to  the  Catholic  faith,  and  the 
necessity  of  their  suppression,  and  concluded  by  desiring 
their  assistance  on  the  trial.  The  indictment  contained  all 
the  usual  charges  ;  but  in  particular,  that  Sir  John  had  dis- 
persed heretical  books,  and  maintained  that  "  the  Church  of 
Scotland  ought  to  be  governed  after  the  manner  of  the  Church 
of  England^''  and  that  "  the  English  liturgy  was  commendable, 
and  ought  to  be  embraced  by  all  Christians."  It  is  worthy 
of  remark,  that  all  our  early  reformers  held  Episcopacy  as  a 
fundamental  principle,  and  never  had  any  intention  of  throw- 
ing off  the  Episcopal  government ;  the  clearest  proof  of  which 
is,  that  Sir  John  Borthwick  was  arraigned  on  an  accusation 
of  heresy,  in  which  his  declared  attachment  to  the  doctrines, 
discipline,  and  liturgy  of  the  Reformed  Episcopal  Church  of 
England,  constituted  two  distinct  charges.  Sir  John  fled  to 
England,  then  the  common  sanctuary  of  the  Scottish  Pro- 
testants, and  thereby  preserved  his  head.  He  was  called  in 
court,  but  not  appearing,  the  charges  against  him  (thirteen 
in  number)  were  held  as  confessed.  He  was  condemned  on 
the  28th  May  to  be  burnt  as  a  heretic  ;  his  goods  were  con- 
fiscated, his  effigy  ivas  burnt  in  the  market-place  of  St. 
Andrews,  and  all  men  were  inhibited  from  harbouring  or  pro- 
tecting him,  on  pain  of  damnation,  and  forfeiture  of  their 
effects-  Sir  John  was  graciously  received  by  Henry  VIII. 
and  sent  by  him  on  a  mission  to  the  Protestant  princes  of 
Germany,  to  concert  a  confederacy  between  them,  in  defence 
of  their  common  profession  ^ 

1541. — In  a  parliament  held  in  the  beginning  of  this  year 
several  acts  for  the  suppression  of  heresy  were  made  chiefly 
through  the  influence  of  the  Cardinal,  and  which  were  so 
framed  as  to  give  churchmen  the  most  summary  power.  The 
king,  however,  was  himself  exceedingly  anxious  for  the 
clergy  to  reform  their  own  lives  and  morals,  and  he  procured 
an  act  to  be  passed  for  that  i:)urpose  on  the  14th  March,  1541, 
entituled,  "for  reforming  kirks  and  kirkmen,"  as  follows: — 
"  Because  the  negligence  of  divine  sei^vice,  the  great  unhonesty 
in  the  kirk  through  not  making  of  reparation  to  the  honour 

'  Spottis. — Knox,  Keith. 


14  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  II, 

of  God  Almighty,  and  to  the  blessed  sacrament  of  the  Altar, 
the  Virgin  Mary,  and  to  all  holy  saints ;  and  also  the  un- 
honesty  and  misrule  of  kirkmen,  both  in  wit,  knoioledge,  and 
manners,  is  the  matter  and  cause  that  the  kirk  and  kirkmen 
are  lightlied  and  contemned:  for  remeid  hereof  the  king's 
grace  exhorts  and  prays  openly,  all  archbishops,  bishops, 
ordinaries,  and  other  prelates,  and  every  kirkman  in  his  own 
degree,  to  reform  themselves,  &c.  in  habit  and  manners  to 
God  and  man ;  and  that  you  cause  in  every  kirk  within  your 

diocese reparations  and  reparating  to  be  honestly  and 

substantially  made  and  done  to  the  honour  of  God  Almighty, 
the  blessed  sacraments,  and  divine  service,  every  kirk  after 
the  quality  and  quantity  of  the  rents ;  And  if  any  person 
allege  some  eremit  (excuse)  and  will  not  obey  nor  obtemper 
to  the  superior,  in  that  behalf  the  king's  grace  shall  find 
remeid  therefor,  at  the  pope's  holiness  and  sicklike  against 
the  said  prelates  if  they  be  negligent^." 

The  act  above  cited  decidedly  shews  the  demoralized  state 
of  the  dignitaries  of  the  church,  "  both  in  wit,  knowledge, 
and    manners."      And    although    the   inferior   clergy   were 
equally  wicked  in  life  and  manners,  yet  it  was  chiefly  from 
among  their  order  that  the  great  majority  of  the  converts  to 
the  reformed  doctrines  appear  to  have  proceeded.  It  is  painful, 
however,  to  see  how  far  many  of  their  opinions  were  at  variance 
with  catholic  truth,  and  were  the  mere  emanations  of  an  ill- 
regulated  private  judgment,  taken  up  merely  in  a  spirit  of 
opposition  to  the  corruptions  of  the  church,  from  which  they 
had  seceded.    The  king  was  anxious  for  a  reformation  of  the 
manners  of  the  prelates ;  but  he  had  no  desire  to  overturn 
the  discipline  or  the  doctrines  of  the  church.     He  took  care 
that  an  act  should  pass,  commanding  the  church  "  to  pray  to 
the  Virgin  Mary  to  intercede  for  a  happy  and  prosperous  life 
to  the  king,"  and  which  contained  "  a  severe  prohibition,  not 
to  cast  down,  nor  treat  irreverently,  the  images  of  the  holy 
saints,"     By  these  acts  it  will  appear,  says  Bishop  Keith, 
"  that  the  king  had  no  mind  to  introduce  such  a  sort  of 
reformation  as  his  uncle  had  done  in  England,  which  is  like- 
wise abundantly  evident  from  his  own  conference  with  Sir 
Ralph  Sadler  on  that  head.     But  if  he  had  lived  for  some 
time,  I  make  as  little  doubt  but  he  would  have  taken  care  to 
cause  the  abuses  to  be  reformed,  which  had  too  much  over- 
spread the  worship  and  practice  of  the  church.    That,  I  think, 
may  be  gathered  from  his   own  expressions  with  the  fore-^ 

1  Cited  in  Keith's  Hist.  p.  14. 


1541.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND  15 

mentioned  gentleman,  and  from  what  we  have  aheady  heard 
that  om*  historians  have  related  concerning  him ;  but  espe- 
cially from  that  act  of  parliament  concerning  the  reforming 
of  kirks  and  kirkmen  ^" 

Before  Henry  VIII.  relieved  the  crown  of  England  from 
its  intolerable  bondage  and  slavery  to  the  see  of  Rome, 
"  whereat,"  says  Balfour,  "  king  James  somewhat  grimiles," 
he  wrote  a  book  in  favour  of  the  pope's  usurpation,  which  so 
pleased  the  ambitious  pontiff,  that  he  conferred  on  Henry 
the  title  of  Defender  of  the  FaitJi,  and  which  his  successors 
continue  to  assume.  The  clergy  of  England,  when  the 
whole  kingdom  was  incontestibly  in  communion  with  the 
see  of  Rome,  met  in  full  convocation,  and  recognised  and 
acknowledged  Henry  to  be  the  "  Sole  Protector  and  Supreme 
HEAD  of  the  Church  of  England."  Elizabeth  resigned  this 
title  as  to  spirituals,  but  retained  it  in  the  temporal  concerns 
of  the  church.  The  subject  of  the  king's  supremacy  in  the 
church  has  been  much  misrepresented  ;  and  it  is  alleged  by 
her  enemies,  as  a  crime  of  the  deepest  dye,  that  she  yields  to 
the  sovereign  "  that  only  prerogative  which  we  see  to  have 
been  given  always  to  all  godly  princes  in  holy  scripture,  by 
God  himself:  that  is,  that  they  should  rule  all  estates  and  de- 
grees committed  to  their  charge  by  God,  whether  they  be  ec- 
clesiastical or  temporal,  and  restrain  with  the  civil  sword  the 
stubborn  and  evil  doers."  By  this  article,  the  church  con- 
fines the  king's  headship  to  things  temporal.  The  Jewish 
princes  ivere  made  the  heads  of  the  tribes  of  Israel  by  God's 
special  appointment,  and  the  first  Christian  emperors  always 
without  challenge  exercised  temporal  supremacy,  till  the 
usurpation  of  the  popes  deprived  kings  of  their  just  rights  of 
sovereignty  over  the  ecclesiastical  estate,  and  withdrew  it  en- 
tirely from  the  royal  jurisdiction  ;  so  that  a  priest  could  not 
be  tried  for  any  crime  by  the  common  law  of  the  kingdom, 
but  by  the  ecclesiastical  law,  wdiich  was  entirely  indepen- 
dent of  the  king.  For  the  first  three  centuries,  the  civil 
power  either  persecuted  or  neglected  the  church,  and  there- 
fore she  was  under  the  necessity  of  managing  her  own  affairs 
without  them  ;  but  as  soon  as  the  emperors  became  her 
nursing-fathers,  her  temporal  affairs  depended  on  them,  as  her 
supreme  civil  governors  and  protectors.  God  himself  arms 
all  princes  with  the  sword  ^ :  but  in  vain  would  they 
bear    that   instrument,  if  the  ecclesiastical  estate  were  ex- 

1  Keith's  Hist.  p.  15.  2  j  gam,  xv.  17. 

'  Rom.  xiii.  1 — 8. 


16  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  II. 

empted  from  their  authority ;  and  which  is  the  case  wherever 
the  Church  of  Rome  is  dominant.  Whatever  disputes  about 
words  may  have  aiisen,  and  however  resohitely  Presbyterians 
may  disclaim  the  supremacy  of  the  crown,  yet,  in  fact,  they 
daily  submit  to  it.  Our  present  sovereign,  Queen  Victoria,  is 
as  much  the  head  of  the  Presbyterian  establishment  as  she 
is  acknowledged  to  be  of  the  church  in  England :  that  is, 
in  short,  she  is  the  supreme  civil  governor,  for  in  no  other 
capacity  can  she  be  the  head  of  the  church. 

In  the  year  1535,  Henry  VIII.  sent  the  bishop  of  St. 
David's  on  a  special  mission  to  his  nephew  King  James,  to 
treat  with  him  about  the  reformation  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land, and  at  the  same  time  sent  some  books  on  the  subject. 
He  earnestly  desired  a  conference  at  York,  offered  him  his 
daughter  the  Lady  Mary  in  marriage,  with  the  title  of  Duke 
of  York,  and  Lieutenant  of  the  whole  kingdom,  and  eventu- 
ally the  succession  to  the  crown  of  England.  This  alarmed 
the  Romish  clergy,  and  they  immediately  dissuaded  the  king 
from  reading  the  books,  or  accepting  the  invitation  for  a  con- 
ference, telling  him  it  would  ruin  religion,  his  own  soul,  his 
state,  and  kingdom  ;  and  they  represented  the  risk  he  might  run 
in  being  detained  prisoner  as  James  I.  had  been.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  Henry's  offer  had  made  some  impression  on  his 
nephew  James,  and  Keith  cites  a  despatch  of  the  latter  to 
Henry,  dated  May,  1536,  in  which  the  king  says,  "  that  he 
had  sent  to  Rome  to  get  impetrations  for  reformation  of  some 
enormities,  especially  anent  the  ordering  of  the  great  and 
many  possessions  and  temporal  lands  given  to  the  kirk  by  our 
noble  predecessors.' 

The  pope  himself  condescended  to  court  James;  and  to  con- 
firm him  in  the  faith,  lest  he  should  follow  his  uncle's  example, 
he  sent  legates  into  Scotland  to  counteract  the  strong  Eng- 
lish influence  which,  since  the  family  alliance,  had  existed 
in  the  kingdom,  and  conferred  on  him  the  tenth  of  all  the  eccle- 
siastical benefices  for  three  years.  In  the  year  1540, 
Henry  again  insisted  the  second  time  for  an  interview,  and 
named  York  as  the  place  of  meeting.  This  plunged  the 
clergy  into  the  utmost  consternation,  and  they  exerted  every 
artifice  to  avert  so  dangerous  an  interview.  They  foresaw  the 
downfal  of  their  church,  if  the  uncle  and  nephew  should 
meet,  as  Henry's  principal  object  was  to  extend  the  refonna- 
tion  of  the  church  to  the  kingdom  of  Scotland.  As  a  last 
resource,  they  tempted  the  king's  avarice  and  poverty,  and 
promised  him  large  sums  of  money, — a  convincing  proof  of 
their  fears  and  anxiety  to  prevent  the  interview  of  the  royal 


1542.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  17 

relatives.  Knox  says,  they  taxed  themselves  in  no  less  a  sum 
than  -50,000  crowns  from  their  benefices  yearly,  and  a  levy 
of  men  from  the  church  lands  which  were  exempt  from  miUtary 
service ;  besides  they  still  further  tempted  his  cupidity  by  the 
prospect  of  the  immense  sums  that  might  arise  from  the  confis- 
cated estates  of  heretics.  They  presented  to  his  majesty  a  paper, 
in  which  was  contained  the  names  of  about  360  noblemen, 
gentlemen,  and  others,  who  were  suspected  of  heresy,  and 
with  whose  estates  they  suggested  he  might  enrich  himself  i. 

It  is  said,  Kircaldy  of  Grange  the  Lord  Treasurer,  had  the 
merit  of  having  dissuaded  his  majesty  from  following  this  ad- 
vice. Being  dissatisfied  with  the  prelates  for  having  divided 
him  from  his  nobility,  he  summoned  some  of  them  into  his 
presence,  and  thus  addressed  them : — "  Packe  you  ! — get  you 
to  your  charges,  and  reform  your  own  lives,  and  be  not  instru- 
ments of  discord  betwixt  my  nobility  and  me,  or  else  1  vow 
I  shall  reform  you ;  not  as  the  king  of  Denmark  doth, — by 
imprisonment,  neither  yet  as  the  king  of  England  doth, — by 
heading  and  hanging :  but  I  shall  reform  you  by  sharp 
punishments,  if  ever  1  hear  such  motion  again  ;"  adding,  "  I 
will  stick  you  with  this  whinger," — drawing  his  dagger: 
when  they  left  his  presence  in  fear  2. 

1542. — James,  however,  unhappily  listened  to  these  in- 
terested advisers,  and  broke  his  promise  to  meet  his  uncle 
at  York,  which  incensed  king  Henry,  and  a  war  was  the  con- 
sequence. After  this,  James  gave  himself  entirely  up  to  the 
counsels  and  advice  of  Cardinal  Beaton,  and  even  coun- 
tenanced the  persecution  of  the  Protestants.  He  gave  Sir 
James  Hamilton  a  commission  as  Inquisitor-General  of  the 
kingdom,  with  power  to  summon  all  persons  suspected  of 
heresy,  and  to  inflict  the  punishments  due  to  that  crime. 
The  Idng  was  now  become  so  zealous  in  the  cause  of  Rome, 
that  he  was  heard  to  say — "  that  none  of  all  that  sort  might  ex- 
pect favour  at  his  hands  ;  nay,  not  even  his  own  sons,  should 
they  prove  guilty^."  Unhappily,  his  two  sons,  James  and 
Arthur,  did  not  survive,  to  put  his  zeal  to  the  test,  for  they 
both  died  in  one  night  of  malignant  fever, — one  at  Stirling, 
and  the  other  at  St.  Andrews  ;  and  the  king,  being  over- 
whelmed with  grief  and  passion  for  the  defeat  of  his  army  at 
Solway-Moss,  died  at  Falkland,  in  the  thirty-second  year  of 
his  age,  leaving  an  infant  daughter,  the  unfortunate  and  much 
abused   Mary  Stuart,  as  his  successor.     "  For  grief  of  this 


'  Knox — Spottiswood — Keith. 
"  Keith.  -'  Spottiswood. 

VOL.  j:  d 


1-8  HlSTOtlY   OF   THE  '     [cHAP.   II. 

loss  (the  defeat  of  his  army  at  Solvvay),  and  disgrace  put  upon 
him  by  his  proud  and  factious  nobility,  the  king  sickens  of  a 
Lent  fever,  at  Falkland :  the  queen,  in  the  meantime,  is 
brought  to  bed  of  a  daughter,  christened  Mary.  News  where- 
of being  brought  to  the  king,  he  turns  himself  to  the  wall, 
and  with  a  grievous  groan,  says,  '  Scotland  did  come  with  a 
lass,  and  it  will  go  with  one, — devil  go  with  it ;'  and  so,  with- 
out any  more  words  to  a  purpose,  departs  this  life,  at  his  Palace 
of  Falkland,  the  19th  of  the  kalends  of  January,  in  the  31st 
year  of  his  age  and  30th  of  his  reign,  in  the  year  of  our 
redemption  1542.  His  body  being  embalmed  and  put  in  a 
coffin  of  lead,  was  solemnly  interred  in  the  burial  of  the 
king,  in  the  Abbey  Church  of  the  Holy  Cross,  near  Edin- 
burgh i." 

It  has  been  attempted  by  Knox  to  fix  the  stain  of  assassi- 
nation on  Cardinal  Beaton,  by  alleging  that  the  premature 
death  of  James  V.  w^as  occasioned  by  poison  administered  to 
him  by  that  ecclesiastic.  But  this  is  every  way  improbable, 
inasmuch  as  the  king  was,  next  after  himself,  the  chief  support 
of  the  Romish  hierarchy,  and  whose  death  would,  and  did, 
very  seriously  affect  its  stability.  It  was  decidedly  contrary 
to  his  own  and  his  church's  welfare  to  remove  the  king  at 
this  critical  juncture  of  their  affairs,  whose  authority  was  so 
essentially  necessary  for  the  support  of  the  tottering  fabric  of 
the  church,  and  when  a  long  minority  would  enable  the 
nobles  to  act  as  independent  plunderers  of  the  church's  pro- 
perty. Immediately  after  the  demise  of  the  king,  the  cardinal 
produced  a  will  which  he  had  caused  the  king  to  sign  a  short 
time  before  his  death.  It  is  said,  that  after  the  king  became 
insensible,  the  cardinal  took  "  the  king's  hand  into  his,  and  so 
leading  it  along,  caused  him  to  subscribe  a  blank  paper, 
wherein  afterwards  he  himself  was  appointed  tutor  to  the 
young  queen  and  governor  of  the  realm;  and  three  of  the  prin- 
cipal nobility  were  assigned  him  as  councillors  or  assessors  in 
the  administration, — viz.  the  Earls  of  Huntly,  Argyle,  and 
Arran  2." 

The  cardinal  caused  this  forged  will  to  be  proclaimed  with 
due  formality  at  the  Cross  and  other  places t)f  Edinburgh ;  but 
the  nobility  began  to  suspect,  if  it  was  not  an  absolute  for- 
gery, yet  that  the  cardinal  had  at  least  used  undue  methods  to 
procure  his  own  elevation.  The  principal  nobility,  therefore, 
with  the  fi'iends  and  relations  of  the  Earl  of  Arran,  who  was 
nearest  in  blood  to  the  crown,  proclaimed  that  nobleman,  on 

1  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  275.  =  Keith's  Hist.  25.— Knox. 


1542.]  CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND.  19 

tlie  22(1  of  December,  Regent  of  the  kingdom  and  Tutor  of 
the  Queen.  This,  however,  was  not  effected  without  a 
powerful  opposition  from  the  cardinal  and  those  who  were 
attached  to  the  French  party  and  to  the  Roman  church  i. 

After  the  infant  queen,  the  regent  Arran  was  the  next  heir  to 
the  crown,  and  he  was  generally  supported  by  the  Protestant 
nobility  and  gentry ;  besides  he  himself  was  well  disposed 
towards  the  reformation  of  religion.  His  elevation,  therefore, 
gave  vmiversal  satisfaction  to  the  Protestants,  as  he  was  a 
man  of  a  mild  conciliatory  disposition ;  and  he  so  far  favoured 
the  Reformation,  that  he  maintained  in  his  family  two  chap- 
lains, Williams  and  Rough.  The  first  had  been  formerly  Pro- 
vincial of  the  Dominicans  in  Scotland,  and  he  had  translated 
the  New  Testament  into  the  vulgar  tongue  2;  the  latter  was 
also  a  Dominican.  Both  these  chaplains  were  in  priest'^ 
orders,  had  deserted  the  Roman  communion,  and  they  both 
afterwards,  held  livings  in  the  Protestant  Church  of  England. 
They  preached  publicly  at  court,  and  declaimed  boldly 
against  the  Roman  corruptions,  being  openly  countenanced  by 
the  regent,  and  encouraged  by  those  noblemen  who,  having 
been  taken  prisoners  at  the  disgraceful  affair  of  Solway-Moss, 
had  imbibed  the  reformed  dectrines,  and  who  had  been 
carefully  instructed  therein  at  the  Court  of  England.  These 
circumstances  had  a  favourable  tendency  towards  a  regular 
reformation  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  without  destroy- 
ing its  foundation ;  for,  notwithstanding  its  many  gross 
errors  and  corruptions,  the  Church  of  Rome  has  maintained 
inviolate  the  episcopal  succession,  without  breach  or  contro- 
versy, which  is  the  divine  charter  of  the  Gospel  priesthood 
in  the  New  Testament,  as  it  was  for  the  Aaronical  under  the 
Old ;  for  although  there  have  been  repeatedly  popes  and  anti- 
popes,  yet  the  succession  has  not  been  invalidated ;  because 
the  popes  have  always  been  true  bishops,  which  is  all  that  we 
are  concerned  with.  It  had  been  happy  for  the  peace  of  these 
kingdoms,  if  the  Scottish  hierarchy  had  themselves  reformed 
their  native  church,  and  preserved  it  from  the  desecrating 
hands  of  the  "rascal  multitude"  in  the  first  instance,  and 
from  the  more  disastrous  "  inclinations  of  the  people"  in  the 
second,  which  has  produced  a  cliaos  of  anarchy  and  con- 
fusion such  as  has  never  been  seen  in  any  Christian  church, 
from  the  days  of  the  apostles  downwards. 

The  noble  prisoners  who  were  taken    at  the  disgraceful 
flight  of  Sol  way -Moss  were  carried  to  London,  and  lodged  in 

1  Keitli,  25.— Knox,  36.  ^  Balfom's  Annals,  i.  277. 


20  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  II. 

the  Tower ;  but  Henry  afterwards  liberated  them  on  i)arole, 
and  they  were  sent  to  the  house  of  Archbishop  Crannier  and 
other  bishops,  and  to  some  of  the  nobihty,  where  uncommon 
pains  had  been  taken,  during  their  brief  stay  in  England,  by 
Archbishop  Cranmer  and  the  other  parties  with  whom  they 
abode,  to  teach  them  the  reformed  doctrines.  They  had  the 
benefit  likewise  of  perusing  the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  had 
been  translated  by  Tindal  in  1526,  a  new  and  improved  edi- 
tion of  which  had  been  published  in  1540,  under  the  auspices 
of  Archbishop  Cranmer.  On  their  return  these  noblemen 
eagerly  pressed  Queen  Mary's  first  parliament  to  grant  the 
same  privilege  to  her  subjects  in  Scotland.  Burnet  says,  that 
"Cassilishad  got  these  seeds  of  knowledge  at  Lambeth  under 
Cranmer's  influence,  which  produced  afterwards  a  great  har- 
vest in  Scotland.  That  the  other  prisoners  (eight  noblemen 
and  twenty-four  gentlemen)  were  instructed  to  such  a  degree, 
that  they  came  to  have  very  different  thoughts  of  the  changes 
that  had  been  made  in  England,  from  what  the  Scottish  clergy 
had  possessed  them  with  ;  who  had  encouraged  their  king  to 
engage  in  the  war,  by  the  assurance  of  victory,  since  he 
fought  against  an  heretical  prince." 

As  soon  as  Henry  heard  of  his  nephew's  death,  and  that  he 
had  left  an  heiress  only  seven  days  old,  he  conceived  the  idea 
of  uniting  the  kingdoms  by  a  marriage  betwixt  his  son  Prince 
Edward  and  Mary  Stuart,  the  infant  Queen  of  the  Scots.  On 
the  26th  of  December,  Henry  entertained  all  his  prisoners, 
and  broke  to  them  his  newly-fonned  project,  and  entreated 
their  concurrence,  to  which  some  of  them  cordially  assented, 
and  bound  themselves  to  bring  about  the  marriage,  and  to 
send  the  young  Queen  into  England  to  be  educated.  Henry 
relaxed  his  usual  despotic  hauteur,  and  condescended  to  court 
his  prisoners  by  the  most  adroit  flattery ;  and  he  succeeded  in 
completely  attaching  them  to  his  interest.  Mr.  Sadler  af- 
firms, that  Henry  bestowed  pensions  on  them,  and  engaged 
them  to  deliver  hostages  to  him  for  their  return  in  the  event 
of  their  not  succeeding  in  their  design.  Accordingly  he  sent 
them  all  home  on  the  1st  of  January,  1543,  and  on  their  road 
they  dined  with  the  Prince  of  Wales  at  Enfield.  He  also 
sent  home  his  brother-in-law,  the  Earl  of  Angus  and  his  bro- 
ther Sir  George  Douglas,  who  had  been  exiles  in  England 
for  fourteen  years,  with  letters  to  the  regent,  requesting  a 
restitution  of  their  lands  and  honours.^     Indeed,  the  English 


'  Keith's  History,  26. 


1543.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  21 

influence  in  Scotland  was  now  so  strong,  that  the  French  or 
Roman  Catholic  was  quite  overpowered. 

1543. — These  noblemen  arrived  in  Edinburgh  about  the 
middle  of  January,  having  delivered  their  pledges  to  the  Duke 
of  Suffolk  at  Newcastle.  They  communicated  Henry's  pro- 
posal to  the  regent,  who  entered  heartily  into  it,  and  sum- 
moned a  great  council  to  deliberate  on  the  best  mode  of 
proceeding,  which  resulted  in  the  summoning  of  a  parliament, 
to  meet  at  Edinburgh  on  the  11th  of  March.  It  was  expected 
that  the  cardinal  and  the  Frencli  party  would  offer  a  vigorous 
resistance  to  the  marriage  of  the  Queen  and  the  alliance  with 
England ;  and,  in  consequence,  the  council  determined  on 
the  arbitrary  and  illegal  step  of  arresting  and  committing  him 
to  the  state  prison  of  Blackness  Castle.  For  this  unjust 
and  daring  act  the  only  excuse  which  could  be  advanced  was 
a  fabricated  report  of  his  having  invited  the  Duke  of  Guise, 
with  a  French  army,  into  the  kingdom,  to  subdue  it.  The 
regent  confessed  to  Sadler  that  this  report  was  a  mere  pre- 
tence to  get  him  out  of  the  way,  from  whose  talents,  vigour, 
and  immense  influence,  the  English  party  had  so  much  to 
fear.  This  imprudent  step  alarmed  the  whole  body  of  the 
clergy  throughout  the  realm.  They  identified  his  case  with 
their  own,  and  became  more  united  than  before  among  them- 
selves, and  simultaneously  entered  into  a  concert  to  lay  the 
whole  kingdom  under  an  interdict — a  step  resorted  to  by  the 
Pope  only  upon  the  most  urgent  occasions,  and  when  his  au- 
thority was  disputed.  Mr.  Tytler  says,^  "  the  public  services  of 
religion  were  instantly  suspended,  the  priests  refused  to  admi- 
nister the  sacraments  of  baptism,  the  churches  were  closed, 
an  universal  gloom  overspread  the  countenances  of  the  people, 
and  the  country  presented  the  melancholy  appearance  of  a 
land  excommunicated  for  some  awful  crime.  The  days,  in- 
deed, were  past  when  the  full  terrors  of  such  a  state  of  spi- 
ritual proscription  could  be  felt ;  yet  the  Catholic  party  were 
still  strong  in  Scotland ;  they  loudly  exclaimed  against  their 
opponents  for  so  daring  an  act  of  sacrilege  and  injustice  ;  and 
the  people  began,  in  some  degree,  to  identify  the  cause  of 
Beaton  with  the  indejDendence  of  the  country." 

The  business  of  parliament  commenced  on  the  13th  of 
March,  when  the  Earl  of  AiTan  was  declared  to  be  the 
nearest  in  succession  to  the  throne,  failing  the  Queen,  and  he 
was  recognised  as  regent  of  tlie  kingdom.  The  Archbisho]) 
of  Glasgow,  then  chancellor,  opposed  the  maiTiage  of  the 

1  Tytler's  History  of  Scotland,  v.  p.  318. 


22  HISTOKY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  11. 

Queen  to  tlie  Prince  of  Wales  ;  but  it  was  agreed  to  never- 
theless ;  the  time  of  the  Queen's  being  sent  into  England 
only  having  been  left  undecided.  On  the  25th  of  August  this 
treaty  was  ratified,  signed,  and  solemnly  sworn,  at  high  mass, 
in  the  Abbey  Church  of  Holyrood  House,  and  the  Great  Seal 
of  the  kingdom  appended  thereto.  Although  the  English  in- 
fluence in  this  parliament  was  predominant,  yet  the  French  or 
Romish  interest  was  too  powerful  to  be  disregarded  with 
safety;  and  the  committal  of  the  Cardinal  roused  their  sym- 
pathies in  his  favour  who  was  its  main  support.  The  Earl 
of  Argyle  retired  to  his,  own  country,  threatening  to  raise  his 
clan  for  his  rescue ;  and  the  earls  of  Huntly,  Bothwell,  and 
Moray,  demanded  his  release,  and  offered  themselves  as 
hostages  for  his  submission  to  the  regent  and  decrees  of  par- 
liament.^ 

The  regent  seems  at  this  time  to  have  been  generally  much 
respected,  and  cheerfully  obeyed,  and  the  whole  government 
went  on  smoothly  under  English  influence.  But  this  happy 
state  of  things  was  not  to  continue  ;  for  no  sooner  had  parlia- 
ment concluded  the  match  with  England,  than  the  cardinal 
was  set  at  liberty  by  the  queen-dowager's  advice,  who,  as 
Bishop  Sage  says,  was  "  all  over  French  and  Papist."  His 
first  object  was  to  recover  the  French,  and,  by  consequence, 
the  Roman  interest ;  in  order  to  effect  which  he  assembled 
the  whole  clergy,  represented  to  them  the  danger  to  the  Roman 
church  by  the  marriage  of  the  queen  to  an  hei'etical  prince, 
and  the  consequent  ascendancy  of  the  English  influence  in 
the  kingdom,  unless  the  solid  engagements  entered  into  be- 
tween the  governments  were  broken.  He  obliged  them  to 
tax  themselves,  therefore,  to  raise  a  large  sum  of  money  to 
bribe  such  of  the  nobility  as  were  not  proof  against  its 
charms.  It  was  also  determined  at  that  meeting  to  preach 
from  the  pulpits  against  the  match  and  alliance  with  England, 
— to  excite  popular  tumults  and  disturbances, — and  to  take 
all  opportunities  of  insulting  the  English  cunbassador.  The 
cardinal's  authority  and  energetic  appeal  to  the  clergy  made 
them  contribute  liberally  towards  the  revenue  in  the  event  of 
a  wa.r,  which  his  sagacity  foresaw  would  ensue  if  tlie  treaty 
were  broken  with  Henr3\  They  contributed  money,  private 
plate,  and  even  the  sacred  utensils  belonging  to  the  churches. 

As  soon  as  the  cardinal  had  regained  his  liberty  he  made 
overtures  of  reconciliation  to  the  regent,  and  wrought  en  his 
fears,  by  instigating  John   Hamilton,  abbot  of  Paisley,  his 

^  Keith. — Tytler. — Spottiswood. — Knox. — Balfour's  Annals,  i.  277-9. 


1543.].  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  23 

natural  brother,  to  represent  to  hiiu,  that  if  he  should  fulfil  this 
matrimonial  alliance,  he  would  thereby  undoubtedly  establish 
the  Reformation  ;  and  if  he  did  so,  that  his  own  legitimacy 
might  be  called  in  question,  unless  he  kept  the  Pope  on  his 
side,  nhich  he  could  only  do  by  preserving  the  Roman  Ca- 
tholic ascendancy,  and  crushing  the  Reformation  in  the  bud. 
His  father's  marriage  with  his  first  wife,  who  was  still  living, 
had  been  set  aside,  without  sufficient  cause,  by  the  Pope's 
apostolical  authority  alone:  if,  therefore,  the  laws  of  the 
Church,  as  then  established,  were  abrogated,  his  mother's 
marriage  would  become  null  and  void,  his  own  right  to  the 
earldom,  and,  eventually,  his  title  to  the  throne,  would  be 
forfeited.  Besides,  Keith  shows,  that  as  soon  as  Henry  had 
gained  the  object  of  his  ambition,  he  treated  the  regent  with 
contempt,  and  denied  him  the  title  of  Governor,  styling 
him  Earl  of  Arran  occupying  the  place  of  governor.  He  like- 
wise saw  that  Henry  had  no  mind  to  confer  the  hand  of  his 
daughter  (the  Princess  Elizabeth)  on  his  son,  as  he  had  pre- 
viously proposed ;  so  that,  altogether,  Arran  began  to  repent 
of  his  English  alliance,  and  sincerely  to  desire  an  accommo- 
dation with  the  cardinal.^  He  therefore  broke  faith  with 
Henry,  as  a  token  of  which  he  had  taken  the  sacrament  as  a 
pledge  of  his  sincerity,  stole  quietly  to  Stirling,  renounced  the 
Protestant  religion,  and  was  reconciled  to  the  Church  of 
Rome,  and  publicly  received  absolution  from  the  hands  of 
Cardinal  Beaton  in  the  Franciscan  church.  After  this  the 
cardinal  assumed  the  whole  power,  and  left  the  regent  only 
the  name.  The  cardinal  had  previously  conducted  the  queen 
mother,  with  her  infant  daughter,  to  Stirling,  where  he 
threatened  the  regent  with  deposition,  by  authority  of  the 
Pope,  "  as  inobedient  to  holy  Mother  Church ;"  and  to  make 
assurance  doubly  sure,  he  demanded,  and  obtained,  the 
regent's  eldest  son  as  a  hostage,  under  colour  of  superintending 
his  education,  but,  in  reality,  to  secure  his  father's  fidelity. 
His  return  to  the  established  religion  mortified  and  disgusted 
the  Reformers,  and  the  consequence  of  his  apostacy  immedi- 
ately appeared  in  the  dismissal  of  his  two  Protestant  chaplains, 
Williams  and  Rough,  and  such  other  gentlemen  of  his  house- 
hold as  favoured  the  Reformation.  Sir  Robert  Richardson, 
a  reformed  priest,  and  others,  who  had  been  sent  down  by 
Henry  VIII.,  and  had  been  well  received,  were  now  glad  to 
return  home,  being,  says  Keith,  in  danger  of  their  lives,  since 
the  regent's  change. 

»  Keith. 


24  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP,  11, 

Henry  seeing  that  the  regent,  the  cardinal,  and  also  his  own 
pensioners,  had  become  lukewarm  in  the  matrimonial  alliance 
on  which  he  himself  was  firmly  bent,  now  resorted  to  other 
measures.  He  therefore  instigated  Matthew,  earl  of  Lennox,  to 
return  into  Scotland  from  France,  betwixt  whom  and  the  regent 
there  was  a  fatal  feud,  on  account  of  the  slaughter  of  his  father, 
the  earl  of  Arran,  when  lord  Hamilton.  His  pretensions  to 
the  crown  were  good,  if  the  divorce  alluded  to  above  was  de- 
clared illegal.  Matthew,  earl  of  Lennox,  married  the  daughter 
of  lord  Hamilton,  by  his  wife  the  princess  Mary,  daughter  of 
James  II.,  by  whom  he  had  a  son,  John,  who  was  slain  as 
aforesaid,  and  who  was  the  father  of  the  present  Matthew, 
earl  of  Lennox.  He  alleged  that  the  regent  was  a  bastard, 
because  James,  earl  of  Arran,  who  w^as  also  descended  of  the 
Princess  Mary,  had  divorced  his  first  wife,  the  lady  Elizabeth 
Home,  without  just  cause,  simply  on  the  Pope's  authority; 
and  had,  during  her  lifetime,  married  the  regent's  mother. 
He  therefore  laid  claim  to  the  rights  and  inheritances  of  the 
family  of  Arran,  as  being  descended  from  a  daughter  of  the 
princess  Mary.  Henry  also  held  out  the  lure  to  this  noble- 
man of  the  hope  of  succeeding  to  the  crown,  and  of  marrying 
the  queen  dowager.  Further,  he  embargoed  all  the  Scottish 
vessels  in  the  harbours  of  England,  and  confiscated  their 
cargoes — a  step  which  greatly  alienated  the  Scotch  from  the 
English  alliance.^ 

Henry  frequently  urged  the  regent  to  reform,  that  is,  to 
plunder  the  church,  and  to  extirpate  the  religious  orders.  In 
his  reply,  says  bishop  Keith,  the  regent  hit  the  right  nail 
upon  the  head;  for  he  said  to  Sadler,  "That  though  he 
desired  no  less  the  reformation  of  the  abuses  of  the  church, 
and  the  extirpation  of  the  estate  of  monks  and  friars,  with 
the  abolition  of  the  bishop  of  Rome's  usurped  authority,  than 
that  king  (Henry)  did;  yet  he  owned  that  that  would  be  a 
hard  matter  to  bring  to  pass,  for  there  be  so  many  great  men 
in  the  kingdom  that  are  Papists,  that  unless  the  sin  of  covetous- 
ness  bring  them  into  it  (that  is,  the  desire  of  having  the 
lands  of  the  Abbeys  in  their  own  possession),  he  knew  no 
other  means  to  win  them  to  his  purpose  in  that  behalf." 

1544. — In  this  first  parliament  of  Queen  Mary,  the  Pro- 
testant interest  was  so  strong  that  an  act  was  passed,  on  a 
petition  by  the  Lord  Maxwell,  "  that  it  should  be  lawful  for 
all  our  Sovereign  Lady's  lieges  to  have  the  holy  vrrit  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  of  a  good  and  true 

•  Keith.— Knox. 


1544.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  25 

translation,  without  incurring  any  crime  for  hearing  or  reading 
the  sameP     On  the  first  reading  of  this  act,  Gavin  Dunbar, 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  the 
kingdom,  in  his  own  name,  and  in  that  of  the  bishops   (who 
are  the  first  of  the  three  estates  of  the  kingdom),  opposed  it, 
and  protested  against  the  passing  of  any  act  that  might  empower 
the  laity  to  possess  and  read  the  holy  scriptures,  "  until  a  pro- 
vincial council  could  beheld  of  all  the  clergy,  to  advise  and 
conclude  if  the   same  be  necessary  to  be  had  among  the 
queen's  lieges."     But  the  Protestant  interest  \^'as  too  powerful. 
The  knowledge  which  the  noble  captives  had  gained  in  Eng- 
land had  opened  their  eyes  to  the  blessings   of  the   holy 
scriptures  ;  and  their  arguments  and  influence  completely  over- 
powei-ed  the  party  still  attached  to  the  Church  of  Rome.     The 
bill  passed,  and  was  proclaimed  at  the  market-cross  with  due 
formalities  by  the  regent's  order ;  and  thus  was  that  inesti- 
mable blessing  conferred  on  the  laity,  when    the   Romish 
church  was  still  in  its  strength  and  vigour.     This  was  the 
severest  blow  which  the  Church  of  Rome  had  yet  received, 
as  heretofore  the  sacred  books  had  been  shut  up  in  the  dead  lan- 
guages, and  were  inaccessible  to  the  laity  generally.  Previous 
to  this  act  of  parliament,  no  man   dared  to  read  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  ten  commandments,  nor  the  articles  of  the  faith, 
in  the  vulgar  tongue,  without  incurring  the  pains  and  penal- 
ties of  heresy  1.     This  act  was  especially  ordered  to  be  pro- 
claimed with  every  formality,  at  Edinburgh,  on  the   19th  of 
March.     It  was  violently  but  ineffectually  opposed  by  the 
Romish  clergy ;    but  afterwards,  a  great  number  of  copies 
of  Cranmer's  Bible  were  sent  from  England,  as  well  as  many 
Other  books  of  divinity. 

The  patriarch  of  Venice  had  been  sent  into  Scotland  a 
short  time  before,  as  legate  from  the  pope,  and  was  received 
by  the  regent  with  all  the  honours  to  which  so  distinguished 
an  ambassador  was  entitled.  He  persuaded  the  regent  and 
the  queen  mother,  as  they  tendered  the  welfare  of  the  Roman 
religion  and  his  holiness's  blessing,  not  to  fulfil  the  matrimo- 
nial engagement  with  England,  which  had  been  lately  con- 
cluded. At  his  departure,  he  transfen-ed  his  legantine 
power  a  latere  to  Cardinal  Beaton ;  and  on  his  return  to 
Rome,  "  informed  the  pope  and  the  college  of  cardinals  of 
the  singular  good  will  and  humanity  of  the  Scots,  as  also  of 
their  affection  to  the  Roman  church  2." 

1545. — This    year    Robert  Cainicross,  Bishop    of   Ross, 

I  Keith's  Hist.— Knox.  ^  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  284. 

VOL.  I.  E 


26  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP,  II. 

died,  and  was  succeeded  by  David  Panter,  secretary  to  the 
regent.  In  April,  William  Stewart,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen, 
died,  and  was  succeeded  in  that  see  by  William  Gordon, 
chanter  of  Moray,  and  uncle  to  George,  Earl  of  Huntly  ^ 

The    regent's    apostacy    surprised    and    confounded     the 
Protestants,  and  rendered  both  their  persons   and  property 
insecure.       In    consequence,    Thomas    Williams  and    John 
Rough,  his  chaplains,  fled  to  England,  being  apprehensive  of 
personal  danger.     The  fears  of  the  Protestants  were  still  more 
increased,  by  the  regent's  declaring  in  parliament  his  determi- 
nation to  punish  heretics,  and  root  out  their  damnahle  opinions, 
in  order  to  shew  his  zeal  in  his  late  conversion, — "  exhorting  all 
prelates  and  ordinaries,  each  within  his  own  diocese  and  juris- 
diction, to  inquire  upon  all  manner  of  such  persons,  and  proceed 
against  them  according  to  the  laws  of  holy  church  ;  and  my 
lord  governor  shall  be  at  all  times  ready  to  do  therein  what  ac- 
cords him  of  his  office."    The  act  of  parliament  which  allowed 
the  translation  and  reading  of  the  holy  scriptures  w^as  repealed 
by  the  regent's  authority  ;  and  those  who  either  read  or  pos- 
sessed a  copy  of  the  Bible  in  the  vernacular  tongue  were  to 
suffer  condign  punishment  2. 

Cardinal  Beaton  had  now  obtained  the  direction  of  the  re- 
gent, and  possessed  as  much  the  supreme  power,  without  its 
responsibility,  as  if  the  supposititious  will  of  the  late  king  had 
been  valid,  and  he  had  been,  in  fact,  the  regent.  In  the  be- 
ginning of  this  year  he  made  a  visitation  of  his  diocese  with 
more  than  royal  magnificence.  He  was  escorted  by  the  regent 
and  a  number  of  the  nobility  ;  and  on  their  arrival  at  Perth  he 
took  up  his  abode  in  the  Charterhouse.  Here  a  multitude  were 
presented  at  the  bar  of  his  court,  accused  of  heresy  and  of  read- 
ing and  disputing  on  the  holy  scriptures.  Some  w^ere  banished 
and  others  were  imprisoned  ;  but  William  Anderson,  Robert 
Lamb,  James  Ronald,  James  Hunter,  and  James  Findlayson, 
were  condemned  to  be  hanged ;  and  Helen  Stark  (the  wife 
of  the  latter),  to  be  drowned.  Great  exertions  were  made  to 
save  the  sufferers,  but  to  no  purpose  :  for  the  men  had  nailed 
the  horns  of  a  ram  to  the  head  of  an  image  of  St.  Francis,  and 
broken  the  popish  rules  respecting  Lent;  and  the  woman 
perished  in  consequence  of  having  refused,  while  in  labour,  to 
invoke  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  firmly  declaring  she  would  address 
her  prayers  to  God  only,  through  the  mediation  of  her  Lord 
and  Saviour.  Having  commended  her  soul  to  the  arms  of 
her  Saviour,  and  her  sucking  baby  to  the    charity  of  her 

1  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  284.  "  Keith. 


1546.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  27 

neighbours,  she  was  bound,  cast  into  the  deep  water,  and  en- 
tered into  the  joy  of  her  Lord.  Many  others,  some  even  of  rank, 
were  banished,  imprisoned,  and  their  property  was  confiscated. 
Sir  Henry  Elder,  John  Elder,  Walter  Piper,  and  Laurence 
Puller,  with  some  of  the  burgesses  of  Perth,  were  banished; 
and  the  Lord  Ruthven,  its  Provost,  was  degraded  from  his 
office,  being  suspected  of  favouring  the  Protestants.  Spottis- 
wood  asserts,  "  that  the  ignorance  of  these  times  was  so  great, 
as  even  the  priests  did  think  the  New  Testament  was  composed 
by  Martin  Lulher,  and  the  Old  to  be  the  only  scripture  that 
men  ought  to  read  ^" 

The  cardinal  continued  his  progress  through  the  counties  of 
Angus  and  Meanis,  still  leading  the  weak  regent  in  his  train, 
and  holding  similar  inquisitions  wherever  he  went,  with  similar 
results  as  at  Perth.  About  the  same  time,  John  Roger,  a 
priest,  who  had  professed  the  reformed  religion,  and  who  is 
represented  by  Knox  to  have  been  "  a  godly  and  learned  man," 
fell  among  the  rocks  and  was  killed,  in  attempting  to  escape 
from  the  sea-tower  at  St.  Andrews,  where  he  had  been  com- 
mitted Avith  the  view,  doubtless,  of  his  being  made  an  example, 
to  deter  others  2. 

1546. — These  cruel  proceedings  against  the  Protestants  had 
the  effect  of  increasing  their  numbers.  The  immoral  and 
licentious  lives  of  the  Romish  clergy  formed  an  ever  ready 
subject  of  declamation  for  the  reformed  preachers,  and  a  plau- 
sible excuse  for  the  laity  to  desert  their  former  blind  guides. 
For  the  purpose,  therefore,  of  stopping  the  alarming  increase  of 
heresy,  and  of  reforming  the  private  lives  of  the  Romish  clergy, 
the  cardinal  summoned  a  provincial  council,  or  general  assem- 
bly, to  meet  at  Edinburgh  in  January  of  this  year.  There  is 
no  other  record  of  the  business  before  this  synod  extant,  farther 
than  of  its  opening ;  and  that  the  cardinal,  as  its  president  or 
moderator,  recommended  the  bishops  and  the  other  members 
to  proceed  vigorously  against  all  within  their  jurisdiction  who 
should  be  accused  of  heresy.  He,  however,  exhorted  them 
to  reibrm  themselves,  as  patterns  to  others,  by  living  godly  and 
prudent  lives,  whereby  they  would  deprive  the  reformers  of  one 
principal  part  of  their  invectives,  and  of  their  excuse  for 
reformation.  This  advice  seems  to  have  been  most  exten- 
sively necessary,  inasmuch  as  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  were 
universally  addicted  to  the  ivorks  of  the  flesh,  and  the  kingdom 
swarmed  with  their  illegitimate  issue. 

The  desire  for  reformation  had  hitherto  been  chiefly  con- 

^  Spottiswood. — Knox. —  Keith.  ^  Spottiswood. — Knox. 


28  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  II. 

fined  to  the  inferior  orders  of  the  clergy ;  and  as  yet  the  sins  of 
covetousness  and  sacrilege  had  not  awakened  the  reforming 
piety  of  the  nobility,  the  majority  of  whom  were  still  attached 
to  the  ancient  hierarchy.  Among  the  inferior  laity,  the  re- 
formed doctrines  had  made  the  most  considerable  progress  in 
the  seaports  and  towns  of  the  chief  resort  of  strangers.  Hither- 
to, says  a  modern  writer,  "  whatsoever  may  have  been  the  cause 
of  alarm  on  the  part  of  the  church,  it  is  certain  that  the  Protes- 
tant faith  had  been  principally  confined  to  some  local  districts 
in  the  two  archi-episcopal  dioceses  of  St.  Andrews  and  Glas- 
gow. In  none  of  the  other  dioceses  was  there  a  single 
prosecution;  and  no  instance  is  known  of  the  bishops  pro- 
ceeding, or  having  cause  to  proceed,  against  any  individual 
within  their  own  jurisdiction.  North  of  the  Tay,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Dominican  friar,  Rogers,  whom  the  cardinal 
captured  during  his  visitation,  and  the  town  of  Dundee,  there 
was  no  disposition  towards  change  ;  and  south  of  that  river  the 
cases  had  principally  occurred  in  the  large  towns  where 
foreigners  congregated,  such  as  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,  Stirling, 
Perth,  and  St.  Andrews  ;  in  all  of  which  places  facilities  were 
easily  afforded  by  constant  intercourse  for  the  dissemination 
of  the  Protestant  doctrines.  Of  the  few  nobility  and  influen- 
tial men  who  were  favourable  to  the  Protestants,  hardly  one  of 
them  at  this  period  understood  the  Protestant  faith ;  and  they 
supported  or  favoured  it  merely  to  suit  their  own  political 
views,  from  private  jealousies  and  quarrels,  which  ceased  as 
soon  as  a  reconciliation  was  effected  among  them.  It  is  in 
this  way  that  we  must  account  for  the  manner  in  which  the 
prosecutions  for  religion  were  viewed;  and,  although  they 
made  a  serious  impression  on  those  who  witnessed  them,  were 
conducted  at  intervals  for  nearly  thirty  years  from  the  execu- 
tive of  Patrick  Hamilton,  without  exciting  any  dangerous 
clamour'." 

Whilst  cardinal  Beaton  was  engaged  in  opening  this  synod, 
he  received  information  that  George  Wishart,  for  whom  he  had 
been  long  anxiously  searching,  was  at  that  time  concealed  in 
Ormiston  house,  in  East  Lothian.  "  Master  George"  was  a 
layman  of  respectable  connexions,  had  been  educated  at 
Cambridge,  was  a  man  of  considerable  eloquence,  and  of  an 
agreeable  manner  of  communication.  After  his  return  to 
Scotland,  he  taught  a  school  at  Montrose,  and  was  universally 
respected  for  his  learning  and  great  piety.  Although  without 
being  in  orders,  and  only   a  mere  layman,  he  preached  very 

'  Lawson's  Roman  Cath.  Church  in  Scotland,  111,  112. 


1546.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  29 

successfully  the  reformed  doctrines;  but  Beaton's  energetic 
measures  compelled  him  to  go  to  the  west  of  Scotland,  where 
he  made  many  converts.  Earl  Bothwell,  by  one  of  those 
breaches  of  faith  which,  in  Roman  Catholic  morality,  is 
esteemed  meritorious,  delivered  him  into  the  hands  of  the 
cardinal.  Bothwell  made  a  solemn  promise  of  protection, 
saying,  in  the  presence  of  several  witnesses,  "  I  shall  not  only 
preserve  your  body  from  violence,  but  I  wiW  promise  you,  on  my 
honour,  that  neither  the  governor  nor  the  cardinal  shall  be  able 
to  harm  you,  and  that  1  shall  keep  you  in  my  own  power,  till 
either  I  make  you  free,  or  bring  you  back  to  the  place  where 
now  I  receive  you."  On  this  solemn  promise,  Wishart  was 
delivered  into  his  hands.  Bothwell  was  sheriff  of  the  county  ; 
but  notwithstanding  his  solemn  oath,  he  delivered  him  up  to 
the  cardinal,  who  committed  him  first  to  Edinburgh  Castle,  and 
afterwards  removed  him  to  St.  Andrews  ^ 

The  cardinal,  in  haste  to  make  an  example  of  such  an  arch- 
heretic,  summoned  all  the  bishops  to  meet  at  St.  Andrews,  the 
27th  February,  1546.  The  archbishop  of  Glasgow  advised 
him  to  procure  a  commission  from  the  regent,  in  order  to  divide 
the  odium  of  his  death  with  the  civil  power.  Not  doubting  of 
the  regent's  ready  acquiescence,  he  applied  accordingly  ;  but 
the  regent,  listening  to  the  advice  of  Sir  David  Hamilton  of 
Preston,  replied,  that  "  he  should  do  well  not  to  precipitate 
the  man's  trial  until  his  coming ;  for  as  to  himself,  he  would  not 
consent  to  his  death,  before  the  cause  was  well  examined ; 
and  if  the  cardinal  should  do  otherwise,  he  would  make  pro- 
testation that  the  man's  blood  should  be  required  at  his  hands^ 
This  was  a  different  answer  from  that  which  the  cardinal  ex- 
pected ;  and  fearing  lest,  by  delay  and  the  regent's  clemency, 
Wishart  might  escape  his  vengeance,  he  wrote  back  to  the 
regent,  "  That  he  did  not  Avrite  unto  the  governor,  as  though  he 
depended  in  any  matter  on  his  authority,  but  out  of  a  desire 
he  had,  that  the  heretic's  condemnation  might  proceed  with 
some  show  of  public  consent,  which,  since  he  could  not  obtain, 
he  would  himself  do  that  which  he  held  most  fitting."  The 
cardinal's  whole  proceedings,  and  this  letter  particularly,  shew 
the  power,  independent  of  the  crown,  which  the  Church  of 
Rome  claimed  and  exercised  in  every  state  where  that  church 
was  by  law  established.  Wishart  was  tried,  found  guilty  of 
heresy,  and  condemned  to  the  flames.  In  pursuance  of  his 
sentence,  he  was  publicly  burnt  alive,  on  the  2d  March,  in 
front  of  the  Episcopal  palace,  with  circumstances  of  great 

'   SpottiswoDd. — Knox. — Keith. 


so  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  II. 

cruelty  ^     The  trial,  and  the  whole  of  the  charges  against  him 
of  heresy,  eighteen  in  number,  with  his  answ'ers,  are  detailed 
at  full  length  by  the  author  of  Knox's  history  ;  but  there  is  no 
mention  of  his  having  been  a  priest,  which  would  unquestion- 
ably have  been  one  of  the  charges,  had  he  been  in  holy  orders. 
Besides,  the  ceremony  of  degradation  would  have  made  part 
of  his  sentence,  and  it  would  have  been  ostentatiously  per- 
formed previous  to  his  being  delivered  over  to  the  secular  arm. 
This  barbarous  transaction  cannot  be  viewed  in  any  other  light 
than  as  deliberate  murder,  inasmuch  as  the  regent — to  whom 
only  the  power  of  life  and  death  belonged,  as  representing  the 
sovereign — had  forbidden  the  trial,  and  required  the  innocent 
man's  blood  at  the  cardinal's  hands.    Therefore,  his  condemn- 
ing "  Master  George"  to  death,  and  by  his  own  authority  putting 
his  sentence  into  execution,  in  defiance  of  the  regent's  prohi- 
bition, (although  contrary  to  the  custom  of  the  Roman  Church, 
which,  in  cases  of  heresy,  only  passes  sentence,  and  then  hands 
over  the  victim  to  the  civil  magistrate  for  execution,)  is  a  plain 
proof  of  the  dangerous  tendency  of  the  principles  of  the  Church 
of  Rome.  History  is  replete  with  examples  of  that  church  both 
claiming   and    exercising   a   supremacy  over    all    sovereign 
princes,  who,  by  God's  law  and  authority,  alone  are  "  to  bear 
the  sword,"  and  to  restrain  churchmen  and  laymen,  popes,  pre- 
lates, and  presbyters,  within  the  bounds  of  their  sev^eral  stations, 
Wishart  has  been  long  popularly  recognised  as  a  martyr, 
and  it  is  with    much  regret  that  the  writer  finds  himself,  by 
the  force  of  evidence,  compelled  to  withdraw  that  holy  title 
from  him.     The  zeal  and  industry  of  Mr.  Tytler  has  produced 
sufficient  evidence  to  strij)  him  of  all  title  to  rank  among  the 
noble  army  of  martyrs.     That  able  historian  has  placed  it 
beyond  controversy  that  Wishart  was  d^particeps  crimmis  with 
others  in  a  conspiracy  to  assassinate  the  cardinal,  and  that  he 
w^as  in  the  pay  of  Henry  VHI.     That  unscrupulous  monarch 
employed  the  Earls  of  Cassilis  and  Glencairn,  Mr.  Kirkaldy 
of  Grange,  Charteris  of  Kinfauns,  two  Leslies  of  the  family  of 
Rothes,  and  a  ruffian,  and  who  was  the  principal  conspirator, 
of  the  name  of  Chrichton,  the  laird  of  Brun^tone,  to  effect  the 
murder  of  Cardinal  Beaton.     George  Wishart  was  the  con- 
fidential emissary  between  the  King  of  England  and  the  con- 
spirators; and  consequently  was  equally  guilty  of  the  intention 
of  assassination  as  the  others,  although,  perhaps,  he  might  not 
have  actually  embrued  his    hands    in   the    prelate's  blood. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  the  cardinal  was  acquainted  with  the 

'  Scot's  Worthies. — Knox. — Spottiswood. — Keith. 


1546.]  CHURCfl  OF  SCOTLAND.  31 

designs  of  his  enemies  against  his  life,  and  of  Wishart's  par- 
ticipation in  them,  and  which,  probably,  sharpened  his 
ardour  to  secure  and  punisli  so  dangerous  a  teacher  of  such 
heresy.  The  cardinal  was  most  strenuously  opposed  to  the 
alliance  with  England,  and  to  the  marriage  of  his  sovereign  to 
the  youthful  Prince  of  Wales;  all  his  political  skill  and  efforts 
had  therefore  been  exerted  to  thwart  Henry's  darling  project. 
Hence  the  mortal  enmity  betwixt  Henry  and  Beaton;  and 
it  will  ever  remain  a  stain  even  upon  his  memory,  that 
he  employed  and  paid  blood-thirsty  men  to  remove  by 
murder  the  principal  obstacle  to  his  ambition.  Henry  was 
the  cardinal's  avowed  and  bitter  enemy,  on  account  of  his 
patriotic  opposition  to  the  subjugation  of  his  native  country  to 
its  more  powerful  rival ;  and  it  has  been  proved  that  he  insti- 
gated several  individuals,  and  bestowed  considerable  pecu- 
niary rewards  upon  them,  as  incentives  for  the  murder  of  his 
adversary.  Wishart  was  one  of  these  guilty  conspirators;  and 
it  is  reasonable  to  conclude  that  the  cardinal  was  not  unac- 
quainted with  his  guilt,  as  the  conspirators  made  no  secret  of 
their  intentions.  Of  Wishart,  Mr.  Tytler  says — "  He  en- 
joyed, it  is  to  be  remembered,  the  confidential  intimacy,  nay, 
we  have  reason  to  believe  that  his  counsels  influenced  the  con- 
duct of,  Glencairn,  Cassilis,  Brunstone,  and  the  parties  who 
were  now  the  advisers  of  Henry's  intended  hostilities ;  a 
circumstance  which  will  perfectly  account  for  the  obscure 
warnings  of  the  preacher,  without  endowing  him  with  inspira- 
tion. He  continued  his  denunciations  of  the  Romish  super- 
stitions, and  inveighed  with  so  much  eloquence  against  the 
corrupt  lives  of  the  churchmen,  that,  incurring  the  extreme 
odimn  of  Beaton,  he  is  said  to  have  twice  escaped  plots 
which  that  unscrupulous  prelate  laid  for  his  life.  It  was 
during  this  interval  (from  1543  to  1546)  that  Henry  VIll. 
encouraged  Brunstone,  Cassilis,  Glencairn,  and  others,  to 
assassinate  his  enemv  the  cardinal.  Of  the  existence  of  the 
plot  against  his  life  Beaton  was  to  a  certain  extent  aware  ; 
and  looking  with  suspicion  on  Wishart,  not  only  as  a  dissemi- 
nator of  forbidden  doctrines,  but  the  friend  of  his  most  mortal 
enemies,  he  earnestly  laboured  to  apprehend  him.  Of  all  this 
the  future  martyr  was  so  well  advised,  that  he  repeatedly 
alluded  to  his  approaching  fate^" 

The  clergy  in  general  applauded  the  primate  for  this  bold 
measure  of  putting  Wishart  to  death  ;  and  he  flattered  himself 
that  he  had  subdued  his  enemies,  and  given  the  death-blow 

1  Tytler's  Hist,  of  Scotland,  v.  415,  416. 


32  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  II. 

to  what  he  called  heresy.  But  in  this  he  entirely  miscalcu- 
lated ;  for,  instead  of  suppressing  the  new  opinions,  it  only 
excited  a  more  fervid  spirit  of  inquiry,  and  roused  the  resent- 
ment of  the  whole  nation.  It  not  only  exasperated  the  minds 
of  the  common  people,  but  it  precipitated  the  catastrophe 
of  his  own  death,  which  "was  not  a  sudden  act  of  revenge, 
but  a  long-projected  conspiracy  from  other  and  mercenary 
motives  instigated  originally  by  Henry  VIII.  "  If  Wishart," 
says  his  biographer,  "  had  had  twenty  lives  he  ought  to  have 
lost  them  all,  but  not  for  heresy,"  but  for  his  guilty  know- 
ledge and  participation  in  the  conspiracy  to  murder  the 
cardinal. 

Soon  after  the  burning  of  Wishart,  cardinal  Beaton  passed 
over  the  Tay  to  the  castle  of  Findhaven,  to  marry  one  of  his 
own  illegitimate  daughters,  Margaret  Beaton,  to  the  eldest 
son  of  the  Earl  of  Crawford,  with  whom  he  gave  a  dowry 
of  4000  marks.  While  enjoying  the  marriage  festivities,  he 
received  authentic  intelligence  of  an  intended  attack  on  his 
castle  of  St.  Andrews  by  an  English  fleet,  and  he  hastened 
back  to  put  it  in  the  most  formidable  state  of  defence.  He 
summoned  the  nobility  and  gentry  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
St.  Andrews  to  draw  out  their  powers  for  the  defence  of 
the  coasts,  and  took  bands  of  manrent  of  various  chiefs  ;  but 
particularly  of  Norman  Leslie,  of  whose  fidelity  he  had  cause 
to  entertain  suspicion.  Leslie  had  formerly  done  many  ser- 
vices to  the  cardinal ;  but  meeting  with  some  disappointment 
he  left  his  castle  and  service  with  keenly  excited  and  vin- 
dictive feelings,  but  which  were  concealed  under  the 
plea  of  revenging  the  death  of  Wishart.  His  uncle,  John 
Leslie,  openly  vowed  that  the  murder  of  "  Master  George" 
should  not  go  unrevenged,  and  threatened  that  his  hand  and 
dagger  should  be  both  priest  and  confessor  to  the  cardinal. 
Accordingly,  on  the  29th  of  May,  the  two  Leslies,  Kircaldy  of 
Grange,  Melville  of  Carnbee,  Peter  Carmichal,  and  several 
other  conspirators,  with  their  military  followers,  surprised  the 
castle.  They  silently  turned  out  all  the  labourers  who  were 
at  work  on  the  ramparts,  secured  the  gate,  and  went  directly 
to  the  cardinal's  apartment,  the  door  of  which  they  burst 
open.  He  reminded  them  of  his  sacred  function,  saying,  "  I 
am  a  priest;"  but  sacrilege  and  murder  were  crimes  of  such 
common  occurrence  amongst  the  higher  classes  of  society  at 
that  period,  that  such  an  appeal  fell  pointless  on  his  ruthless 
assailants.  The  ruffians  rushed  upon  him  and  stabbed  him 
repeatedly,  although  he  earnestly  implored  their  mercy.  In 
the  meantime  the  citizens  became  alarmed  at  the  accounts 


1545.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  33 

given  by  the  discharged  woi-kmen ;  and  the  provost  came, 
with  the  whole  population  of  the  city  at  his  lieels,  clamorously 
demanding  that  the  lord  cardinal  should  be  set  free.  They 
were  enraged  at  the  dubious  replies  which  they  received  from 
the  conspirators,  and  became  more  determined  to  see  him. 
The  murderers  therefore  dragged  his  naked  and  bleeding  body 
to  the  spot,  and  suspended  it  over  the  wall  by  a  sheet,  ex- 
claiming, "  There  is  your  god  ;  and  now  that  you  have  seen 
him,  get  home  to  your  houses  1"  a  command  with  which  they 
complied,  in  silent  son'ow  and  indignation. 

Such  was  the  end  of  this  illustrious  and  great  man ;  with 
whom  fell  the  last  prop  of  the  j^apal  chmxh  in  Scotland, 
by  a  sacrilegious  murder,  in  the  j)rime  of  life,  being  only  in  the 
fifty-second  year  of  his  age.  He  was  a  man  of  first-rate 
ability,  and  a  politician  of  the  highest  order ;  but,  says  Keith, 
"  it  were  to  be  wished  the  same  praise  could  be  given  him 
with  respect  to  his  morals.  Mrs.  Marion  Ogilvy,  a  daughter 
of  the  predecessor  of  the  Earls  of  Airly,  bore  him  several 
children ;  some  of  whose  descendants,  both  of  the  male  and 
female  line,  are  known  to  be  persons  of  good  note  in  our 
country  at  this  day."  He  was  zealously  attached  to  the 
papal  interest,  and  indeed  it  may  be  said  that  he  was  its  entire 
support  and  its  only  remaining  buttress  in  Scotland.  "  For," 
continues  Bishop  Keith,  "  as  several  of  our  nobility  found  it 
their  temporal  interest  as  much  as  their  spiritual  to  sway  with 
the  new  opinions  as  to  religious  matters,  so  the  cardinal 
found  it  his  interest  to  bear  down  the  same  with  all  his  might. 
For  this  purpose,  he  in  all  his  administration,  both  ecclesias- 
tical and  secular,  treated  the  preachers  and  their  abettors 
with  gi'eat  severity  ;  that  being,  as  he  thought,  the  surest 
method  to  suppress  the  growing  evil.  What  might  have 
proved  to  be  the  issue  of  such  procedure,  had  he  enjoyed  his 
life  for  any  considerable  time,  I  shall  not  pretend  to  judge. 
Only  this  seems  to  be  certain,  that  by  his  death  the  reins  of 
the  government  were  much  loosened  ;  and  some  persons  came 
to  be  considerable  soon  after,  who,  probably,  if  he  had  lived, 
had  never  got  the  opportunity  to  perpetrate  such  villainy 
under  the  cloak  of  religion,  as  it  is  certain  they  did  ;  he  being 
at  least  no  less  a  statesman  than  a  clergyman  ^" 

The  following  character  of  this  distinguished  and  murdered 
prelate,  and  which  carries  the  force  of  truth  along  with  it,  is 
drawn  by  a  cotemporary  writer  2.      His  behaviour  was  so 

1  Keith's  Hist.  45. 

"  Description  of  Scotland,  by  Paulus  Jovius,  cited  in  Lawsou'e  Roman  C  *tho'ic 
Church  in  Scotland,  pp.  152 — 153. 

VOL.  I.  F 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE  [OHAP.  II. 

taking  that  he  never  addicted  himself  to  the  service  of  any 
prince  or  person  but  he  absolutely  gained  their  confidence  ; 
and  this  power  he  had  over  the  minds  of  others  he  managed 
with  so  much  prudence  and  discretion,  that  his  interest  was 
never  weakened  nor  decayed.  He  was  indefatigable  in 
business,  and  yet  managed  it  with  great  ease.  He  understood 
the  interests  of  the  courts  of  Rome,  France,  and  Scotland, 
better  than  any  man  of  his  time,  and  he  was  perfectly  ac- 
quainted with  the  temper,  influence,  and  weight  of  all  the 
nobility  of  his  own  country.  In  time  of  danger  he  she^^'ed 
great  prudence  and  steadiness  of  mind,  and  in  his  highest 
prosj)erity  discovered  nothing  of  vanity  or  giddiness.  He 
was  a  zealous  churchman,  and  thought  severity  the  only 
weapon  Avhich  should  combat  heresy.  He  loved  to  live 
magnificently  though  not  profusely,  for  at  the  time  of  his 
death  he  was  rich,  and  yet  had  provided  plentifully  for  his 
family.  But  his  failings  were  many,  and  his  vices  scandalous. 
His  pride  was  so  great  that  he  quarrelled  with  the  old  Arch- 
bishop of  Glasgow  (Dunbar)  in  his  own  city,  and  pushed  this 
quarrel  so  far  that  their  men  fought  in  the  very  church.  His 
ambition  was  boundless,  for  he  took  into  his  own  hands  the 
entire  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom,  civil  and 
ecclesiastical,  and  treated  the  English  ambassador  as  if  he 
had  been  a  sovereign  prince.  He  made  no  scruple  of  sowing 
discord  among  his  enemies,  that  he  might  reap  security  from 
their  disputes.  His  jealousy  of  the  regent  was  such  that  he 
kept  his  eldest  son  as  a  hostage  in  his  house,  under  pretence 
of  taking  care  of  his  education.  In  point  of  chastity  he  was 
very  deficient ;  for,  though  we  should  set  aside  as  calumnies 
many  of  those  things  which  his  enemies  have  reported  of  his 
intrigues,  yet  the  posterity  he  left  behind  him  plainly  proves 
that  he  violated  those  vows,  to  gratify  his  passions,  which  he 
obliged  others  to  hold  sacred  on  the  penalty  of  their  lives. 
In  a  word,  had  his  probity  been  equal  to  his  parts,  had  his 
virtues  come  up  to  his  abilities,  his  end  had  been  less  fatal, 
and  his  memory  without  blemish.  As  it  is,  we  ought  to  con- 
sider him  as  an  eminent  instance  of  the  brightest  human 
faculties,  and  the  instability  of  what  the  world  calls  fortune." 
It  would  have  been  happy  if  he  had  followed  the  example 
of  his  great  contemporary,  Cranmer,  and,  seeing  the  doctrinal 
errors  and  corruptions  of  his  native  church,  had,  like  him,  be- 
come its  reformer.  But  however  detestable  are  his  cruelty  and 
bigotry,  which  were  not  the  effect  of  his  own  natural  disposition, 
but  arose  entirely  out  of  the  system  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
of  which  he  was  the  chief  minister  in  Scotland,^  it  must  not 


1546.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  35 

be  forgotten,  that  his  murder  was  unjustifiable  and  criminal  in 
the  highest  degree,  inasmuch  as  the  persons  of  those  who 
minister  at  the  altar  in  holy  things  are  sacred  and  inviolable, 
and  those  who  despise  or  offer  violence  to  them  are  guilty  of 
despising  and  insulting  Him  who  sent  them,  our  great  High- 
priest  Jesus  Christ,  whose  stewards   and  ambassadors  they 
are.      Besides,  even   upon  the  false  principle  of  avenging 
Wishart's  death,  there  is  no  law,  human  or  divine,  which  em- 
powers private  parties  and  subjects  to  assume  at  their  own 
hands  the  right  of  executing  justice.      The  divine  right  of 
demanding  blood  for  blood  was  conferred  by  God  on  Noah 
as  the  universal  sovereign,  and  his  sons ;  and  from  them  it 
has  naturally  devolved  on  all  sovereign  princes,  who  have,  in 
consequence,  exercised  this  right  in  all  ages, both  civilized  and 
barbarous,  to  the  entire  exclusion  of  the  people  from  assuming 
the  privilege  of  avenging  their  own  quarrels,  and  which,  in  no 
age  or  country,  has  ever  been  disputed.     But  for  the  sins  of  a 
people  many  are  the  princes  thereof.     The  long  and  numerous 
minorities  of  the  crown  had  permitted  the  nobility  to  become 
independent  princes  ;    and  they   exercised  despotically  the 
powers  of  life  and  death,  or,  as  it  was  termed,  the  power  of  pot 
and  gallows,  over  their  tenants  and  dependents.     They  ^vaged 
fierce  and  bloody  wars  upon  each  other,  and  for  the  slightest 
provocation,  or  from  the  remembrance  of  some  former  or  an- 
cestral feud,  canied  fire  and  sword  through  the  estates  of  their 
enemies.     The  land   was  in  consequence  fearfully  polluted 
with  blood,  both  in  the  way  just  noted  and  by  private  assassi- 
nations, and  which,  as  the  law  could  not,  or  did  not,  reach  the 
guilty  parties,  produced  other  murders  in  retaliation.     Adul- 
tery and  fornication  were  likewise  crimes  of  constant  occur- 
rence, not  only  amongst  the  laity,  but  more  particularly  among 
all  ranks  of  the  clergy.     This  charge,  of  which  the  contempo- 
rary authors  are  replete,  might  be  supposeel  to  have  been 
exaggerated  by  the  enemies  of  the  church ;  but  the  fact  of 
such  multitudes  of  the  illegitimate  children  of  the  clergy 
being  legitimized  by  law,  speaks   trumpet-tongued  against 
the  immorality  and  utter  degeneracy  of  both  the  clergy  and 
the  laity  of  the  period. 


3(J 


CHAPTER  III. 

PRIMACY  OF  ARCHBISHOP  HAMILTON. 

The  conspirators  excommunicated. — John  Hamilton  promoted  to  the  primacy. — 
John  Rough's  preaching  and  martyrdom. — Knox. — Petition  of  the  clergy. — 
Archbishop  Hamilton's  first  acts. — Knox  sent  to  the  galleys. — Winram. — 
Queen  Dowager  made  regent. — Provincial  council  at  Linlithgow — Proceedings. 
— Peace. — Adam  Wallace — Trial  and  burning. — Dispute  whether  or  not  the 
Lord's  prayer  should  be  said  to  the  saints. — Another  provincial  synod — Its  pro- 
ceedings.— Hamilton's  catechism — Opinion  of  it  and  extracts  from  it. — A  third 
provincial  council  at  Linlithgow. — David  Panter  consecrated. — Death  of  Ed- 
ward VI. — Protestants  seek  shelter  in  Scotland.  —  Harley. — Willock. — Knox. 
— Erskine  of  Dunn. — Knox  cited  for  heresy  —  His  preaching — Repairs  to 
Geneva — Burnt  in  effigy. — Progress  of  the  new  doctrines. — Paul  Methuen. — 
John  Douglass. — Bond. — Congregation. — Articles  of  agreement. — Remarks. 
— John  Douglass. — The  primate's  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Argyle — His  answer. — 
Definition  of  heresy. — Walter  Mill — His  trial — burnt  alive. — Declension  of 
the  Roman  Church  in  Scotland. — Synod — Procession  with  St.  Giles. — Subscrip- 
tions.— The  Congregation. — Queen's  marriage. — Death  of  some  bishops, 
and  Mary  Queen  of  England. — A  liturgy. — Reflections. 

1 546.  — The  sacrilegious  murder  of  a  primate  who  was  at  the 
head  of  both  church  and  state  excited  the  utmost  consterna- 
tion among  all  ranks  of  the  clergy ;  and  the  bishops  urged 
the  regent  to  take  summary  vengeance  on  the  atrocious  per- 
petrators. Until  he  could  slowly  accomplish  the  desired 
vengeance,  the  ecclesiastical  judges  solemnly  excommunicated 
and  cursed  the  murderers,  by  bell,  book,  and  candle,  and  all 
the  terrors  of  the  Roman  discipline.  In  the  meantime,  the 
regent  issued  a  proclamation,  or  rather  an  act  of  privy  council, 
on  the  11th  of  June,  "against  invading,  destroying,  or  with- 
holding of  abbeys  ;"  and  which  Bishop  Keith  thinks  was 
probably  done  on  the  petition  of  the  clergy.  The  regent 
summoned  the  conspirators  to  surrender  the  castle ;  but  being 
strongly  fortified,  well  provisioned,  and  ogen  to  the  sea, 
whence  Henry  VIII.  kept  up  a  constant  supply  of  provisions 
and  munitions  of  war,  the  assassins  of  the  primate  refused 
the  summons,  and  held  the  castle  for  some  years,  against  all 
the  force  which  the  regent  could  direct  against  it^ 

Immediately  on  the  murder  of  Cardinal  Beaton  the  le- 
geut  promoted  his  own  illegitimate  brother,  John  Hamilton, 

1  Keith's  Hist.  60—61. 


1547.]  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  37 

abbot  of  Paisley,  and  bishop  elect  of  Dunkeld,  to  the  prinaacy . 
The  chapter  of  St.  Andrews  accordingly  elected  him,  and 
Pope  Paul  III.  prudently  confirmed  the  election,  notwith- 
standing his  illegitimacy,  which  usually  excludes  from  holy 
orders.  The  tottering  state  of  the  supremacy,  which,  in 
point  of  fact,  is  the  real  pivot  on  which  the  whole  papal 
system  turns,  induced  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  pay  this  com- 
pliment to  the  regent  in  order  to  prevent  his  following  the 
example  of  the  King  of  England ;  and  the  whole  estate  of 
the  clergy  voluntarily  taxed  themselves  to  the  amount  of 
i£3000  monthly  for  the  space  of  four  months,  and  afterwards 
continued  the  same  till  the  castle  was  taken  and  raised. 
Without  this  seasonable  supply  the  regent  could  neither  have 
commenced  nor  continued  the  siege  i.  The  cardinal's  sacrile- 
gious murderers  maintained  the  castle  against  the  small  degree 
of  skill  and  the  trifling  artillery  which  could  then  be  brought 
to  bear  against  it;  and  they  were  joined  by  many  of  the  dis- 
contented spirits  of  the  age,  and  assisted  by  the  King  of  Eng- 
land both  with  arms  and  provisions.  They  retained  the  re- 
gent's eldest  son  whom  they  found  there,  and  who  had  been  se- 
cured by  the  cardinal  as  an  hostage  for  his  father's  fidelity,  under 
pretence  of  superintending  his  education.  A  treaty  was  entered 
into  by  which  the  conspirators  agreed  to  render  up  the  castle 
upon  condition  that  the  regent  would  procure  a  free  and  un- 
conditional pardon  from  the  pope  for  the  sacrilege  of  which 
they  had  been  guilty.  The  pardon  was  obtained;  but  it 
was  worded  so  ambiguously,  that  the  faith  which  is  not  to 
be  kept  with  heretics  might  easily  upon  a  favourable  oppor- 
tunity have  been  broken.  The  peculiar  expression  at  which 
they  took  exception  was,  that  the  pope  agreed  to  pardon  an 
unpardonable  crime ;  meaning,  probably,  a  crime  of  an  ex- 
traordinary and  highly  aggravated  nature.  They  refused, 
therefore,  to  open  the  gates ;  and  the  siege  was  continued. 

1547. — Among  those  who  joined  the  rebels  in  the  castle 
was  John  Rough,  a  Dominican  friar,  and  formerly  the  regent's 
chaplain,  who  acted  in  the  same  capacity  for  them  for  some  time ; 
but  being  disgusted  with  the  debauched  and  dissolute  lives  of  his 
new  associates,  he  quitted  the  castle,  and  began  to  preach  in 
the  parish  church  of  the  city  ;  "  and  albeit,"  says  the  author 
of  Knox's  history,  "  he  was  not  the  most  learned,  yet  was  his 
doctrine  without  corruption,  and  therefore  well  liked  of  the 
people  2."  Rough  fled  afterwards  to  England,  and  was  pre- 
sented to  a  living  near  Hull,  by  the  Archbishop  of  York, 

1  Keith's  Hist.  61.  -  Knox's  Hist,  b.  i.  p.  3. 


38  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP,  III. 

which  he  enjoyed  till  the  death  of  Edward  VI,,  when  he  went 
to  Friesland  to  avoid  the  JNIarian  persecution,  and  there 
supported  himself  by  knitting  and  selling  caps  and  hose. 
Venturing,  however,  to  return  to  England,  to  settle  some  pri- 
vate affairs,  he  was  apprehended  and  arraigned  before  Bonner, 
who  questioned  him,  if,  at  any  time  since  his  return  to 
England,  he  had  preached?  He  answered,  "that  he  had 
not  preached,  but  in  some  places  where  godly  people  were 
assembled,  he  had  read  the  prayers  of  the  communion  book, 
set  forth  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI."  And  being  asked 
what  his  judgment  was  of  the  said  book,  he  frankly  owned 
"  that  he  did  approve  the  same,  as  agreeing  in  all  points  with 
the  word  of  GodP  He  was  condemned  and  degraded,  and 
delivered  over  to  the  secular  power,  and  burnt  in  Smithfield, 
21st  November,  1567  i. 

The  author  of  Knox's  history  says,  that  "  at  Easter  after 
anno  1547  came  to  the  castle  of  St.  Andrews  John  Knox  ;" 
and  entered  into  the  garrison  of  his  own  free  will,  which  is 
an  undeniable  attestation  of  his  approbation  of  "  the  godly 
deed,'''  as  he  termed  it,  of  the  cardinal's  murder,  and  who, 
he  said,  ivas  slain  by  the  hand  of  God!  Knox  began  to 
preach  in  the  parish  church,  and  soon  collected  a  congrega- 
tion. Then  "  John  Rough,  preacher,  perceiving  the  manner 
of  his  doctrine,  began  earnestly  to  travel  with  him  that  he 
would  take  the  function  of  preacher  upon  him;  but  he  refused, 
alleging  that  he  would  not  run  where  God  had  not  called  him, 
meaning  that  he  would  do  nothing  without  a  lawful  voca- 
tion."" He  yielded,  however,  nothing  loath,  "  to  avoid  God's 
heavy  displeasure,"  and  the  people  answered  to  the  question 
do  ye  approve  this  vocation  ? — we  approve  it !  2.  "  Which," 
says  Bishop  Keith,  "  w^as  all  the  call  or  lawful  vocation  to 
the  ministry  that  Mr.  Knox  sought  after,  as  himself  informs 
us^."  But  the  late  Dr.  M'Crie  has  set  that  point  at  rest  in 
a  note  to  his  history,  in  which  he  clearly  shews  that  Knox 
was  in  priests'  orders  according  to  the  popish  ordinal,  and  he 
surmises,  on  good  grounds,  that  he  must  have  entered  into 
holy  orders  previous  to  the  year  1530,  when  he  was  in  his 
twenty-fifth  year. 

1548. — In  the  month  of  March,  the  clergy  presented  a  peti- 
tion to  government  stating,  that  "  sundry  parts  of  this  realm, 
which  have  ever  been  Catholic  since  the  beginning  of  the 


'  Spottiswood. 

'  Knox's  Hist.  b.  i.  p.  3. 

2  Keith,  b.  i,  ch  vi.  p.  62. — Life  of  Knox,  p.  8. 


1549.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  39 

faith  to  thir  days,  (are)  now  infected  with  the  pestilentious 
heresies  of  Luther,  his  sect,  and  followers ;"  and  it  concluded 
with  requesting  the  civil  power  to  suppress  the  heresy.  In 
reply,  his  grace  required  the  clergy  to  furnish  him  with  the 
names  of  the  guilty  parties,  on  whom  he  promised  to  execute 
the  laws  of  the  land^.  Archbishop  Hamilton  had  not  yet 
taken  possession  of  his  see  ;  but  he  wrote  to  John  Winram, 
the  sub-prior  and  vicar-general,  and  authorised  him  to  pro- 
hibit all  heretical  disputations.  Winram,  however,  was 
secretly  favourable  to  the  new  doctrines  ;  and,  therefore,  did 
not  take  any  active  steps,  farther  than  to  challenge  Knox  and 
Rough  to  a  public  controversy.  The  castle  having  been  at 
last  taken,  the  garrison,  including  Knox,  were  transported  to 
France.  "  Knox,  with  a  few  others,  was  confined  on  board 
the  galleys ;  and,  in  addition  to  the  rigours  of  ordinary  cap- 
tivity, was  loaded  with  chains,  and  exposed  to  all  the  indig- 
nities with  which  papists  were  accustomed  to  treat  those 
whom  they  regarded  as  heretics  2." 

1549. — The  Queen-mother  accomplished  her  anxious  desire 
of  having  the  Queen,  her  daughter,  sent  to  France  to  be  edu- 
cated, and  eventually  married  to  the  Dauphin,  having  ob- 
tained the  consent  of  Parliament.  She  had  induced  the  Earl 
of  An-an  to  resign  the  regency  in  her  favour ;  and  she  now  so 
far  overcame  her  own  prejudices  as  to  court  the  reformers  as 
a  political  body,  in  order  still  farther  to  accomplish  her  views 
of  procuring  the  crown-matrimonial  for  her  son-in-law.  But 
the  reformers  found  no  favour  with  the  new  archbishop,  who 
took  the  right  way  of  preventing  their  increase,  by  attempting 
to  reform  the  Church  itself  In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  he 
summoned  a  provincial  council  to  meet  at  Linlithgow,  but 
which  he  afterwards  adjourned  to  Edinburgh,  with  the  special 
object  in  view  of  reforming  the  Church,  and  of  extirpating 
heresy.  Happy  had  it  been,  not  only  for  their  own  Church, 
but  for  that  of  the  other  division  of  the  island,  had  they  car- 
ried a  real  reform  into  effect.  Dr.  M'Crie  has  so  well  con- 
densed the  proceedings  of  this  synod  that  I  shall  quote  his 
words : — "  This  council  acknowledged,  that  *  the  corruption 
and  profane  lewdness  of  life,  as  well  as  gross  ignorance 
of  arts  and  sciences,  reigned  among  the  clergy  of  almost 
every  degree,'  and  they  enacted  no  less  than  fifty -eight  canons 
for  coiTccting  these  evils.  They  agreed  to  carry  into  execu- 
tion the  decree  of  the  general  council  of  Basle,  which  ordained, 
that  every  clergyman  who  lived  in  concubinage  should  be 

I  Keith's  Hist.  b.  i.  c.  vi.  p.  62.  "  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  42. 


40  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  III. 

deprived  of  the  revenues  of  his  benefice  for  three  months  ; 
and  that  if,  after  due  admonition,  he  did  not  dismiss  liis  con- 
cubine, or  if  he  took  to  himself  another,  he  should  be  deprived 
of  his  benefices  altogether.  They  exhorted  the  prelates  and 
inferior  clergy  not  to  retain  in  their  own  houses  their  bastard 
children,  nor  suffer  them  to  be  promoted  directly  or  indirectly 
to  their  own  benefices,  nor  to  employ  the  patrimony  of  the 
Church  for  the  purpose  of  marrying  them  to  barons,  or  of 
erecting  baronages  for  them.  That  the  distinction  between 
clergy  and  laity  might  be  visibly  preserved,  they  appointed 
the  ordinaries  to  charge  the  priests  under  their  care  to  desist 
from  the  practice  of  preserving  their  beards,  which  had  begun 
to  prevail,  and  to  see  that  the  canonical  tonsure  was  duly  ob- 
served. To  remedy  the  neglect  of  public  instruction,  which 
was  loudly  complained  of,  they  agreed  to  observe  the  act  of 
the  Council  of  Trent,  which  ordained  that  every  bishop,  '  ac- 
cording to  the  grace  given  to  him,'  should  preach  personally 
four  times  a  year  at  least,  unless  lawfully  hindered ;  and  that 
such  of  them  as  were  unfit  for  this  duty  through  want  of  prac- 
tice should  endeavour  to  qualify  themselves,  and  for  that  end 
should  entertain  in  their  houses  learned  divines  capable  of 
instructing  them :  the  same  injunctions  were  laid  on  rectors. 
They  determined,  that  a  benefice  should  be  set  apart  in  each 
bishopric  and  monastery  for  supporting  a  preacher,  who  might 
supply  the  want  of  teaching  within  their  bounds  :  that,  where 
no  such  benefice  was  set  apart,  pensions  should  be  allotted ; 
and  that,  when  neither  of  these  was  provided,  the  preacher 
should  be  entitled  to  demand  from  the  rector  forty  shillings 
a  year,  provided  he  had  preached  four  times  in  his  parish 
within  that  period.  The  Council  made  a  number  of  other  re- 
gulations concerning  the  dress  and  diet  of  the  clergy — the 
course  of  study  in  cathedral  churches  and  monasteries — union 
of  benefices,  pluralities,  ordinations,  dispensations — and  the 
method  of  process  in  consistorial  courts.  But,  not  trusting 
altogether  to  these  remedies  for  the  cure  of  heresy,  they  far- 
ther ordained  that  the  bishop  of  each  diocese,  and  the  head 
of  each  monastery,  should  appoint  '  inquisitors  of  heretical 
pravity,  men  of  piety,  probity,  learning,  good  fame,  and  great 
circumspection,'  who  should  make  the  most  diligent  search 
after  heresies,  foreign  opinions,  condemned  books,  and  par- 
ticularly profane  songs,  intended  to  defame  the  clergy,  or 
to  detract  from  the  authority  of  the  ecclesiastical  constitu- 
tions^." 

•  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  pp.  100.  101.     Edit.  1840. 


1550.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  41 

1550. — By  these  canons  we  can  observe,  that  although  the 
popular  declamation  certainly  did  exaggerate  the  failings  of  the 
clergy,  yet  the  state  of  morality  must  have  been  at  a  very  low 
ebb  when  it  was  necessary  thus  publicly,  and,  as  it  were,  in 
confirmation  of  the  public  accusation,  to  publish  to  the  world 
their  own  besetting  sins.  Their  chief  sin,  however,  must  be 
laid  at  the  door  of  the  papal  system,  which  has  enchained 
that  Church  to  "  the  doctrine  of  devils,  forbidding  to  marry." 
It  is  impossible  to  conceive  that  the  people  could  be  chaste, 
when  they  saw  their  unmarried  clergy  living  in  open  and  un- 
blushing concubinage,  and  their  bastard  children  promoted 
to  the  highest  offices  in  church  and  state,  to  the  exclusion  of 
those  lawfully  bom.  Hence  it  has  followed,  that  the  imchaste 
vices  have  been  more  universally  practised  in  Scotland,  in  all 
periods  of  her  history,  than  in  any  other  Christian  country  in 
the  world. 

Panter,  bishop  elect  of  Ross,  was  sent  to  Boulogne  to  nego- 
tiate a  peace  between  the  realms  of  Scotland,  England,  and 
France;  and  the  young  Lord  Erskine,  with  Henry  St.  Claire 
dean  of  Glasgow,  were  sent  ambassadors  to  England,  to  sign 
the  treaty.  The  English  and  French  annies  evacuated  Scot- 
land ;  and,  in  May,  the  Queen-dowager  went  to  France,  accom- 
panied by  the  Eai'ls  of  Huntly,  Marischall,  Sutherland,  and 
Cassilis.  The  object  of  her  journey  was  to  procure  the  re- 
gency of  Scotland  ;  and,  to  induce  the  Earl  of  Arran  to  resign, 
she  procured  for  him  the  title  of  Duke  of  Chatelherault,  and 
his  son,  now  Earl  of  Arran,  to  be  captain  of  the  Scots  Guards 
at  Paris.  She  also  induced  the  French  King  to  give  the  re- 
gent the  earldom  of  Moray,  the  eaiidom  of  Kothes  to  Andrew 
Leslie,  who  had  married  the  regent's  kinswoman,  and  the 
earldom  of  Morton  to  George  Douglass.  On  her  return,  the 
Queen-dowager  was  hospitably  entertained  at  the  court  of 
England  by  Edward  VL,  who  earnestly  entreated  her  to  be- 
stow her  daughter  upon  him  in  marriage.  She  no  sooner 
-.  arrived  at  home  than  she  commenced  and  effectually  accom- 
plished the  reconciliation  of  the  nobility  with  each  other  ^. 

1551. — After  the  dissolution  of  this  synod.  Archbishop 
Hamilton  disgraced  his  primacy  by  an  act  of  cruelty  on  a 
poor  old  man,  named  Adam  Wallace,  described  as  "  a  simple 
man  without  great  learning,  but  one  that  was  zealous  in  god- 
liness, and  of  an  upright  life '^.'  This  poor  man,  with  his  wife 
Beatrice  Wallace,  was  a  sort  of  tutor  in  the  family  at  Ormis- 
ton,  where  Wishart  was  taken,  and  where  Knox  frequently 

1  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  p.  298.  =  Knox's  Hist.  b.  i.  p.  125. 

VOL.  I.  G 


42  HISTORY  CF  THE  [cHAP.  III. 

visited.  He  had  imbibed  the  opinions  of  these  men,  and  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  exhorting  and  praying  with  the  members 
of  the  family.  Thinking  to  strike  terror  into  the  Protestants, 
the  primate  arrested  this  obscure  individual,  and  he  was 
brought  to  trial  in  the  Blackfriars  church  in  Edinburgh,  be- 
fore the  Earl  of  Argyle,  who  was  hereditary  justice-general  of 
the  kingdom,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  archbishop.  The 
usual  charges  of  heresy  were  preferred  against  him,  with  the 
addition  of  presuming  to  preach,  though  only  a  layman.  He 
denied  the  charge  of  preaching ;  but  admitted  his  having 
baptized  his  own  child,  and  which  he  attempted  to  justify  ! 
It  was  one  of  the  peculiar  and  unfortunate  features  of  the  re- 
forming leaders  in  Scotland,  that  every  layman  felt  himself 
called  on  and  at  liberty  to  usurp  the  priest's  office ;  but  Wal- 
lace seems  to  have  gone  a  step  farther  than  usual,  by  profaning 
the  sacrament  of  baptism,  as  Wishart  had  profaned  the  other 
sacrament,  by  praying  over  and  distributing  bread  and  wine, 
as  if  such  had  been  the  blessed  eucharist.  To  the  disgrace 
of  the  primate  and  the  lay  judges,  Wallace  was  condemned 
to  the  stake  ;  and,  on  the  following  day,  he  was  burnt  alive 
on  the  Castle  Hill,  wdiere  he  showed  great  fortitude  i. 

A  controversy  arose  this  year  in  the  Church,  which  shows 
the  ignorance  of  the  Scoto-Romish  clergy  and  their  utter 
corruption  and  degradation  both  in  faith  and  manners.  Arch- 
bishop Spottiswood  narrates  the  story  circumstantially,  which 
at  the  time  excited  great  interest  among  the  churchmen,  and 
the  keenest  satire  and  most  bitter  ridicule  among  the  people, 
and  tended  greatly  to  alienate  their  minds  from  the  ancient 
hierarchy.  The  subject  of  dispute  was,  whether  the  Lord's 
prayer  should  be  addressed  to  God  only,  or  to  the  saints  also. 
Some  maintained  that  the  paternoster  was  to  be  said  to  God 
formaliter,  and  to  the  saints  materialiter ;  while  others  main- 
tained that  it  ought  to  be  said  to  God  princtpaliter ,  and  to  the 
saints  minus  principaliter.  One  party  held,  that  it  ought  to 
be  said  to  God  ultimate  and  non  ultimate;  owoihex,  primarib 
and  secundarib;  but  the  majority  determined,  that  the  pater- 
noster should  be  said  to  God  capiendo  stricte,  and  to  the  saints 
capiendo  large  This  opinion  not  being  unanimously  adopted, 
it  was  at  length  agreed  to  refer  the  matter  to  a  provincial  synod 
which  was  to  meet  at  Edinburgh  in  January  next  year. 

Tlie  sub-prior  of  St.  Andrews  being  asked  by  his  servant, 
what  the  frequent  meetings  and  conferences  of  the  clergy 
meant  ?  replied,  "  Tom,  we  cannot  agree  to  whom  the  pater- 

»  Knox's  Hist.  b.  i.  125. 


1552.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  43 

noster  should  be  said."  "  Sir,"  says  Tom,  "  to  whom  should 
it  be  said,  but  to  God  ?"  "But,"  said  the  sub-prior,  "  what  shall 
we  do  with  the  saints,  man  ?"  "  Give  them  aves  and  credos 
enow,  in  the  devil's  name  !"  says  Tom,  "  for  that  may  suffice 
them."  The  world  was  generally  of  opinion,  that  Tom  gave 
a  wiser  decision  than  the  doctors  had  done^ 

1552. — A  provincial  synod  was  held,  on  the  26th  January, 
in  the  Blackfriars  church,  Edinburgh,  over  which  Archbishop 
Hamilton  presided,  and  "  in  which  was  agitated  the  merry  story 
concerning  the  paternoster  2,"  This  council  decided  the  ques- 
tion which  arose  at  St.  Andrews  respecting  the  paternoster, 
that  it  ought  to  be  addressed  to  God,  but  in  such  a  manner  as 
that  the  saints  ought  also  to  be  invoked!  and  the  sub-prior  was 
instructed  to  announce  this  decision  officially  to  the  members 
of  the  university.  It  was  announced  to  the  council,  that,  by 
the  vigilant  activity  of  the  bishops  and  clergy,  heresy  was 
almost  entirely  suppressed  and  extirpated.  The  canons  made 
in  the  year  1549  were  approved  and  confirmed,  and  some 
others  were  added,  for  the  enforcement  of  discipline,  and  the 
reformation  of  abuses  among  the  clergy  themselves.  The  re- 
gulations which  were  agreed  on  were  conceived  in  an  excel- 
lent spirit,  had  they  been  can-ied  into  practice  :  but  the  im- 
moralities and  vices  of  all  ranks  of  the  clergy  were  such  that 
no  reformation  resulted  from  these  canons.  Their  general 
ignorance  of  their  sacred  functions  was  so  great,  that  the  ma- 
jority of  them  were  declared  to  be  incapable  of  instructing 
their  parishioners  in  the  articles  of  the  catholic  faith.  It  is 
not  therefore  surprising  that,  under  such  blind  and  immoral 
guides,  the  people  were  also,  in  the  last  degree,  immoral,  and 
ignorant  of  their  duties. 

The  sixteenth  canon  of  this  Council  authorised  the  publi- 
cation of  a  catechism  in  the  mother  tongue,  containing  an 
explanation  of  the  Commandments,  the  Belief,  and  the  Lord's 
Prayer  ;  and  the  curates  were  enjoined  to  read  a  part  thereof 
every  Sunday  and  holiday  to  the  people  when  there  was  no 
sermon,  and  until  fit  preachers  should  be  provided  by  the 
bishops.  This  catechism  consists  of  410  pages,  small  4to.  and 
was  printed  in  black  letter.  It  was  published  at  St.  Andrews 
on  the  29th  of  August,  1552,  by  command  of  the  Council, 
and  at  the  archbishop's  expense,  whose  composition  it  is 
generally  understood  to  have  been.  The  preface,  says  Bishop 
Keith,  "  bears  his  name,  and  is  directed  principally  to  all 
the  clergy,  who  are  appointed  to  read  it  in  place  of  sermon, 

»  Spottis.  pp.  91,  92.  2  Keith,  p.  63. 


44  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  III. 

if  there  be  none  at  the  time.  It  is  a  judicious  commentary 
upon  the  Commands,  Belief,  Lord's  Prayer,  Magnificat,  and 
the  Ave  Maria ;  and  the  author  shows  both  his  wisdom  and 
moderation  in  handsomely  eviting  to  enter  upon  the  contro- 
verted points.  In  a  word,  no  divine  at  this  day  need  be  ashamed 
of  such  a  work.  Therefore,  since  it  was  commonly  sold  for  two- 
pence, and  called,  in  derision,  the  twopenny  faith I  rea- 
dily assent  to  Dr,  M^Kenzie,  who  thinks  that  Archbishop 
Hamilton,  having  been  at  the  charge  of  the  printing,  allowed 
the  pedlars  to  take  only  twopence  Scots  for  each  copy  of  it 
from  the  people,  as  a  fee  for  their  pains  in  distributing  it.  It 
appears,  that  whoever  slighted  this  book  have  been  resolved 
to  slight  every  thing  that  came  from  such  a  hand ;  and  this 
composure,  though  there  were  none  else,  shews  that  all  the 
clergy  in  those  days  have  not  been  such  dunces  as  some 
people  would  make  us  apprehend.^"  Dr.  M'Crie,  in  a  note 
to  his  Life  of  Knox,  decidedly  opposes  the  above  opinion, 
and  says,  "  At  the  same  time,  while  the  opinions  peculiar  to 
Popery  are  stated  and  defended,  there  is  an  evident  design  of 
turning  away  the  attention  of  the  people  from  these  contro- 
versies, by  reminding  them  of  their  duty  '  to  belief  as  the 
holy  catholic  kirk  beleifis ;'  and  a  great  part  of  the  book  is 
occupied  in  declaring  duties  and  general  doctrines  about 
which  there  was  no  dispute  between  Papists  and  Pro- 
testants." 

In  this  catechism  two  lessons  are  especially  recommended 
to  be  learnt  by  the  faithful;  in  copying  which  I  shall  for 
convenience  adopt  the  modern  spelling.  The  one  is,  "  Wliat- 
soever  the  Holy  Spirit  reveals  and  shews  to  us,  other  (than) 
in  the  book  of  Holy  Scripture,  or  in  the  determinations  and 
definitions  of  general  councils,  lawfully  gathered  for  the  cor- 
roboration and  maintenance  of  our  faith,  we  should  believe 
the  same  to  be  {the)  true  word  of  God,  and  thereto  give  firm 
credence,  as  to  the  verity  that  is  infallible."  The  second 
lesson,  "  Ye  that  are  simple  and  unlearned  men  and  women 
should  expressly  believe  all  the  articles  of  your  creed,  as  for 
all  other  high  mysteries  and  matters  of  the  Scripture,  ye 
ought  to  believe  generally  as  the  kirk  of  God  believes.  And 
this  faith  is  sufficient  to  you  for  the  perfection  of  that  faith 
which  ye  are  bound  to  have." 

Upon  the  subject  of  images,  the  author  of  the  Catechism 
proceeds  : — "  Are  images  against  the  first  command  ?  No, 
so    they  be  well    used.     What  is   the  right  use  of  images  ? 

•  Keith,  b.  i.  c.  6,  p.  fi3,  uote. 


1552.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  45 

Images  to  be  made,  no  lioly  writ  forbids  (says  venerable  Bede), 
for  the  sight  of  them,  specially  of  the  crucifix,  gives  great 
compmiction  to  them  which  behold  it  with  faith  in  Christ, 
and  to  them  that  are  unlettered ;  it  gives  a  quick  remembrance 
of  the  Passion  of  Christ.      Solomon,  in  time  of  his  wisdom, 
(not  without  the  inspiration  of  God,)   made  images  in  the 
temple.     Moses,  the  excellent  prophet  and  true  servant  of 
God,  made  and  erected  a  brazen   image  of  a  serpent  (which 
figured  the  lifting  up  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  upon  the 
cross),  and  also  by  the  command  of  God,  caused  to  be  made 
the  images  of  two  angels  (called  Cherubim),   which  thing 
thir  two   so  excellent  men  in  wisdom  would  never  have  done, 
if  the  making  of  images  were  against  the  command  of  God. 
But  utterly  this  command  forbids  to  make  images  to  that 
effect,  that  they  should  be  adored  and  worshipped  as  gods, 
or  with  any  godly  honour,  the  which  sentence  is  expremit  by 
thir  words :  '  non  adorabis  ea  neq.  coles.'     Thou  shalt  not 
adore  them  nor  worship  them  as  gods.     Now  we  should  not 
give  God's  honour  or  Christ's  honour  to  any  image,  but  to 
God  allenarly  represented  by  an  image  ^." 

Another  provincial  council  assembled  this  same  year  at 
Linlithgow,  in  which  the  decrees  and  canons  of  the  Council 
of  Trent,  which  gave  a  new  face  to  the  Romish  church,  were 
received  as  binding  on  the  church  in  Scotland  in  commu- 
nion w'ith  the  see  of  Rome.  All  who  maintained  doctrines 
at  variance  with  those  promulgated  from  Trent  were  de- 
nounced as  heretics,  and  formally  accursed.  Some  acts  were 
also  made  for  reforming  the  corrupt  and  immoral  lives  of  the 
clergy, "  but  little  or  no  execution  followed  2."  But  so  many 
canons  of  councils,  and  the  necessity  for  the  convention  of 
so  many  synods,  show  clearly  that  the  morals  of  the  papal 
clergy  of  Scotland  were  at  the  lowest  possible  ebb,  and  that 
the  reiterated  accusations  of  their  opponents  were  founded  on 
notorious  and  incontrovertible  facts.  If  none  but  the  pure 
in  heart  shall  see  God,  how  is  it  possible  that  a  church  whose 
priesthood  was  defiled  with  such  an  universal  leprosy  of  im- 
purity, should  escape  that  cutting  off  which  God  denounced 
against  the  church  in  the  city  of  Rome,  if  it  continued  not  in 
His  goodness,  nor  stood  by  faith^  ?  At  this  synod  David 
Panter,  the  i-egent's  secretary,  was  consecrated  bishop  of 
Ross*. 


^  Fo.  xiiii.,  b.  xv.  to  fo.  sxiii.  6  ;  cited  in    note  to  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox, 
418,  419.  '  Keith;  b.  i.  cap.  vi.  63. 

3  Rom.  xi.  20-25.  "  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  299. 


46  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  HI. 

1553. — The  following  year  produced  a  great  change  hi  the 
situation  of  both  kingdoms.  Edward  VI.,  a  prince  of  great 
merit  and  piety,  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  elder  sister 
Mary,  emphatically  called  the  Bloody,  one  wholly  devoted  to 
the  Pope  and  his  interest.  Edward  had  espoused  the  Protes- 
tant interest  in  Scotland,  and  the  protector,  Somerset,  renewed 
the  demands  of  Henry  for  the  matrimonial  alliance.  The 
papal  or  French  party  had  now  the  dominant  influence,  how- 
ever, and  encouraged  the  regent  to  I'eject  the  proposals ;  in 
consequence,  Somerset  marched  a  powerful  army  into  the 
bowels  of  the  land.  But  before  offering  battle,  he  wrote  to 
the  regent  in  the  most  conciliatory  style,  desiring  him  "  to 
consider  this,  especially  that  seeing  there  was  a  necessity  of 
giving  their  young  queen  in  marriage  to  some  one,  if  they  did 
either  respect  their  profit  or  honour,  they  could  not  make  a 
better  choice  than  of  a  king,  their  neighbour,  born  in  the 
same  isle,  joined  in  propinquity  of  blood,  instructed  in  the 
same  laws,  educated  in  the  same  manners  and  language,  su- 
perior in  riches,  and  in  all  external  commodities  and  orna- 
ments ;  and  such  a  one  as  would  bring  him  a  perpetual  peace, 
together  with  the  oblivion  of  ancient  grudges  and  hatreds." 
The  regent  was  weak  and  wicked  enough  to  suffer  himself  to 
be  persuaded  by  his  brother  the  archbishop  to  suppress  this 
letter.  He  also  induced  him  to  circulate  a  report,  that 
Somerset  had  invaded  the  kingdom  for  the  pui-pose  of  carry- 
ing off"  the  queen  by  force,  and  of  subjecting  it  entirely  to 
the  crown  of  England  ;  which  the  nobility  readily  believing, 
were  so  incensed  as  to  determine  on  fighting,  but  were  routed 
with  great  slaughter  in  the  fatal  battle  of  Pinkie.  In  the 
next  convention  of  the  estates,  the  Roman  Catholic  party 
were  vehement  in  their  advice  for  sending  the  queen  to 
France,  but  Buchanan  says,  "  that  those  who  were  on  the  side 
of  the  reformation,  and  ivho  were  of  the  same  religion  with 
England,  were  zealous  for  the  English  alliance  ^." 

On  the  accession  of  Mary  to  the  crown  of  England,  and 
the  advancement  of  the  queen  dowager  to  the  regency  of 
Scotland,  a  heavy  cloud  hung  over  both  kingdoms,  which 
threatened  the  Protestant  religion  with  utter  extirpation. 
Mary  of  Lorraine,  the  queen  dowager,  had  sufficient  address 
to  induce  the  weak  regent  to  resign  the  cares  of  office  into 
her  more  powerful  and  politic  hands ;  and,  giving  herself  en- 
tirely up  to  the  guidance  of  her  brothers,  the  duke  of  Guise 
and  the  cardinal  of  Lorraine,  she  determined  to  sustain  the  fall- 

1  Spottiswood  and  Buchanan's  History. 


1555.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  47 

ing  fortunes  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  using  less  cruelty  indeed, 
but  more  address,  than  Mary  of  England.  The  hopes  of 
those  who  wished  for  a  refonnation  were  now  quite 
blighted;  yet  the  Lord,  by  his  providence,  did  otherwise  dis- 
pose things,  and  made  that  the  means  of  advancing  religion 
in  Scotland,  which  men  thought  would  have  utterly  extin- 
guished it. 

1554. — Many  of  those  who  had  fled  for  protection  into  Eng- 
land from  the  severity  of  the  Scoto-popish  church,  nowreturned 
to  seek  shelter  from  the  fiercer  persecution  there  under  Queen 
Mary.  Among  these  was  William  Harlow,  or  more  properly 
Harley,  who  had  been  formerly  a  tailor  in  the  Canongate  of 
Edinburgh,  M'Crie  asserts,  on  the  apocryphal  authority  of 
Calderwood's  MSS.,  that  he  had  been  admitted,  while  in 
England,  to  the  order  of  Deacons ;  and  Keith  mentions  him 
as  a  minister  of  St.  Cuthbert's,  a  suburban  parish  of  Edin- 
burgh. Mr.  Lawson  says,  generally  "  it  is  said  he  was  ad- 
mitted into  holy  orders,  and  we  are  informed  by  Strype  that  he 
was  one  of  the  six  chaplains  appointed  by  Edward  VI."  ^ 
Harley  returned  at  this  time,  and  preached  to  those  who 
favoured  the  new  opinions.  He  was  followed  soon  after  by 
John  Willock,  who  had  formerly  been  a  Franciscan  friar  in 
the  town  of  Ayr,  and  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  he  was  a  regu- 
larly ordained  jmest.  He  had  formerly  taken  shelter  in  Eng- 
land, but  upon  the  accession  of  Mary  he  went  to  Friesland, 
where  he  practised  medicine ;  whence  he  was  sent,  by  the 
Countess  of  Friesland,  on  some  mission  to  the  queen  regent. 
He  returned  to  the  continent,  and  came  again  upon  a  second 
mission,  when  he  remained,  "  and  preached  to  as  many  as 
resorted  to  him,  who,  it  is  said,  were  neither  few  nor  of  the 
meaner  sort."  Change  of  scene  and  society,  and  association 
with  the  virtuous  and  moral  clergy  on  the  south  Bank  of  the 
Tweed,  had  enlarged  the  minds  and  improved  the  dispositions 
of  these  men,  and  given  them  a  distaste  to  the  immoral  con- 
duct of  the  Scoto-popish  priesthood. 

1555. — John  Knox  was  taken  with  the  rebels  in  the  castle 
of  St.  Andrews,  and  sent  prisoner  into  France,  where  he  was 
committed  to  the  gallies,  and  worked  in  chains  at  the  oar. 
He  was,  however,  liberated,  and  returned  to  England,  where 
he  remained  till  the  death  of  Edward  VI.,  when  he  went  to 
Geneva,  from  that  to  Franckfort,  and  then  back  again  to 
Geneva  ;  and  in  the  end  of  harvest  he  returned  to  Scotland  : 

1  Life  of  Knox,  104.— Keith,   b.  iii.  c.  1.  p.  498.— Roman  Cath.  Ch.   in 
Scotland,  181. 


48  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  III. 

to  whom,  says  Bishop  Keith,  "  many  of  good  note  repaired, 
and  heard  his  discourses ;  in  which  he  chiefly  insisted  on  the 
unlawfuhiess  of  being  present  at  the  mass,  which  he  said  was 
an  idolatrous  worship."  He  lodged  with  James  Syme,  where 
those  favourable  to  the  reformation  assembled  to  hear  his  dis- 
courses ;  among  whom  was  the  excellent  John  Erskine  of 
Dun,  afterwards  one  of  Knox's  superintendents  or  bishops. 
He  was  a  distinguished  patron  of  literature,  "  and  whose 
great  respectability  of  character,  and  approved  loyalty  and 
patriotisixi,  had  preserved  him  from  the  resentment  of  the 
clergy  and  the  jealousy  of  the  government,  during  successive 
periods  of  persecution  ^"  Knox  gave  the  first  grand  impulse 
to  the  minds  of  his  countrymen,  by  his  vehement  declama- 
tions against  the  idolatrous  nature  of  the  papal  worship  ;  and 
soon  brought  the  vengeance  of  that  vindictive  priesthood  upon 
himself.  Up  to  the  period  at  which  we  have  now  arrived 
there  had  been  no  formal  separation  from  the  established  papal 
church.  Those  who  had  embraced  the  reformed  doctrines 
still  continued  to  join  in  the  popish  worship,  and  even  to  "  assist 
at  mass,"  as  they  term  it.  But  Knox's  vehement  objurgations 
against  the  idolatry  of  the  mass  effectually  convinced  his 
hearers  of  the  sin  of  appearing  to  say  God  speed  to  the  crime 
of  idolatry,  which  is  most  fiercely  denounced  throughout  all 
scripture.  "  Thus,"  says  Dr.  M'Crie,  "  was  a  formal  sepa- 
ration made  from  the  popish  church  in  Scotland,  which  may 
be  justly  regarded  as  an  important  step  in  the  reformation  2." 

in  the  month  of  June  a  parliament  met,  and,  among  other 
acts,  one  was  passed  prohibiting  the  eating  of  flesli  in  Lent 
without  a  license^  ;  which  shews  that  the  Roman  church  was 
still  powerful,  and  that  it  included  the  aristocracy  within  its  pale. 

J556.— "  Knox  succeeded  so  well,"  says  Keith,  "  in  these 
his  exhortations,  that  a  gi'eat  many  persons  withdrew  from 
the  churches,  and  began  to  make  an  open  separation*."  This 
was  soon  conspicuous  to  the  clergy,  who  preferred  a  complaint 
to  the  archbishop,  and  he  represented  the  dangerous  position 
of  the  church  to  the  regent.  At  that  time  her  majesty  was 
particularly  intent  on  securing  the  crown-matrimonial  for  the 
dauphin,  and  had  no  desire  to  comprornise  herself  with  the 
reformers,  with  whom  she  enjoyed  great  popularity.  She 
therefore  threw  the  odium  of  prosecuting  Knox  and  his  fol- 
lowers on  the  clergy,  and  sagaciously  advised  them  to  proceed 
against  him  on  their  own  authority.     Knox  was  summoned, 

J  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  lOG.  "  Life  of  Knox,  p.  108. 

■■'  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  304.  ■»  History,  b.  i.  c.  6,  p.  64. 


155G.]  CHUKCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  49 

accordingly,  to  answer  to  a  charge  of  heresy  on  the  15th  of 
May,  in  the  Blackfriars  church ;  but,  in  consequence  of  a 
number  of  barons  and  gentlemen,  with  their  retainers,  assem- 
bling at  Edinburgh,  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  and  support- 
ing him  at  his  trial,  and  possibly  with  the  view  of  overawing 
his  judges,  or,  at  all  events,  of  rescuing  him  in  case  of  his  con- 
demnation, the  clergy  pretended  an  informality  in  the  indict- 
ment, and  postponed  the  trial  sine  die.  After  this,  his  preach- 
ing became  more  public  and  bold,  and  more  frequented  by  all 
sorts  of  people,  than  before  ;  and  that  same  day  he  preached  to 
a  more  crowded  audience  in  the  house  of  the  bishop  of  Dunkeld 
than  to  any  he  had  hitherto  addressed.  Many  of  the  nobility 
began  to  resort  to  his  sermons,  which  the  author  of  the  history 
that  goes  under  his  name  says,  so  pleased  the  earls  of  Glen- 
cairn  and  Marischal,  "  that  they  both  willed  the  said  John 
to  write  unto  the  queen  regent  somewhat  that  might  move  her 
to  hear  the  word  of  God."  The  Earl  of  Glencairn  presented 
Knox's  letter  to  her  majesty,  who  handed  it  to  James  Beaton, 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  saying,  with  a  sneer,  "  Please  5'ou,  my 
lord,  to  read  a  pasquil."  It  is  needless  to  add,  that  Knox's 
letter  made  no  impression  on  the  regent,  but  was  treated  with 
contempt  ^ 

After  his  escape  from  the  snares  of  his  enemies,  Knox 
spent  a  month  at  the  house  of  Dun,  near  Montrose,  where  he 
preached  daily ;  afterwards,  he  spent  a  short  time  at  Calder, 
under  the  protection  of  Mr.  Sandilands  ;  from  thence  he  went 
into  Aryshire.  At  each  of  these  places  multitudes  of  all 
ranks  resorted  to  him,  and  whose  minds  he  inflamed  against  the 
idolatry  of  the  mass.  In  his  history,  it  is  said  he  adminis- 
tered repeatedly  the  Lord's  Supper,  but  by  what  ritual,  or  in 
what  manner,  we  are  not  informed.  He  received  an  earnest 
solicitation  from  the  English  congregation  at  Geneva  to  repair 
to  that  city  to  be  their  pastor ;  and  he  departed  accordingly 
in  the  month  of  July.  From  his  desertion  of  his  post  at  this  cri- 
tical period  it  must  be  concluded  that  either  his  prospects  of 
success  at  home  were  not  very  flattering,  or  else  that  he  was 
actuated  more  by  the  love  of  change  and  of  vain  glory  than 
by  any  patriotic  desire  to  reform  and  purify  his  native  church. 
Immediately  after  his  departure,  he  was  again  cited  to  apj^ear 
and  answer  to  the  charge  of  heretical  pravity  which  had  been 
before  preferred  against  him.  The  court  met  witli  the  usual 
formalities,  but  on  his  failing  to  appear,  he  was  condemned  in 
absence  as  a  heretic,  and  burnt  in  effigy  at  the  Cross.  As  soon 

'■  Spottiswood.— Knox. — Keith. 
VOL,  r.  H 


60  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  III. 

as  Knox  heard  of  this  vicarious  martyrdom,  he  published  a 
spirited  appeal  to  the  people,  and  a  defence  of  his  tenets  ^ 

The  queen  regent  made  a  progress  through  the  kingdom, 
and  held  justice  courts  :  while  at  Inverness,  a  curious  speci- 
men of  the  ideas  of  justice  then  prevalent  is  mentioned  with 
great  simplicity  by  Balfour  : — "  The  Laird  of  Grant  brings  in 
the  heads  of  some  of  his  kindred,  whom  he  could  not  bring 
in  alive,  and  presents  them  to  justice.  She  fined  the  Earl  of 
Caithness  in  a  good  round  sum  of  money,  because  he  had  not 
presented  some  of  his  friends  and  followers  to  justice,"  per- 
haps in  the  same  way  as  the  Laird  of  Grant  did,  by  presenting 
their  heads  !  ^. 

1557. — About  this  time,  many  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
clergy,  both  regular  and  secular,  began  to  renounce  the 
Roman  communion,  and  to  join  themselves  to  the  friends  of  the 
reformation  ;  and  those  of  the  Roman  clergy  who  were  firm 
in  their  allegiance  to  the  see  of  Rome  were  fast  becoming 
isolated,  holding  their  livings  and  benefices  with  almost  empty 
churches  ;  but  the  countenance  of  the  regent,  and  the  pro- 
mise of  support  from  the  court  of  France,  made  them  in- 
flexible in  their  attachment  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Church  of 
Rome.  The  new  doctrines  now  made  considerable  progi-ess, 
not  only  in  Edinburgh  and  Leith,  under  the  ministry  of 
Willocks  and  Harley,  but  in  many  other  parts  of  the  country. 
It  is  an  evil  which  attached  to  the  Scottish  reformation  that  the 
preachers  were  chiefly  laymen,  and  who  were  without  edu- 
cation or  station  in  society  so  as  to  command  respect.  Paul 
Methuen  was  a  baker  in  Dundee,  and  an  uneducated  layman, 
who  began,  without  ordination  or  authority  of  any  sort,  to 
preach  and  administer  pretended  sacraments ;  and  other  un- 
authorised persons  began  also  to  preach  in  the  county  of 
Angus.  Mr.  John  Douglass,  a  Carmelite  friar,  and  perhaps 
a  priest,  was  received  into  the  family  of  the  Earl  of  Argyle 
as  his  domestic  chaplain,  and  declaimed  openly  at  court 
against  the  superstition  and  immorality  of  the  papal  clergy. 
"  And,"  says  Bishop  Keith,  "  it  was  observable  that  from  that 
time  forward  the  estimation  of  the  clergy  daily  diminished ; 
and  even  divers  of  that  order,  both  secular  and  regular,  but 
especially  of  the  latter  sort,  began  publicly  to  espouse  the 
party  of  the  reformation,  and  to  declaim  against  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  Church  of  Rome."  These  reformed  clergy,  with 
tlie  lay  intruders,  now  gathered  regular  congregations  in  the 

>  Spottiswood's  Hist.  94.— Knox's  Kist.— Keith.— M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox. 

-  Annals,  i.  p.  306. 


1557.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  61 

houses  of  those  who  were  friendly  to  the  cause ;  and  the 
bishops  became  alarmed  at  this  increasing  defalcation  from 
their  authority.  They  advised  the  queen  regent  to  summon 
the  reformed  clergy  and  preachers  before  the  privy  council, 
and  "  arraign  them  for  raising  of  mutinies  and  convening 
together  the  lieges  without  authority."  But  success  had  em- 
boldened the  people,  and  they  collected  in  such  numbers  and 
in  such  a  menacing  attitude,  as  deterred  the  queen  and  coun- 
cil from  attempting  the  intended  arraignment ;  she  therefore 
dismissed  them  with  a  courteous  assurance  that  she  meant  no 
harm  to  their  preachers  ^ 

A  considerable  secession  had  taken  place  at  this  time  from 
the  established  church ;  and  the  reformers  were  joined  by 
many  men  of  rank  and  influence,  who  urged  forward  and  pro- 
tected the  preachers.  They  now  felt  themselves  in  a  position 
to  invite  Knox  to  return  from  Geneva,  and  accordingly  a 
letter  was  written  to  him  signed  by  Glencairne,  Lorn,  Ers- 
kine  of  Dun,  and  the  Lord  James  Stuart,  afterwards  the 
Regent  Moray.  They  however  revoked  their  call  some  little 
time  afterwards,  and  he  was  obliged  to  return  from  Diej^pe 
and  sojourn  among  the  French  protestants  for  some  time. 
He  wrote  from  Dieppe  upon  the  27th  of  October,  and  re- 
proached his  correspondents  for  their  pusillanimity,  and  ex- 
horted them  to  persevere  in  their  hostility  to  the  papal  church ; 
and  in  almost  direct  terms  advocated  rebellion  against  the 
sovereign.  His  letter  gave  an  immense  impulse  to  the  in- 
flammable mass  of  the  people,  and  to  the  crafty  nobility,  who 
were  on  the  watch  to  "  make  the  church  desolate  and  naked, 
and  to  eat  her  flesh  and  to  burn  her  with  fire  ^  ;"  that  is,  to  seize 
and  appropriate  all  the  church  and  monastic  lands,  which 
amounted  to  nearly  one-half  of  the  land  in  the  kingdom.  The 
leaders  of  the  movement  now  resolved  to  prosecute  measures 
for  the  overthrow  of  the  ancient  church,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  new  Congregation  2.  As  a  sort  of  assurance  the 
following  bond  was  drawn  up  and  signed  by  the  principal 
noblemen  and  gentlemen  engaged  in  the  reformation  ;  and  in 
which  the  Church  of  Rome  is  called  "  the  Congregation  of 
Satan,""  in  contradistinction  to  the  seceders,  who  are  desig- 
nated "the  Congregation  of  Christ.''' 

"  We,  perceiving  how  Satan  in  his  members,  the  anti-christs 
of  our  time,  do  rage,  seeking  to  overthrow  and  to  destroy  the 

1  Keith,  b.  i.  c.  6.  p.  65.— Knox.  2  Rgy,  xvii.   16. 

-  This  word  is  synonymous  with  church,  and  was  so  meant  in  the  language  of 
the  times.  Vide  the  19th  of  the  thirty-nine  articles  of  the  Church  of  England, 
where  the  word  is  used  in  that  and  in  no  other  sense. 


52  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  III. 

gospel  of  Christ  and  his  congregation,  ought,  according  to 
our  bounden  duty,  to  strive  in  our  master's  cause  even  unto 
the  death,  being  certain  of  the  victory  in  him.  The  which, 
our  duty  being  well  considered,  we  do  promise  before  the 
ma-jesty  of  God,  and  his  congregation,  that  we  (by  his  grace) 
shall  with  all  diligence  continually  apply  our  whole  power, 
substance,  and  our  very  lives,  to  maintain,  set  forward,  and 
establish  the  most  blessed  word  of  God  and  His  congregation ; 
and  shall  labour  at  our  possibility  to  have  faithful  ministers, 
truly  and  purely  to  minister  Christ's  gospel  and  sacraments  to 
his  people :  we  shall  maintain  them,  nourish  them,  and  de- 
fend them,  the  whole  congregation  of  Christ  and  every  mem- 
ber thereof,  at  our  whole  powers  and  waging  of  our  lives 
against  Satan  and  all  wicked  power  that  doth  intend  tyranny 
or  trouble  against  the  aforesaid  congregation.  Unto  the 
which  holy  word  and  congregation  we  do  join  us ;  and  so 
do  forsake  and  renounce  the  congregation  of  Satan,  with  all 
the  superstitious  abominations  and  idolatry  thereof;  and 
moreover  shall  declare  ourselves  manifestly  enemies  thereto 
by  this  our  fiaithful  promise  before  God,  testified  to  his  con- 
gregation by  our  subscriptions  at  these  presents.  At  Edin- 
burgh, the  3d  day  of  December,  1557  years.  God  called  to 
witness.  A.  Earl  of  Argyle,  Glencairne,  Morton,  Archibald 
lord  of  Lome,  John  Erskine  of  Dun,  &c.  i" 

As  the  political  association  or  congregation  was  originally 

a  church  militant  in  the  physical  meaning  of  the  words,  and 

founded  in  sacrilege  and  plunder,  so  those  who  were  the  most 

zealous  reformers  took  up  arms  to  oppose  the  sovereign,  and 

were  the  most  extensive  devourers  of  the  church's  property. 

With  the  ulterior  design  of  securing  the  property  of  the  church, 

the  nobility  entered  zealously  into  the  views  of  those  who 

desired  only  a  moral  and  doctrinal  refonnation.    Immediately, 

therefore,  after  the  subscription  of  the  abovebond, "  the  Lords 

OF  THE  CONGREGATION,"  as  they  Were  now  called,  whose  eyes 

rested  solely  on  the  property,  and  the  clergy  and  others  who 

having  come  out  o/the  spiritual  Sodom  sincerely  desired  the 

reformation  but  not  the  destruction  of  the  church,  met  and 

agreed  upon  the  following  articles,  or  heads  of  reformation : — 

L  It  is  thought  expedient,  advised  and  ordained,  that  in 

all  parishes  of  this  realm,  the  Common  Prayer  be  read 

weekly  on  Sundays  and  other  festival  days,  publicly  in 

the  parish  churches  with  the  lessons  of  the  Old  and 

New  Testament,  conformably  to  the  Book  of  Common 

1  KeiUi,  b.  i.  c.  6.  p.  66.— Knox,  p.  134,  135. 


1557.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  53 

Prayer.    And,  if  tlie  (papal)  curates  of  the  parishes  be 
qualified,  to  cause  them  to  read  the  same;  and  if  they 
be  not,  or  if  they  refuse,  that  the  most  qualified  in  the 
parish  use  and  read  the  same. 
II.  It  is  thought  necessary  that  doctrine,  preaching,  and 
interpretation    of  Scriptures,  be  had    and    used  pri- 
vately in  quiet  houses,  without  great  conventions  of 
the  people  thereto,  while  afterward  that  God  move  the 
prince  to  grant  public  preaching  by  faithful  and  true 
ministers^. 
These  men,  who  were  so  anxious  to  enforce  the  reading  of  the 
scripture,  seem  to  have  read  it  to  little  efiect  themselves ;  for  here 
is  a  direct  contravention  of  the  apostolic  command,  to  obey  the 
powers  that  be — to  submit  to  every  ordinance  of  man  for  the 
Lord's  sake — to  honour  the  king.     Here  was  an  assumption 
of  the  sovereign  power  in  issuing  a  command  to  all    the 
realm ;  and  of  the  archiepiscopal,  in  ordaining  matters  purely 
spiritual,  not  only  without  the  sanction  of  the  powers  of  the 
church  and  state,  but  in  direct  defiance  of  their  united  autho- 
rity. This  spirit  of  disobedience  has  ever  subsisted  in  Scotland 
from  that  time  to  the  present  hour,  in  every  different  phase 
of  its  ecclesiastical  constitution  ;  and  which  arose  partly  from 
the  democratical  nature  and  origin  of  the  reformation,  and  the 
mixtureof  the  lay  elements  in  it;  the  last  of  which  was  prompted 
by  the  root  of  all  evil — covetousness,  and  by  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  papal  bishops  to  those  salutary  reforms  which  they 
themselves  confessed  to  be  absolutely  necessary. 

The  above  ordonnance  was  readily  obeyed  in  all  those  dis- 
tricts where  the  congregational  lords  had  patriarchal  authority ; 
and  in  pursuance  of  it  the  Earl  of  Argyle  made  Mr.  Douglass 
preach  publicly  in  his  house.  The  clergy  were  indignant 
at  this  assumed  authority,  and  made  pressing  remonstrances 
to  the  regent,  who  answered,  that  it  was  then  inexpedient  to 
interfere,  but  when  the  fitting  time  should  arrive  she  would  take 
order  with  the  reformers.  It  was  necessary  to  keep  on  good 
terms  with  the  lords  of  the  congregation  till  she  had  accom- 
plished the  marriage  of  her  daughter,  which  was  the  grand 
object  of  all  her  intrigues.  But  in  truth  her  authority  was  al- 
most nominal,  for  the  power  of  the  nobility  overshadowed  the 
crown  ;  and,  in  fact,  she  was  unable  to  protect  the  established 
clergy.  This  was  conspicuous  in  their  conduct  this  same 
year,  in  flatly  refusing  to  invade  the  realm  of  England,  and 
each  nobleman  withdrawing  from  the  army  which  she  had 

'  Keith,  p.  GG.— Knox,  135. 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  III. 

collected  for  that  purpose.  "  And  now,"  says  Balfour, 
"  begins  the  hatred  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  against  the 
queen  regent,  which  for  a  long  time  had  lurked  amongst  the 
ashes  of  discontent  to  burst  forth  in  a  flame."  But  this  was 
not  all ;  for  "  the  parliament,  adjourned  till  the  14th  day  of 
December  this  year,  sits  down  at  Edinburgh,  wherein,  after 
the  heavy  complaints  of  the  queen  regent  were  heard,  and 
they  in  a  manner  slighted,  and  some  few  laws  for  procedure 
in  civil  business  before  the  (court  of)  session  were  enacted, 
the  parliament  without  more  ado  broke  up  ^ ;"  that  is,  without 
waiting  to  be  dissolved  by  the  regent's  authority,  but  broke  up 
of  their  own  motion. 

1558. — Disappointed  in  that  support  which  he  not  un- 
reasonably expected  from  the  crown,  and  seeing  that  it 
would  be  impossible  to  prosecute  those  priests  and  preachers 
whom  the  nobility  had  taken  under  their  especial  protection 
by  the  title  of  domestic  chaplains,  the  archbishop  wrote  a 
dignified  but  conciliatory  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Argyle.  After 
giving  the  earl  his  most  hearty  commendations,  he  reminded 
him  of  the  antiquity,  the  illustrious  achievements,  and  the  many 
honourable  ramifications,  of  his  noble  house,  and  assured  him 
of  his  own  affection.  He  then  appealed  to  him  on  all  these 
considerations  to  discharge  that  "  man-sworn  apostate  (Dou- 
glass) who,  under  the  pretence  that  he  giveth  himself  forth  as 
a  preacher  of  the  gospel  and  verity,  under  that  colour,  setting 
forth  schisms  and  divisions  in  the  holy  church  of  God  with 

heretical   propositions  ;    thinking to   infect  this 

country  with  heresy."  He  shewed  his  lordship  "  that  there 
is  a  dilation  of  that  man  called  Douglass  of  sundry  articles 
of  heresy,  which  lieth  to  my  charge  and  conscience  to  put 
remedy  to ;  or  else  all  the  pestilential  doctrine  he  sows,  and 
also  all  that  are  corrupted  by  his  doctrine,  and  all  that  he 
draweth  from  our  faith  and  christian  religion,  will  lie  to  my 
charge  before  God  2."  As  lord  justice-general  of  the  kingdom 
it  would  have  been  Argyle's  province  to  have  carried  the 
vengeance  of  the  church  into  effect  on  the  heretics;  and 
therefore  the  archbishop  reproached  him  for  being  too  remiss 
in  his  high  office.  But  the  earl  pointed  the  i5rimate's  attention 
to  heresies  of  another  and  more  flagrant  sort,  which  it  would 
well  become,  he  said,  his  "  honour  and  conscience"  to  inquire 
into  and  reform.  He  replied  that  Douglass  preached  against 
idolatry,  which  he  remitted  to  his  grace's  cojiscience  whether 
or  not  it  was  heresy — against  adultery  Sind/ornication — against 

'  Annals,  i,  308.  -  Knox's  History,  pp.  135,  135. 


1558.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  d6 

hypocrisy — and  against  all  manner  of  abuses  and  corruptions 
of  Christ's  sincere  religion  ;  all  of  which  he  referred  to  the 
primate's  conscience.  These  reproofs  were  too  stinging  and 
too  notoriously  true  to  be  well  relished  i. 

It  was  now  evident,  from  the  policy  of  the  regent,  and  the 
bold  defiance  of  the  nobility,  that  the  Church  would  not  be 
supported  by  the  secular  arm,  on  which  it  had  so  long  securely 
rested ;  the  archbishop,  therefore,  unhappily  determined  to 
proceed  on  his  own  authority,  and  an  opportunity  soon  pre- 
sented itself.  During  Cardinal  Beaton's  progress  through 
the  county  of  Angus,  a  charge  of  heresy  had  been  preferred 
against  Walter  Mill,  parish  priest  of  Lunan  in  that  county ; 
but  at  that  time  he  made  his  escape.  He  had  lurked  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  preached  sometimes  privately 
and  at  other  times  publicly,  but  had  altogether  escaped  the 
notice  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  He  was  discovered 
by  some  of  the  ofiicers  of  the  archbishop's  court  at  Dysart,  in 
the  county  of  Fife,  by  whom  he  was  hurried  to  St.  Andrews, 
and  brought  to  trial  as  a  heretic.  Heresy,  according  to  Peter 
Dens,  is  "  the  unbelief  of  those  who  profess,  indeed,  that 
Christ  has  come,  but  who  reject  his  doctrine  in  any  part,  as 
proposed  by  the  Church  '  of  Rome,'  such  as  Lutherans,  Cal- 
vinists,"  &c.  And  the  same  infallible  authority  shows,  that 
"  heretics,  apostates,  and  schismatics,  can  be  comjjelled,  by  cor- 
poral punishments,  to  return  to  the  Roman  faith  ;  and  incor- 
rigible heretics,  (that  is,  Protestants,)  are  to  be  punished  with 
excommunication — by  being  rendered  ipso  jure  infamous,  by 
having  their  temporal  goods  confiscated,  and  justly  punished 
with  death^." 

The  Reverend  Walter  Mill  was  an  old  man  aged  eighty-two, 
so  much  worn  out  and  emaciated,  that  it  was  not  expected 
that  he  could  have  made  himself  heard  in  court.  He  was 
tried  by  the  archbishop  and  several  of  his  suffragans ;  and  at 
the  bar  he  spoke  with  great  courage  and  composure,  to  the 
amazement  of  the  court.  He  was  condemned  to  be  burnt 
alive  for  heresy ;  which,  in  his  case,  consisted  chiefly  in 
asserting  the  lawfulness  of  the  maniage  of  the  priests,  deny- 
ing that  there  are  seven  sacraments,  and  alleging  that  the  mass 
is  idolatrous.  No  temporal  judge,  however,  could  be  per- 
suaded to  pronounce  the  sentence ;  the  chief  magistrate  of  the 
city  positively  refused :  nor  would  any  one  sell  a  piece  of 
rope  to  pinion  the  aged  martyr.  For  this  reason  his  sentence 
of  condemnation  was  postponed  till  the  next  day,  when  the 

'  Knox's  Hist.  137,  and  Keith.  "^  Dens'  Theology,  vol.  ii.  pp.  88,  89, 


56  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  III. 

archbishop  was  obliged  to  elevate  one  of  his  own  domestic 
servants  to  the  rank  of  a  temporal  judge,  and  who  pronounced 
sentence  accordingly.     Cords  had  to  be  brought  from  the 
archiepiscopal  palace  to  bind  their  victim,  and  the  archbishop's 
domestic  presided  at  the  execution.    At  the  stake  he  addressed 
the  sympathising  crowd : — "  The  cause  why  I  suffer  this  day 
is  not  for  any  crime,  (though  I  acknowledge  myself  a  miserable 
sinner,)  but  only  for  the  defence  of  the  truth  of  Jesus  Christ; 
and  I  praise  God,  who  hath  called  me  by  his  mercy  to  seal 
the  truth  with  my  life,  which,  as  I  have  received  of  him,  so  I 
willingly  offer  it  to  his  glory.    Therefore,  as  ye  would  escape 
eternal  death,  be  no  more  seduced  with  the  lies  of  the  seat  of 
Antichrist,  but  depend  only  on  Jesus  Christ  and  his  mercy, 
that  you  may  be  delivered  from  condemnation."     He  also 
added,  that  "  he  trusted  to  be  the  last  who  should  suffer  death 
in  this  land  upon  such  an  account."     He  expired  amidst  the 
merciless  flames,  in  front  of  the  main  gate  of  the  priory,  on 
the  '28th  of  April,  and  with  him  it  may  be  said  that  the  Roman 
Church  in  Scotland  also  expired ;  for  the  extreme  old  age  and 
decrepitude  of  this  venerable  martyr  so  roused  the  sympathies 
of  the  people  with  his  sufferings,  that  they  began  to  unite 
.  in  bonds  and  subscriptions  to  support  each  other  in  matters 
of  religion,  and  to  take  up  arms  in  self-defence  against  the  ex- 
terminating cruelty  and  oppression  of  the  Roman  hierarchy. 
The  people  were  so  touched  with  pity  for  his  cruel  death  that 
they  raised  a  cairn,  or  pile  of  stones,  on  the  place  where  he 
drew  his  last  breath  amidst  the  flames,  and  which  they  re- 
newed several  times  after  it  had  been  thrown  down  by  order 
of  the  clergy  ;  who  at  last  set  a  watch  to  apprehend  those 
who  should  thus  show  their  respect  for  the  memory  of  this 
aged  martyr  ^ 

The  clergy  were  now  sensible  of  the  alienation  of  popular 
respect,  and  of  the  decay  of  their  affairs,  and  they  did  not 
venture  again  to  attempt  a  capital  punishment.  The  arch- 
bishop held  a  synod  this  year  in  the  month  of  July  ;  but  so 
dejected  were  the  clergy  at  the  prospects  of  the  Church,  that 
they  could  only  formally  condemn  some  who  were  accused  of 
heresy,  to  make  a  public  recantation  at  the  market-cross  on  the 
1st  of  September,  which  was  St.  Giles's  day;  but  who  showed 
their  contempt  for  their  authority  by  non-appearance.  It 
is  needless  to  say  that  those  who  refused  to  attend  the  synod 
paid  as  little  respect  to  their  sentence  of  readmg  their  recan- 

1  Spottiswood,  95—97.     Rev.  C.  J.  Lyon's  Hist,  of  St.  Andrews,  p.  99. 
Keith's  Hist.  b.  i.  c.  vi.  pp.  67,  68. 


1558.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  57 

tation.  St.  Giles  being  the  tutelar  saint  of  the  city  of  Edin- 
burgh, it  was  determined  to  make  a  solemn  procession  with 
his  image  through  the  streets  of  the  city  ;  but  which  was  an 
ill-judged  experiment  on  the  temper  of  the  people,  in  the  pre- 
sent irritable  state  of  their  minds.  To  add  greater  solemnity 
to  this  absurd  ceremonial,  the  queen -regent  determined  to 
honour  it  with  her  presence.  Some  one  had  stolen  the  real 
image,  and  it  was  necessary  to  procure  some  other  idol  to 
represent  the  saint.  After  accompanying  it  for  some  way  the 
queen  with  her  attendants  withdrew ;  and  then  the  people  at- 
tacked the  clergy,  seized  their  idol,  and  trampled  it  under 
their  feet.  They  "  dismounted  the  image,  brake  off  his  head 
against  the  stones,  scattered  all  the  company,  pulled  the  priests' 
surplices  over  their  ears,  beat  down  their  crosses,  and,  in  a 
word,  so  discomposed  the  order  of  that  mock  solemnity,  that 
happy  was  the  man  who  could  first  save  himself  in  some 
house  or  other."  Balfour  places  this  synod  on  the  1st  Sep- 
tember, but  this  discrepance  may  arise  from  the  procession 
happening  on  that  day.  "  On  the  1st  September,"  he  says, 
"  this  year,  the  Roman  clergy  kept  a  synod  at  Edinburgh  ; 
the  first  day  of  the  sitting  down  of  which  the  priests  had  a 
solemn  procession,  wherein  they  carried  a  great  log  of  wood 
or  idol,  by  them  called  St.  Giles.  The  commons  and  others  who 
favoured  the  gospel  make  a  great  tumult,  and  soundly  beat 
all  the  priests  of  Baal,  and  brake  all  their  idol  St.  Giles  in 
pieces  ^  The  priests  fled  for  shelter,  and  the  magistrates 
quelled  the  uproar.  Thinking  to  strike  terror  into  their  ene- 
mies, the  clergy  summoned  a  solemn  meeting,  to  be  held  in 
Edinburgh  on  the  7th  of  November,  to  which  they  indicted 
Paul  Methuen,  the  lay  preacher.  He,  however,  did  not 
appear ;  and  sentence  of  banishment  from  the  realm  was  there- 
fore denounced  against  him,  and  a  severe  punishment  against 
any  one  who  should  harbour  or  assist  him  with  any  of  the 
necessaries  of  life.  The  inhabitants  of  Dundee  were  not  inti- 
midated by  this  commination,  but  still  continued  to  maintain 
him,  and  attend  on  his  preaching,  and  petitioned  the  regent, 
though  unsuccessfully,  for  a  reversal  of  his  sentence  2. 

Acting  under  the  influence  of  the  Romish  clergy  and  her 
French  councillors  by  whom  she  was  surrounded,  the  queen 
regent  entirely  disregarded  the  petitions  of  the  congregation 
for  a  reformation  of  the  church.  By  the  number  of  sub- 
scriptions from  all  parts  of  the  country,  which  was  returned 

*  Heylin's  Hist,  of  the  Presbyterians,  p.  126.     Annals,  i.  310. 
-  Keith,  b.  i.  c.  vii.  C3. 
VOL.   I.  I 


58  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  III. 

to  the  lords  of  the  congregation,  these  "  sticklers  for  refor- 
mation, such  as  it  ivas"  clearly  saw  that  the  majority  of 
the  people  was  on  their  side,  and  consequently  that  upon  a 
probable  trial  of  strength  they  would  have  a  decided  advan- 
tage. The  lords  of  the  congregation  had  sent  agents  through 
the  kingdom  to  solicit  the  subscriptions  of  those  who  were 
friendly  to  a  reformation,  and  unwilling  to  be  oppressed  by  a 
party  who  were  found  to  be  inferior  in  point  of  numbers. 
And,  says  Keith,  "  these  succeeded  so  well  in  their  circuits, 
that  some  being  moved  with  zeal  to  religion,  others  out  of  a 
desire  of  change,  and  the  greater  part  longing  to  be  relieved 
from  the  oppression  of  the  clergy,  were  easily  moved  to  con- 
sent to  what  was  proposed ;  by  which  means  the  chief 
leaders,  perceiving  their  party  was  become  considerable,  and 
their  numbers  not  inferior  to  their  adversaries,  they  then  first 
assumed  the  name  and  title  of  the  Congregation,  which  be- 
came much  more  famous  afterwards  by  the  multitudes  of 
those  who  joined  them^." 

Many  of  the  ministers  and  professors  of  the  gospel  returned 
this  year  from  Germany  and  Geneva,  and  the  nobility  and 
gentry  consulted  with  them  how  to  abolish  the  papal  church 
and  expel  the  French.  James  Beaton,  Archbishop  of  Glas- 
gow, Read,  Bishop  of  Orkney,  with  several  noblemen,  and 
Erskine  of  Dun,  were  sent  to  France  to  witness  the  queen's 
marriage  with  the  dauphin,  in  Notre-Dame,  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Rouen.  The  Bishop  of  Oi'kney,  the  Earls  of  Rothes  and 
Cassillis,  and  the  Lord  Fleming,  died  so  suddenly  at  Dieppe 
on  their  return,  as  to  leave  little  room  to  doubt  of  their  hav- 
ing been  poisoned.  In  September,  the  Bishop  of  Brechin 
and  Andrew  Durie,  bishop  of  Galloway,  died.  To  the  former, 
Donald  Campbell  of  the  family  of  Argyle  succeeded,  but 
without  consecration  ;  to  the  latter,  Alexander  Gordon,  called 
Archbishop  of  Athens,  but  whether  or  not  he  ever  had  ca- 
nonical consecration  it  is  now  almost  impossible  to  ascertain. 
On  the  1st  of  October,  Panter,  Bishop  of  Ross,  died  of  a  linger- 
ing disease  at  Stirling.  He  had  been  a  principal  secretary  of 
state  and  privy  councillor,  and  had  also  been  employed  as  am- 
bassador at  the  court  of  France.  He  was  a  man  of  super- 
eminent  abilities,  but  of  loose  morals.  Mary,  queen  of 
England,  died  also  on  the  5th  of  December,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Elizabeth,  her  half  sister.  On  the  9th  of  December  the 
queen  regent  assembled  a  parliament,  and  proposed  that  the 
queen's  consort,  during  his  marriage,  should  be  allowed  the 

1  Keith,  b.  i.  c.  7,  68,  69. 


1558.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  59 

title  of  king,  and  that  the  style  should  be  Francis  and  Mary, 
king  and  queen  of  the  Scots  ;  which,  after  some  caviats  and 
restrictions,  was  allowed,  and  the  Earl  of  Argyle,  James  Prior 
of  St.  Andrews,  and  the  Lyon  king  at  arms,  with  two  heralds, 
were  sent  to  France  to  crown  Francis  with  all  solemnity  ^. 

Although  the  church,  under  the  dominion  of  the  see  of 
Rome,  lingered  out  a  sickly  existence  for  some  years  after  the 
martyrdom  of  Walter  Mill,  yet  that  event  may  be  said  to  have 
given  it  its  death-blow,  for  it  never  after  enjoyed  the  affection 
or  respect  of  the  great  body  of  the  people.  It  is  to  be  de- 
plored that  both  the  court  and  the  hierarchy  were  de- 
cidedly opposed  to  any  reformation  of  the  church,  and  that 
in  consequence  the  lay  nobility  and  ignorant  people  took  upon 
themselves  to  set  the  house  of  God  in  order.  Had  Cardinal 
Beaton  employed  his  eminent  talents  and  influence,  or  his 
more  amiable  successor  taken  up  the  duty  of  reformation, 
which  repeated  synods  of  their  own  clergy  declared  had  be- 
come absolutely  necessary,  all  the  disorders  and  unhappy 
divisions  which  have  since  flowed  like  a  ton-ent  might  have 
been  prevented.  But  for  the  sins  of  the  nation,  which  were 
great,  for  it  was  fearfully  polluted  with  blood,  and  it  wallowed 
in  the  utmost  uncleanness,  it  was  otherwise  ordered  in  the 
councils  of  divine  Providence.  As  the  prophet  complained  of 
old  of  the  Jewish  priesthood,  so  might  it  have  been  said  of  the 
Scoto-Romish  clergy.  "  Both  prophet  and  priest  axe  profane ; 
in  my  house  have  I  found  their  wickedness,  saith  the  Lord," — 
"  for  from  the  least  of  them  even  unto  the  greatest  of  them 
every  one  is  given  to  covetousness  :  and  from  the  prophet  even 
unto  the  priest  every  one  dealeth  falsely  2."  Synods  called  for 
the  special  purpose  of  acknowledging  the  sins  and  abomina- 
tions of  the  sacerdotal  orders,  had  shewn  to  the  world  that 
adultery,  fornication,  and  all  the  works  of  the  flesh,  stood  pro- 
claimed as  their  own  peculiar  and  besetting  sins.  Still,  with 
the  admission  of  their  own  guilt,  such  was  the  moral  degrada- 
tion into  which  they  had  fallen,  that  no  steps  were  taken  for 
redeeming  the  time.  A  few  canons  were  enacted  for  the  sepa- 
ration of  the  priests  from  their  adulterous  concubinage  and 
from  their  illegitimate  families ;  but  nothing  was  done  to 
cleanse  the  Augean  stable.  But  it  cannot  be  otherwise ;  the 
celibacy,  as  it  is  surely  in  mockery  called,  of  the  Roman 
clergy,  is  in  the  solemn  denunciation  of  holy  writ  a  doctrine  of 
devils.  Hence  that  flood  of  immorality  which  has  overspread 
the  whole  papal  world,  but  which  seems  to  have  been  deeper 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  311 — 13.  "  Jerem.  xxiii.  11 ;  vi.  13. 


(JO  HISTORY  OF  THR  *  [CHAP.  III. 

and  more  indelible  in  Scotland  than  any  where  else.  "  For 
the  sins  of  her  prophets,  and  the  iniqnities  of  her  priests  that 
have  shed  the  blood  of  the  just  in  the  midst  of  her  ;  they  have 
wandered  as  blind  men  in  the  streets,  they  have  polluted  them- 
selves with  blood,  so  that  men  could  not  touch  their  gar- 
ments^." 

It  has  long  been  the  crying  sin  of  the  Romish  church  to  pro- 
hibit the  laity  from  reading  God's  holy  word,  which  was 
written  for  our  learning,  and  Avas  given  by  inspiration  of  God, 
and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  in- 
struction in  righteousness.  At  the  very  first  spring  of  an  at- 
tempt at  reformation,  the  earnest  desire  of  all  parties  was  to 
have  permission  to  read  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  in  the 
vulgar  tongue.  Notwithstanding  a  most  powerful  opposition 
by  the  spiritual  estate,  the  parliament  removed  all  impediments 
and  penalties  from  the  free  circulation  of  the  blessed  Scripture, 
and  copies  were  imported  from  England.  There  the  Bible  was 
translated  under  Henry's  auspices  in  1-526,  and  some  other 
editions  appeared  down  to  the  year  1539,  when  Cranmer's 
great  bible  was  published,  and  which  had  been  revised  and 
superintended  by  that  illustrious  martyr.  Thus,  by  the  good 
providence  of  God,  a  translation  of  the  Scriptures  found  its  way 
among  our  early  inquirers  after  truth,  at  a  time  when,  although 
the  stern  prohibition  was  removed,  yet  there  was  not  a  native 
translation  in  existence.  No  circumstance  tended  more  than 
this  to  stimulate  men  to  extricate  themselves  fi'om  that  spiritual 
darkness  in  which  they  and  their  fathers  had  been  involved  by 
their  worse  than  Egyptian  task -masters  of  the  Romish  church. 
Perhaps  two  more  powerful  examples  of  their  degeneracy  from 
the  light  of  revelation  cannot  be  produced,  than  of  a  bishop  of 
the  Scoto-papal  church,  in  rebuking  an  inferior  clergyman, 
thanking  God  that  he  himself  had  never  read  either  the 
Old  or  the  New  Testament !  and  a  reverend  synod  of  the 
church  authorising  the  Lord's  Prayer  to  be  addressed  to  saints ! 

The  "  Congregation,"  or  the  united  body  of  the  Protes- 
tants, preferred  the  use  of  the  English  Liturgy,  and  made  it 
one  of  tJheir  canons  that  it  should  be  used  on  all  Sundays  and 
holidays  ;  and  we  have  seen  that  a  grave  cliarge  of  heresy  was 
prefeiTed  against  Sir  John  Borthwick  because  he  used  and 
recommended  the  English  liturgy.  At  that  time  it  was  the 
Common  Prayer  first  set  forth  by  Edward  VI.  which  they 
used,  and  which  Bishop  Jolly  calls  "  a  pattern  of  the  most  ju- 
dicious, moderate,  and  wise  reformation  ;"  and  likewise  it  was 

'  Lament,  iv.  13,  14. 


1558.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  61 

the  identical  liturgy  which  the  Presbyterians  afterwards 
rejected  with  contumely  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  It  differed 
in  a  icw  particulars  from  the  present  English  liturgy,  which 
had  been  altered  in  order  to  please  the  vitiated  taste  of  some 
intermeddling  foreigners ;  but  it  is  substantially  the  same.  By 
this  inimitable  liturgy  the  early  Scottish  reformers  had  the  in- 
estimable advantage  of  worshipping  God  in  the  vernacular 
tongue,  and  of  praying  with  the  understanding ;  and  they  were 
relieved  from  the  tyranny  of  being  compelled  to  commit  the 
enormous  sin  of  idolatry,  by  praying  to  the  Virgin  and  dead 
men  in  a  language  which  they  did  not  understand.  Neither  had 
they  at  that  time  the  intolerable  bondage  imposed  upon  them 
of  listening  to  oblique  sermons  delivered  extemporarily,  under 
the  pretext  of  prayers,  which  has  since  been  riveted  on  the 
necks  of  their  descendants. 

At  the  outset  of  the  reformation,  the  principal  actors  were 
of  the  inferior  clergy,  whose  motives  were  good,  and  who  never 
contemplated  any  other  than  episcopal  government ;  but  on 
the  prospect  of  clutching  the  extensive  and  fertile  lands  of  the 
church  and  monastic  bodies,  the  clergy  were  joined  by  the  lay 
noiblity,  who  were  actuated  by  the  worst  possible  motives — the 
root  of  all  evil,  covetousness.  In  a  conversation  between  the 
Earl  of  AiTan  and  Sir  Ralph  Sadler,  in  the  year  1543,  the 
former  said,  "  That  though  he  desired  no  less  the  reformation 
of  the  abuses  of  the  church,  and  the  extirpation  of  the  estate  of 
monks  and  friars,  with  the  abolition  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome's 
usurped  authoiity,  than  that  the  king  (Henry)  did ;  yet  he 
owned  that  that  would  be  a  hard  matter  to  bring  to  pass,  for, 
said  he,  there  be  so  many  great  men  in  the  kingdom  that  are 
papists,  that  unless  the  sin  of  covetousness  bring  them  into 
it  (that  is,  the  desire  of  having  the  lands  of  the  abbeys  in 
their  own  possession),  he  knew  no  other  means  to  win  them  to 
his  purpose  in  that  behalf."  The  reformation  in  Scotland  was, 
as  Archbishop  Spottiswood  justly  observes,  "  violent  and  dis- 
ordered," originating  in  the  vices  and  crimes  of  the  papal 
clergy,  which  roused  the  contempt  and  abhorrence  of  the  re- 
ligious part  of  the  nation,  and  excited  the  avarice  and  am- 
bition of  the  leading  men,  on  whose  hearts  true  religion  had 
not  shed  its  benig-n  and  self-denying  influence.  The  cruel 
measures  into  which  the  heads  of  the  papal  church  were  pre- 
cipitated by  that  insane  thirst  of  blood  which  has  always 
characterised  it,  tended  greatly  to  disgust  the  minds  of  the 
people,  and  which  eventually  settled  down  into  a  principle  of 
abhorrence  against  every  thing  which  is  in  the  remotest  de- 
gree  connected   with   popery.     Although  such  a  horrifying 


62  HISTORY  OF  THE  ["CHAP.  III. 

spectacle  cannot  be  shewn  in  Scotland,  as  thirteen  men  and 
vjomen  expiring  amidst  the  excruciating  agonies  of  the  flames, 
as  at  Stratford-le-Bow,  yet  many  glorified  God  by  that  satani- 
cal  mode  of  killing  his  disciples  (who  in  this  are  not  to  be 
greater  than  their  Lord)  which  the  church  of  Rome,  in  her 
delusion,  thinks  is  doing  God  service.  The  cruel  deaths  which 
have  been  inflicted  by  the  church  of  Rome  upon  those  who 
have  opposed  her  errors,  are  marks  by  which  she  is  made  as 
visible  as  the  mystic  Babylon  itself,  which  is  seated  on  seven 
hills.  Those  who  have  suffered  under  her  cruel  persecutions 
are  more  than  can  be  numbered,  and  the  nature  and  circum- 
stances of  their  deaths  have  been  monstrous ;  but  this  does 
not  mark  her  out  as  the  chaste  spouse  of  Christ,  but  for 
"  that  woman  that  is  drunken  with  the  blood  of  the  saints  and 
with  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus."  This  scarlet  and 
bloody  mark,  however  unwilling  she  may  be  to  admit  it,  is  so 
indelibly  burnt  in,  so  deeply  branded  upon  her,  that  it  can 
never  be  washed  out.  But  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed 
of  the  church  ;  and  those  terrible  acts  of  cruelty  of  which 
that  church  was  guilty,  with  the  view  of  striking  terror  into  the 
minds  of  the  people  and  subduing  their  consciences,  only  ex- 
cited a  more  fervent  spirit  of  inquiry,  and  aroused  their  resent- 
ment. Cardinal  Beaton  and  his  brethren  exulted  in  the  ex- 
ecution of  Wishart,  and  thought  they  had  given  heresy  its 
death-blow  ;  but,  says  Archbishop  Spottiswood,  this  murder 
"  proved  the  very  rock  on  which  he  and  all  his  fortunes 
perished." 

The  perusal  of  the  Scriptures  permitted  the  well-disposed 
to  see  the  fearful  denunciations  which  they  contain  throughout, 
against  the  idolatry  which  is  approved,  authorized,  and  prac- 
tised, in  the  papal  chiu'ch.  It  now  became  evident  to  them 
that,  in  point  of  fact,  the  papal  worship  chiefly  consisted  in  the 
most  senseless  idolatiy  ;  both  priests  and  people  were  as 
much  given  over  to  that  most  dreadful  sin  as  the  Israelites 
were  to  the  worship  of  Baal.  There  is  no  essential  difference 
betwixt  praying  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  as,  "  O  sweet  Lady  of 
mercy,  turn  your  merciful  eyes  unto  me,  enlighten  me  with 

gi-ace,  and  hear  my  prayers  ;  unto yoin*  holy  hands,  O 

refuge  of  sinners,  I  recommend  my  soul  and  body," — and 
calling  on  the  iiame  of  Baal  from  morning  even  until  noon, 
saying, "  O  Baal, hear  us^ ."  We  cannot,  therefore,  wonder  at  the 
reaction  which  took  place  in  men's  minds,  nor  at  the  violent 

1  Tlie  Poor  Man's  Manual  of  Devotion,  or  the  Devout  Christian's  DaiJy 
Companion,  1822,  nermissu  supericmra,  pp.  53,  54  ;  1  Kings,  xviii.  26. 


1558.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  63 

language  by  which  they  characterized  the  enormities  from 
which  they  themselves  had  escaped,  and  which  were  obsti- 
nately retained  by  the  papal  church.  They  had  a  practical 
knowledge  of  papal  corruptions,  they  had  felt  them  in  all  their 
unmitigated  atrocity — the  iron  had  entered  into  their  souls  : 
hence  the  vehemence  of  their  language,  and  the  fierceness  of 
most  of  their  actions.  A  reformation  was  thus  rendered  ab- 
solutely necessary ;  and  had  not  idolatry  of  another  sort  usurped 
the  place  of  the  papal  idolatry,  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  the 
church  would  have  reformed  herself,  and,  as  in  England,  have 
retained  all  the  essentials  of  a  church  and  expelled  only  the 
pope's  supremacy,  the  worship  of  images  and  relics,  and  the 
other  corruptions  of  the  papal  system.  And  God,  even  our  own 
God,  would  have  sat  as  a  refiner  and  purifier  of  silver ;  and 
He  would  have  purified  the  sons  of  Levi,  and  have  purged 
them  as  gold  and  silvei',  that  they  might  have  offered  unto  the 
Lord  an  offering  in  righteousness — spiritual  sacrifices  accepta- 
ble to  God  by  Jesus  Christ^  But  unhappily,  from  there  being 
no  king  in  our  Israel  at  that  time,  the  equally  damnable  idolatry 
oi  covetousness  entered  in,  and  took  possession  of  the  hearts  of 
the  nobility  and  gentry,  who,  for  their  own  selfish  purposes, 
excited  the  people  to  be  reformers,  or  rather  destroyers,  of  the 
church.  Professing  the  utmost  zeal  for  the  honour  of  God, 
their  whole  practice  was  robbery  and  spoliation,  both  of  the 
lands  and  tithes  of  the  church.  And  they  brought  the  curse 
of  God  upon  the  whole  nation,  who,  for  their  most  dreadful 
idolatry  of  covetousness,  suffered  the  hedges  of  the  church  to 
be  broken  down,  so  that  all  they  that  passed  by  plucked  her, 
the  boar  out  of  the  wood  wasted  it,  and  the  wild  beast  out  of 
the  field  devoured  it  2.  As  their  fathers  went  away  from  God's 
ordinances  by  the  worship  of  stocks  and  stones,  and  the  ex- 
altation of  the  ever  blessed  Virgin  into  the  mediatorial  office 
of  the  one  Mediator,  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  our  Lord  and  our 
God,  so  the  spoliators  of  that  day  changed  the  matter  but 
not  the  nature  of  their  idolatry,  and  so  incurred  the  curse 
which  has  adhered  to  their  posterity  even  to  this  day.  But 
how,  it  will  be  asked  ?  I  answer,  with  the  prophet : — "  Even 
from  the  days  of  your  fathers  ye  are   gone  away  from  mine 

ordinances  and  have  not  kept  them Will  a  man  rob 

God  ?  Yet  ye  have  robbed  me.  But  ye  say,  wherein  have  we 
robbed  thee  ?  In  tithes  and  offerings.  Ye  are  cursed  with 
a  curse  :  for  ye  have  robbed  me,  even  this  whole  nation.''"'  To 
escape  this  dreadful  anathema,  which  is  too  surely  written 

*  Malachi,  iii.  3  ;  1  Pet.  ii.  5.  ^  Psalm  Ixxx.  13. 


64  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  III. 

against  us,  let  us  hearken  unto  his  gracious  words  as  announced 
by  the  same  prophet :  "  Return  unto  me,  and  I  will  return  unto 
you,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.     But  ye  said,  wherein  shall  we 

return  ?     Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into  the  storehouse, 

that  there  may  be  meat  in  mine  house,  and  prove  me  now 
therewith,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  you  the 
windows  of  heaven  and  pour  you  out  a  blessing,  that  there  shall 
not  be  room  enough  to  receive  it.  And  I  will  rebuke  the  de- 
vourer  for  your  sakes,  and  he  shall  not  destroy  the  fruits  of 
your  ground  ;  neither  shall  your  vine  cast  her  fruit  before  the 
time  in  the  field,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  And  all  nations 
shall  call  you  blessed :  for  ye  shall  be  a  delightsome  land, 
saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts  ^" 

>  Malachi,  iii.  6—13. 


65 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  PRIMACY  OF  ARCHBISHOP  HAMILTON. 

The  Lords  of  the  Congregation  order  the  liturgy  to  be  used. — Knox's  account 
of  the  first  "  face  of  a  church." — Demands  of  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation. 
— Petition  to  parliament — and  protest. — A  provincial  synod. — Petition  of  the 
protestants. — Answer  of  the  synod. — The  ministers  summoned  to  appear  at 
Stirling. — Regent's  breach  of  faith. — Arrival  of  Knox  at  Perth — His  sermon, 
and  its  effects.  —  Riot  in  the  church  —  Altar  demolished. — Destruction  and 
plunder  of  monasteries.  —  Brief  reflections — The  regent's  indignation. — 
Letters. — Knox  preaches  in  Fife. — Demolition  of  the  cathedral  and  monastic 
buildings  in  St.  Andrews. — French  troops  put  in  motion. — Perth  taken. ^ 
Scoon  burnt. — Desolating  march  of  the  congregation  at  Stirling ; — Linlithgow ; 
— Edinburgh. — Destruction  of  churches. — Alarm  of  the  regent — Her  mea- 
sures.— Insolence  of  the  French  soldiers. — Death  of  Henry  II. — Arrival  of 
French  troops,  and  preparations  for  civil  war. — Deposition  of  the  regent — Her 
active  measures. — Elizabeth  assists  the  protestants — Sends  troops. — Regent 
removes  to  Edinburgh  Castle — Her  death,  and  character. — Siege  of  Leith. — 
A  treaty. — Elizabeth's  policy. — Position  and  prospects  of  the  Roman  church. 
— Meeting  of  the  estates. — Spiritual  estate  threatened  with  death. — Acts  of 
this  parliament. — Sandilands  sent  to  France. — Confession  of  faith — Remarks 
on  it. — Distribution  of  ministers. — Superintendents. — Scarcity  of  ministers. 

1558. — The  Congregation  having  now  determined  on  en- 
tirely separating  from  the  Roman  communion,  the  "  Lords 
of  the  Congregation,"  as  the  leading  lay  protestants  were 
called,  issued  their  commands  to  all  the  realm,  without  wait- 
ing for  the  royal  assent,  to  use  the  liturgy  of  Edward  VI,, 
and  to  keep  the  festivals  of  the  church  as  therein  directed : 
"  but  they  said  that  preaching  or  interpretation  of  Scriptures 
should  only  be  practised  in  private  houses  after  a  quiet  man- 
ner, till  God  should  please  to  move  the  queen  to  grant  further 
liberty."  This  order  is  an  ample  proof  that  the  first  protes- 
tants had  no  intention  of  introducing,  far  less  of  practising,  the 
extemporary  mode  of  worship  which  has  since  been  adopted. 
The  Romish  clergy,  who  still  held  the  parish  churches,  com- 
plained loudly  to  the  regent  of  this  bold  assumption  of  eccle- 
siastical supremacy,  and  solicited  her  protection.  For  political 
reasons  she  was  disposed  to  temporise  with  the  protestants, 
and  therefore  replied,  that  it  was  not  a  fit  time  to  enter  into 
these  matters,  but  that  at  a  convenient  season  she  would  take 
order  with  them^ 

'  Spottiswood. — Knox. 
VOL.  I.  K 


66  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  IV. 

The  Congregation  resolved,  in  right  earnest,  to  complete 
their  work;  yet,  that  they  might  not  seem  to  contemn  or  oppose 
themselves  to  lawful  authority,  they  determined  to  present  a 
petition  to  the  queen  regent  in  council,  "  to  whom,  (the 
petition  bears)  the  redress  of  all  enormities,  both  eccle- 
siastical and  civil,  did  orderly  belong."  This  is  a  decided 
proof  that  Presbytery  was  not  then  thought  of,  for  it  absolutely 
denies  the  power  of  the  sovereign  to  interfere  in  ecclesiastical 
affairs.  But  here,  on  the  threshold  of  the  reformation,  we  are 
startled  at  the  lay  platform  on  which  it  is  formed,  by  the  candid 
avowal  of  the  author  of  Knox's  History.  After  staling  all  that 
w^e  have  already  said,  he  unsuspiciously  adds : — "  And  this 
our  weak  beginning  God  did  so  bless,  that  within  a  few 
months  the  hearts  of  many  were  so  strengthened  that  w^e 
sought  to  have  the  face  of  a  church  among  us,  and  open 
cx'imes  to  be  punished  wdthout  respect  to  persons ;  and  for 
that  purpose,  by  common  election  w'ere  elders  appointed  to 
-whom  the  wdrole  brethren  promised  obedience ;  for  at  that 
time  loe  had  no  public  ministers  of  the  loord,  only  did  certain 
zealous  men  (amongst  whom  was  the  laird  of  Dun,  David 
Forrest,  Mr.  Robert  Lockhart,  Mr.  Robert  Hamilton,  William 
Harlaw,  and  others)  exhort  their  brethren  according  to  the 
gifts  and  graces  granted  unto  them.  But  shordy  after,  God 
stirred  up  his  servant  Paul  Methuen  (his  latter  fall,  namely, 
adultery,  of  which  he  w^as  twice  convicted  and  deposed,  ought 
not  to  deface  the  work  of  God  in  him),  w'ho  in  boldness  of 
spirit  began  openly  to  preach  Christ  Jesus  in  Dundee,  in 
divers  parts  of  Angus,  and  in  Fife  ;  and  so  did  God  work  with 
him,  that  many  began  openly  to  renounce  their  old  idolatry, 
and  to  submit  themselves  to  Christ  Jesus  and  unto  his  blessed 
ordinances  ;  insomuch  that  the  tow'n  of  Dundee  began  to  erect 
the  face  of  a  public  church  reformed,  in  the  which  the  word 
was  openly  preached,  and  Christ's  sacraments  truly  ad- 
minister ed^,'''  by  a  mere  layman  and  an  immoral  man. 
Indeed,  with  the  exception  of  Harley,  wdiose  ordination  is 
somewhat  doubtful,  all  those  named  above  w^ere  laymen. 

Confidence  in  their  numbers  prompted  the  lords  to  petition 
the  regent,  menacing  her,  however,  covertl}",  with  open  rebel- 
lion and  a  civil  war,  in  the  event  of  her  refusing  the  prayer  of 
their  petition.  Contrary  both  to  law  and  to  fact  they  denomi- 
nated themselves  "  a  part  of  that  power  which  God  hath  esta- 
blished in  this  realm ;"  and  at  the  same  time  most  incon- 
sistently, and  certainly  anti-presbyterianly,  acknowledged, — • 

'  Knox's  Hist.  p.  194. 


1558.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  67 

"  We,  knowing  no  order  placed  in  this  realm  but  your  ma- 
jesty and  your  grace's  council,  set  to  amend,  as  well  the  dis- 
order ecclesiastical  as  the  defaults  in  the  temporal  regiment." 
Here  the  first  Protestants  are  utterly  opposed  to  the  opinions 
which  the  non-intrusion  Presbyterians  of  the  present  day 
solemnly  declare  to  be  the  mind  of  Christ.  Some  other  points 
in  their  petition,  which  follow,  will  also  be  found  to  involve 
doctrines  which  are  abhorred  as  soul-destroying  heresies  by 
some  modern  Protestants. 

The  Lords  of  the  Congregation  made  the  following- 
demands  : — 

"  First,  Humbly  we  ask,  that  as  we  have,  by  the  laws  of 
this  realm,  after  long  debate,  obtained  to  read  the  holy  books 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  in  our  vulgar  tongue,  as  spi- 
ritual food  to  our  souls,  so  from  henceforth  it  may  be  lawful 
that  we  may  meet  publicly  or  privately  to  our  common  prayers 
in  our  vulgar  tongue,  to  the  end  that  we  may  increase  and 
grow  in  knowledge,  and  be  induced,  by  fervent  and  oft  prayers, 
to  commend  to  God  the  holy  imiversal  Church,  the  queen 
our  sovereign,  her  honourable  and  gracious  husband,  the  abi- 
lity of  their  succession,  your  majesty  regent,  the  nobility,  and 
whole  state  of  the  realm. 

"  Secondly,  If  it  shall  happen  in  our  said  meetings  any 
hard  jilace  of  Scripture  to  be  read  ....  that  it  shall  be  law- 
ful for  any  persons  in  knowledge,  being  present,  to  interpret 
and  open  up  the  said  hard  places,  to  God's  glory  and  to  the 
profit  of  the  auditory  ;  and  if  any  think  that  this  liberty  should 
be  the  occasion  of  confusion,  debate,  or  heresy,  we  are  con- 
tent that  it  be  provided,  that  the  said  interpretation  shall  un- 
derly  the  judgment  of  the  godly  and  most  learned  within  the 
realm  at  this  time. 

"  Thirdly,  That  the  holy  sacrament  of  baptism  may  be  used 
in  the  vulgar  tongue,  that  the  godfathers  and  witnesses  may 
not  only  understand  the  points  of  the  league  and  contract  made 
betwixt  them  and  the  infant,  but  also  that  the  church  there 
assembled  more  gravely  may  be  informed  and  instructed  of 
their  duties,  wdiich  at  all  times  they  owe  to  God,  according 
to  that  promise  made  unto  him  when  they  ivere  received  into 
His  household  by  the  laver  of  spiritual  regeneration. 

"  Fourthly,  We  desire  that  the  holy  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  or  of  his  blessed  body  and  blood,  may  likewise  be  mi- 
nistered unto  us  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  and  in  both  kinds, 
according  to  the  plain  institution  of  our  Saviour  Christ 
Jesus. 


68  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

**  And,  lastly,  We  most  humbly  require,  that  the  wicked, 
slanderous,  and  detestable  lives  of  prelates,  and  of  the  state 
ecclesiastical,  may  be  refonned,  that  the  people  by  them  have 
not  occasion,  (as  of  many  days  they  have  had,)  to  contemn 
their  ministry  and  the  preaching,  whereof  they  should  be  mes- 
sengers :  and  if  they  suspect  that  we,  rather  envying  their 
honours,  or  courting  their  riches  and  possessions,  than  zea- 
lously desiring  their  amendment  and  salvation,  do  travel  and 
labour  for  this  reformation,  we  are  content  that  not  only  the 
rules  and  precepts  of  the  New  Testament,  but  also  the  writings 
of  the  ancient  Fathers,  and  the  godly  and  approved  laws  of 
Justinian  the  Emperor,  decide  the  controversy  betwixt  us  and 
them.  And  if  it  shall  be  found  that,  either  malevolently  or 
ignorantly,  we  ask  more  than  these  three  fore-named  have 
required,  and  continually  do  require,  of  able  and  true  ministers 
in  Christ's  Church,  we  refuse  not  correction,  as  your  majesty 
with  right  judgement  shall  think  meet ;  but  if  all  the  fore- 
named  shall  condemn  that  which  we  condemn,  and  approve 
that  which  we  require,  then  we  most  earnestly  beseech  your 
majesty  that,  notwithstanding  the  long  custom  which  they  have 
had  to  live  as  they  list,  that  they  be  compelled  either  to  desist 
from  ecclesiastical  administration,  or  to  discharge  their  duties 
as  becometh  true  ministers;  so  that  the  grave  and  godly  face 
of  the  primitive  Church  (may  be)  restored,  ignorance  may  be 
expelled,  true  doctrine  and  good  manners  may  once  again 
appear  in  the  Church  of  this  realm.  These  things  we,  as  most 
obedient  subjects  of  your  majesty,  in  the  name  of  the  eternal 
God,  and  of  his  Son  Christ  Jesus,  in  presence  of  whose  throne 
judicial  ye,  and  all  others  that  here  in  earth  bear  authority, 
shall  give  account  of  your  temporal  government.  The  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  move  your  majesty's  heart  to  justice  and 
equity." 

"  Here,"  says  Bishop  Sage,  in  commenting  on  this  docu- 
ment, "  our  reformers  lay  down  a  complex  rule,  according  to 
which  they  crave  the  Church  and  the  ecclesiastical  state  may 
be  reformed.  This  complex  rule  is  made  up  of  the  rules  and 
precepts  of  the  New  Testament,  the  writings  of  the  ancient 
Fathers,  and  the  godly  and  approved  laws  of  the  Emperor 
Justinian.  This  is  that  solid,  orthodox,  proper  and  adequate 
rule  of  retbrmation  which  I  mentioned  before,  as  Vincentius 
Lirinensis  his  rule  ^,  and  the  rule  wherein  our  reformers  agreed 

^  "  Magnopere  curandum  est,  ut  id  teneamtis  qxiod  ubigue,  quod  semper,  quod 
ab  omnibus  creditwn  est.     Hoc  est  enim  vere  proprieque  catholicum.'''     We 


1558.]  CHUKCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  69 

ivith  the  English  reformers.  By  this  rule  our  reformers  are 
content  that  all  the  controversies  betwixt  them  and  the  Papists 
be  decided.  They  refuse  not  cori'ection,  if  they  ask  more  than 
this  rule  requires;  they  condemn  no  more  than  this  rule  con- 
demns; this  rule  approves  all  they  are  asking.  In  short,  they 
require  no  more  than  that,  according  to  this  rule,  the  grave  and 
godly  face  of  the  primitive  Church  may  be  restored,  as  it  was 
in  Justinian's  time.  Let  the  ecclesiastical  state  be  reduced  to 
that  frame  and  constitution,  and  the  clergy  live,  and  rule,  and 
discharge  their  trusts  and  offices  as  the  clergy  did  then,  and 
they  are  satisfied-  And  now  if  these  reformers,  who  thus  peti- 
tioned, and  in  their  petition  thus  reasoned  and  agreed  to  such  a 
rule  of  reformation,  were  for  the  divine  institution  of  parity  and 
the  sacred  rights  of  presbytery ;  nay,  if  they  were  not  only  for 
the  lawfulness  but  the  continuance  oi^re\a.cy,lva\x%i  confess  my 
ignorance  to  be  very  gross,  and  so  I  refuse  not  correction^." 

Sir  James  Sandilands  of  Calder,  and  a  Knight  of  Rhodes, 
was  deputed  to  present  the  above  petition,  which  was  very 
displeasing  to  the  regent ;  but  she  dissembled  her  sentiments", 
on  account  of  her  anxiety  to  secure  the  matrimonial  crown 
for  the  Dauphin.  She  answered,  therefore,  generally, "  that 
all  that  they  should  lavfuUy  desire  should  be  granted  unto 
them.  Meanwhile,  she  licensed  them  to  use  their  prayers  and 
service  in  the  vulgar  language,  discharging  them  from  keep- 
ing public  assemblies  in  Leith  or  Edinburgh  2."  The  Romish 
bishops,  who  were  then  holding  a  synod,  were  much  incensed 
at  the  queen's  acquiescence  ;  and,  when  the  petition  was  pre- 
sented to  them,  and  their  consent  was  required,  "  they  earned 
themselves  more  imperiously  than  before,  and  avouched  their 
determination  not  to  depart  a  jot  from  the  decrees  of  the 
Council  of  Trent  3." 

The  Congregation,  still  preserving  their  orderly  and  respect- 
ful bearing,  again  petitioned  parliament,  "  that  in  regard  the 
controversies  in  religion  between  the  Protestant  and  Roman 
Churches  were  not  yet  decided  by  a  lawful  general  council, 
and  that  they  themselves,  upon  the  same  grounds,  could  not 
any  longer  communicate  with  Pa]3ists  in  their  idolatrous  reli- 
gion, the  humble  desire  of  the  Congregation  was,  that  all  such 
acts  of  parliament  as  warranted  churchmen  to  proceed  against 
heretics  might  be  abrogated,  or  at  least  suspended,  till,  in  a 
lawful  general  council,  the  controversies  depending  were  deter- 

must  take  care,  above  ail  things,  to  adhere  to  that  which  has  been  believed  in  all 
places,  at  all  times,  and  by  aU  persons  :  for  this  is  tnily  and  properly  catholic. 

1  The  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery,  pp.  116,  117. 

-  Spottiswood,  ■*  Ibid. 


70  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

rained."  The  regent  answered  this  petition  to  the  same  efFect 
as  before  ;  w  hicli  rather  increased  the  fears  of  the  Protestants 
of  some  designed  treachery,  and  they  protested  therefore,  among 
other  things,  "  that  seeing  we  cannot  obtain  just  reformation 
according  to  God's  w^ord,  that  it  may  be  lawful  for  us  to  use 
ourselves  in  matters  of  religion  and  conscience  as  we  must  an- 
swer unto  God,  until  such  time  as  our  adversaries  be  able  to 
prove  themselves  the  true  ministers  of  Christ's  Church,  and 
purge  themselves  of  such  crimes  as  we  have  already  laid  to 
their  charge,  offering  ourselves  to  prove  the  same,  wdiensoever 
the  sacred  authority  shall  please  to  give  us  audience.  And, 
lastly,  we  protest,  that  these  our  requests,  proceeding  from 
conscience,  do  tend  to  no  other  end  but  onhj  to  the  reformation 
of  abuses  in  religion ;  most  humbly  beseeching  the  sacred 
authority  to  think  of  us  as  faithful  and  obedient  subjects,  and 
take  us  in  their  protection,  keeping  that  indifferency  that  be- 
cometh  God's  lieutenants  to  use  towards  those  that,  in  his  name, 
do  call  for  defence  against  cruel  oppressors  and  blood-thirsty 
tyrants  ^ ." 

From  this  protest  it  would  appear,  that  our  first  reformers 
had  not  learned  the  modern  doctrine  that  all  power  is  derived 
from  the  people  ;  for  here  they  expressly  call  the  sovereign  the 
"  sacred  authority,'''  and  "  God's  lieutenant ;"  neither  had  they 
as  yet  declared  war  against  the  fundamentals  of  religion,  which 
they  tacitly  acknowledge  the  Church  of  Rome  to  retain,  but 
only  against  "  abuses  in  religion.'"  In  this  point  they  exactly 
coincided  with  the  English  reformers,  with  whom  they  w^ere  in 
full  communion,  who  have  never  destroyed  the  fundamentals, 
but  only  reformed  the  "  abuses  in  religion'''  But  it  could  not  be 
otherwise  ;  as  the  Marian  persecution  had  driven  many  of  the 
English  clergy  to  seek  refuge  in  Scotland,  where  they  tended 
greatly  to  foster  and  preserve  the  reformed  doctrines,  as  well 
as  to  preserve  that  friendly  and  charitable  feeling  which  existed 
between  the  national  churches  in  the  beginning  of  the  Refor- 
mation. 

Robert  Reid  bishop  of  Orkney,  and  one  of  the  commis- 
sioners who  were  sent  to  witness  the  marriage  of  Queen  Mary, 
died  at  Dieppe,  the  14th  September,  not  without  suspicion  of 
poison.'  He  was  a  most  learned  and  munificent  prelate,  and  an 
able  politician.  He  bequeathed  8000  marks  for  founding  the 
College  of  Edinburgh,  of  which  the  Earl  of  Morton  afterwards 
robbed  it  He  was  president  of  the  Court  of  Session,  and 
abbot  of  Beaulieu,  in  France,  and  of  Kinloss,  in  the  county  of 

^  Spottiswood. — Knox. — Keith. 


1559.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  71 

Moray.  In  the  month  of  August,  John  Hepburn,  bishop  of 
Brechin,  died,  to  whom  Donald  Campbell,  of  the  family  of  Ar- 
gyle,  and  who  was  abbot  of  Couper,  succeeded.  He  never 
was  consecrated ;  for.  Bishop  Leslie  says,  on  account  of  his 
favouring  the  reformation,  his  election  was  displeasing  to  the 
Court  of  Rome,  and  therefore  he  never  took  the  title  of  bishop, 
but  was  called  abbot,  and  sat  as  such  in  the  convention  of  1560. 
On  the  1st  of  October,  David  Panter,  bishop  of  Ross,  died  at 
Stirling,  of  a  lingering  illness;  whom,  Keith  says,  "  was  a  per- 
son of  most  polite  education  and  excellent  parts."  He  was 
consecrated  at  Linlithgow,  it  may  be  concluded  by  Archbishop 
Hamilton,  who  was  then  holding  a  provincial  synod.  Keith 
gives  him  an  excellent  character;  but  Balfour  says,  "  At  this 
time  dies  James  Stewart,  eldest  base  son  to  James  V.,  abbot  of 
Kelso  and  Melrose  ;  and,  to  accompany  him  in  death  whom 
he  so  dearly  loved  in  his  lifetime,  dies  also  that  notable  adul- 
terer, David  Panter,  bishop  of  Ross,  some  time  secretary  to  the 
regent,  James,  Duke  of  Castelherault,  Earl  of  Arrant"  In 
September,  also,  Andrew  Durie,  bishop  of  Galloway,  died, 
and  was  succeeded  in  that  see  by  Alexander  Gordon,  who  had 
perhaps  been  consecrated  abroad,  as  he  is  designated  Arch- 
bishop of  Athens. 

1559. — A  provincial  synod  was  again  convoked  in  the 
month  of  March,  and  to  which  the  regent  presented  by  the 
hands  of  the  Earl  of  Huntly  another  petition  from  the  Con- 
gregation, in  which  they  justly  say,  as  they  had  before  said 
in  their  petition  to  parliament,  "that,  without  extreme  danger 
to  our  souls,  we  may  in  no  wise  communicate  with  the  damnable 
idolatry  and  the  intolerable  abuses  of  the  papistical  church  2." 
And  they  petitioned  that  the  bishops  should  be  chosen  by  the 
gentry  of  their  diocese,  and  the  inferior  clergy  by  the  people 
of  their  parishes.  After  a  long  debate  the  synod  replied  that 
they  could  not  dispense  with  the  Latin  language  in  the  public 
prayers  ;  that  in  the  election  of  bishops  the  canon  law  ought 
to  be  maintained  entire  ;  to  determine  otherwise  during  the 
queen's  minority  would  be  a  treasonable  encroachment  upon 
the  royal  prerogative,  seeing  the  election  of  bishops  was  a 
privilege  of  the  crown  which  required  only  the  consent  of  the 
people.  And  finally,  the  other  points  of  the  petition  were 
referred  to  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Trent  ^.  The  answer 
of  the  synod,  as  given  by  Bishop  Leslie,  is,  "  That  it  was  not 

1  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  311  —  313  ;  Keith's  Catalogue.      "  Knox,  b.  ii.  149. 
■*  Keith;  b.  i.  c.  viii.  p.  83. — Knox. 


72  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

reasonable  they  should  alter  the  method  of  electing  bishops 
and  presbyters  prescribed  by  the  canon  law,  especially  in  the 
time  of  the  queen's  non-age :  her  prerogative  was  interested 
in  the  matter  :  she  with  the  pope's  consent  had  power  to 
nominate  the  prelates  ;  and  to  take  that  power  out  of  her 
hands  without  her  consent,  and  before  she  came  to  perfect  age, 
was  notoriously  as  well  as  undutifuUy  to  invade  her  royalty  ^ ." 
Balfour  says  : — "  In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1559  the  clergy 
keep  a  solemn  synod  at  Edinburgh,  to  advise  anent  the  most 
assured  props  they  could  to  uphold  their  tottering  hierarchy  ; 
to  them  the  professors  of  the  gospel  gave  in  some  articles, 
whereat  the  bishops  and  clergy  fumed  and  raged ;  but  in- 
stead of  answering  them,  they  published  a  number  of  articles, 
indeed  blasphemies,  against  Christ,  his  evangel  and  pro- 
fessors of  the  same.  They  likewise  in  this  synod  make  some 
feckless  acts  for  reformation  of  their  idle-bellied  monks  and 
adulterous  clergy,  which  moved  divers  churchmen  at  this 
time  to  embrace  the  gospel  ^Z' 

Hitherto  the  queen  regent  had  borne  her  faculties  meekly 
towards  the  reformers,  but  since  the  dissolution  of  parliament 
her  carriage  towards  them  had  much  altered.  She  summoned 
John  Knox,  John  Willock,  John  Douglass,  and  some  other 
preachers,  to  appear  before  her,  and  the  council ;  but  on  their 
refusing  they  were  denounced  rebels.  She  registered  the 
names  of  all  the  reformed  ministers,  and  summoned  them  to  ap- 
pear at  Stirling  on  the  10th  May ;  whereupon  the  Earl  of  Glen- 
cairn  and  Sir  Hugh  Campbell,  sheriff  of  Ayr,  humbly  entreated 
her  majesty  "not  to  molest  or  trouble  the  ministers,  unless 
they  should  act  disorderly,  or  preach  false  doctrine."  Tlie 
queen,  who  had  been  secretly  instigated,  replied  in  heat, 
"  that,  maugre  their  hearts,  and  all  that  take  part  with  them, 
these  ministers  should  be  banished  Scotland,  though  they 
preached  as  soundly  as  ever  St.  Paul  did."  The  same  day  the 
queen  received  information  that  the  attack  on  the  church 
which  was  called  reformation  had  begun  in  Perth  ;  and, 
sending  for  Lord  Ruthven,  the  provost  of  that  town,  she  com- 
manded him  to  go  and  suppress  these  innovations  ;  but  his 
lordship  excused  himself,  as  having  no  power  over  men's  con- 
sciences. The  10th  of  May  approaching,  the  Reformers  from 
all  parts  of  the  country  determined  on  accompanying  their 
preachers  to  the  place  of  trial.  They  assembled  in  vast  mul- 
titudes, which  alarmed  the  queen,  who  accordingly  sent  for 

'  Leslie  dc  Rebus  Gesti?  Scotorum,  504.  *  Balfour's  Anaals,  i.  313. 


1559.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  73 

Mr.  Erskine  of  Dun,  to  negociate  with  them  to  return  peace- 
ably to  their  homes,  promising  that  the  indictment  against  the 
ministers  should  be  discharged,  and  all  further  proceedings  to 
their  prejudice  dropped.  The  Congregation  sent  Mr.  Erskine 
of  Dun  to  the  queen  regent,  humbly  to  entreat  her  majesty 
that  she  would  be  pleased  to  recal  that  rigid  decree  against 
Knox  and  the  others  ;  but  which  she  peremptorily  refused  to 
do.  Knox,  seeing  that  the  regent  was  determined  to  support 
the  papal  church,  "  incited  the  people  to  abolishing  of  the 
pope's  authority,  and  the  down-pulling  of  monasteries  and 
religious  houses,  by  him  called  the  nests  and  craigs  of  unclean 
birds  ^"  The  leading  men  having  some  suspicions  of  the 
queen's  sincerity,  sent  the  commonalty  to  their  homes,  but  re- 
mained themselves  quietly  at  Perth.  The  execrable  maxim  of 
the  papal  church,  that  faith  is  not  to  be  kept  with  heretics,  was 
here  enforced.  On  the  1 0th  of  May,  the  preachers,  relying 
on  the  royal  promise,  did  not  appear,  and  they  were  denounced 
rebels,  which  so  incensed  and  disgusted  Mr.  Erskine,  that  he 
withdrew  from  court,  and  joined  the  Congregation  at  Perth, 
and  showed  them  that  in  giving  advice  to  disperse  he  had 
himself  been  deceived  by  the  regent ;  he  therefore  recom- 
mended them  to  provide  against  the  worst,  as  they  might  ex- 
pect no  favour  2.  The  people  were  now  actuated  by  a  daring 
spirit  of  sedition  ;  and  the  sword  was  appealed  to  by  both 
parties  as  the  only  ai-biter  of  their  irreconcileable  differences. 
The  ancient  hierarchy  was  on  the  eve  of  its  dissolution ; 
whilst  every  day  was  adding  to  the  numbers  and  the  power 
of  the  Congregation. 

At  this  critical  juncture,  when  the  minds  of  the  reformers 
were  irritated  with  the  recent  perfidy  of  the  queen's  advisers, 
John  Knox  arrived  in  compliance  with  the  urgent  but  selfish 
invitation  of  the  lords  of  the  Congregation.  He  arrived  at 
Leith  on  the  2d  of  May,  while  the  episcopal  synod  was  still 
sitting  in  Edinburgh.  He  remained  only  two  days  in  Edin- 
burgh, but  proceeded  to  Dundee,  and  joined  the  multitudes, 
as  Bishop  Keith  says,  "in  the  nick  of  time  "  who  were  hurry- 
ing to  Perth,  which  he  found  crowded  with  protestants  who 
were  exasperated  to  the  utmost  pitch  against  the  government 
and  the  papal  clergy.  Mr.  Erskine  admonished  the  people, 
that  as  they  had  now  been  declared  rebels  they  were  therefore 
exposed  to  the  penalties  of  high  treason,  and  their  lives  and 
property  were  in  the  utmost  peril ;  and  he  also  shewed  them  that 
they  had  only  one  of  two  alternatives  before  them  ;  either  to 

*  Balfour's  Annals,  5.  314,  -  Spottiswood. — Keith. — Knox. 

VOL.  I.  L 


7  4  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP  IV. 

submit  to  the  regent  unconditionally,  or  to  draw  the  sword  in 
defiance  of  their  lives,  liberty,  and  religion. 

On  Thursday,  the  11th,  Knox  unceremoniously  took  pos- 
session of  the  noble  church  of  St.  John,  which  was  already 
completely  filled  by  his  friends,  except  in  those  divisions  of 
its  spacious  aisles  which  were  occupied  as  altars  and  shrines 
of  saints.  "  Within  the  little  sanctuaries  many  a  churchman 
now  stood,  looking  with  no  benignant  eye  on  the  crowds  who 
occupied  the  steps,  or  pressed  irreverently  against  the  balus- 
trades, which  they  until  now  were  wont  to  approach  with 
bended  knee.  Within  the  pale  of  the  altar  a  number  of  the 
priests  stood  in  a  line  in  front,  clothed  in  their  gorgeous  vest- 
mentSj  as  if  to  overawe  the  multitude  by  the  splendour  with 
which  the  altar  and  its  attendants  were  adorned,but  they  looked 
in  vain  for  the  homage  of  the  once  subservient  crowd."  The 
pulpit  stood  at  the  west  end  of  the  choir  against  one  of  the 
centre  pillars  which  supported  the  tower,  into  which  Knox 
without  permission  entered,  and  without  more  ceremony  com- 
menced his  sermon.  Unfortunately,  preaching  has  always 
from  the  commencement  been  the  chief  note  of  the  Scottish 
reformation ;  while  prayers  have  been  always  considered  of 
secondary  importance.  But  it  has  been  said  that  a  preaching 
church  will  never  stand.  He  was  accompanied  and  supported 
by  the  lords  of  the  Congregation,  who  took  their  seats  at  the 
foot  of  the  pulpit  stairs.  He  expatiated  on  the  present  state 
of  the  chuixh,  and  the  prospects  of  the  Congregation ;  but 
his  chief  subject  of  declamation  and  invective  was  the  gross 
and  unblushing  idolatry  maintained  and  practised  in  the  papal 
church,  especially  in  the  mass  or  eucharistic  service.  He 
also  denounced  the  adoration  of  images  and  pictures,  and 
showed  truly  that  they  tended  to  the  dishonour  of  God,  and 
were  a  breach  of  the  second  commandment,  which  saith,  thou 
shall  not  bow  down  to  them,  nor  worship  them;  and  that 
wherever  they  were  erected  in  churches  they  ought  to  be 
pulled  down  and  destroyed,  "  With  the  energy  of  the 
preacher  the  attention  of  the  assembly  awoke  ;  every  eye  was 
fixed  upon  him  ;  every  word  seemed  to  find  its  way  to  their 
bosoms  ;  calling  up  the  most  marked  expressions  of  enthu- 
siasm and  approbation  from  the  great  mass  of  the  crowd,  and 
stern  defiance  among  the  priests,  whom  the  fervour  of  his 
address  brought  by  degrees  out  of  the  lateral  recesses,  and 
who  were  now  seen  peering  from  among  the  protecting  balus- 
trades. From  contrasting  the  present  with  the  past  state  of 
the  chui-ch,  he  proceeded  to  hurl  against  her  the  sublime  de- 
nunciations of  the  Old  Testament  prophets  against  Babylon, 


1559.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  75 

confirming  them  with  the  anathemas  against  her  spiritual 
antitype,  from  the  Revelations;  and  as  he  quoted  the  passage 
in  which  an  angel  is  represented  as  casting  down  a  great 
millstone,  and  pronouncing — '  thus  with  violence  shall  Baby- 
lon be  thrown  down ;'  the  pulpit  seemed  to  yield  with  the 
almost  fi-antic  energy  by  which  he  was  agitated.  Had  he 
ceased  at  that  moment,  the  enthusiastic  feelings  of  the  audi- 
tory were  so  wound  up  that  nothing  could  have  withheld 
them  from  executing  literally  on  the  monuments  around  them 
the  predictions  of  the  prophets.  But  gradually  subsiding 
from  this  enthusiastic  tone,  he  addressed  himself  to  his 
hearers,  and  closed  by  exhorting  them  to  put  away  the  unclean 
thing  from  among  them.  So  rapt  were  the  audience,  that 
Knox  withdrew  fi-om  the  church  with  the  attendant  noblemen 
almost  unobserved,  and  for  some  time  afterwards  the  people 
stood  as  if  expecting  the  preacher  again  to  appear  amongst 
themi." 

The  sermon  being  ended,  and  the  more  respectable  part  of 
the  auditory  gone  to  dinner,  an  infatuated  priest,  as  if  in 
contempt  of  the  vehement  declamation  of  the  ardent  preacher, 
began  to  make  preparations  for  celebrating  mass  in  the  same 
church.     He  uncovered  the  tabernacle  on  the  altar,  when  the 
images  and  other  appendages  of  the  Romish  worship  were  ex- 
posed to  the  view  of  the  rabble,  who  were  irritated  and  roused 
almost  to  madness  by  the  infuriating  eloquence  of  Knox's  ser- 
mon.    A  boy  exclaimed,  "  Shall  we  stand  by,  and  see  idolatry 
practised  in  defiance  of  God's  word  ?"     The  priest,  offended 
at  his  rudeness,  exclaimed  "  Blasphemer !"  and  struck  the 
youth,  who  in  turn  threw  a  stone,  which  missed  the  priest, 
but  hit  an  image  on  the  altar,  and  broke  it.     This  set  fire  to 
the  train,  and  stimulated  the  ferocious  passions  of  the  "  rascal 
multitude^''  as  John  Knox  justly  calls  them,  who  immediately 
followed  up  the  boy's  attack  by  an  assault  on  the  altar,  and  com- 
pletely demolished  it  with  all  its  images  and  sacred  utensils. 
They  next  proceeded  to  demolish  all  the  decent  ornaments  of 
the  church,  the  priests  themselves  escaping  the  fury  of  the 
rabble  with  the  utmost  difficulty.     The  sacrilegious  zeal  and 
fury  of  the    rascal  multitude  within  the  church  spread  like 
wild  fire  amongst  the  rabble  without ;  and  after  having  de- 
molished all  the  sacred  furniture  of  this  splendid  church, 
they  ran  violently  to  attack  the  religious  houses  with  which 
Perth  abounded.    The  towers  and  minarets  of  the  monasteries 

^  Murray's  Sketches  of  Scenes  in  Scotland,  taken  from  a  manuscript  of  Princi- 
pal Tullideph  of  St.  Andrews,  which  he  obtained  from  a  lady,  a  descendant  of 
the  principal,  cited  in  Lawson's  Rom.  Catholic  Church  in  Scotland,  p.  191. 


76  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV, 

of  the  Franciscans,  Dominicans,  and  Carmelites,  rose  proudly 
in  the  "  Fair  City,"  and  rivalled  each  other  in  splendour  ; 
while  the  Charter  House,  founded  by  James  I.  in  1429,  was 
more  like  the  palace  of  a  sovereign  prince  than  the  residence 
of  mendicant  friars.     The  prior  of  the  latter  establishment 
had  gamsoned  his  house  with  the  tenants  of  the  lands  belong- 
ing to  it,  and  made  a  feeble  defence ;  but  the  "  rascal  multi- 
tude" broke  open  the  gates  with  one  of  their  own  crosses, 
which  were  set  up  for  veneration  outside  their  gate.    All  these, 
with  a  number  of  chapels  and  nunneries,  were  demolished, 
plundered,  and  rendered  tenantlessin  an  incredibly  short  space 
of  time.     The  "rascal  multitude"  substituted  the  "  root  of  all 
evil"  for  the  idolatry  of  the  papal  church,  and  to  sacrilege 
added  the  sin  of  robbery  ;  for  they  plundered  the  abbeys  of 
money,  provisions,  and  rich  furniture,  with  which  they  were 
amply  filled.     In  a  few  hours  these  beautiful  and  costly  edi- 
fices were  completely  gutted,  and  nothing  of  them  left  stand- 
ing but  the  bare  walls  ^     How  different  is  this  reforming  zeal 
from  the  conduct  of  the  apostles   and  primitive  christians 
against  the  idolatry  that  prevailed  in  their  age.     It  was  by 
faith  and  the  use  of  spiritual  weapons  alone  that  they  subdued 
the  nations  ;  and  it  was  by  the  holiness  of  their  doctrine,  the 
blamelessness  of  their  lives,  and  the  greatness  of  their  suffer- 
ings and   self-denial,  that  they  conquered   the  kingdom  of 
darkness  and  of  idolatry.     The  apostles  did  not  march  out 
to  reform  the  world  with  malignity  and  hatred  in  their  hearts, 
the  torch  of  sedition  and  conflagration  in  their  hands,  and  the 
carnal  weapon  by  their  side  ;  but  hy  faith  they  subdued  king- 
doms, and  taught  submission  to  the  powers  that  be. 

The  author  of  the  history  ascribed  to  Knox,  seems  con- 
scious of  the  criminality  of  his  hero  with  the  "  rascal  multi- 
tude," which  he  had  stimulated  and  encouraged  to  this  wan- 
ton and  unlawful  destruction  of  the  churches  and  monasteries. 
He  attempts  to  gloss  over  the  abominable  transaction  by  say- 
ing, that  this  work  of  destruction  was  not  done  by  "  gentle- 
men, nor  by  those  who  were  earnest  professors,  but  by  the 
rascal  multitude ;  who  finding  nothing  to  do  in  that  church, 
did  run  without  deliberation  to  the  Grey-and  Blackfriars." 
Nevertheless,  this  infamous  transaction  must  be  altogether  laid 
to  Knox's  charge,  for  it  was  done  under  his  own  eye,  while  he 
stood  quietly  looking  on,  and  when  his  commands  or  exhor- 
tations might  have  prevented  the  whole  riot ;  but  as  he  did 
not  forbid  the  fury  of  the  "  rascal  multitude," — "  the  madness 

'  S^iottiswood. — Knox. — Keith. — M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox. 


1559.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  77 

of  the  people," — his  silence  was  a  tacit  encouragement.  But 
this  is  not  all ;  we  have  his  indirect  acknowledgment  of  his 
own  share  in  the  riot ;  for,  says  he,  "  So  beaten  were  merCs 
consciences  with  the  Word,  that  they  had  no  respect  for  their 
own  particular  profit,  but  only  to  abolish  idolatry,  the  places 
and  monuments  thereof,  to  wit,  the  Black  and  Grey  thieves." 
In  nearly  the  same  words  Buchanan  lays  the  weight  of  the 
whole  transaction  on  the  preacher ;  for,  says  he,  "  matters 
standing  in  this  ticklish  posture,  Knox  assembled  the  multitude 
at  Perth,  and  made  such  an  excellent  sermon  to  them,  that 
he  set  their  minds  all  in  aflame.'''  Subsequent  events  are  a 
sufficient  vi^arrant  for  our  accusing  Knox  of  the  guilt  of  this 
riot  and  destruction  of  property,  as  it  was  only  the  commence- 
ment of  a  system,  which,  with  the  aid  of  "  the  rascal  multi- 
tude,"— "  the  beasts  of  the  people"  according  to  the  Psalmist, 
— he  carried  on  with  extenuinatiug  vigour,  in  defiance  of  the 
laws  of  his  country,  having  been  stimulated,  not  more  by  re- 
ligious feeling  and  antipathy  against  the  idolatry  of  the  mass, 
than  by  the  sin  of  covetousness,  in  his  followers.  The 
plunder  of  the  abbeys  and  monasteries,  where  the  whole 
wealth  of  the  nation  was  concentrated,  served  to  inflame  the 
zeal  and  whet  the  appetite  of  the  "rascal  multitude"  for 
plunder.  These  reformers  erected  a  monument  for  John, 
more  durable  than  brass,  in  every  quarter  of  the  kingdom 
where  religious  houses  were  situated.  Almost  all  the  cathe- 
drals and  elegant  churches  and  monastic  buildings  were  dedi- 
cated to  the  same  end,  as  may  be  seen  to  this  day,  their  ruins 
reminding  the  religious  man  of  the  glories  of  this  world 
which  pass  away,  and  the  antiquary  of  the  taste,  grandeur,  and 
piety  of  antiquity. 

After  reforming  the  church  and  enriching  themselves  with 
the  spoils,  "  the  rascal  multitude"  departed  to  their  own 
homes,  and  left  John  Knox  at  Perth  "  to  instruct  the  people, 
because  they  were  yet  young  and  rude  in  Christ T  Thus,  in 
one  hour,  it  may  be  said,  did  judgment  come  upon  her  who 
"  glorified  herself  and  lived  deliciously,"  and  said  in  her 
heart,  "  /  sit  a  queen,  and  am  no  widow,  and  shall  see  no 
sorrow."  But  the  light  of  her  candle,  which  had  long  burnt 
dim,  shone  no  more  at  all  in  the  Scoto-papal  church  ;  the  voice 
of  the  bridegroom  and  of  the  bride  was  doomed  to  be  heard 
no  more  at  all  in  her ;  for  her  merchants  were  the  great  men 
of  the  land  who  had  been  deceived  by  her  sorceries,  but  now 
were  resolved  to  devour  her  flesh.  "  And  in  her  were  found 
the  blood  of  propliets,  and  of  saints,  and  of  all  that  were  slain 


78  HISTOllY  OF  THE  [cHAP,  IV 

upon  the  earths"  Although  a  just  judgment  now  overtook  this 
most  degenerate  and  corrupt  church,  yet  the  truth  of  our  Lord's 
words,  in  another  sense,  must  be  admitted, — woe  be  to  them 
by  whom  the  judgment  was  inflicted. 

When  these  rascally  proceedings  were  reported  to  the  re- 
gent, she  was  so  indignant  that  she  vowed  utterly  to  raze  the 
town  of  Perth,  and  salt  it  with  salt,  in  token  of  perpetual  deso- 
lation. In  her  present  temper  and  that  of  the  popish  party, 
she  would  have  carried  her  threat  into  execution,  had  she 
not  been  deterred  by  the  appearance  of  the  Earl  of  Glen- 
cairne,  with  some  other  noblemen,  at  the  head  of  two  thou- 
sand five  hundred  of  their  armed  followers.  After  some  time 
spent  in  negociation,  the  regent  took  possession  of  Perth  on 
condition  of  respecting  life  and  property  ;  but  w'hen  the  forces 
of  the  Protestants  were  disbanded,  she  began  to  disregard  the 
conditions.  The  Lord  James  Stuart  and  the  Earl  of  Argyle, 
who  had  hitherto  been  amongst  the  number  of  her  supporters, 
remonstrated  with  her  on  this  infraction  of  the  treaty ;  but 
her  answer  not  conveying  that  assurance  of  good  faith  which 
they  expected,  they  deserted  her  service  and  went  over  to  the 
Protestants.  This  was  the  ostensible  cause  of  their  sudden 
change ;  but  the  rich  and  extensive  lands  which  were  now 
passing  from  the  grasp  of  the  churchmen  had  a  most  persua- 
sive influence  on  their  pious  affections. 

The  ferocious  example  of  the  inhabitants  of  Perth  was 
quickly  imitated  by  the  "rascal  multitudes"  in  other  places. 
At  Cupar,  in  Fife,  the  people  attacked  the  parish  church, 
demolished  the  altar,  the  rich  paintings,  and  the  fine  tracery  of 
the  pillars,  which  the  poor  curate  took  so  much  to  heart  that 
he  committed  suicide  the  following  day. 

Knox  felt  it  prudent  to  leave  a  scene  where  he  had  played 
so  conspicuous  a  part,  and  one  which  was  likely  to  be  visited 
with  the  royal  displeasure  :  he  therefore  took  his  departure, 
in  company  with  the  Earl  of  Argyle  and  the  Lord  James,  for 
St.  Andrews.  Before  leaving  Perth,  however,  they  addressed 
letters  to  the  regent,  to  the  nobility,  and  to  the  clergy  under 
the  rude  and  uncharitable  title  of  "  the  generation  of  Anti- 
christ, the  pestilent  prelates  and  their  shavelings  within  Scot- 
land." The  contents  of  the  last  letter  coiTcsponded  to  the 
unmannerly  address.  It  commences  with  a  menace  of  retalia- 
tion for  the  blood  which  they  had  shed : — "  To  the  end  that  ye 
shall  not  be  abused,  thinking  to  escape  just  punishment  after 
that  ye,  in  your  blind  fury,  have  caused  the  blood  of  many  to 

'  Revelations,  ch.  xviii.  xLx.  jjassim. 


1559.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  79 

be  shed,  this  we  notify  and  declare  unto  you,  that  if  ye  pro- 
ceed in  this  your  malicious  cruelty  ye  shall  be  dealt  withal, 
wheresoever  ye  shall  be  apprehended,  as  murderers  and  open 

enemies  to  God  and  unto  mankind or  else,  be  assured, 

that  with  the  same  measure  that  ye  have  measured  against  us, 
and  yet  intend  to  measure  to  others,  it  shall  be  measured  unto 
you ;  that  is,  as  ye  by  tyranny  intend  not  only  to  destroy  our 
bodies,  but  also  by  the  same  to  hold  our  souls  in  bondage  of  the 
devil,  subject  to  idolatry,  so  shall  we,  with  all  the  force  and 
power  which  God  shall  grant  unto  us,  execute  just  vengeance 
and  punishment  upon  you.''''  In  their  letter  to  the  queen,  they 
threaten  to  call  in  foreign  assistance,  if  she  persisted  in  main- 
taining the  popish  clergy  in  their  persecuting  severities,  and  in 
the  support  of  idolatry.  In  their  address  to  the  nobility,  the 
hand  of  the  Jesuit  is  clearly  to  be  seen  in  the  distinction  which 
they  are  pleased  to  draw  betwixt  authority  and  the  persons  of 
those  who  are  placed  in  authority.  This  is  that  unchristian 
position  which  the  Covenanters  at  a  later  period  adopted  and 
improved,  and  on  which  they  acted  in  their  rebellion  against 
Charles  I.  The  letter-writer,  who  was  most  likely  Knox 
himself,  says,  "  Do  ye  not  understand  that  there  is  a  great 
difference  betwixt  the  authority  which  is  God's  ordinance 
and  the  persons  of  those  who  are  placed  in  authority  ?"  How 
is  it  possible  to  disunite  what  God  hath  joined  together  ?  how 
is  it  possible  to  be  subject  to  an  authority  where  there  is  no 
executor  ?  The  powers  that  be,  as  well  as  the  authority  with 
which  they  are  invested,  are  ordained  of  God,  and  every  soul 
is  commanded,  on  pain  of  damnation,  to  be  subject  to  the 
powers  who  are  God's  ministers,  to  bear  the  sword  with  all 
authority.  This  furnished  the  Protestants  with  an  apology 
for  their  seditious  and  ungovernable  conduct,  and  taught  them 
to  make  the  Jesuitical  pretence  of  resisting  the  person  but 
maintaining  the  authority  of  the  sovereign,  while  they  were 
acting  contrary  to  all  law  and  authority. 

We  are  told  by  Knox's  biographer,  that  the  Lords  of  the 
Congregation  determined,  in  the  beginning  of  June,  to  make  a 
bold  and  vigorous  effort  to  shake  off"  their  "  chains  altogether;" 
that  is,  they  had  sufficiently  humbled  the  "  person  who  was 
placed  in  authority,"  and  felt  themselves  strong  enough,  in  the 
support  of  the  "  rascal  multitude,"  to  assume  the  power  of  im- 
posing a  religious  creed  upon  the  nation.  "  The  scandalous 
lives  of  the  established  clergy,"  he  too  truly  says, — "  their  total 
neglect  of  the  religious  instruction  of  the  people — and  the  pro- 
fanation of  religious  worship  by  gross  idolatry — were  the  most 
glaring  abuses.     The  Lords  of  the  Congregation  resolved  to 


80  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

take  immediate  steps  for  removing  these,  by  abolishing  the 
Popish  service,  and  setting  up  the  reformed  worship  in  all  those 
places  to  which  their  authority  and  influence  extended,  and  in 
which  the  greater  part  of  the  inhabitants  were  friendly  to  the 
design.  This  step,"  he  adds,  "  \s  justified  in  part  by  the  feudal 
ideas  respecting  the  jurisdiction  of  the  nobility,  which  at  that 
time  prevailed  in  Scotland  ^" 

But  whatever  jurisdiction  they  possessed  over  the  tenants  on 
their  own  estates  and  personal  retainers,  they  could  have  no 
jurisdiction  over  the  citizens  and  free  burgesses  of  the  corporate 
towns  and  cities ;  still  less  had  a  few  nobles  and  preachers  au- 
thority to  alter  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  kingdom  with  the 
view  of  furthering  their  own  private  interests.  In  prosecution  of 
their  designs,  they  fixed  on  St.  Andrews  for  commencing  their 
operations  ;  and  Knox  agreed  to  meet  the  Earl  of  Argyle  and 
the  Lord  James  in  that  city. 

On  the  9th  of  June,  Knox  preached  a  sermon  at  Crail,  in 
Fife ;  and  the  following  day  he  also  preached  against  the  ido- 
latry of  the  mass  at  Anstruther,  which  was  as  usual  followed 
by  an  assault  of  the  "  rascal  multitude"  on  the  altars,  with  their 
decorations  and  images,  in  the  parish  churches  of  these  places. 
From  thence  he  proceeded  to  St.  Andrews,  where  the  arch- 
bishop, hearing  of  their  desecrating  pilgrimage,  and  fearing  a 
similar  reformation  in  his  own  city,  placed  in  it  a  "  hundred 
spears,  with  about  a  dozen  culverins,"  for  its  protection.  See- 
ing this,  the  Lords  and  the  reforming  rabble  wished  to  dis- 
suade Knox  from  preaching ;  but  he,  nothing  afraid,  boldly 
ascended  the  pulpit,  and  significantly  harangued  the  audience 
on  the  ejection  of  the  buyers  and  sellers  from  the  temple.  He 
so  powerfully  wrought  on  his  hearers,  "  the  provost  and 
baillies,  with  the  commonalty,"  and  fired  their  holy  zeal  for  re- 
formation, that  they  proceeded  immediately  to  pull  down  and 
destroy  the  splendid  cathedral,  with  the  other  churches,  rasing 
the  monasteries  of  the  Black  and  Grey  Friars  to  the  ground, 
and  destroying  all  the  monuments  of  antiquity  within  the  city, 
adding  pillage  to  their  sacrilege.  "  They  not  only  demolished," 
says  Mr.  Lyon  ^,  "  in  whole  or  in  part,  the  monasteries  of  the 
Black  and  Grey  Friars,  the  priory  3,  the  jTrovostry  of  Kirk- 
heugh,  and  the  ancient  church  of  St.  Regulus,  but  the  splendid 
cathedral — the  metropolitan  church  of  Scotland  for  so  many 
centuries — the  scene  of  so  many  interesting  events — the  tomb 
of  so  many  prelates,  all  of  them  eminent  for  their  rank  or  their 


'  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  1G3.  "  History  of  St.  Andrews,  p.  104. 

^  The  Lord  James,  natural  son  of  James  V.,  was  prior  of  this  priory. 


1559.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  81 

learning,  and  most  of  them  for  their  piety  and  virtue."  This 
barbarous  exploit  was  executed  on  Sunday  afternoon,  under 
the  personal  superintendence  of  our  Reformer,  who  pretended 
to  find  a  warrant  in  our  Saviour's  purgation  of  the  temple  ^ 
Knox  is  to  be  entirely  condemned,  in  thus  letting  loose  "  all  the 
unsettled  humours  of  the  land — rash,  inconsiderate,  fiery  volun- 
taries,"— and  "  stirring  them  to  blood  and  strife ;"  to  destroy ,with 
ruthless  barbarism,  all  those  noble  churches,  which  had  been 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  God,  and  venerable  for  their  anti- 
quity and  the  grandeur  of  their  architectural  ornaments,  even 
although  they  had  been  polluted  with  the  worship  of  crucifixes 
and  mediatory  saints.  Our  blessed  Lord  had  an  undoubted 
right  to  turn  out  the  money-changers ;  and  they  were  so  well 
satisfied  of  his  right,  that  they  neither  complained  nor  resisted: 
but  John  Knox  could  plead  no  such  right — we  read  of  no  di- 
vine commission  conferred  on  him.  He  very  evidently  showed, 
that  in  hounding  on  "  the  rascal  multitude"  to  the  sacrilegious 
work  of  destroying  the  temples  of  God,  he  "  knew  not  what 
spirit  he  was  qf"^" 

The  archbishop  made  his  escape  to  Falkland,  and,  joining 
the  queen,  gave  her  the  first  intimation  of  the  ferocious  refor- 
mation which  was  proceeding  with  such  ungovernable  fury. 
She  promptly  set  her  French  troops  in  motion,  on  whom  alone 
she  could  rely,  and  issued  a  proclamation,  summoning  the  na- 
tive subjects  to  meet  the  next  day  at  Cupar.  Immense  crowds 
flocked  to  the  standard  of  the  Reformation,  which  was  now 
unfurled  in  open  rebellion.  The  queen  intended  to  have  tried 
the  issue  of  a  battle,  but  her  native  troops  became  mutinous, 
and  refused  to  fight  against  their  countrymen ;  whereupon  she 
was  obliged  to  patch  up  an  insincere  peace — the  Duke  of 
Chatelherault,  her  nominal  commander,  stipulating,  that  the 
insurgents  should  first  leave  the  field,  to  save  the  honour  of 
the  sovereign^. 

The  queen  had  placed  a  garrison  in  Perth,  in  violation  of 
the  treaty  with  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation,  and  which  the 
refoimers,  now  flushed  with  their  appearance  of  strength,  de- 
termined to  expel ;  they  marched  on  that  place  accordingly, 
carrying  fire,  sword,  and  sedition,  in  their  train.  The  garrison 
evacuated  the  town,  and  Lord  Ruthven  was  reinstated  in  his 

1  Knox  ;  Keith,  b.  i.  c.  viii.  p.  90  ;  Heylin,  lib.  iv.  p.  130  ;  Spottis.  p.  146. 

^  Of  this  most  horrid  sacrilege  Dr.  M'Crie  says,  "  A  great  part  of  the  nation 
demanded  such  a  reformation  ;  and,  had  not  regular  measures  been  adopted  for 
its  introduction,  the  popular  indignation  would  have  effected  the  work  in  a  more 
exceptionable  way  !'' — P.  163. 

■*  Spottiswood ;  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  316. 

VOL.  I.  M 


82  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

civic  dignity,  from  which  he  had  been  degraded  by  the  regent. 
The  following  day  the  "  rascals"  commenced  their  work  of  re- 
formation ;  when  they  plmidered  and  burnt  to  ashes  the  royal 
palace  and  abbey  of  Scoon.  Some  noblemen  exerted  them- 
selves to  presei-ve  the  chapel,  but  to  no  purpose.  Knox  him- 
self hypocritically  attempted  to  dissuade  them,  but  here  he 
found  that  it  was  much  easier  to  raise  a  devil  than  to  lay  him. 
Patrick  Hepburn,  bishop  of  Moray,  and  who  was  also  com- 
mendator  of  the  abbey  of  Scoon,  with  some  military  retainers, 
occupied  the  palace,  which  is  about  three  miles  distant  from 
Perth.  The  Lords  wrote  to  him,  desiring  he  would  join  and 
assist  them,  which  he  promised  to  do ;  but  his  answer  not 
reaching  them  in  time,  the  rabble  marched  to  the  assault. 
Knox,  and  some  of  the  lords,  attempted  to  dissuade  their 
auxiliaries  from  demolishing  this  stately  edifice,  but  without 
effect.  "  When  the  flames  were  ascending,  an  old  woman, 
perceiving  that  many  persons  were  offended  thereat,  said, 
'  Now  I  see  and  understand  that  God's  judgments  are  just, 
and  that  no  man  is  able  to  save  where  he  will  punish.  Since 
my  remembrance,  this  place  has  been  nothing  else  but  a  den 
of  whoremongers.  It  is  incredible  to  believe  how  many  wives 
have  been  adulterated,  and  virgins  deflowered,  by  the  filthy 
beasts  which  have  been  fostered  in  this  den ;  but  especially 
by  that  wicked  man  who  is  called  the  bishop  ^' " 

A  suspicion  arising  that  the  regent  intended  to  seize  and 
garrison  Stirling  with  French  troops,  and  to  fortify  the  bridge 
to  prevent  their  passage  of  the  Forth,  the  Earl  of  Argyle  and 
the  Lord  James  left  Perth  at  midnight,  and,  on  their  arrival 
at  Stirling  next  morning,  roused  the  fanaticism  of  the  re- 
formers in  that  town,  devoted  all  the  churches  to  destruction, 
desecrated  the  altars  and  holy  vessels,  and  demolished  all 
the  trumpery  of  images.  The  monasteries  in  the  town  and 
neighbourhood,  but  especially  the  venerable  Abbey  of  Cam- 
buskenneth,  experienced  the  tender  mercies  of  the  ferocious 
reformers, — these  they  rased  to  the  ground,  and  utterly  de- 
stroyed them.  The  work  of  reformation  occupied  these  lights 
of  the  world  in  their  generation  three  days.  On  the  fourth 
they  marched  tumultuously  on  Edinburgh^  committing  their 
usual  havoc  by  the  way,  desecrating  the  churches,  burning, 
pillaging,  and  destroying  the  monasteries,  especially  at 
Linlithgow,  "  and  thei'e  demolish  and  pull  down  all  what- 
soever  carried  any  symbol  of  the   Roman  whore  2."      The 

'  Keith's  Hist.  b.  i.  c.  viii.  p.  93  ;  Knox's  Hist.  b.  ii.  p.  164—166. 
'^  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  317. 


1559.]  CHUKCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  83 

terrified  inmates  carried  the  report  of  the  desolating  industr}'  of 
the  reformers  to  the  queen  regent  at  Holyrood  House.  "  The 
Congregation  from  Linlithgow  march  they  to  Edinburgh,  and 
the  queen  regent  deals  earnestly  with  the  citizens  of  Edinburgh 
to  oppose  their  entry,  which  they  altogether  refuse.  The 
queen  hearing  their  answer,  and  fearing  they  would  lay  hold 
on  her  person,  she,  with  D'Ossel  and  her  French  soldiers, 
retire  to  Dunbar  Castle.  Then  enters  the  congregation 
Edinburgh,  and  there  removes  and  demolishes  all  badges  of 
popery  and  superstition  out  of  the  realm,  and  return  the 
French  soldiers  home  again  who  had  for  many  years  so 
miserably  oppressed  the  country  since  their  first  footing  here, 
without  any  respect  of  persons  or  fear  of  divine  justice^." 
The  queen,  alarmed  at  this  open  defiance  of  her  authority,  and 
ignorant  of  their  force,  which  had  been  much  exaggerated, 
though  it  did  not  exceed  three  hundred  men,  retired  with 
her  whole  court  to  Dunbar,  carrying  the  Lord  Seaton,  the 
provost,  with  her,  and  leaving  Edinburgh  a  prey  to  the  un- 
restrained licence  of  the  fanatical  reformers,  or,  as  Knox,  in 
imitation  of  Judas  Iscariot,  said,  "  left  the  spoil  to  the  poor, 
who  had  made  havock  of  all  such  things  as  were  moveable  in 
those  places  before  our  coming,  and  left  nothing  but  bare 
walls ;  yea,  not  so  much  as  door  or  window."  On  the  removal 
of  wholesome  restraint,  the  country  reformers  were  joined  by 
the  rabble  of  Edinburgh,  the  most  riotous  in  the  kingdom ; 
and  in  the  fury  of  their  barbarous  zeal,  they  plundered,  dese- 
crated, and  demolished  all  the  monasteries  and  religious  houses 
in  the  city,  carried  off  all  that  was  portable,  and  consigned 
the  rest  to  the  fire.  The  chapel  royal  did  not  escape  the 
"  rascal"  visitation:  the  costly  communion  plate  was  confis- 
cated for  the  common  use  of  the  sovereign  people  ;  the  superb 
paintings  and  valuable  ornaments  were  visited  here,  as  else- 
where, with  the  besom  of  reforming  destruction.  But  their 
leaders  flew  at  higher  game,  and  seized  on  the  mint,  the 
peculiar  attribute  of  sovereignty  ;  on  which  the  queen  regent, 
recovering  from  her  panic,  issued  a  proclamation,  in  which 
she  offered  to  call  a  parliament  for  establishing  order  in  matters 
of  religion,  alleging,  "  That  they  of  the  Congregation,  re- 
jecting all  reasonable  offers,  had,  by  their  actions,  clearly 
showed  that  it  is  not  religion,  nor  any  thing  pertaining 
thereto,  that  they  seek,  but  only  the  subversion  of  authority, 
and  the  usurpation  of  the  crowns  She  commanded  all 
strangers  to  depart  from  the  city  within  six  hours,  "  except 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  317. 


84  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VI. 

tliey  would  be  reputed  and  holden  as  manifest  traitors  to  our 
crown^" 

A  rumour  had  prevailed,  and  was  circulated  with  activity, 
that  the  lords  of  the  congregation  had  entered  into  a  treasona- 
ble conspiracy  to  deprive  the  queen  regent  of  her  authority, 
and  to  disinherit  the  Duke  of  Chatelherault  and  his  heirs  of 
the  eventual  right  of  succession  to  the  crown ;  which,  to  the 
honour  of  many  of  the  inferior  members  of  the  congregation, 
induced  them  to  withdraw  from  a  society  holding  such  trea- 
sonable views-  To  exculpate  themselves,  and  undeceive  the 
world,  the  leaders  addressed  a  letter  to  the  regent,  and  issued 
a  proclamation  to  the  people,  stating  that  such  "  an  imputa- 
tion was  most  false  and  odious  ;  their  intentions  being  none 
other  but  to  abolish  idolatry  and  superstitious  abuses,  that 
did  not  agree  with  the  word  of  God,  and  maintain  the  true 
preachers  thereof  from  the  violence  of  wicked  men."  The 
queen  offered  a  safe  conduct  to  a  deputation  which  was  sent 
to  assure  her  of  the  loyalty  and  good  intentions  of  the  Congre- 
gation ;  and  graciously  assured  them,  "  that,  if  she  could  be  as- 
sured of  their  honest  and  dutiful  meaning  towards  her  daughter 
and  herself,  their  demands  seemed  not  unreasonable,"  and  de- 
sired earnestly  that  the  Earl  of  Argyle  and  the  Lord  James 
should  wait  on  her.  But,  conscious  of  their  own  treasonable 
conduct,  and  fearing  treachery  on  her  part,  others  were  sent, 
when  articles  were  agreed  to,  that  the  Congregation  should 
deliver  up  the  palace  of  Holyrood  House  and  the  mint ;  and 
remaining  true  and  obedient  subjects  of  the  queen,  and  of  the 
regent  as  her  representative,  should  depart  from  Edinburgh 
within  twenty-four  hours.  The  regent  on  her  part  promised 
that  she  would  not  interfere  with  the  refonned  preachers,  nor 
prevent  their  celebration  of  divine  worship  in  their  own  way, 
(which  was  by  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  set  forth  by 
Edward  VI.  of  England),  till  the  10th  of  January  following  ; 
and,  being  left  to  her  own  good  disposition,  she  kept  this 
promise  inviolate.  But  the  French  officers  insolently  inter- 
rupted the  Protestants  at  their  public  devotions,  by  creating 
great  disturbances  in  the  churches ;  "  and  at  Leith,"  says 
Spottiswood,  "  they  cut  in  pieces  the  pulpit  erected  for  the 
preachers,  and  set  up  the  mass,  which  had  been  suppressed 
before  in  that  town.  They  did  the  like  in  the  abbey  church, 
forcibly  abolishing  the  service  of  the  common  prayers,  which 
then  was  ordinarily  used'^.'''     The  same  was  used  in  St.  Giles's 


*  Spottiswood. — Knox. — Keith. 

-  Spottiswood. — Knox. — Keith. — M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  172. 


1559.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  85 

Church,  Edinburgh ;  and  when  the  congregation  departed 
from  the  city,  they  left  John  Willock,  a  priest  of  the  Church 
of  England,  to  officiate  in  it.  Knox  retired  with  the  lords 
of  the  congregation  to  Stirling ;  and  afterwards  undertook  a 
])reaching  tour  through  the  southern  counties,  and  stirred  up 
the  inhabitants  to  pull  down  and  deface  the  strongholds  of 
idolatry  ^ 

The  death  of  Henry  11.  king  of  France,  which  took  place 
on  the  8th  of  July,  had  a  considerable  influence  on  the  affairs 
of  Scotland.  Henry  had  conceived  a  just  suspicion  of  the  de- 
signs of  the  Lord  James  on  the  crown,  and  sent  Mr.  Melville 
to  ascertain  his  views,  and  the  exact  position  of  the  Protestant 
party ;  but  before  Melville  could  return,  the  crown  had  de- 
scended to  his  son,  Francis  II.  and  the  Queen  of  the  Scots. 
These  dismissed  the  Duke  of  Montmorency  from  their  coun- 
cils, and  gave  themselves  up  entirely  to  the  direction  of  the 
Duke  of  Guise  and  the  Cardinal  of  Lorrain,  the  queen's 
uncles  and  brothers  of  the  Scottish  regent.  They  sent  a 
Monsieur  de  la  Croc  to  acquaint  the  queen  regent  that  a 
reinforcement  should  be  sent  under  the  command  of  her 
brother  the  Marquis  d'Elbeuf,  and  about  a  thousand  men, 
commanded  by  one  Octavian,  very  soon  afterwards  arrived. 
At  the  same  time  Francis  sent  despatches  to  the  Lord  James, 
menacing  him  with  the  vengeance  of  the  crown  of  France 
for  his  acts  of  sedition  and  treason.  A  few  more  French 
troops  followed,  and  the  queen  fortified  Leith,  and  threw  a 
strong  French  garrison  into  it.  The  Congregation  seized 
and  fortified  Broughty  Castle  in  the  Tay,  and  the  lords  of 
the  Congregation  made  vigorous  preparations  for  war.  They 
summoned  the  regent  to  surrender  Leith,  and  demanded  the 
instant  dismissal  of  the  French  forces.  This  was  so  far  from 
being  conceded,  or  of  intimidating  the  regent,  that  she  forth- 
with sent  the  Lyon  King-at-Arms  to  command  them  to 
withdraw  their  forces  from  Edinburgh  and  disband  them,  on 
pain  of  treason^.  The  Congregation  now  began  to  look  to 
England  for  military  assistance  against  the  French  troops. 
Knox  accordingly  urged  Kirkcaldy  of  Grange  to  apply  to 
Sir  Henry  Percy,  warden  of  the  English  marches  ;  and  he 
himself  wrote  to  Cecil,  urging  him  to  support  the  Congrega- 
tion against  the  regent  and  the  French  forces^.  In  the 
meantime,  the  regent  openly  accused  the  Duke  of  Chatel- 


1  M'Crie'sLife  of  Knox,  p.  172. 

''  Keith,  b.  i.  ch.  ix.  101-103 :  Heylin,  b.  iv.  133. 

3  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  174-5. 


86  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

herault  of  the  design  of  usuii^ing  the  crown;  but  that 
nobleman  and  his  son,  the  Earl  of  Arran,  "  purged  themselves 
by  sound  of  trumpet,  at  the  cross  of  Edinburgh,"  on  the  19th 
of  October,  of  all  treasonable  views. 

The  lords  of  the  Congregation  retained  the  Lyon  King-at- 
Arms  till  after  they  had  held  a  solemn  "  gathering  of  the 
nobles,  barons,  and  burghers  of  their  faction  within  the 
Tolbooth  (or  common  jail)  of  the  city,  on  the  21st  of  October." 
The  Lord  Ruthven  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  after  he  had 
opened  the  business  of  the  meeting,  and  declared  that  the 
reasons  of  their  present  meeting  was,  because  the  queen 
regent  "  pursued  the  barons  and  burgesses  within  the  realm 
with  weapons  and  armour  as  strangers,  without  any  process  or 
order  of  law,  laid  garrisons  in  towns  which  oppressed  the 
lieges,  and  forced  a  great  part  of  the  inhabitants  to  flee  out  of 
their  own  houses,  till  they  were  restored  by  arms,  and  provosts 
thrust  baillies  upon  burghers  without  form  of  election,  brought 
in  strangers,  and  placed  them  in  one  of  the  principal  parts  of 
the  realm;  committed  the  Great  Seal  to  a  stranger,  wilhoiit 
consent  of  the  council,  and  sent  the  Greal  Seal  forth  of  the 
realm  by  the  said  stranger ;  that  she  will  not  join  with  them 
to  consult  upon  the  affairs  of  the  commonwealth,  they  being 
born  councillors  of  the  same  by  the  ancient  laws  of  the  realm ; 
and  intended  to  suppress  the  liberties  of  the  commonwealth ^" 
As  a  consequence  of  this  case,  which  they  made  to  suit  the 
exigency  of  the  moment,  the  lords  of  the  Congregation,  with- 
out any  warrant  from  their  sovereign,  took  upon  them,  in  her 
name  and  by  her  authority,  as  they  said,  to  depose  the  queen 
regent,  and  deprive  her  of  her  power  as  regent.  This  daring 
act  of  rebellion,  however,  was  not  done  without  some  oppo- 
sition, and  it  was  thought  necessary  to  consult  Willock  and 
Knox,  who  produced  several  examples  of  the  same  sort  from 
Scripture,  but  which,  when  examined,  had  no  reference  to  the 
present  question.  The  mischievous  and  unchristian  doctrine 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  was  here  first  practically 
broached ;  yet  they  had  not  reached  that  boldness  which  has 
since  been  gloried  in.  At  the  very  time  when  they  were 
acting  on  the  most  determined  democraticai  principles,  they 
still  maintained  the  divine  and  fundamental  derivation  of 
kingly  power ;  for  Willock,  in  delivering  his  opinion,  said, 
"  Albeit  magistracy  be  God's  ordinance,  and  they  who  bear 
rule,  have  their  authority  from  him ;"  and,  "  albeit  God  has 
appointed  magistrates  his  lieutenants  on  earth,  honouring  them 

'  Calderwood's  True  History,  p.  12. 


1559.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  87 

ivith  his  own  title,  and  calling  them  gods"  &c.  The  casuistry, 
however,  of  these  two  reformers  was  all  that  was  wanted  to 
give  the  lords  of  the  Congregation  a  plausible  excuse  for  the 
daring  act  of  rebellion  on  which  they  had  detennined,  of  de- 
priving the  queen  dowager  of  her  delegated  power.  They  did 
not  meet  in  parliament  to  give  such  an  act  the  semblance  of 
legality,  but  in  a  convocation  of  the  leading  men  in  the  com- 
mon jail  of  the  city.  They,  however,  assumed  to  themselves 
that  authority  of  which  they  had  illegally  deprived  the  law- 
ful regent,  and  ordained  their  resolutions  to  be  published  at 
the  market  crosses  of  all  the  principal  burghs  of  the  king- 
dom. This  act  was  subscribed  "  by  the  nobility  and  com- 
mons of  the  Protestant  church  of  Scotland : — That  we,  in  the 
name  of  our  sovereign  lord  and  lady,  do  suspend  your  com- 
mission." After  due  intimation  of  this  revolution  at  the  market 
cross,  with  all  the  usual  legal  formalities,  the  royal  herald  was 
dismissed  to  give  the  queen  due  intimation,  and  to  command 
her  to  yield  up  the  fort  of  Leith ;  but  in  place  of  which  the  French 
garrison  in  that  town  made  a  sally,  and  twice  defeated  the  Con- 
gregational forces  ;  on  which  they  abandoned  Edinburgh,  and 
retired  to  Stirling,  "  where  master  Knox  had  a  comfortable 
sennon^." 

In  this  treasonable  act  the  lords  of  the  Congregation  ground 
their  whole  procedure  upon  the  fact  of  their  being  hereditary 
councillors  of  the  crown.  But  they  convened  together  in  arms 
in  the  first  place,  in  open  defiance  of  the  authority  of  their  sove- 
reign, as  administered  by  her  mother ;  and,  in  the  second 
place,  they  met  and  transacted  an  important  step  as  coun- 
cillors, without  even  the  knowledge,  much  less  the  authority, 
of  the  sovereign.  They  declared  that  to  be  the  sovereign's  will 
which  they  had  the  best  assurance  was  not  her  will ;  and  they 
set  up,  in  her  stead,  a  council  of  regency,  consisting  of  twelve 
noblemen  ^^^ho  doubtless  were  hereditary  councillors,  and  also 
of  eldest  sons  of  peers,  lairds,  and  provosts  of  different  cities, 
who  certainly  were  not  hereditary  councillors  of  the  realm. 
They  here  carried  out  Knox's  principle  of  distinguishing  betwixt 
the  person  and  the  authority  of  the  government,  suspended  the 
lawful  representative  of  their  sovereign  without  her  knowledge 
or  consent,  and  set  up  a  regency  composed  of  men  of  several 
ranks,  who  were,  says  Bishop  Keith,  "  the  great  and  constant 
sticklers  for  an  alteration  in  religion."  We  are,  however,  in- 
formed, towards  the  conclusion  of  the  treasonable  declaration 
of  the  lords,  on  what  foundation  they  had  ventured  on  so 

1  Keith,  10.5 ;  Calderwood,  p.  12. 


88  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

remarkable  a  step  as  the  suspension  of  the  regent's  authority — 
"  and  now  the  duke  and  the  rest  of  the  nobiUty,  witli  the  barons 
and  burgesses  of  the  realm,  were  in  the  end  constrained  to  con- 
stitute a  council  for  the  governance  of  the  realm  to  the  use  of 
their  sovereign  lady;  and  therewith  humbly  to  signify  to  her 
the  reasonable  suspension  of  the  dowager's  authority;  which, 
to  maintain,  they  have  taken  on  themselves  as  natural  sub- 
jects»." 

Defiance  was  now  mutually  given,  but  the  sinews  of  war 
were  wanting  in  the  coffers  of  the  Congregation  ;  but  as  they 
were  in  communion  with  the  Church  of  England,  and  that 
country  was  their  place  of  refuge,  they  applied  to  Sir  Ralph 
Sadler  for  money  to  carry  on  the  war,  and  especiall}'  for  the 
capture  of  Leith,  which  the  queen  had  strongly  fortified,  and 
garrisoned  with  French  troops.  The  queen  had  the  advan- 
tage of  the  Congregation, — recovered  possession  of  Edin- 
burgh,— set  up  the  mass  in  St.  Giles's,  which  the  Bishop  cf 
Amiens  consecrated,  to  purge  it  from  the  contagion  of  heresy, 
— and  sent  pressing  entreaties  to  the  court  of  France  for  a 
reinforcement  of  troops,  with  which  she  was  furnished. 
Willock  fled  to  England  2.  As  it  is  not  my  intention  to 
notice  the  history  of  the  times,  farther  than  the  church  is 
concerned,  I  pass  over  the  military  events,  only  stating,  gene- 
rally, that  as  Elizabeth,  from  policy,  was  at  the  head  of  the 
Protestant  interest,  she  made  common  cause  with  the  Congre- 
gation, entered  into  a  solemn  treaty  with  them  at  Berwick, 
and  liberally  assisted  them  with  men  and  money, and  "all  such 
things  as  made  for  the  good  and  conjunction  of  the  two  king- 
doms, and  particularly  for  expelling  the  French  out  of  the 
realm  of  Scotland." 

1560. — The  Congregation  sent  Maitland  of  Lethington 
to  London  in  the  end  of  the  last  year,  and  who  concluded  a 
treaty  with  Elizabeth  on  the  27th  of  February,  by  which  she 
engaged  to  send  an  army  into  Scotland  to  assist  in  the  expul- 
sion of  the  French  forces.  Accordingly  she  sent  the  Lord 
Gray  with  2000  horse  and  6000  foot,  to  support  the  lords  of 
the  Congregation.  Alarmed  at  this  invasion,  the  queen 
regent  took  shelter  in  Edinburgh  Castle,  commanded  by  the 
Lord  Erskine,  "  a  nobleman  of  approved  honesty  and  wis- 
dom," where  she  became,  in  a  manner,  his  prisoner.  The 
lords  of  the  Congregation  addressed  a  respectful  letter  to  her, 
entreating  that  she  would  send  the  French  forces  out  of  the 
kingdom ;  but  receiving  no   satisfactory   answer,   hostilities 

*  Keith,  b.  i.  c.  9,  106-7.  =*  Spottiswootl.— Knox.— Keith. 


1559.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  89 

commenced.  While  the  lords  of  the  Congregation  and  their 
English  allies  were  vigorously  besieging  the  town  of  Leith, 
and  a  civil  war,  occasioned  by  religious  animosity,  was  raging 
furiously,  the  queen  regent  died,  worn  out  with  the  cares  and 
anxieties  of  her  government. 

This  illustrious  princess  was  possessed  of  uncommon  talents 
for  affairs,  and  the  greatest  courage  and  prudence  ;  she  was  at 
the  same  time  of  a  gentle  and  humane  disj)osition,  and  was  al- 
ways inclined  to  temper  justice  with  mercy;  but  she  lived  at  a 
period  of  unusual  turbulence  and  insubordination.  She 
ruled  with  delegated  authority  a  rude  and  serai-barbarous 
people,  rendered  disloyal  and  seditious  by  the  republican 
principles  disseminated  by  Knox,  who  inculcated  the  maxims 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  democracies,  rather  than  that  just 
subordination  which  is  due  to  sovereign  princes,  whose  autho- 
rity, an  inspired  apostle  assures  us,  •'  is  of  God."  Neverthe- 
less, "  she  bore  her  faculties  so  meekly,"  and  with  such  mag- 
nanimity, that  even  Knox,  her  bitter  enemy,  is  compelled  to 
confess  her  abilitips,  although  he  reviles  her  memory  in  the 
most  indecent  manner  ^  Had  there  not  been  a  secret  in- 
fluence behind  the  throne,  which  distracted  her  councils,  and 
prevented  her  from  following  the  dictates  of  her  own  heart, 
there  cannot  be  a  doubt  but  that  the  Scottish  refomiation 
would  have  been  consummated,  as  it  happily  was  in  England, 
without  subverting  the  foundations  of  the  church,  and  break- 
ing the  apostolic  succession.  In  her  last  conference  with 
her  nobles  she  accused  her  French  councillors  and  her 
instructions  from  the  French  court,  with  the  evil  advice 
of  the  Earl  of  Huntly,  who  was  a  bigoted  papist,  for 
much  of  the  insincerity  w^ith  which  her  government  had 
been  marked.  Her  courage  was  great,  but  not  unaccom- 
panied by  that  tenderness  of  heart  peculiar  to  her  sex. 
She  invariably  headed  her  troops,  sharing  in  common  with 
them  the  fatigues  and  privations  incident  to  a  military  cam- 
paign. In  the  cabinet  she  evinced  great  dexterity  and  address ; 
and  her  breaches  of  faith  with  the  Congregation,  which  ex- 
asperated and  irritated  them,  must  be  ascribed  altogether  lo 

'  Camden  says,  "she  was  a  pious  and  wise  princess,  who  had  suffered  the 
most  bitter  reproaches  from  some  virulent  and  bitter  preachers," — of  whom, 
adds  Bishop  Keith,  "  the  principal  was  Mr.  Knox,  who  has  all  along  treated  this 
t^ueen  in  a  set  of  language  peculiar  indeed  to  himself,  but  too  much  below  either 
a  gentleman  or  a  divine  to  utter."  At  the  conclusion  of  one  of  Knox's  usual 
tirades  against  her  and  her  family,  the  bishop  adds,  "  what  enthusiasm,  venom, 
scurrility,  and  indecency  !  Bad  qualities  in  a  reformer !  much  room  left  for 
refonnation  at  home.  The  blessed  apostles  converted  the  world  by  a  better 
spirit." 

VOL.  I  N 


90  •    HISTORY   OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

the  influence  of  her  French  and  priestly  councillors,  to  whom 
she  was  devoted,  and  who  instigated  her  to  acts  of  severity 
and  perfidy,  and  not  to  her  own  natural  disposition.  In  the 
only  instance  in  which  she  was  suffered  to  follow  the  dictates 
of  her  own  heart,  she  kept  faith  with  the  Congregation, — 
whom,  be  it  remembered,  she  was  taught  to  consider  as 
heretics,  with  whom  no  faith  should  be  kept, — with  the  most 
honourable  scrupulosity.  She  w^as  often  heard  to  say,  that  if 
her  own  council  might  take  place,  she  doubted  not  of  being 
able  to  compose  all  the  dissentions  within  the  realm, 
and  to  settle  the  same  in  perfect  tranquillity  and  a  lasting 
peace  upon  good  and  solid  conditions.  And  Archbishop 
Spottiswood  says,  in  the  MS.  copy  of  his  history,  "  these 
things  I  have  heard  my  father  often  affirm,  whose  testimony 
deserved  credit,  and  have  many  times  received  the  like  from 
an  honourable  and  religious  lady,  who  had  the  honour  to 
wait  near  her  person,  and  often  professed  to  me  that  the  queen 
regent  was  much  wronged  in  John  Knox  his  story  ^"  Her 
death  was  much  lamented,  not  only  by  her  own  party  and 
personal  friends,  but  by  many  of  those  who  were  opposed  to 
her  religion  and  government,  and  were  in  arms  against  her. 
Knox  and  the  other  Protestaiit  preachers  vehemently  and  in- 
decently prevented  the  celebration  of  her  funeral  obsequies 
according  to  the  papal  rites  ;  and  it  was  therefore  necessary 
to  enclose  her  body  in  lead.  She  was  kept  in  the  castle  till 
the  19th  of  October  following,  when  her  uncharitable  enemies 
permitted  her  remains  to  be  conveyed  to  France,  where  they 
were  interred  with  royal  honours  at  Rheims,  in  the  Benedictine 
monastei-y  of  St.  Peter,  of  which  her  sister  was  the  abbess. 

Spottiswood  says  of  her,  "  before  her  death  she  desired  to 
speak  with  the  Duke  of  Chatelherault,  the  Earls  of  Argyle, 
Glencairn,  and  Marischal,  also  the  Lord  James  ;  to  whom  she 
expressed  her  grief  for  the  troubles  of  the  realm,  commending 
earnestly  the  study  of  peace,  advising  them  to  send  both  French 
and  English  out  of  the  country,  and  beseeching  them  to  con- 
tinue in  obedience  to  the  queen  their  sovereign,  and  to  enter- 
tain the  old  amity  with  the  king  and  realm  of  France.  After 
some  speeches  to  this  purpose,  bursting  forth  in  tears,  she 
asked  pardon  of  them  all  whom  in  any  w^ays  she  had  offended, 
professing  that  she  did  forgive  them  who  had  injured  her  in  any 
sort,  and  embracing  all  the  nobles,  one  by  one,  kissing  them, 
she  took  her  farewell.  To  the  others  of  a  meaner  sort  that 
btood  by,  she  gave  her  hand;  so  they  departed.     Afterwards, 

^  Appendix  to  Bishop  Keith's  History,  p.  89. 


1560.]  CHITRCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  J91 

disposing  herself  for  another  world,  she  sent  for  John  Willock, 
the  preacher,  who  was  then  returned  from  England,  and  con- 
ferring with  him  a  reasonable  space,  openly  confessed  that  she 
did  trust  only  to  be  saved  hy  the  death  and  merits  of  Jesus 
Christ  ;  and  thus  ended  her  life  most  christianly.  She  was 
a  lady  of  honourable  conditions,  of  singular  judgment,  and 
full  of  humanity,  a  great  lover  of  justice  ;  helpful  to  the  poor, 
especially  to  those  that  she  knew  to  be  indigent  but  ashamed 
to  beg ;  compassionate  of  women  in  travail,  whom  she  did 
often  visit  in  her  own  person,  and  help  both  with  her  skill  and 
counsel.  In  her  court,  she  kept  a  wonderful  gravity,  tolerating 
no  licentiousness  ;  her  maids  were  always  busied  in  some  vir- 
tuous exercise,  and  to  them  she  was  an  ensample  everj^  way 
of  modesty,  chastity,  and  the  best  virtues.  The  author  of  the 
story  ascribed  to  John  Knox,  in  his  whole  discourse,  showeth 
a  bitter  and  hateful  spite  against  her,  forging  dishonest  things, 
which  were  never  so  much  as  suspected  by  any,  setting  down 
his  own  conjectures  as  certain  truths,  and  misinterpreting  all 
her  words  and  actions  ;  yea,  the  least  syllable  that  did  escape 
her  in  passion,  he  maketh  it  an  argument  of  her  cruel  and 
inhuman  disposition^." 

The  death  of  the  regent  did  not  alter  the  position  of  the 
conflicting  parties.  The  whole  kingdom,  from  one  end  to  the 
other,  was  plunged  into  anarchy  and  confusion,  and  which  was 
aggravated  by  religious  animosity  and  the  bigoted  prejudices  of 
both  the  great  religious  parties.  The  siege  of  Leith  was  vigo- 
rously pressed,  and  the  garrison  reduced  to  the  last  extremity. 
A  treaty  was,  however,  at  last  concluded  between  the  French 
king  and  Mary  with  her  subjects,  when  the  siege  was  raised, 
and  the  fortifications  levelled  with  the  ground.  On  the  16th  of 
July,  the  English  army  began  their  retreat  for  the  evacuation 
of  the  kingdom,  and  most  of  the  protestant  nobility  conveyed 
them  some  miles  on  their  route,  but  the  Lord  James  accompa- 
nied them  as  far  as  to  Berwick.  On  the  19th,  a  solemn  thanks- 
giving was  held  by  the  preachers  in  St.  Giles's  church  lor  the 
pacification  of  the  kingdom  and  the  triumph  of  the  Pro- 
testant cause  2. 

This  treaty,  entered  into  in  name  of  their  respective  sove- 
reigns by  the  French  and  English  ambassadors,  consisted  of 
seventeen  articles,  and  provided  for  the  removal  of  the  French 
troops  in  English  ships.  The  ninth  article  of  the  treaty  is  of 
some  importance  :  it  provided,  "  that  the  estates  of  the  realm 

*  Spottiswood. — Keith's  History. — Balfour's  Annals,  i.  320 — 325. 
^  Keith,  b.  i.  c.  xii.  145. 


92  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

should  convene  and  hold  a  parliament  in  the  month  of  August 
next,  for  which  a  commission  should  be  sent  from  the  French 
king  and  the  queen  of  Scotland,  and  that  the  said  convention 
should  be  as  lawful  in  all  respects  as  if  the  same  had  been  or- 
dained by  the  express  commandment  of  their  majesties  ;  pro- 
viding all  tumults  of  war  be  discharged,  and  they  who  ought 
by  their  places  to  be  present  may  come  without  fear."  The 
tenth  article  ordained,  that  the  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment should  be  entrusted  to  "twelve  worthy  men."  The  king- 
dom had  been  for  some  time  entirely  without  any  government ; 
the  lords  of  the  Congregation  having  usurped  the  authority,  and 
governed  not  only  without  any  commission,  but  in  direct  hostility 
to  their  sovereign.  Lastly,  "  that  the  queen  of  the  Scots  and  the 
king  of  France  should  not  hereafter  usurp  the  titles  of  England 
and  Ireland,  but  should  delete  the  arms  of  England  and  Ire- 
land out  of  their  scutcheons  and  whole  household  stuffs." 

On  the  death  of  Mary  Tudor,  the  queen  of  the  Scots  was 
unhappily  induced,  by  French  advice,  to  lay  claim  to  the 
crown  of  England,  as  being  the  next  in  proximity  of  blood ; 
and  accordingly  she  assumed  the  arms  and  title  of  queen  of 
England.  This  claim  was  founded  upon  Elizabeth's  supposed 
illegitimacy ;  but  the  pope  offered  io  acknowledge  the  legitimacy 
of  her  birth,  provided  she  would  submit  to  his  supremacy  ! — so 
much  does  self-aggrandisement  bias  these  pious  heads  of  the 
Church  !  Mary's  title  was  undoubted,  Elizabeth's  was  ques- 
tionable ;  and,  therefore,  the  latter  laid  the  most  solid  founda- 
tion for  preserving  her  throne  by  throwing  herself  into  the 
arms  of  the  Protestants.  Those  of  England  she  was  secured 
of  for  their  own  safety  ;  her  next  policy  was  to  secure  those 
of  Scotland :  she  therefore  employed  some  private  instruments 
to  ascertain  their  sentiments.  On  the  first  intimation  of  her 
friendly  feeling  towards  them,  the  Congregation  showed  the 
utmost  alacrity  in  uniting  their  interests  with  hers.  They 
immediately  addressed  her,  begged  her  protection,  and 
plighted  their  faith  that  they  would  depend  on  her,  and  stand 
by  her,  and  to  the  utmost  of  their  power  support  her,  and 
secure  her  throne.  She,  on  her  part,  supported  the  Reforma- 
tion in  Scotland  both  with  troops  and  money.  The  treaty  at 
Leith  was  principally  conducted  by  her  councils  and  her  am- 
bassadors. It  was  the  hopes  of  her  assistance  which  induced 
the  Earl  of  Argyle  and  the  Lord  James,  bastard  son  of  the 
late  king,  to  decline  going  to  France  to  present  the  crown 
matrimonial  to  the  dauphin,  although  they  had  before  under- 

'■  Spottiswood. 


1560.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  93 

taken  to  do  it.  Their  views  were  now  altered ;  and  they  conceived 
the  hope  of  support  from  the  Protestant  queen, — that  "  bright 
occidental  star,"  as  she  has  been  called, — and  they  were  not 
deceived^. 

The  minds  and  affections  of  the  great  majority  of  the  people 
were  now  entirely  alienated  from  the  papal  church,  but  which 
was  still  recognised  as  the  national  establishment,  although 
its  power  and  influence  had  been  for  some  time  departed — 
its  glory  was  gone.  Many  of  the  papal  clergy  were  secretly 
favourable  to  the  reformation  of  religion ;  but  the  author  of 
the  Life  of  Knox  says,  that  in  general  they  were  "  too  cor- 
rupt to  think  of  reforming  their  manners,  too  illiterate  to  be 
capable  of  defending  their  errors ;  they  placed  their  forlorn 
hope  on  the  success  of  the  French  arms,  and  looked  forward  to 
the  issue  of  the  war  as  involving  the  establishment  or  the  ruin 
of  their  religion  2. 

The  article  of  religion  had  been  left  undecided  in  the  late 
treaty,  and  therefore  it  was  the  chief  subject  to  be  settled  when 
the  parliament  met.  In  it  the  Protestant  party  were  the  most 
powerful,  and  exulted  at  the  prospect  of  success.  The  depar- 
ture of  the  French  troops  removed  the  only  support  on  which 
the  Roman  Catholic  church  in  Scotland  rested.  It  had  now 
entirely  lost  its  hold  of  public  opinion  ;  and  the  bishops  and 
clergy,  seeing  all  their  exertions  to  be  fruitless,  quietly  sub- 
mitted to  the  storm  which  they  could  no  longer  control.  As 
the  time  for  the  meeting  of  parliament  approached,  all  who,  by 
law  or  ancient  custom,  were  entitled  to  sit  and  ^'ote,  were  sum- 
moned by  proclamation  to  attend  in  their  places.  Some  time 
w'as  occupied  in  adjusting  a  point  in  dispute,  whether  or  not  the 
parliament  was  a  lawful  one,  as  no  commission  had  been  re- 
ceived from  the  sovereign,  and  no  one  was  authorised  to  represent 
her  person.  However,  after  a  whole  week  spent  in  discussing 
this  question,  it  was  decided  that  the  ninth  article  of  the  late 
treaty  was  a  sufficient  wan-ant  for  their  present  meeting ;  but 
as  they  had  no  commission,  the  accustomed  formalities  of 
crown,  sceptre,  and  sword,  commonly  called  the  "  riding  of 
parliament,"  were  neglected.  Those  of  the  first  or  spiritual 
estate  who  were  present  in  this  parliament  were,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews  ;  the  Bishops  of  Dunkeld,  Dunblane, 
Galloway,  Argyle,  and  the  Isles,  and  Alexander  Archbisho]^ 
of  Athens,  elect  of  Galloway  and  commendator  of  Inchaffray ; 
the  priors  of  St.  Andrews,  Coldingham,  and  St.  Mary's  Isle ; 

'   Sage's  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery,  pp.  68,  6'J. 
-  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  197. 


94  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

the  abbots  of  Cupar,  Liudores,  Culross,  St.  Colms-Incli ; 
Newbottle,  Holyrood,  Kinross,  Deer,  and  New  Abbey.  In 
appointing  the  Lords  of  the  Articles,  the  prelates  who  still 
adhered  to  the  Roman  communion  were  set  aside,  and  Protes- 
tant prelates  selected  for  that  important  function  of  the  Scot- 
tish parliament.  Accordingly,  the  Bishops  of  Galloway  and 
Argyle,  the  priors  of  St.  Andrews,  Coldingham,  and  St.  Mary's 
Isle,  with  the  sub-prior  of  St.  Andrews,  the  abbots  of  Lindores, 
Culross,  St.  Colms-Inch,  Newbottle,  and  Holy-Rood,  no  less 
than  eleven  of  the  prelates,  who,  says  Knox,  "  had  renounced 
Papistry,  and  openly  professed  Jesus  Christ  with  us,'''  were 
appointed  of  the  spiritual  estate  to  be  Lords  of  the  Articles ; 
against  which  the  Roman  Catholic  prelates  protested,  and 
accused  these  of  open  apostacy,  they  having,  says  Spottiswood, 
"  openly  renounced  Popery,  and  joined  themselves  to  the  pro- 
fessors of  the  truth.''''  This  point  being  settled,  the  first  thing 
presented  to  the  Lords  of  the  Articles  was  a  petition  of  the 
barons,  gentlemen,  burgesses,  and  other  subjects,  concerning 
religion  ;  that, 

"  I.  The  doctrine  of  the  Roman  Church,  professed  and 
tvrannously  maintained  by  the  clergy,  should  be  condemned, 
and  by  act  of  parliament  abolished  ;  namely,  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation — the  adoration  of  Christ's  body  under  the 
form  of  bread — the  merit  of  works — papistical  indulgences — 
purgatory — pilgrimages — and  praying  to  saints  departed." 
These  were  reckoned  pestilent  eiTors,  such  as  would  bring 
damnation  on  the  souls  of  those  who  entertained  them;  there- 
fore, they  desired  a  punishment  for  the  maintainers  of  such 
doctrines. 

"  II.  That  a  remedy  should  be  found  against  the  profaning 
of  the  holy  sacrament  by  men  of  that  profession,  and  the  true 
discipline  of  the  ancient  Church  be  revived  and  restoi'ed. 

"  III.  That  the  usurped  authority  of  the  Pope  of  Rome 
should  be  discharged,  and  the  patrimony  of  the  Church  be 
employed  to  the  sustentation  of  the  ministry,  the  provision  of 
schools,  and  entertainment  of  the  poor,  of  a  long  time 
neglected  ^" 

The  last  clause  was  by  no  means  satisfactory  to  those  of  the 
lay  nobility, who,  in  that  season  of  anarchy,  and  during  the  reign 
of  the  "  rascal  multitude,"  had  seized  on  the  Church  property. 
They  were  now  determined  to  keep  it,  and  ridiculed  Knox's 
laudable  zeal  for  its  recovery,  as  a  "  devout  imagination." 
The  Protestant  ministers  might  live  as  the}^  best  could ;  what 

'  Spottiswood. — Knox. — Keith. 


1560.]  CHURCH. OF  SCOTLAND.  95 

light  had  they  to  the  revenues  ?  It  was  sufficient  for  them  to 
feed  the  flock  ;  the  fleece  should  belong  to  its  lay  supporters  ! — 
This  most  sacrilegious  spoliation,  the  result  of  the  "  rascal" 
mode  of  refomiation,  has  been  of  essential  injury  to  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  and  all  Knox's  most  strenuous  exertions  were  in- 
effectual to  preserve  the  most  miserable  pittance  for  the 
devoted  and  disinterested  ministers  of  that  day. 

Making  no  reply  to  this  last  demand,  but  confining  them- 
selves to  the  first  article,  the  parliament  desired  the  Protestant 
prelates  and  clergy  to  draw  up  a  summary  of  the  doctrine 
which  they  required  to  be  established  as  the  national  faith. 
This  accordingly  within  four  days  was  done,  and  presented  to 
the  estates,  "  who  ratified  and  approved  it  as  wholesome  and 
sound  doctrine,  grounded   on  the  infallible   truth  of  God." 
This  Confession  of  Faith  was  the  only  standard  both  for  the 
Episcopal  Church  and  afterwards  for  the  Presbyterian  esta- 
blishment, until  it  was  set  aside  for  the  Westminster  Confession. 
This  Confession  was  read  in  the  face  of  parliament,  and  ratified 
by  the  three  estates  of  the  realm,  but  it  never  received  the 
queen's  assent.     Three  only  of  the  temporal  lords  ^  dissented, 
who  sullenly  avouched  their  determination  "  to  believe  as  their 
fathers  had  believed."     The  Roman  Catholic  prelates  were 
silent,  and  made  no  opposition :  whereon  the  Earl  Maris- 
chal  sarcastically  remarked,  "  It  is  long  since  I  carried  some 
favour  unto  the  tnith,  and  was  somewhat  jealous  of  the  Roman 
religion,  but  this  day  hath  resolved  me  of  the  truth  of  the  one 
and  the  falsehood  of  the  otlier ;  for  seeing  my  lords,  the  bishops, 
— who  by  their  learning  can,  and  for  the  zeal  they  have  to  the 
truth  would,  as  1  suppose,  gainsay  any  thing  repugnant  unto 
it,— say  nothing  against  the  confession  we  have  heard,  I  can- 
not think  but  it  is  the  very  truth  of  God,  and  the  contrary  of 
it  false  and  deceivable  doctiin^."    But  this  is  not  sound  logic  ; 
for  Keith  alleges,  that  threats  were  used  to  deter  the  Romish 
prelates  from  speaking  in  defence  of  their  tenets ;  and  the 
Duke  of  Chatelherault  menaced  the  archbishop  his  brother 
ivith  death  if  he  should  attempt  to  speak  a  word  at  this  time. 
And  it  is  more  than  probable  that  similar  threats  were  inti- 
mated to  the  other  bishops  and  prelates.     But  a  feeble  resist- 
ance was  nevertheless  made  to  the  Confession,  as  we  learn  by 
a  letter  from  the  primate  to  Beaton,  archbishop  of  Glasgow, 
who  was  then  at  Paris  ;  and  which  accounts  for  the  clause  in 
the  act  which  annulled  all  the  leases  of  the  opposing  prelates 
frorn  March  1558.     "  Please,"  says  the  primate,  "  I  maun  mak 

'  Probably  the  Earls  of  Huntly,  ErroU,  and  Angus. 


96  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

this  litil  ticat  to  your  lordschip  ....  For  yet  the  country 
is  not  in  good  rest  nor  obedience,  albeit  there  be  much 
speaking  of  God  and  his  word,  and  all  men  for  the  most 
part  have  made  in  parliament  the  confession  of  their  faith, 
as  you  shall  receive  a  copy  thereof,  which  was  agreed  to 
in  parliament  the  17th  August,  and  voted  without  much 
resistance,  except  from  three  bishops,  viz.  Dunkeld,  Dun- 
blaine,  and  the  third  I  need  not  expryme,"  meaning  no  doubt 
himself^. 

At  the  same  time,  there  were  three  acts  passed  in  favour  of 
the  Protestants ;  one  abolishing  the  pope's  jurisdiction  and 
authority  within  the  realm  ;  a  second,  for  cancelling  all  sta- 
tutes made  in  preceding  times  for  maintenance  of  idolatry  ; 
and  the  third  for  the  punishment  of  the  sayers  and  hearers  of 
mass  2.  In  this  act  the  papal  bishops  and  clergy  are  declared 
to  be  usurped  ministers  ;  and  the  Knoxian  ministers  to  be  the 
only  persons  that  have  power  to  administer  the  holy  sacra- 
ments. The  Protestant  petitioners,  says  M'Crie,  "  declared 
that  they  were  ready  to  substantiate  the  justice  of  all  their 
demands,  and  in  particular  to  prove  that  those  who  arrogated 
to  themselves  the  name  of  clergy  were  destitute  of  all  right 
to  be  accounted  ministers  o/  religion."  The  language  and  the 
whole  practice  of  the  Knoxian  ministers,  decidedly  shewed 
that  they  had  entirely  thrown  overboard  the  principle  of  a  regu- 
lar succession  in  the  Christian  ministry,  and  accordingly,  in 
their  First  Book  of  Discipline,  they  assert,  "  other  ceremonies 
than  sharp  examination,  approbation  of  the  ministers  and 
superintendents,  with  the  public  consent  of  the  elders  and 
people,  we  cannot  allow^."  However  degraded  the  papal 
clergy  of  those  days  were  in  learning  and  morals,  they  never- 
theless possessed  the  apostolical  succession,  were  regularly 
and  validly  ordained,  and  were  then  in  lawful  possession  of 
their  benefices  as  the  established  clergy  of  the  realm;  where- 
as, although  some  of  these  Knoxian  ministers  were  in  holy 
orders,  yet  most  of  them  were  laymen  and  intruders  upon  the 
flocks  of  the  lawful  ministers,  for  it  cannot  be  pretended  that 
they  were  endowed  with  any  extraordinary  divine  commis- 
sion to  extirpate  the  ancient  church*. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  clauses  of  this  celebrated 


>  Keith,  b.  iii.  p.  486,  487.  Letter  dated  18th  August,  1560.  Robert  Chrich- 
ton  was  that  year  Bishop  of  Dunkeld,  and  William  Chisholm  of  Dumblane.  In 
consequence  of  the  latter's  opposition  to  the  Reformation,  he  conveyed  the  pro- 
perty of  the  see  to  his  three  illegitimate  children. — Keith's  Cat. 

2  Spottiswood. — Knox.  ^  Ch.  on  Election  of  Superintendents. 

*  Keith's  Hist.  b.  i.  c.  xii.   150. 


1 530.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  97 

act,  which  laid  the  axe  to  the  root  of  the  papal  jurisdictioti 
in  Scotland. 

"  Item,  The  pope  is  renounced  and  all  his  jurisdiction,  and 
statute,  tliat  no  man  in  any  time  hereafter  shall  seek  bull  or 
dispensation,  under  the  pain  of  barratrie  (simony.) 

"  Item,  It  is  statute  and  ordained,  that  there  be  no  mass  said 
within  this  realm  ;  and  the  sayer  and  hearer  thereof  shall,  for 
the  first  fault,  lose  all  goods  moveable  and  unmoveable  ;  and 
themselves  to  be  punished  at  the  will  of  the  magistrate,  if  they 
are  apprehended  ;  for  the  second  fault,  banishing  of  the  realm 
perpetual ;  for  the  third  fault,  deid  (death.) 

"  Item,  It  is  ordained,  that  every  possessor  shall  lead  his  teind, 
or  intromit  with  it  and  take  it  in,  even  as  he  did  the  last  year ; 
but  shall  retain  the  payment  thereof  in  their  own  hands, 
while  they  get  commandment  of  the  council  to  whom  it  should 
be  paid. 

"  Item,  It  is  statute,  that  because  no  man  compeired  of  the 
kirkmen  that  gave  in  their  bills  of  complaint,  nor  any  for 
them,  to  declare  in  special  wheirin  they  were  hurt,  after  that 
they  were  twice  called  upon,  the  lords  and  nobility  had  done 
their  duty,  conform  to  the  articles  of  Peace,  which  says,  '  if 
any  kirkman  were  hurt,  let  him  give  in  his  bill  to  the  parlia- 
ment, and  he  should  be  answered  as  reason  would.' 

"  Item,  There  is  an  ordinance  made  for  the  lord  of  St.  John 
that  he  should  have  his  lordship  heritable,  and  have  no  more 
ado  with  the  Pope ;  and  that  the  estates  should  write  to  the 
king  and  queen's  majesties  to  confirm  the  same." 

"  How  are  the  times  changed,"  says  Mr.  Skinner  i,  "  and 
what  ugly  alterations  does  power  and  prosperity  make  upon 
the  people's  tempers !  It  is  not  above  twelve  months  since 
these  very  men  humbly  petitioned  for  liberty  of  conscience, 
and  seemed  willing  to  rest  satisfied  with  being  allowed  to 
worship  God  quietly  in  their  own  way.  And  yet  no  sooner 
are  their  circumstances  changed,  and  themselves  set  in  some- 
thing like  a  throne  of  judgment,  but  the  corruption  of  human 
nature  appears,  the  flames  of  an  intemperate  zeal  break  forth, 
and  they  boldly  express  and  demand  all  that  security  and 
rigour  of  which  they  had  so  very  lately,  and  with  so  much 
justice,  complained." 

Archbishop  Hamilton  says  that  he  and  the  other  prelates 
only  consented  to  meet  and  vote  in  this  pretended  parliament, 
on  the  persuasion  that  its  meeting  would  be  sanctioned  by  the 
queen  and  the  presence  of  her  representative  \  and  that  no  in- 

1  Skinner's  Eccl.  Hist.  ii.  p.  11.3-114. 
VOL.  I.  O 


98  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  IV. 

novations  of  any  sort,  but  particularly  in  matters  of  religion, 
would  have  been  made  without  her  consent.     But  when  they 
found  that  the  convention  proceeded  without  any  such  forma- 
lity, that  their  adversaries  carried  every  thing  by  plurality  of 
votes,  that  threats  of  murder  were  intimated  to  themselves,  and 
that  their  revenues  were  confiscated,  they  were  thunderstruck 
and  dispirited.    They  entirely  trusted  that  the  sovereign  would 
disavow  the  acts  of  this  pretended  parliament,  and  in  their 
confusion  and  consternation  they  neglected  to  leave  their  pro- 
testation on  record  against  such  a  fundamental  revolution. 
The  acts  of  this  convention  were  sent  to  France  for  ratifica- 
tion by  the  hands  of  Sir  James  Sandilands,  who  was  invested 
with   the  ecclesiastical  title   and  jurisdiction  of  "  Lord  St. 
John  of  Jerusalem  within  Scotland  ;"  and  whose  title  had  been 
declared  hereditary  by  the  convention,  on  his  renunciation  of 
the  pope.     He  afterwards  resigned  the  lands  of  Torphichen, 
belonging  to  the  Knights  of  Malta,  into  the  hands  of  the  queen, 
who  erected  them  into  a  temporal  lordship,  and  gave  him  the 
title  of  lord  Torphichen,  in  the  year  1564  ^     He  was  instructed 
to  lay  them  before  the  queen  for  ratification,  and  to  assure  her 
majesty  of  the  duty  and  loyalty  of  her  ancient  kingdom.     But 
the  Guises  had  the  whole  influence  at  that  time  in  the  court  of 
France,  and  they  severely  reprimanded  him,  that  he,  being  a 
knight  of  a  religious  order,  "  should  have  taken  a  commission 
fi-om  rebels,  to  solicit  a  ratification  of  execrable  heresies.^''    He 
was  accordingly  dismissed  without  ratification  of  the  acts,  and 
in  disgrace^.  But  in  truth  he  could  not  have  expected  any  other 
reception,  when  the  nature  of  his  embassy  is  considered  as  it 
is  developed  by  Calderwood,who  says, — "  but  he  returned  with 
a  refusal:  no  less  was  expected;  but  yet  it  was  thought  meet 
to  try  her  [the  queen! s)  disposition  :  nor  was  her  refusal  much 
regarded;  seeing  they  had  hers  and  her  husband's  warrant 
for  holding  this  parliament.     The  acts  were  put  in  execution 
after  her  return,  and  all  again  ratified  in  the  parliament  holden 
by  the  good  regent  in  the  minority  of  King  James,  an.  1567  ^." 
The  Confession  of  Faith,  which  was  the  legal  standard   of 
the  Church  of  Scotland  under  its  episcopacy,  both  titular  and 
real,  and  also  during  the  first  set  of  presbyterians,  was  read 
and  ratified  by  the  three  estates  met  in   this  convention  or 
parliament.     And  Stevenson,  a  standard  presbyterian  author, 
is  of  opinion,  that  "it  is  doubtful  if  a  purer  and  less  exception- 

1  Keith,  b.  i.  c.  12.  151-2  ;  from  a  MS.  in  the  Scots  College  at  Paris. 

2  Spottiswood. 

^  Calderwood's  True  History,  p.  14. — Knox,  b.  iii.  p.  243. 


1560.]  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND.  99 

able  system  of  divinity  hath  since  been  composed  ^  Never- 
theless his  political  friends  did  compose  a  much  more  excep- 
tionable one,  during  their  supremacy  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I. 
When  Knox's  well-known  friendship  with  Calvin  is  con- 
sidered, it  is  matter  of  surprise  that  throughout  the  whole  of 
this  "  Confession  of  Faith,"  the  term  predestination  does  not 
once  occur.  The  eighth  article,  "  of  Election,"  is  expressed 
with  due  moderation,  and  all  that  is  there  said  is,  "  The  same 
eternal  God,  who  of  mere  grace  elected  us  in  Christ  Jesus  his 
Son,  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  was  laid ;"  but,  from 
the  construction  of  the  article,  the  compilers  evidently  apply 
this  election  to  the  Christian  church,  and  not,  in  the  Calvanis- 
tic  sense,  to  individuals.  The  terms  elect  and  reprobate 
occur  in  some  other  places,  but  in  such  general  language  as 
is  warranted  by  Scripture,  and  at  which  no  unprejudiced 
christian  need  take  offence.  Its  moderation  and  general  or- 
thodoxy is  the  more  surprising  when  it  is  considered  that 
Knox  was  its  chief  compiler,  who  was  such  a  slavish  fol- 
lower of  all  the  Genevan  refonner's  dogmas  and  opinions. 
Calvin  fixed  his  notion  of  predestination  in  the  lapsed  state  of 
mankind  after  the  Fall,  and  declared  his  belief  to  be,  that 
God  having  decreed  to  save  some  by  means  of  a  Saviour,  left 
the  rest  to  the  miserable  consequences  of  that  fall,  without 
any  capability  of  being  benefited  by  all  the  offers  of  grace  made 
to  them  in  common  with  others.  Heresy,  however,  seldom 
stops ;  but  always  goes  on  from  bad  to  worse.  His  disciple 
Beza  carried  the  effects  of  God's  absolute  decrees  up  to  a  pe- 
riod before  the  Fall ;  and  taught  that  the  Almighty  did,  from 
all  eternity,  decree  the  fall  of  Adam  and  the  lapse  of  his  pos- 
terity ;  together  with  the  salvation  or  damnation  of  such  per- 

1  Stevenson,  i.  106. — Stevenson's  Col.  of  Acts  of  Pari. — Calderwood's  True 
Hist,  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  pp.  14 — 25. — The  Confession  of  Faith  and 
Doctrine  of  the  Protestants  of  Scotland,  authorised  by  the  estates  of  parlia- 
ment, "  as  a  doctrine  founded  on  the  infallible  word  of  God,"  contains  the 
following  heads  : — 1.  Of  God  ;  2.  Of  the  creation  of  man ;  3.  Of  original  sin  ; 
4.  Of  the  revelation  of  the  promise  ;  5.  The  continuance,  increase,  and  preser- 
vation of  the  kirk ;  6.  Of  the  incarnation  of  Christ  Jesus ;  7.  Why  it 
behoved  the  Mediator  to  be  very  God  and  very  Man  ;  8.  Election  ;  9.  Christ's 
death,  passion,  and  burial;  10.  Resurrection;  11.  Ascension;  12.  Faith 
in  the  Holy  Ghost  ;  13.  The  cause  of  good  works  ;  14.  WTiat  works  are 
reputed  good  before  God  ;  15.  The  perfection  of  the  law  and  the  imperfec- 
tion of  man ;  16.  Of  the  kirk  ;  17.  The  immortality  of  the  soul  ;  18.  Of  the 
notes  by  which  the  true  kirk  is  discerned  from  the  false,  and  who  shall  be  judge 
of  the  doctrine;  19.  The  authority  of  Scripture ;  20.  Of  general  councils,  of 
their  power,  authority,  and  cause  of  their  convention  ;  21.  Of  the  sacraments  ; 
22.  Of  the  right  administration  of  the  sacraments  ;  23.  To  whom  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  sacraments  appertains;  24.  Of  the  civil  magistrate  ;  25.  The 
gifts  freely  given  to  the  kirk. 


100  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

sons  as  should  contribute  most  to  His  glory,  irrespective  of 
their  good  or  evil  conduct  in  this  life.  Our  first  reformers  were 
not,  therefore,  rigid  predestinarians  ;  but  were  more  allied  in 
their  sentiments  to  the  Augsburg  Confession  drawn  up  by 
Melancthon,  whose  mind  was  supereminently  adorned  by  all 
the  mild  and  charitable  characteristics  of  the  meek  and  lowly 
Jesus.  In  all  the  various  forms  which  the  Scottish  reforma- 
tion assumed,  Knox's  confession  was  received  as  containing 
the  sum  and  substance  of  revealed  truth.  "  When  episco- 
pacy was  regularly  established  in  Scotland  in  1610,  it  became 
the  creed  of  the  church,  as  was  acknowledged  by  the  Scottish 
bishops  in  their  declinator  (as  it  was  termed)  against  the  re- 
bellious assembly  of  Glasgow  in  the  year  1638  ;  and  even  at 
the  restoration  of  episcopacy,  anno  1661,  this  very  '  Confes- 
sion '  was  restored  to  its  former  authority,  as  appears  from  the 
language  of  the  Test  Act  of  1681,  which  enforces  the  due  ob- 
servance of  it^." 

But  it  was  necessary  to  provide  the  congregation  or  church 
with  a  government  as  well  as  with  a  confession  of  faith,  that, 
as  Knox  says,  "  all  things  may  be  carried  with  order  and 
well."  At  the  rising  of  the  convention,  the  few  Protestant 
ministers  which  were  in  the  kingdom  were  distributed  amongst 
the  larger  and  more  populous  towns.  Knox  himself  was 
aj^pointed  to  preach  in  Edinburgh  ;  Christopher  Goodman, 
an  Englishman  of  a  similarly  turbulent  spirit  as  his  friend 
Knox,  was  sent  to  St.  Andrews ;  but  it  seems  doubtful  whe- 
ther or  not  he  was  in  orders :  Adam  Heriot  to  Aberdeen ; 
John  Row,  a  priest,  to  Perth ;  Paul  Methuen,  a  layman,  to 
Jedburgh  ;  William  Christison  to  Dundee ;  David  Fergussou 
to  Dunfermline  ;  William  Harley,  a  layman,  to  St.  Cuthberts, 
Edinburgh ;  and  David  Lindsay  to  Leith.  The  following 
persons  were  appointed  superintendents  or  bishops  : — Mr. 
John  Spottiswood  of  Spottiswood,  the  father  of  the  arch- 
bishop, and  whose  father  had  been  slain  at  Flodden,  was  made 
bishop  of  Lothian.  He  travelled  into  England,  and  was 
admitted  into  holy  orders  by  Archbishop  Cranmer,  and,  on 
his  return  in  1547,  was  appointed  rector  of  Calder,  in  the 
county  of  Linlithgow,  John  Willocks,  formerly  a  Dominican 
friar,  was  made  bishop  of  Glasgow,  and  he  is  expressly  called 
bishop  by  Thomas  Archibald,  Chamberlain  to  Archbishop 
Beaton,  then  in  Paris,  in  the  postscript  of  one  of  his  letters  : — 
"  P.  S.  John  Willocks  is  made  bishop  of  Glasgoiv,  now  in 
your  lordship's  absence,  and  placed  in  your  place  of  Glas- 

'  Skinner's  Theological  Works,  i.  38S— 391. 


1560.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  101 

gow^;"  and  the  same  functionary  tells  us  in  the  letter  itself, 
that  Willocks  had  taken  possession  of  the  Dean  of  Glasgow's 
house,  and  secured  ^GlOOO  per  annum  out  of  the  revenues  of 
the  archbishopric.    John  Winram,  formerly  subprior  of  St.  An- 
drews, and  who,  we  may  suppose,  was  in  holy  orders,  was  made 
bishop  of  Fife.     John  Erskine,  Esq.,  of  Dun,  and  a  layman, 
was  appointed  bishop  of  the  counties  of  Forfar  and  Kincar- 
dine, which  compose  the  diocese  of  Brechin.    John  Carsewell 
was  appointed  bishop  of  Argyle  and  the  Isles  ;  and  "  with 
this  small  number,"  says  Spottiswood,  "  was  the  plantation 
of  the   church  undertaken."     Alexander  Gordon,  bishop  of 
Galloway,  was  the  only  bishop  in  office  at  this  time  who  had 
turned  Protestant ;  "  and  yet,"  says  Bishop  Keith,  "  he  was 
so  far  from  being  allowed  to  exercise  any  episcopal  jurisdic- 
tion, that  when  he  craved  to  be  a  \dsitor  only  of  the  churches 
in  the  district  of  Galloway,  it  was  refused  him,  and  another 
was  preferred :  nor  was  he  ever  nominated  to  be  a  superintendent 
by  the  new  modelled  assemblies  ;  nay,  he  was  once  suspended 
by  them  from  the  office  of  an  ordinary  preacher."     This  is 
strange  and  inconsistent ;  but  Keith  is  here  mistaken ;    for 
although  Knox  had  set  aside  ordination  as  unnecessary,  and 
those  prelates  who  had  joined  him,  and  really  could  give  that 
grace,  were  studiously  insulted  and  degi-aded,  and  those  who 
were  only  in  priests'  orders,  or  in  no  orders  whatever,  were  set 
in  authority  over  them  ;  yet  Gordon  was  afterwards  made  a 
superintendent.     "  But  when  the  popish  bishops  saw  things 
carried  on  by  open  rebellion  and  mobbing,  when  they  saw 
such  universal  rapine  and  levelling,  and  when  nothing  would 
please  but  a  renunciation  of  their  own  sacred  orders,  and  a 
truckling  under  some  of  the  meanest  mechanics,  to  be  either 
received  or  not  received  as  ministers  of  the  church  of  Christ, 
according  as  they  should  think  proper,  what  wonder  is  it  that 
such  a  reformation  looked  formidable  and  detestable  unto 
them,  and,  in  very  deed,  no  better  than  an  utter  overturning 
of  all  that  was  sacred  2  ?" 

This  is  a  practical  carrying  out  of  the  new  principle  in- 
troduced by  Knox  into  his  new  discipline,  that  ordination 
was  unnecessary.  In  the  chapter  on  "  Admission,"  which 
means  ordination,  the  new  polity  says :  "  Other  ceremonies 
than  the  public  approbation  of  the  people,  and  declaration  of 
the  chief  ininister  (the  superintendent)  that  the  person  there 
presented  is  appointed  to  serve  the  c\\mc\i,ive  cannot  approve ; 
for,  albeit  the  apostles  used  imposition  of  hands,  yet,  seeing 

>  Keith,  b.  iii.  p.  490.  -  Keith,  b.  i.  c.  10.  p.  113. 


102  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IV. 

the  miracle  is  ceased,  llic  using  of  the  ceremony  we  judge  not 
necessary  r  Mr.  Knox  has  here  shewn  himself  wiser  in  this 
matter  than  the  apostles  themselves,  and  the  whole  church  of 
Christ  previous  to  his  time.  "  But,"  says  Bishop  Keith, 
quaintly,  "  some  men  are  fond  of  their  own  inventions ;  and, 
provided  they  be  new,  no  matter  how  extravagant  otherwise." 
The  papal  right  of  investiture  which  had  been  so  much  com- 
plained of,  was  now,  however,  turned  into  erastianism,  a  vice 
which  was  inherent  in  the  popular  nature  of  the  Knoxian,  but 
much  more  so  in  its  successor,  the  Melvillian  Kirk.  In  the 
election  of  the  superintendent  of  Lothian,  Knox  tells  us  "  how 
that  the  minister  declared  to  the  people  that  the  lords  of  Secret 
Council  had  given  charge  and  power  to  the  churches  of  Lothian 
to  choose  Mr.  John  Spottiswood  superintendent ;"  and  he  further 
tells  us  that  the  appointments  of  the  ministers  for  the  different 
towns  were  made  by  the  commissioners  of  burghs,  with  some 
of  the  nobility.  Another  striking  likeness  to  popery  in  the 
Knoxian  church  was  the  placing  the  whole  kingdom  in  a  situa- 
tion exactly  similar  to  the  old  popish  tyranny  of  an  Interdict. 
The  whole  of  the  papal  parochial  clergy  retained  their  bene- 
fices, but  were  sternly  interdicted  from  performing  any  sacer- 
dotal duties,  either  in  public  or  in  private,  to  those  even  of 
their  parishioners  who  still  adhered  to  the  faith  of  their  fathers. 
The  "  Congregation"  had  only  provided  fourteen  ministers, 
including  five  superintendents,  to  supply  the  place  of  several 
thousands  of  secular  and  regular  clergy,  for  the  service  of  the 
whole  realm !  Here  was  in  reality  the  wasting  of  the  boar, 
and  the  devouring  of  the  wild  beast.  Knox  and  the  rabble  had 
broken  down  the  hedges  of  the  ancient  vineyard,  which  covered 
the  hills  with  its  shadow,  and  whose  boughs  had  been  sent  into 
every  comer  of  the  kingdom  ;  but  their  whole  efforts  had  been 
directed  to  pull  down  ;  little  or  nothing  had  been  done  towards 
building  up  a  new  fabric  in  the  place  of  the  old.  Men's  minds 
were  alienated  from  what  little  life  remained  in  the  papal  church ; 
and  her  hierarchy  were  sternly  prohibited  from  exercising 
their  functions ;  and,  as  there  were  so  few  to  take  their  occu- 
pation, the  people  were  scattered  on  the  hills  as  sheep  without 
a  shepherd,  and  left  to  the  natural  evil  dis2")asition  of  their  own 
hearts,  the  effects  of  which  were  soon  shewn  in  a  general  spirit 
of  irreligion  and  of  irreverence  for  sacred  things,  and  which 
remain  striking  characteristics  of  the  jDresbyterian  establish- 
ment to  the  present  day. 

There  were  only  fom'teen  protestant  ministers  distributed 
among  the  principal  towns  to  supply  the  place  lately  occupied 
by  such  a  large  army  of  ecclesiastics.     The  number  of  the 


1560.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  103 

clergy  in  the  whole  kingdom  may  be  estimated  by  those  of  St. 
Andrews  the  metropolitan  city,  where  there  were  at  least  one 
hundred  and  sixty  constantly  resident,  besides  those  who  might 
be  occasionally  there.  These  were  silenced,  and  were  not  allowed 
to  officiate  in  any  way,  or  under  any  pretext,  to  a  population  of 
twelve  or  thirteen  thousand  inhabitants,  whose  religious  wants 
were  supplied  by  only  one  layman,  Mr.  Goodman !  and  in  a 
register  of  ministers,  exhorters,  and  readers,  published  by  the 
Maitland  Club,  it  is  stated  that  so  scarce  was  the  first  class  of 
instructors,  the  ministers,  that  one  individual  was  appointed  to 
minister  the  sacraments  to  the  whole  county  of  Peebles  I     "  It 
was  many  years,"  observes  Mr.  Lyon,  "  before  the  country 
could  adapt  itself  to  the  new  order  of  things,  and  in  the  interval 
great  disorder  ensued^"  The  same  author  observes,  that " '  the 
Book  of  the  Universal  Kirk  of  Scotland,'   as  it  is  singularly 
called,  furnishes  sad  proofs  of  the  disorder,  immorality,  and  in- 
tolerance, which  prevailed  throughout  Scotland  at  the  period 
we  are  now  reviewing.     We  read  of  numberless  cases  of  forni- 
cation, adultery,  and  incest ;  some  of  them  of  a  very  disgusting 
character.     Indeed,  impurity  seems  to  have  been  the  besetting- 
sin  of  Scotland  at  this  time.    In  Perth  alone,  whose  population 
did  not  exceed  six  thousand,  there  were,  on  an  average,  eighty 
convicted  cases  of  adultery  annually,  even  under  the  vigilant 
superintendence  of  their  first  protestant  minister,  Mr.  Row ; 
and  Mr.  Petrie  informs  us  that,  in  1570,  a  report  was  made  to 
the  General  Assembly,  from  a  very  small  district,  oisix  hundred 
persons  convicted  of  having  so  ofl'ended,  and  who  had  not  yet 
satisfied  the  discipline  of  the  kirk.    In  the  same  records  we  read 
of  complaints  entered  against  all  the  five  superintendents,  and 
many  of  the  ministers,  for  various  delinquencies,  but  especially 
pluralities,  non-residence,  and    negligence  in  visiting  their 
charges ;  and,  at  one  of  the  sittings  of  the  assembly,  twenty- 
seven  ministers  were  complained  of  by  name,  '  that  they  had 
wasted  the  patrimony  of  their  benefices,  and  made  no  residence 
at  their  kirks.'    We  find  also  frequent  petitions  for  more  super- 
intendents or  commissioners  of  kirks,  for  more  money  to  pay 
them,  more  kirks  to  preach  in,  and  manses  to  live  in  ;  and 
several  from  the  parishes  to  which  the  superintendents  were 
attached,  that  their  spiritual  concerns  were  neglected  ;  and,  to 
take  a  case  connected  with  St.  Andrews,  the  parishioners  of 
Tynningham  complained  that  while  they  paid  their  tithes  to 
St.  Mary's  Qo\\e^Q,neither  word  nor  sacraments  were  disjjensed 
among  them.     We  read  of  some  ministers  throwing  up  their 

*  Life  and  Times  of  Archbishop  Hamilton,  in  Episc.  Mag.  vol.  ii.  p.  337. 


104  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.       [CHAP.  IV. 

office,  and  resorting  to  civil  employments  for  want  of  a  liveli- 
hood, and  others  expressing  their  wish  to  do  the  same,  but 
forbidden  by  the  assembly ;  and  what  is  curious,  there  is  the  fol- 
lowing question  recorded  as  gravely  proposed  and  answered: — 
'  Q.  Whether  a  minister  or  reader  may  tap  ale,  beer,  or  wine, 
and  keep  an  open  tavern  ? — A.  A  minister  or  reader  who  taps 
ale,  beer,  or  wine,  and  keeps  an  open  tavern,  should  be  exhorted 
by  the  commissioners  to  keep  decorum.'  In  short,  we  discover 
instances  of  the  prevalence  of  all  kinds  of  vice,  and  of  those 
who  committed  them  promising  to  amend,  but  seldom  perform- 
ing :  instances  of  readers  usurping  the  office  of  ministers  by 
dispensing  the  sacraments  ;  of  papists  commanded  to  join 
themselves  to  the  new  establishment  on  pain  of  excommuni- 
cation ;  of  orders  to  suppress  all  heretical  books,  and  not  to 
allow  them  to  be  imported  or  printed  ;  of  compulsatory  aboli- 
tion of  the  fasts  and  festivals  of  the  church  ;  of  the  refusal  of 
lay-commendators  to  pay  their  thirds  of  benefices.;  of  simony ;" 
&c.  &C.1 

1  Life  and  Times  of  Archbishop  Hamilton,  in  Episc.  Mag.  ii.  339,  340. 


105 


CHAPTER  V. 

GOVERNMENT — WORSHIP — FAITH — OPINIONS  OF  THE  SCOTTISH 
AND  FOREIGN  REFORMERS. 

Penalties  for  saying  or  hearing  mass. — Disappointment  of  Knox's  hopes. — First 
Book  of  Discipline. — Readers. — Ministers.  —  Superintendents. — Dioceses  of  the 
superintendents,  and  their  powers. — Change  of  names  and  titles. — Principal 
Bailie's  opinion. —  Extracts  from  the  Book  of  Discipline. — Thirty  marks  of 
superiority  in  the  superintendents. — Opinions  of  Erskine  of  Dun,  and  Dr. 
Cook. — The  presbyterian  controversy  not  then  agitated.  —  Calvin  and  his 
opinions. — His  rejection  of  ordination. — His  approbation  of  episcopacy. — 
Archbishops. — No  universal  head  of  the  church. — Beza. — His  opinion  of  the 
church  of  England. — Synod  of  Dort. — Salmasius. — Blondell. — John  Knox. — 
Admission  of  Spottiswood. — John  Douglass's  admission. — Assembly's  letter 
to  the  English  bishops. — Episcopacy  not  objected  to  by  the  first  preachers  in 
Scotland. — Wishart. — A  Liturgy. — Borthwick. — Influence  of  England  in  the 
Scottish  reformation. — Communion  of  the  two  national  churches. — Evidences 
of  it. — Buchanan. — The  Book  of  Common  Prayer. — Knox's  prayers. — Esta- 
blished liturgical  service. — Citations  from  the  old  liturgy. — The  creed  repeated, 
and  the  scriptures  read. — Catechism  taught. — Singing  of  hymns. — Godfathers. — 
TheLord'ssupper. — Extemporary  prayers. — Apostolical  succession  disregarded. 
— Knox's  account  of  the  beginning  of  his  church. — Archbishop  Hamilton's 
letter. — Remarks. — Beza's  tract. — Marks  of  the  church. — Titles  and  dignities 
of  the  Christian  priesthood. 

1561. — "  This  history  of  the  reformation  which  I  go  now 
to  write,"  says  Archbishop  Spottiswood,  "  will  let  us  see 
great  changes  made  in  the  church.  What  do  I  say — changes? 
We  shall  see  the  state  of  the  church  quite  overturned,  and, 
with  the  reformation  that  was  much  desired  (and  was,  indeed, 
most  needful),  many  things  done  extremely  hurtful  both  to  the 
church  and  kingdom  ;  as  temples  demolished,  religious  places 
ruined,  the  rents  and  rightsof  the  church  sacrilegiously  usurped, 
and  the  external  policy,  than  which  a  more  wise  form  of  govern- 
ment could  not  be  devised,  utterly  overthrjwn.  Thus  (as  it 
falleth  out  sometimes  in  bodies  replenished  with  corrupt 
humours)  the  remedy  intended  for  purging  out  one  disease 
brought  with  it  many  infections,  such  as  this  age,  perhaps  the 

succeeding,  shall  not  see  fully  cured  and  put  away 

No  doubt  the  wiser  sort  wished  the  work  to  have  proceeded 
with  advice,  and  by  the  direction  of  lawful  authority  ;  but  it 
was  the  fault  of  them  in  place  that  would  give  no  ear  to  the 
petitions  for  reformation  often  prefen-ed,  and  drove  the  people 

VOL.  I.  r 


106  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

unto  the  desperate  resolution  they  took,  which  was  to  do  the 
work  by  themselves  that  was  denied  by  others  whose  care 
chiefly  it  ought  to  have  been." 

On  the  23d  of  August,  1560,  the  celebration  of  mass  was 
abolished,  the  papal  clergy  were  declared  to  be  usurpers,  and 
the  Protestant  preachers  to  be  the  only  true  ministers.  The 
penalties  of  this  act  shewed  that  the  age  of  persecution  had  not 
passed  away  with  the  papal  hierarchy  ;  for  it  was  enacted  that 
all  who  celebrated  or  were  present  at  the  celebration  of  mass, 
should  be  punished,  for  the  first  offence  with  confiscation  oi' 
goods ;  for  the  second,  banishment;  and  for  the  third  they  were 
to  suffer  death  !  The  act  does  not  specify  whether  death  should 
be  inflicted  by  burning  alive,  or  by  any  other  of  the  approved 
methods  of  the  papal  church  ;  but  the  principle  of  persecu- 
tion and  bigotry  is  the  same  in  both.  The  outcry  which  the 
Knoxites  raised  against  the  cruel  proceedings  of  the  papal 
church,  was  as  much  owing  to  their  being  themselves  the  suf- 
ferers, as  from  any  real  abhorrence  of  their  unchristian  nature. 
After  the  abolition  ofthepapal  jurisdiction,  all  the  prelates  and 
other  churchmen  were  prohibited  from  exercising  any  autho- 
rity in  virtue  of  that  jurisdiction  under  the  "  pain  of  barratry; 
that  is  to  say,  proscription,  banishment,  and  never  to  bruik, 
that  is,  never  to  be  capable  of  holding  honour,  office,  or  dignity 
within  this  realm." 

Knox  never  dreamed  that  the  revenues  of  the  church  were  to  be 
secularized;  but  that  he  and  his  colleagues  were  simply  to  remove 
the  old  incumbents,  and  then  take  possession  of  their  benefices. 
But  those  saints  and  earnest  professours,  the  nobility,  were  quite 
of  another  mind.  Knox  proposed  "  that  annual  deacons 
should  be  surrogated  into  the  place  of  the  former  legal  pro- 
prietors, and  that  these  deacons  should  distribute  the  incomes 
according  to  M'arrants  signed  by  the  ministers,  elders,  &c." 
He  foolishly  imagined  that  all  his  party  were  as  disinterested 
as  himself;  but  his  eyes  were  soon  opened  to  the  selfish,  grasp- 
ing covetousness  of  the  men  in  power,  who  treated  his  "  devout 
imagination^''  as  they  termed  his  scheme,  with  the  utmost  scorn 
and  contempt.  Archbishop  Hamilton  sent  a  Mr.  Brand,  a 
clergyman,  to  him  with  some  seasonable  'and  good  advice. 
"  But,"  says  Bishop  Keith,  "  Knox  was  too  wise  in  his  own 
eyes  to  accept  the  primate's  advice.  He  imagined  he  had  no 
more  ado  to  settle  the  revenues  of  the  church,  in  what  form  ho 
pleased  to  chalk  out,  than  to  go  hither  and  thither  with  a  mob 
of  people  at  his  heels,  and  order  them  to  pull  down  the  fabrics 
of  the  churches  ;  for  in  this  he  got  ready  obedience.  He 
imagined  that  new  acts  of  j)arliament,and  new  charters,  trans- 


15G1.J  CHUKCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  107 

ierring  the  rights  of  the  church-lands  to  his  annual  deacons, 
were  to  be  as  easily  obtained  as  he  could  declaim  against  the 
corrupt  practices  of  the  chui'cli  officers ;  but  he  was  even  forced 
to  see  his  error  when  those  good  men,  whom  he  calls  saints  and 
professors,  could  hardly  be  prevailed  with  to  allow  himself 
bread  to  his  belly,  after  they  had  entered  into  the  possessions  of 
the  church:  but  it  was  then  too  late  for  him  to  look  back,  and 
he  must  content  himself  5ecre^/y  to  see  that  the  archbishop  was 
wiser  than  he.  The  nobles  were  willing  to  let  Mr.  Knox  re- 
dress the  spirituality  ;  but  they  would  take  care  to  reform  the 
temporality  of  the  church  by  themselves  ;  and  the  truth  is, 
they  reformed  clean  and  low.  They  left  no  supei'fluities ;  no, 
not  even  bare  necessaries^ y 

Knox  says  that  some  of  the  nobility  approved  of  the  Book  of 
Discipline,  and  were  desirous  of  giving  it  the  authority  of  law ; 
but  the  chief  spoliators  of  the  church  objected  to  it  so  much, 
that  it  became  odious  to  them,  "  and  was  termed,  in  their 
mockage,  devout  imaginatio7isr  "  Some  were  licentious,  some 
had  greedily  gripped  the  possessions  of  the  church,  and  others 
thought  that  they  would  not  lack  their  part  in  Christ's  coat ; 
yea,  and  that  befoi-e  ever  He  was  crucified,  as  by  the  preachers 

they  wei-e  often  rebuked Assuredly  some  of  us  have 

wondered  how  men  that  profess  godliness  could,  of  so  long  con- 
tinuance, hear  the  threatenings  of  God  against  thieves,  and 
against  their  houses,  and  knowing  themselves  guilty  in  such 
things  as  were  openly  rebuked,  and  that  they  never  had  remorse 
of  conscience,  neither  yet  intended  to  restore  any  thing  of  that 
which  long  they  had  stolen."  Knox  began  to  find  that  the 
poisoned  chalice  which  he  had  prepared  for  others  was  now 
commended  to  his  own  lips;  and  the  measure  that  he  had 
meted  to  others  was  now  to  be  measured  out  to  himself. 
"  There  were  none^''  said  he,  "  within  the  realm  more  unmer- 
ciful to  the  poor  ministers,  than  were  they  which  possessed  the 
greatest  rents  of  the  church'^.'" 

In  a  convention  of  the  reforming  ministers,  January  1561, 
Knox,  with  the  assistance  of  Winram,  Spottiswood  father 
of  the  archbishop,  Willock,  Douglass  rector  of  St.  Andrews, 
and  John  Row,  drew  up  the  "  First  Book  of  Discipline," 
wherein  three  distinct  orders  of  ministers  are  decidedly 
established,  — the  superintendent,  the  minister,  and  the  reader. 
The  duties  of  the  reader  are  described  to  be — "  To  the  church 
which  cannot  presently  be  furnished  with  ministers,  men  must 
be  appointed  that  can  distinctly  read  the  common  prayers 

1  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  i.  p.  494-6.  ^  Kuox's  History,  b.  iii.  p.  244. 


108  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

AND  SCRIPTURES,  foT  the  exercise  both  of  themselves  and 
the  church,  until  thej  grow  to  a  greater  perfection ;  because  he 
who  is  now  a  reader  may  m process  ofthne  attain  to  a  farther 
DEGREE^  and  be  admitted  to  the  holy  ministry."  The  duties 
of  the  parish  minister  were,  to  preach,  read  the  common 
prayers,  catechise  youth,  and  administer  the  sacraments. 
Those  of  the  superintendent  were,  without  any  doubt,  that  of 
episcopal  government  and  jurisdiction  ;  "because  it  is  found 
expedient  for  the  erecting  and  planting  of  churches,  and  ap- 
pointing of  ministers,  that  at  this  time  there  be  selected  ten 
or  twelve  superintendents,  we  have  thought  good  io  design  their 
bounds,  set  down  their  office,  the  manner  of  their  election,  and 
the  causes  which  may  deserve  deposition  from  their  charge  ^" 
Then  follows  the  designation  of  their  dioceses  and  places  of 
residence ; — than  which  there  cannot  be  a  clearer  demonstra- 
tion that  they  held  episcopal  authority  over  large  districts  of 
country,  and  which  would  be  quite  incompatible  with  the  local 
duties  of  a  parish  minister  : — 

"  The  country  of  Orkney  shall  have  a  superintendent,  and 
his  diocese  shall  be  the  Isles  of  Orkney,  with  the  countries  of 
Caithness  and  Strathnaver.  His  residence  to  be  in  the  town 
of  Kirkwall. 

"  The  superintendent  of  Ross,  his  diocese  shall  comprehend 
E-oss,  Sutherland,  Moray,  with  the  Isles  of  Skye  and  Lergis, 
and  their  adjacents.  His  residence  should  be  in  the  Canonry 
of  Ross. 

"  The  superintendent  of  Argyle  shall  have  for  his  diocese 
Argyle,  Cantyre,  Lome,  the  south  isles  of  Arran  and  Bute, 
with  the  isles  adjacent,  and  the  country  of  Lochaber.  His 
residence  to  be  in  Argyle. 

"  The  superintendent  of  Aberdeen,  his  diocese  shall  com- 
prehend all  betwixt  Dee  and  Spey,  that  is,  the  sheriffdoms  of 
Aberdeen  and  Banff".     His  residence  to  be  in  Old  Aberdeen. 

"  The  superintendent  of  Brechin  shall  have  for  his  diocese 
the  sheriffdoms  of  Mearns,  Angus,  and  the  Brae  of  Mar,  unto 
Dundee ;  and  he  shall  keep  his  residence  at  Brechin. 

"  The  superintendent  of  Fife  shall  have  for  his  diocese  the 
sheriffdoms  of  Fife,  Fotheringham,  and  Perth,  unto  Stirling. 
His  residence  shall  be  in  St.  Andrews. 

"  The  superintendent  of  Lothian,  his  diocese  shall  compre- 
hend the  sheriffdoms  of  Lothian,  Stirling,  Merse,  Lauderdale, 
and  the  Stowof  Twceddale.     His  residence  to  be  in  Edinburgh. 

"  The  superintendent  of  Jedburgh  shall  have  for  his  diocese 

^  First  Book  of  Discipline,  sect.  v. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  109 

Teviotdale,  Tweeddale,  and  the  Forrest  of  Eltrick.  His 
residence  to  be  in  Jedburgh. 

"  The  superintendent  of  Glasgow,  his  diocese  shall  com- 
prehend Clydesdale,  Renfrew,  Monteith,  Kyle,  and  Cunning- 
ham.    His  residence  to  be  in  Glasgow. 

"  The  superintendent  of  Dumfries  shall  have  for  his  diocese 
Galloway,  Carrick,  Nithsdale,  and  Annandale,  with  the  rest 
of  the  dales  in  the  west-     His  residence  to  be  at  Dumfries. 

"  These  men  must  not  be  suffered  to  live  idle,  as  the  bishops 
have  done  heretofore  ;  neither  must  they  remain  where  gladly 
they  would,  but  they  must  be  preachers  themselves,  and  not 
remain  in  one  place  above  three  or  four  months;  after  which, 
they  must  enter  in  visitation  of  their  whole  bounds,  preach 
thrice  a  week  at  least,  and  not  rest  till  the  churches  be  wholly 
planted,  an^  provided  of  ministers, — at  least,  of  readers. 

"  In  their  visitations,  they  must  try  the  life,  diligence,  and 
behaviour  of  the  ministers,  the  order  of  their  churches,  and  the 
manners  of  their  people,  how  the  poor  are  provided,  and  how 
the  youth  are  instructed.  They  must  admonish  when  ad- 
monition needeth,  and  redress  all  things  that  by  good  council 
they  are  able  to  compose.  Finally,  they  must  take  note  of 
all  heinous  crimes,  that  the  same  may  be  corrected  by  the 
censures  of  the  church^." 

In  the  above  quotation,  the  proof  of  the  superiority  of 
the  superintendents  or  bishops  of  the  new  establishment 
is  incontestible  ;  for  they  were  not  to  live  idle,  as  the  popish 
bishops  had  done.  The  proper  marks  of  episcopal  power  and 
jurisdiction  are  conferred  on  the  superintendent,  who  is  in- 
structed to  provide  the  two  inferior  orders  of  ministers  and 
readers  for  the  vacant  churches,  and  to  inspect  and  inquire 
into  tlieir  manners  and  doctrine.  A  stronger  proof  that  our 
reformers  were  episcopalian,  and  held  episcopacy  as  a  funda- 
mental of  religion,  can  scarcely  be  required. 

The  First  Book  of  Discipline  specifies  three  distinct  orders 
of  ministers ;  the  lowest  of  whom,  the  reader,  corresjDonds  to 
the  order  of  deacons,  and  like  them,  they  were  to  purchase 
to  themselves  a  good  degree,  or  to  be  advanced  to  the  second 
order  of  ministers,  in  process  of  time.  It  may  be  re- 
marked, that  the  national  abhorrence  of  popery  had  become 
so  great,  that  it  was  found  expedient  to  change  all  the  eccle- 
siastical names  and  terms.  The  deacons,  therefore,  were 
called  in  the  new  polity  Readers,  priests  were  denominated 
Ministers,  and  bishops  were  called  Superintendents ;  ordina- 

^  First  Book  of  Discipline,  head  v. 


110  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

tiou  was  denominated  Admission,  and  the  church  was  termed 
the  Congregation.  Thus  the  names  only  were  changed  for 
others  that  had  not  been  commonly  used  in  the  papal  church ; 
but  the  things  which  they  denominated  remained  substantially 
the  same.  I3ut  we  have  a  further,  and  what  almost  amounts  to 
a  synodical  acknowledgment  of  the  episcopacy  of  the  Knox- 
ian  superintendents,  by  the  assembly  of  1638,  which  has 
recently  come  to  light  by  the  publication  of  Principal  Baillie's 
Letters ;  in  one  of  which  he  says,  "  that  according  to  the  ex- 
press words  of  the  assembly,  1580-81,  episcopacy  was  to  be 
distinguished :  episcopacy  as  used  and  taken  in  the  church 
of  Scotland  I  thought  to  be  removed ;  yea,  that  it  was  a 
popish  error,  against  Scripture  and  antiquity,  and  so  then 
abjured;  but  episcopacy  shnpliciter,  such  as  was  in  the  an- 
cient church,  AND  in  our  church  during  Knox's  days,  in  the 
person  of  the  Superintendents,  it  was  for  many  reasons  to 
be  removed,  but  not  abjured  in  our  confession  of  faith.  This, 
Argyle  and  Loudon,  and  many,  took  out  of  my  mouth,  as  not 
ill  said,  and  nothing  against  their  mind,  who  spake  not  of  epis- 
copacy simpUciter,  but  in  our  o\\ti  church,  whether  or  not  it 
had  been  condemned  at  the  time  of  the  covenants'  first  sub- 
scription ^" 

Respecting  the  superintendents,  Knox  says :  "  Such  is  the 
present  necessity,  that  the  examination  and  admission  of  the 
superintendents  cannot  be  so  strict  as  afterwards  it  must ; 
for  the  present,  therefore,  we  think  it  sufficient  that  the  council 
nominate  so  many  as  may  serve  the  provinces  above  written, 
or  then  give  commission  to  men  of  best  knowledge,  who  have 
the  fear  of  God,  to  do  the  same.  If  so  many  cannot  be  found 
at  present  as  necessity  requireth,  it  is  better  that  those  pro- 
vinces wait  till  God  shall  provide,  than  that  men,  unable  to  edify 
and  goverti  the  chmxh,  be  suddenly  placed  in  the  charge.  If 
any  superintendent  depart  this  life,  or  happen  to  be  deposed, 
the  minister  of  the  chief  town  within  that  province,  with  the 
magistrates  and  council,  the  elders  and  deacons  of  the  said 
town,  shall  nominate  the  superintendents  of  two  or  three  pro- 
vinces next  adjacent,  within  the  space  of  twenty  days, — two 
or  three  of  the  most  godly  and  learned  ministers  within  the 
realm,  that  from  among  them,  with  public  consent,  one  may  be 
elected  to  the  office  then  vacant.  The  twenty  days  expired, 
and  no  man  presented,  three  of  the  next  adjacent  provinces, 
with  consent  of  their  superintendents,  ministers,  and  elders, 
shall  enter  into  the  jirivilege  of  the  chief  town,  and  shall  pre- 

'  BailUe's  Letters  and  Journals,  from  1637—1642.  Edinb.  edit.  1841,  p.  158. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  Ill 

sent  one  or  two,  if  they  list,  to  be  examined  according  to  the 
order ;  and  it  shall  be  lawful  for  all  the  churches  within  the 
diocese,  within  the  same  time,  to  nominate  such  persons  as  they 
esteem  worthy  of  election.  The  day  appointed  for  the  election 
being  come,  the  ministers  of  the  province,  with  the  superinten- 
dents next  adjacent,  shall  examine  the  learning,  manners, 
prudence,  and  ability  to  govern  the  church.  Other  ceremonies 
than  this  examination,  the  approbation  of  ministers  and 
superintendents,  with  the  public  consent  of  elders  and  people, 
we  do  not  admit.  No  superintendent  may  be  translated  at 
the  pleasure  or  request  of  any  one  province,  without  the  council 
of  the  whole  church.  After  the  church  shall  be  established, 
and  three  years  are  past,  no  man  shall  be  called  to  the  office 
of  a  superintendent,  who  hath  not,  two  years  at  least,  given  a 
proof  of  his  faithful  labours  in  the  ministry  of  some  church^  ' 

The  First  Book  of  Discipline  itself  is  a  sufficient  testimony 
thatits  compilers  were  of  episcopal  principles,  even  were  other 
evidence  wanting ;  but  their  own  practice  was  the  very  best  com- 
mentarj'.  Knox  names  the  parties,  six  in  number,  who  assumed 
and  exercised  the  episcopal  office  to  the  day  of  their  death — 
John  Winram,  who  lived  and  died  superintendent  or  bishop  of 
Strathern ;  John  Spottiswood  received  his  instructions  in  the 
reformed  doctrines  from  Cranmer  the  English  martyr,  and  was 
twenty  years  superintendent  of  Lothian.  "  He  lamented  ex- 
tremely," says  his  son,  "  the  case  of  the  church  in  his  last  days, 
when  he  saw  the  ministers  take  such  liberty  as  they  did,  and 
heard  of  the  disorders  raised  in  the  church  through  that  con- 
fused PARITY  which  men  laboured  to  introduce;  for  the  doctrine, 
said  he,  which  we  profess  is  good,  but  the  old  polity  was 
imdoubtedly  the  better."  John  Willock,  an  English  divine, 
lived  and  died  superintendent  of  the  west.  John  Douglass 
was  made  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  in  Knox's  life-time,  and 
died  in  that  see  ;  John  Row  was  one  of  those  who  defended 
Episcopacy  against  the  innovations  of  Andrew  Melville 
at  the  conference  in  1575.  John  Knox,  who  was  the  princi- 
pal man  in  digesting  the  discipline  of  the  infant  establishment, 
was  himself  a  parish  minister  in  England,  and  was  offered 
a  bishopric  in  that  kingdom  by  Edward  VI.,  his  opinion 
on  this  subject  ought  to  be  held  conclusive.  He  says,  "  super- 
intendents and  overseers  were  nominated,  that  all  things  in  the 
church  might  be  carried  with  order  and  well," — "  a  reason," 
says  Sage,  "  which,  as  it  has  held  since  the  apostles'  times,  will 

^  First  Book  of  Discipline,  head  v. 


112  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP,  V. 

continue  to  hold  so  long  as  the  church  continues  ^"  At  the 
"admission  of  John  Spottiswood  to  the  superintendency  of 
Lothian,  John  Knox  asserted  in  his  sermon  the  necessity, 
and  not  the  bare  expediency,  of  superintendents  or  over- 
seers, as  well  as  ministers  :  and  the  learned  author  of  "  The 
Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery"  has  enumerated  no  less 
than  thirty  marks  of  superiority  in  the  superintendent  over  the 
parish  minister,  of  which  the  following  is  an  abridgment : — 

1.  The  superintendents  had  districts,  or  dioceses,  of  con- 
siderable extent,  comprehending  many  parishes ;  whereas  the 
ordinary  minister  was  confined  to  a  single  parish. 

2.  As  superintendents  had  larger  districts  than  parish 
ministers,  so  there  was  a  difference  in  their  election.  Parish 
ministers  were  to  enter  to  churches  by  presentation  from  the 
patron,  and  collation  from  the  superintendent.  But  the  elec- 
tion of  superintendents  was  quite  different ;  they  were  to  be 
nominated  by  the  council,  and  elected  by  the  nobility  and 
gentry  within  their  dioceses. 

3.  The  superintendent  of  the  diocese,  with  consent  of  the 
elders,  could  depose  the  parish  ministers,  but  it  required  a 
convention  of  all  the  parish  ministers  to  depose  the  super- 
intendent. 

4.  The  superintendent  inducted  the  parish  ministers,  but 
superintendents  were  to  be  admitted  by  the  superinten- 
dents next  adjacent,  with  all  the  ministers  of  the  province,  or 
diocese. 

5.  In  the  case  of  translation,  the  General  Assembly,  holden 
at  Edinburgh,  December  1562,  "  gives  power  to  every 
superintendent  within  his  bounds  (or  diocese)  to  translate 
ministers  from  one  kirk  to  another,  charging  the  ministers  so 
translated  to  obey  the  voice  and  commandment  of  the  superin- 
tendent." But  according  to  the  First  Book  of  Discipline, 
"no  superintendent  might  be  translated  at  the  pleasure  or 
request  of  any  one  province,  without  the  council  of  the  whole 
church,  and  that  for  grave  causes  and  considerations." 

G.  The  First  Book  of  Discipline  ordains,  that  "  after  the 
church  shall  be  established,  and  three  years  are  past,  no  man 
shall  be  called  to  the  office  of  a  superintendent  who  hath 
not,  two  years  at  least,  given  a  proof  of  his  faithful  labours 
in  the  ministry," — a  caution  simply  inapplicable  to  a  parish 
minister. 

7.  The  First  Book  of  Discipline  appropriates  an  annual 
living  to  the  superintendent  five  times  the  amount  of  that  of  any 

'  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbyters,  p.  75,  7G. 


IcGl.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  113 

parish  minister;  and  this  at  a  time  when  the  Roman  Catholic 
bishops  were  in  possession  of  their  dioceses,  and  enjoyed  the 
revenues.  But  in  1567,  when  it  was  resolved  to  deprive  all  the 
Roman  Catholic  bishops,  it  was  agreed  in  the  General  Assem- 
bly, by  the  churchmen  on  the  one  part,  and  the  lords  and 
barons  on  the  other,  that  superintendents  should  succeed  in 
their  places. 

8.  Superintendents,  by  virtue  of  their  office,  were  constant 
but  not  elective  members  of  the  General  Assemblies ;  and,  in 
the  General  Assembly  held  at  Perth,  25th  June,  1563,  it  is 
statuted,  "  That  every  superintendent  shall  be  present  the  first 
day  of  the  Assembly,  under  the  pain  of  forty  shillings." 

9.  It  belonged  to  the  office  of  superintendent  to  try  and  exa- 
mine those  who  were  candidates  for  the  ministry.  The  First 
Book  of  Discipline,  head  iv.,  ordains,  "  That  such  as  take 
upon  them  the  office  of  preachers,  who  shall  not  be  found 
qualified  therefor  by  the  superintendent,  shall  by  him  be  placed 
as  readers."  And,  head  v.,  "  No  person  within  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years  may  be  admitted  to  the  office  of  a  reader, 
but  such  must  be  chosen  by  the  superintendent.^''  And  the 
Edinburgh  Assembly,  15th  December,  1562,  ordains,  "  That 
inhibition  be  made  against  all  such  ministers  as  have  not  been 
presented  by  the  people,  or  part  thereof,  to  the  superintendent, 
and  have  not  been  appointed  to  their  charges  by  the  super- 
intendents, after  trial  and  examination." 

10.  Superintendents  had  the  power  of  gi'antiug  collation  on 
presentation  by  the  patron,  as  appears  by  act  of  Assembly, 
December,  1562,  and  7th  act  Pari.  1st  Jac.  VI.  Also  the 
Assembly  holden  at  Perth,  June,  1563,  appoints,  "  That  when 
any  benefices  chance  to  vaik,  or  are  now  vacant,  that  a  quali- 
fied person  be  presented  to  the  superintendent  of  that  province 
(or  bishopric)  where  the  benefice  lieth,  and,  if  found  sufficient, 
he  be  admitted." 

11.  Superintendents  had  the  power  of  planting  ministers  in 
parish  churches,  where  the  patrons  were  negligent.  For  it  is 
ordered  in  the  First  Book  of  Discipline,  head  iv.,  "  That  if  the 
people  be  found  negligent  in  electing  a  minister  the  space  of 
forty  days,  the  superintendent,  with  his  council,  may  present 
unto  them  a  man  whom  he  may  judge  apt  to  feed  the  flock." 

12.  And  as  he  had  thus  the  power  of  trying  and  collating 
ministers,  and  planting  churches  in  the  case  of  a  Jus  devolutum, 
so  he  had  also  the  sole  power  of  ordination,  which  was  called 
at  that  time  admission;  for  as  they  substituted  the  word  super- 
intendent for  bishop,  so  they  changed  the  word  ordination  into 
admission. 

VOL.   I.  Q 


114  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

13.  All  Presbyters,  or  parish  ministers,  once  admitted  into 
churches,  were  bound  to  pay  canonical  obedience  to  their  super- 
intendents. In  the  Assembly  at  Edinburgh,  30th  June,  1562, 
"  it  was  concluded  by  the  whole  ministers  assembled,  that  all 
ministers  should  be  subject  to  the  superintendents  in  all  lawful 
admonitions."  And  in  that  Act  of  Assembly,  December  1562, 
it  is  ordained,  "  that  ministers  translated  from  one  (parish) 
church  to  another,  are  commanded  to  obey  the  voice  and  com- 
mandment of  the  superintendent.''''  Indeed,  it  was  part  of  an 
article  presented  by  the  church  to  the  council,  27th  May,  1561, 
"  that  an  act  should  be  made,  appointing  a  (civil)  punishment 
for  such  as  disobeyed  or  contemned  the  superintendents  in  their 
functions." 

14.  The  superintendent  had  power  to  visit  all  the  churches 
within  his  diocese  ;  and  in  that  visitation  (First  Book  of  Dis- 
pline,  head  v.)  "  to  try  the  life,  diligence,  and  behaviour  of  the 
ministers  ;  the  order  of  their  churches  ;  the  manners  of  their 
people  ;  how  the  poor  are  provided ;  and  how  the  youth  are 
instructed,"  And  in  these  visitations  he  had  power  "  to  take 
account  of  what  books  every  (parish)  minister  had,  and  how 
he  profited  from  time  to  time  by  them." — Act  of  Assembly, 
29th  June,  1562. 

15.  The  superintendent  had  power  vested  in  him  by  the 
First  Book  of  Discipline,  head  viii.,  to  depose  parish  ministers. 
And,  act  of  Assembly,  6lh  March,  1573,  it  is  enacted,  "  that 
if  any  minister  reside  not  at  the  church  where  his  charge  is, 
he  shall  be  summoned  before  his  superintendent,  to  whom  the 
Assembly  gives  power  to  depose  him." 

16.  The  superintendent  had  power  to  translate  ministers 
from  one  parish  to  another.  Act  of  Assembly,  25th  June,  1564, 
"  It  is  concluded,  that  a  (parish)  minister  being  once  placed, 
may  not  leave  that  congregation  without  the  knowledge  of  the 
flock,  and  consent  of  the  superintendent T  These  are  powers, 
methinks,  scarcely  reconcileable  \\'\\)i\ parity . 

17.  The  superintendent  had  power  to  nominate  ministers  in 
his  diocese  to  be  members  of  the  General  Assembly.  Act  of 
Assembly,  June  1562,  ordains,  "That  no  minister  leave  his 
flock  (parish)  for  coming  to  the  Assembly,  except  he  have 
complaints  to  make,  or  be  complained  of,  or  at  least  warned 
thereto,  by  the  superintendent.'"  And  in  the  Act  of  Assembly, 
1st  July,  1563,  it  is  ordained,  "  That  none  have  place  to  vote 
except  superintendents,  commissioners^  appointed  for  visiting 

^  Superintendent  and  commissioner  were  terms  synonymous  with  bishop  : — 
"  Some  brethren  motioned,  that  it  might  be  demanded  of  the  commissioners  of 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  115 

the  kirks,  and  ministers  brought  with  them."  From  which  it 
is  plain,  that  the  superintendent  nominated  the  ministers  they 
brought  with  them  to  the  Assembly,  and  that  the  rest  of  the 
ministers  had  only  the  privilege  of  consenting.  Lord  Glammis, 
in  his  letter  to  Beza,  1574,  informs  that  notable  Presbyterian, 
"  That  it  had  been  the  custom,  ever  since  the  reformation,  that 
the  superintendents,  or  bishops,  still  nominated  the  ministers 
who  met  in  General  Assemblies."  This  was  not  a  private 
opinion  of  my  lord  Glammis,  who  was  lord  Chancellor  of  the 
kingdom,  but  was  the  result  of  a  consultation.  This  was  a 
branch  of  episcopal  power  that  gave  such  great  offence  to 
Calderwood  and  Petrie,  the  historians  most  devoted  to  the 
Presbyterian  interest,  that  they  have  endeavoured  to  mystify 
and  obscure  it  as  much  as  possible,  and  entirely  suppress  the 
powers  vested  in  the  superintendent  of  visiting  the  parish 
churches. 

18;  The  superintendent  had  the  power  oi  appointing  dioce- 
san synods.  He  had  the  sole  appointment  of  ihe  meeting,  and 
they  were  always  called  the  superintendent's  synods.  Act  of 
Assembly ,  December,  1562, ordains,"  That  the  superintendents 
appoint  synodal  conventions  twice  in  the  year,  in  April  and 
October,  on  such  days  of  the  said  months  as  the  super- 
intendents shall  think  good." 

19.  Superintendents  had  power,  within  their  own  dioceses, 
to  appoint  diocesan  fasts. 

20.  Another  considerable  instance  of  the  powers  vested  in 
superintendents  was,  that  of  assigning  to  parish  ministers  their 
stipends  or  livings.  This  is  placed  beyond  a  doubt  by  act  of 
Assembly,  July,  1569  :  "  And,  therefore,  the  kirk  in  one  voice, 
by  this  their  act,  gave  their  full  power  and  commission  to  every 
superintendent,  within  their  own  bounds  (or  diocese),  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  their  synodal  conventions,  to  give  every 
minister,  exhorter,  and  reader,  particular  assignations,  ac^ri/am, 
as  they  should  find  the  same  expedient,  under  the  superin- 
tendents subscription.  And,  as  concerning  the  superintendents 
and  commissioners  of  kirks,  their  provision  and  assignation 
shall  be  made  by  the  General  Assembly." 

21.  Appeals  were  to  be  made  to  the  superintendents  by  the 
inferior  judicatories.  Act  of  Assembly,  June,  1563,  ordains, 
"  Concerning  the  order  of  appellation,  it  is  statuted  and  or- 

Galloway  and  Orkney  if  they  thought  that  they  might,  with  a  safe  conscience, 
discharge  both  the  office  of  a  superintendent  and  a  lord  in  the  session.  .  .  .  Here 
toe  see  superintenilent  and  commissioner  are  taken  for  one  and  the  same  thing : 
and  the  bishops  of  Galloway  and  Orkney  are  noio  called  commissioners  of 
Galloway  and  Orkney." — Calderwood,  p.  39,  anno  1563. 


116  HISTOUY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

dained,  that,  if  any  person  find  himself  aggrieved  by  any  sen- 
tence given  by  any  minister,  elders,  or  deacons,  (or  any  kirk- 
session),  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  person  so  aggrieved  to  appeal 
to  the  superintendent  of  that  diocese,  and  his  synodal  conven- 
tion, within  ten  days  next  after.  And  the  said  superintendent 
shall  take  cognition  whether  it  was  well  appealed  or  not,  and 
give  his  sentence  thereupon."  By  the  same  act,  the  appellant, 
if  he  thought  himself  injured  by  the  sentence  of  the  super- 
intendent, might,  as  was  reasonable,  appeal  to  the  General 
Assembly. 

22.  But  if  the  superintendent  should  find  the  appeal  fi-om 
his  sentence  to  be  mule  appellatum,  he  had  the  power  oi fining 
the  appellant.  Act  of  Assembly,  June,  1563,  it  is  enacted, 
"  If  the  appellant  justifies  not  his  appellation  before  the  super- 
intendent and  his  convention  aforesaid,  then  the  superintendent 
shall  impute  a  pain  on  the  said  appellant,  as  he  shall  think 
good,  besides  the  expenses  of  the  party." 

23.  And  as  the  superintendent  had  this  power  of  receiving 
appeals  from  the  inferior  courts,  so  he  had  also  \he  power,  with 
the  advice  of  his  synod,  or  such  of  the  ministers  of  his  diocese 
as  he  should  choose  for  that  purpose,  to  determine  intricate 
cases  of  conscience  or  government.  Act  of  Assembly,  Decem- 
ber, 1564,  "  It  is  ordained,  that  no  questions  be  proposed  by 
any  brother,  till  the  affairs  of  the  kirk,  and  the  order  thereof, 
be  first  treated  and  ended  ;  and,  therefore,  if  any  brother  have 
a  question  worthy  to  be  proposed,  that  the  same  be  presented 
in  writing :  and,  if  the  same  require  hasty  resolution,  it  shall 
be  decided  in  the  present  assembly,  before  the  end  thereof, 
otherwise  the  decision  of  the  same  shall  be  referred  to  every 
one  of  the  superintendents,  within  whose  diocese  the  question 
is  proposed,  and  they,  and  every  one  of  them,  with  a  certain 
number  of  ministers  as  they  shall  think  meet  to  appoint  for 
assisting,  shall  hear  the  reasonings  of  the  aforesaid  questions, 
and  thereafter  present  the  reasonings  in  writing,  affirmative  or 
negative,  which  every  one  of  them  shall  report  to  next  Assem- 
bly." Act  of  Assembly,  July,  1568,"  It  is  statuted  and  or- 
dained, that  ministers,  exhorters,  and  readers,  or  other  per- 
sons, hereafter  trouble  not  nor  molest  the  General  Assembly 
with  such  things  as  superintendents  may  and  ought  to  decide 
in  their  synodal  conventions."  This  makes  his  powers  evi- 
dent in  cases  of  appeal,  which  were  first  to  be  brought  before 
him,  and  by  him  only  to  be  remitted  to  the  General  Assembly  if 
he  thought  it  necessary.  But  the  more  decisive  act  on  this  point 
is  that  of  Assembly,  5th  March,  1571,  where  it  is  enacted, 
"  That  all  questions  be  first  proposed  to  superintendents  or 


1561.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  117 

commissioners  in  their  synodal  conventions,  and  there  receive 
solution ;  and,  if  they  think  them  too  hard,  that  they  bring 
them  to  the  General  Assembly  ;  but  that  no  private  minister 
bring  questions  to  the  Assembly  prima  instantiay 

24.  It  belonged  exclusively  to  the  superintendents  to y?^</^e 
of  divorces, — a  point  of  great  intricacy  and  importance.  Act 
of  Assembly,  December  1562,  ordains,  "  That  no  ministers  or 
others,  bearing  office  in  the  kirk,  take  in  hand  to  cognosce  or 
decide  in  actions  of  divorcement,  except  the  superintendents ^ 
and  they  to  whom  they  shall  give  special  commission." 

25.  Superintendents  also  enjoined  penances  on  greater  cri- 
minals. Act  of  Assembly,  25th  June,  1564, "  Touching  such 
as  relapse  the  third  time  into  any  kind  of  crime,  such  as 
drunkenness  or  fornication,  it  is  statuted  and  ordained,  that  no 
particular  minister  admit  such  persons  to  repentance,  but  that 
they  send  them  to  the  superintendent  of  the  diocese  where  the 
crimes  were  committed,  with  information."  The  Countess  of 
Argyle  was  accused  of  a  horrid  scandal  in  being  present  at 
the  baptism  of  the  prince,  afterwards  James  VI.,  which  was 
performed  in  the  Roman  Catholic  manner,  and  she  was  there- 
fore cited  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  church.  She  was  ordered 
to  do  it  by  the  General  Assembly,  in  such  manner,  and  at  such 
time,  as  the  superintendent  of  Lothian  (within  whose  diocese 
the  scandal  was  committed)  should  appoint. 

26.  The  superintendent  had  power  to  restore  penitents  to 
their  offices  in  the  church,  after  absolution.  Thus,  Thomas 
Duncanson,7'eG«?er  at  Stirling,  had  fallen  into  the  sin  of  fornica- 
tion, for  which  he  was  silenced.  He  had  performed  his 
penance  and  was  absolved.  Then  the  question  was  put  to  the 
Assembly,  Dec.  1563 — Whether  or  not  having  made  public 
penance,  he  might  be  restored  to  his  office  ?  The  Assembly 
determined,  that  he  might  not,  till  the  church  at  Stirling  should 
make  request  to  the  superintendent  for  him.. 

27.  The  superintendent  had  exclusively  the  power  of  ex- 
communication, in  cases  of  contumacy.  Act  of  Assembly,  1st 
July,  1562,  "  That  in  cases  of  contumacy,  the  minister  shall 
give  notice  to  the  superintendent,  with  whose  advice  excom- 
munication is  to  be  pronounced." 

28.  It  belongeth  also  to  the  office  of  a  superintendent  to  de- 
late atrocious  criminals  to  the  civil  magistrate,  that  condign 
punishment  might  be  inflicted  on  them.  In  a  convention  of 
tlie  Kirk,  16th  December,  1567,  (to  wait  on  the  motions  of  the 
parliament)  it  is  enacted,  "  that  ministers,  elders,  and  deacons 
make  search  within  their  bounds,  if  the  crimes  of  incest 
and  adultery  were  committed,  and  to  signify  the  same  to  the 


118  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

superintendent,  that  he  may  notify  it  to  the  civil  magistrate." 
Such  was  the  power  of  superintendents  in  the  church,  and  her 
discipHne. 

29.  Because  universities,  colleges,  and  schools,  are  the  semi- 
naries of  learning,  and,  by  consequence,  nurseries  of  the 
ministers,  the  power  of  superintendents  over  them  was  very 
considerable.  First  Book  of  Discipline,  head  v. — "  If  the 
principal  or  head  of  any  college  within  the  University  of  St. 
Andrews,  died,  the  members  of  the  college,  being  sworn  to 
follow  their  consciences,  were  to  nominate  three  of  the  most 
sufficient  men  \^^thin  the  university.  This  done,  the  superin- 
tendent of  Fife,  by  himself  or  his  special  procurator,  with  the 
rector  and  the  rest  of  the  principals,  were  to  choose  one  of 
these  three,  and  constitute  him  principal.  And  when  the  rec- 
tor was  chosen,  he  was  to  be  confii-med  by  the  superintendent. 
By  the  same  book,  the  money  collected  in  any  college  for 
upholding  the  fabric,  was  to  be  counted  and  employed  at  the 
sight  of  the  sujierintendent.  And  the  act  of  Assembly,  25th 
January,  1565,  petitioned  the  queen  "  that  none  might  be  per- 
mitted to  have  charge  of  schools,  colleges,  or  universities,  but 
such  as  should  be  tried  by  the  superintendent."  This  power 
was  ratified  by  the  1 1th  act  of  1st  pari.  Jac,  VI.  1567.  And 
accordingly,  the  laird  of  Dun,  supei'intendent  of  Angus,  hold- 
ing a  visitation  of  the  University  of  Aberdeen,  in  July  1568,  by 
a  fonnal  sentence,  turned  out  all  the  Roman  Catholic  mem- 
bers. Petrie,  a  violent  Presbyterian  historian,  bears  strong 
evidence  of  the  paramount  authority  of  superintendents.  In 
page  362,  he  states,  that,  "  I,  John  Erskine,  superintendent  of 
Angus  and  Mearns,  having  commission  of  the  church  to  visit 
the  sheriffdoms  of  Aberdeen  and  Banff,  by  the  advice,  counsel, 
and  consent  of  the  ministers,  elders,  and  commissioners  of  the 
Kirk  present,  decern,  conclude,  and  for  final  sentence  pro- 
nounce, that  Master  Alexander  Anderson,"  &,c. 

30.  The  revising  and  licensing  of  books  were  committed  to 
the  care  of  the  superintendents.  Act  of  Assembly  1563,  it  is 
ordained,  "  'I'hat  no  work  be  set  forth  in  print,  neither  pub- 
lished in  writing,  touching  religion  or  doctrine,  until  such  time 
as  it  shall  be  presented  to  the  superintendent  of  the  diocese, 
and  advised  and  improven  by  him,  or  by  such  as  he  shall  call, 
of  the  most  learned  within  his  bounds  ^" 

Lest  the  above  thirty  marks  of  episcopal  pre-eminence  in  the 
superintendents  should  be  deemed  insufficient  to  establish  the 

Pundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery,  pp.  120 — 139. 


1561. J  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  119 

point  of  our  reformers  having  been  episcopalians  both  in  jjrin- 
cipleand  practice,  I  beg  to  refer  to  part  of  a  letter  from  Erskine 
of  Dun,  superintendent  of  Angus,  Knox's  intimate  friend  and 
fellow-labourer,  to  the  regent,  dated  Nov.  1571,  in  which  he 
asserts,  not  only  the  expediency,  but  the  divine  authority  of 
the  episcopal  office  in  the  church  of  Christ.  Considering  their 
intimacy  and  close  friendship,  we  cannot  imagine  that  the  su- 
perintendent of  Angus  would,  in  a  solemn  official  document, 
addressed  to  the  regent  of  the  kingdom,  support  doctrines  at 
variance  with  those  of  his  friend  Knox,  and  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  the  then  establishment ;  and  of  which  the 
regent  himself  could  not  be  ignorant  ^  The  letter  in  question 
respects  the  invidious  subject  of  tithes,  which  Erskine  asserts 
must  belong  to  the  Kirk,  "  wha  onlie  hes  the  distiibutione  and 
ministratione  of  spirituall  thingis And  as  to  the  ques- 
tion, if  it  be  expedient  a  superintendent  to  be  where  a  qualified 
bishop  is  ? — /  understand  a  bishop  or  superintendent  to 
be  but  ONE  OFFICE,  and  xohere  the  one  is  the  other  is." 

But  lest  Mr.  Erskine  of  Dun  should  be  supposed  to  have  been 
ignorant  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  church  of  which 
he  was  a  titular  bishop  or  governor,  the  respected  name  of  Dr. 
Cook  2  may  carry  some  weight.  In  the  conclusion  of  his  history 
of  the  Reformation,  he  says  decidedly,  "  They  who  have  em- 
braced episcopacy,  although  they  are  not  averse  to  maintain 
that  this  book  (the  First  Book  of  Discipline)  in  fact  sanctioned 
a  form  of  prelacy,  would  have  preferred  to  that  fonn  an  exact 
resemblance  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  while  the  successors 
of  the  first  reformers,  who  afterwards  embraced  with  so  much 
zeal  the  exclusive  and  divine  authority  of  the  presbyterian 
model,  consider  it  as  a  stumbling-block,  which  they  are  eager  to 
remove.  They  have,  accordingly,  represented  the  institution 
of  superintendents  as  not  designed  by  Knox  to  continue  in 
the  church  ;  and  thus  endeavour  to  gain  to  their  principles  his 
countenance  and  approbation.  But  the  ground  upon  which 
they  rest  this  assertion  is  not  sufficient  to  bear  it.  It  is  appa- 
rent, from  the  manner  in  which  Knox  has  spoken  of  the  state 
of  religion  while  superintendents  were  recognized, — from 
the  uniformity  with  which  he  inculcated  deference  and  obe- 
dience to  the  higher  ecclesiastical  powers, — and  from  the  lan- 
guage used  in  the  Acts  of  the  successive  Assemblies,  in  some 
of  which  superintendents  are  classed  among  the  needful  mem- 
bers of  the  church,  that  he  was  firmly  persuaded  that  his  plan 

^  See  post,  Chapter  VII. 

^  Dr.  Cook  is  now  the  leader  of  the  moderates  ia  the  Kirk,  who  are  opposed 
to  the  non-intrusioninis. 


120  HISTORY  OF   THE  [CHAP.  V. 

ought  to  be  permanent.  That  so  far  from  being  only  a  '  de- 
vout imagination,'  as  some  of  the  nobility  contemptuously 
characterised  it,  it  was  the  best  plan  that  presented  itself  to 
his  mind." 

The  history  of  the  Scottish  reformation,  or  rather  the  de- 
struction of  the  Scoto-papal  church  and  the  dissolution  of 
religion,  has  now  been  brought  down  to  the  period  when  the 
protestant  hierarchy  of  Knox  received  a  parliamentary  esta- 
blishment. Without  doubt  the  government  which  he  and  his 
associates  projected,  and  which  the  noblemen  at  the  head  of 
affairs  established,  was  episcopal ;  yet,  with  an  inconsistency 
which  would  excite  a  jealousy  of  his  sincerity,  Knox  utterly 
repudiated  all  consecration  to  the  office  of  bishop  or  superin- 
tendent. As  Knox  had  studied  so  long  and  so  assiduously  in 
the  school  of  the  Geneva  patriarch,  it  may  not  be  altogetherun- 
interesting  to  ascertain  what  were  the  opinions  of  the  leading 
Protestants  of  that  age  respecting  the  government  of  the  church. 

When  the  Scottish  reformation  was  in  progress,  there  was 
no  such  controversy  any  where  agitated  as  the  divine  right  of 
presbytery.  The  principal  subjects  of  dispute  were  the  papal 
supremacy,  the  immoral  lives  of  the  papal  clergy,  and 
certain  corruptions  in  doctrine  and  discipline  which  had  crept 
into  the  practice  of  the  church.  We  hear  nothing  of  pres- 
byterian  discipline  for  nearly  twenty  j-ears  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Knoxian  episcopacy.  Calvin,  Knox's  most  inti- 
mate friend  and  adviser,  was  so  far  from  approving  of  the  sys- 
tem of  presbytery,  that  he  says,  there  is  no  anathema  of  which  it 
is  not  worthy.  In  his  treatise  on  the  necessity  of  reforming  the 
church,  he  replies  to  the  objection  made  to  the  ordination  by 
his  disciples  without  bishops,  by  pleading  necessity,  because 
the  papal  bishops  had  refused  to  give  any  assistance  ;  and 
says  : — "  If  they  will  give  us  such  an  hierarchy,  in  which  the 
bishops  may  be  so  above  others  as  that  they  refuse  not  to  be 
under  Christ,  and  depend  on  him  as  the  only  head,  and  be  re- 
ferred unto  Him ;  in  which  they  so  maintain  brotherly  fellow- 
ship among  themselves,  that  they  may  be  knit  together  no 
other  way  than  by  the  truth  ;  then  I  confess,  if  there  be  any 
that  do  not  observe  that  hierarchy  with 'the  greatest  reve- 
rence and  obedience,  Mere  w  no  curse  of  which  they  are  not 
worthy  r 

Calvin  was  a  mere  layman,  and  never  was  even  in  deacons' 
orders  ;  yet  he  assumed  a  patriarchal  position,  dictated  laws 
to  most  of  those  sects  who  have  broken  off'  from  the  church 
catholic,  and  even  imposed  his  pernicious  dogmas  on  many 
who  were  members  of  the  church.     It  would  have  been  happy 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND,  121 

for  the  church's  peace  had  he  never  been  born ;  forhe  has  created 
more  divisions  and  uncharitable  schisms  in  it,  and  sunk  mor*» 
souls  into  "  wretchlessness  of  most  unclean  living,"  than  any 
other  leader  of  modern  date,  not  even  excepting  the  cele- 
brated Hildebrand.  It  is  a  curious  coincidence  remarked  by 
the  author  of  a  Letter  on  Lay -baptism  Invalid,  "that  in  the  same 
year  that  Calvin  made  himself />o/je  of  his  lay  cardinals,  that 
is,  the  lay  elders,  at  Geneva,  Ignatius  Loyola  got  himself  made 
superior  of  his  own  order,  the  Jesuits,  at  Rome.  This  was 
anno  1541  :  and  these  Jesuits  have  ever  since  been  the  Jani- 
zaries of  the  papacy,  and  the  lay-elders  the  Janizaries  of 
presbytery.  And  by  the  united  malice  of  these  two,  just  one 
hundred  years  after,  was  the  church  of  England"  (and  of  Scot- 
land also)  "overthrown  and  destroyed,  anno  1641;  so  near 
akin  are  the  Jesuits  and  Calvinists  or  Presbyterians,  at  least  in 
their  aversion  to  primitive  apostolical  episcopacy  and  in  their 
politics."  Extremes  meet.  As  the  papal  church  rejects  all 
ordination  as  invalid,  except  it  has  been  conferred  by  the  pope 
or  one  "  in  the  grace  of  the  holy  see,"  as  they  term  it ;  so  Cal- 
vin, Knox,  and  their  followers,  despised  and  rejected  all  ordi- 
nation, albeit  they  did  admit  thatiti^o^  an  apostolical  ordinance. 
This  acknowledgment,  and  at  the  same  time  the  rejection  of 
the  apostolical  command,  is  exactly  parallel  with  the  sacri- 
lege of  the  Council  of  Constance,  where  it  was  decreed  that 
"  though  Christ  did  institute  in  both  kinds,  and  the  primitive 
church  did  so  administer ;  yet  we  desire  the  contrary  to 
be  observed. '' 

Knox  accordingly  brushed  away  the  venerable  apostolical 
rite  of  the  imposition  of  hands  as  an  unnecessary  ceremony, 
although  an  apostle  has  commanded  all  bishops  to  do  it  with 
caution,  and  not  suddenly.  Knox  declared  that  albeit  it  was 
an  apostolical  usage,  yet  Ae  judged  it  not  necessary,  and  we 
have  been  gravely  informed,  in  the  year  1841,  in  a 
pamphlet  written  by  an  influential  minister  of  the  kirk,  that  the 
laying  on  of  hands  is  still  not  considered  necessary,  but  that 
it  was  originally  complied  with  to  gratify  a  whim  of  James  VI., 
who  it  seems  had  odd  notions  about  propriety,  and  that  it  is 
now  only  practised  from  custom  ! 

Notwithstanding  their  rejection  of  ordination,  and  their 
compelling  their  ministers  to  climb  over  the  wall,  and  would 
not  allow  them  to  enter  by  the  door  into  the  sheepfold,  yet  both 
Calvin  and  Knox  were  decided  enemies  to  Presbyterian 
parity  ;  the  former  of  whom  affirms,  that  "  equality  of  minis- 
ters breedeth  strifes.'''' 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  Calvin  admits  the  superiority 

VOL.  I.  R 


122  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

of  bishops  over  presbyters,  and  makes  them  more  than  mere 
moderators.     Having  reckoned  up  several  degrees  of  bishops, 
archbishops,  and  patriarchs,  though  he  dislikes  the  word  hie- 
rarchy, by  which  the  government  under  these  degrees  is  called, 
as  a  word  not  used  in  Holy  Scripture,  yet  he  adds  immediately 
afterwards, — "  If  yet  we  consider  the  thing,  laying  aside  that 
word,  we  shall  find  that  these  ancient  bishops  had  no  mind  to 
make  any  other  form  of  government  in  the  Church  than  that 
which  our  Lord  had  prescribed  in  his  word ;  ^  for,  says  he, 
"  without  this  distinction  strifes  would  arisen     Treating  of 
the  first  bishops,  he  cites  Jerom's  words  toEvagrius, — "What 
does  a  bishop  that  a  presbyter  does  not,  the  office  oi  ordination 
excepted?"  and  adds,  "  Nevertheless,  in  another  place,  Jerom 
teaches  how  ancient  the  institution  of  bishops  is  ;  for  he  says, 
that  at  Alexandria,  from  Mark  downwards,  there  was  still  a 
bishop  2."     Here  Calvin  asserts  both  the  antiquity  and  the 
succession  of  the  episcopal  order,  which,  he  rightly  says,  was 
the  means  of  preventing  strifes,  and  of  preserving  due  subordi- 
nation and  discipline.     And  on  the  same  subject  he  says, 
"  Now  we   are   to   speak   of  bishops,  who,  I   wish,  would 
contend  about  the  retaining  of  their  office.   We  would  willingly 
grant  unto  them,  (meaning  the  Roman  bishops),  that  they 
have  a  holy  and  excellent  office,  if  they  would  rightly  dis- 
charge it^-"     Here  he  calls  that  same  episcopal  office  "  holy 
and  excellent,"  which  his  followers  in  Scotland  have  solemnly 
sworn  to  root  out  and  extirpate  as  an  antichristian  corruption. 
In  the  13th  sect,  of  the  same  book,  he  affirms  likewise,  that 
the  ancient  episcopacy  was  delivered  by  the  apostles,  and 
conveyed  to  the  succeeding  fathers  of  the  Church  "  by  hand 
to  hand  from  the  apostles."     On  the  text  of  Titus,  i.  5,  "  For 
this  cause  left  I  thee  in  Crete,  that  thou  shouldest  set  in  order 
the  things  that  are  wanting,  and  ordain  elders  [presbyters)  in 
every  city,  as  I  had  appointed  thee ;"  he  says,  very  justly,  "We 
may  learn  from  that  text,  that  there  was  then  not  such  an 
equality  among  the  ministers  of  the  Church,  but  that  one  per- 
son presided  in  authority  and  council  above  the  rest."     But, 
more  decidedly  still,  in  a  long  letter  which  he  wrote  to  an  old 
friend  on  his  elevation  to  the  office  of  a  bishop  in  the  Church 
of  Rome,  he  says, "  Episcopacy  itself  has  proceeded  from  God, 
and  was  instituted  by  God.""     And,  a  little  after,  he  says,  "  In 
esteeming  the  episcopal  office,  we  must  not  regard  the  peopWs 
judgment,  but  God's  only,  by  whose  authority  it  is  consti- 
tuted*."    And  throughout  the  whole  of  this  epistle  he  never 

*  liistit.  lit),  iv.  c.  iv.  sec.  4.      ^  ib.     3  i^   ^  y_  gee.  H.      ■»  Opusc.  p.  72. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  123 

insinuates  the  smallest  objection  to  the  office,  but  severely 
inveighs  against  the  abuses  of  it  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  and 
advises  his  friend  "  either  to  do  the  duty  of  a  bishop,  or  else  to 
resign  the  bishop's  seat." 

The  above,  therefore,  is  a  very  decided  testimony,  from  Cal- 
vin's own  writings,  of  the  divine  institution  of  the  episcopal 
office.  He  affirms  that  it  is  a  holy  and  excellent  office ;  that 
it  is  from  God,  and  instituted  by  Him  ;  that  to  it  belongs  the 
power  of  ordination ;  and  he  strongly  recommends  the  faith- 
fiil  discharge  of  its  important  duties.  But  these  are  not  his 
only  testimonies  in  its  favour.  In  a  long  epistle  to  the  Duke 
of  Somerset,  Protector  of  England  during  the  minority  of  Ed- 
ward VI.,  he  offers  his  advice  respecting  many  things  in  reli- 
gion ;  yet  it  is  very  remarkable  that  he  never  once  objects  to,  or 
recommends  the  removal  of,  the  English  episcopacy  :  but,  on 
the  contrary,  he  earnestly  advises  that  both  bishops  and  priests 
shall  be  sworn  to  preach  no  other  doctrine  than  that  which  is 
contained  in  the  Thirty -nine  Articles  of  religion.  And  in  the 
same  letter  he  says,  "  I  hear  there  are  two  sorts  of  seditious 
persons  who  have  elevated  their  head  against  the  king  and 
state  of  the  kingdom ;  the  first,  a  kind  of  heady  and  humour- 
ous people,  who,  under  pretence  of  the  gospel,  would  bring  in 
confusion  and  disorder  every  where  ;  the  otliers  are  hardened 
in  their  antichristian  superstitions :  and  those  in  authority 
should  restrain  both."  Had  Calvin  entertained  the  opinion 
of  ministerial  parity,  which  has  since  been  ascribed  to  him  by 
those  who  implicitly  follow  his  doctrinal  opinions,  he  never 
would  have  suffered  so  favourable  an  opportunity  to  have 
escaped  of  recommending  that  novel  measure,  which  he  him- 
self has  characterised  as  a  "  breeder  of  strifes,"  and  of  insist- 
ing on  its  adoption.  It  is  so  much  a  matter  of  fact  that  the 
Church  of  England  was  then,  as  it  is  now,  and  ever  has  been 
since  it  was  first  planted  by  St.  Paul,  episcopal,  that  it  is  unne- 
cessary to  say  he  was  addressing  the  civil  governor  of  a  church 
whose  discipline  was  not  that  of  Presbyterian  parity.  There- 
fore his  silence  must  be  construed  as  an  approval  of  that  an- 
cient and  only  legitimate  government,  which  was  instituted  by 
Jesus  Christ,  and  has  been  handed  down,  as  Calvin  himself 
assures  us,  "by  hand  to  hand  from  the  apostles."  And  to 
those  who  look  up  to  him  as  the  father  and  founder  of  pres- 
bytery, and  the  greatest  light  of  the  Reformation,  his  opinion 
on  this  subject  ought  to  carry  considerable  weight.  In  a  letter 
to  the  King  of  Poland,  he  approved  of  all  the  degrees  of  the 
hierarchy,  even  to  patriarchs.     In  his  answer  to  Cart\\right's 


124  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

representation  of  archbishops  and  bishops,  he  uses  nearly  the 
same  words  : — ^"  I  had  always  a  great  reverence  for  the  bishops 
of  yoiu"  Church,  to  whom  I  gave  inward  reverence,  as  well  as 
outward  respect,  and  would  gladly  have  served  them  in  settling 
of  the  English  Church  :  and  my  judgment  is,  if  we  may  have 
such  an  hierarchy,  in  which  the  bishops  so  excel  others  that 
they  refuse  not  subjection  to  Christ,  but  would  depend  on  him 
as  their  only  Head,  and  refer  themselves  to  him,  in  which  they 
preserve  brotherly  communion  among  themselves,  that  they 
are  united  by  nothing  more  than  the  truth  ;  in  which  case,  / 
denounce  him  worthy  of  all  curses  who  does  not  observe  such 
an  hierarchy  with  all  reverence  and  obedience;  and  I  would  to 
God  such  a  succession  had  continued  to  this  day ;  it  should 
easily  have  obtained  from  us  the  obedience  that  it  deserves.  I 
do  account  the  government  by  archbishops  a  moderate  honour, 
as  being  within  the  compass  of  a  man's  power  to  execute, 
which  the  pope's  pretended  authority  is  not ;  and  the  ancient 
church  did  appoint  patriarchs  and  primates  in  every  province, 
as  a  bond  to  unite  bishops  in  concord. 

As  many  sincere  well-disposed  presbyterians  are  puzzled 
with  the  word  archbishop,  which  they  cannot  find  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  any  more  than  the  presbyterian  title  of  moderator 
is  to  be  discovered  by  the  strictest  search,  I  may  be  allowed 
to  inform  them,  that  archbishops  are  not  superior  in  order 
to  other  bishops,  but  only  in  jurisdiction.  It  is  their  privilege 
to  confirm  the  election,  and  to  consecrate  the  other  bishops 
within  their  provinces — to  summon  the  bishops  to  hold  synods 
under  them,  in  which  they  sit  as  presidents  (or  moderators)  — 
to  inquire  into  their  opinions,  and  to  censure  them  with  suspen- 
sion or  deprivation,  according  to  the  nature  of  their  mal-admi- 
nistration — also  to  hear  and  determine  causes  between  con- 
tending bishops ;  but,  within  their  own  diocese,  they  possess 
no  more  spiritual  power  than  any  other  bishop.  Patriarchs 
are  bisho])s  claiming  or  exercising  more  extensive  jurisdiction 
over  their  brother  bishops  ;  such  as  the  patriarchs  of  Antioch, 
Alexandria,  Rome,  and  Constantinople.  Society  cannot  sub- 
sist without  order  and  government ;  therefore  Presbyterian 
moderators  assume,  for  the  time  being,  the  powers  and  supre- 
macy of  an  archbishop  in  their  courts,  in  imitation  of  that 
hierarchy  which  Calvin  approved,  and  his  disciple  Knox 
appointed,  that,  as  the  latter  said,  "  All  things  in  the  Church 
might  be  carried  with  order,  and  well." 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  John  Calvin  was  not  an  enemy 
to   such   an  episcopacy   as    was  exercised  in  the   primitive 


1561.]  CHfiRCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  125 

church,  before  the  usurpation  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  in  the 
seventh  century,  and  which  still  exists  in  the  reformed  catholic 
churches  of  England  and  Ireland,  the  episcopal  churches  of 
Scotland,  and  of  the  United  States  of  America ;  but  only  to 
the  unscriptural,  antichristian,  and  intolerable  tyranny  of  the 
pope,  who  claims  to  be  the  universal  bishop  and  head  of  the 
whole  church.     Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  Head  of  the  holy 
catholic  and  apostolic  church  ;  and  it  cannot  be  shewn  that 
He  ever  delegated  his  authority  as  head  over  all  things,  to  his 
church  which  is  his  body,  to  any  man  or  set  of  men,  whether 
pope  or  prelate,  moderator  or  General  Assembly,  in  any  part  of 
the  world.     He  no  more  placed  one  universal  bishop  over  all 
the  churches,  either  at  Rome  or  Geneva,  than  he  appointed  one 
universal  monarch  over  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth.    Calvin 
w^as  not  an  enemy  to  protestant  episcopacy ;  because  it  is  the 
strongest  possible  defence  against  popery,  as  every  bishop  is  an 
independent  prince  in  his  own  diocese,  from  whom  there  is  no 
appeal,  and    who   prevents   those  "  strifes"  which   he  said 
"  equality  among  ministers  breedeth."    Calvin  pleaded  neces- 
sity for  his  departure  from  the  apostolical  order,  because  at 
Geneva  he  could  not   then  have  had  episcopal  ordination, 
jurisdiction,  and  protection,  Avithout  first  swearing  allegiance 
and  obedience  to  the  pope,  and  consequently  of  continuing  in 
all  the  errors  of  popery.     This  necessity  could  not  have  been 
pleaded  in  Scotland  ;  for  although  only  one  of  the  bishops  ^ 
really  shook  off  his  connexion  with  Rome,  yet  they  might  have 
received  canonical  consecration  in  England  then  as  well  as  they 
afterwards  did.     The  English  bishops,  having  thrown  off  the 

*  There  were  three  of  the  bishops  became  Protestant,  and  which  is  a  canonical 
number  to  have  kept  up  and  continued  the  succession ;  but  one  only  of  them 
was  ever  consecrated.  Alexander  Gordon,  bishop  of  Galloway,  was  consecrated 
to  the  bishopric  of  the  Isles  in  1553,  and  translated  to  Galloway  in  1558.  He 
married,  and  had  a  son,  to  whom  he  conveyed  all  the  lands  belonging  to  the  see, 
and  which  was  afterwards  confirmed  by  charter  under  the  great  seal.  "  Thus," 
says  Bishop  Keith,  "  went  the  ecclesiastical  benefices  in  that  period."  James 
Hamilton,  bastard  brother  of  the  Duke  of  Chatelherault,  was  put  into  the  see  of 
Argyle  in  1558,  and  made  sub-dean  of  Glasgow  in  commendam.  "  There  is  no 
certainty  of  his  ever  having  been  consecrated.^'  He  turned  Protestant  at  the 
reformation ;  and  at  the  parliament,  or  rather  convention,  in  the  year  1560,  we 
find  him  on  that  side  :  but  there  is  nothing  else  heard  of  him,  except  that  he  signs 
a  bond  with  his  other  relations  for  setting  the  Queen  at  liberty  anno  1567."  Robert 
Stewart  was  preferred  to  the  see  of  Caithness,  in  1542,  when  a  mere  youth  ;  and 
having  joined  his  brother  the  Earl  of  Lennox,  in  the  feud  with  the  Earl  of  Arran, 
he  was  forfeited,  and  lived  abroad  for  twenty-two  years.  On  his  return,  "  he 
turned  with  the  times,  and  became  Protestant,  but  still  bore  the  title  of  Bishop 
of  Caithness,  and  enjoyed  the  revenues  tUl  his  death.  After  the  death  of  the  regent 
Moray,  and  the  accession  of  his  brother  the  Earl  of  Lennox,  to  that  supreme 
office,  he  got  a  gift  of  the  priory  of  St.  Andrews,  which  he  afterwards  retained  all 
his  life." — Keith's  Catalogue  of  Scottish  Bishops. 


126  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

supremacy  of  the  pope,  and  abjured  all  the  errors  of  popery, 
restored  that  church  to  its  original  purity,  simplicity',  and  in- 
dependence; whence  the  church  of  Scotland  derived  its  orders 
in  the  reign  of  James  VI.,  but  which  was  destroyed,  root  and 
branch,  in  the  reign  of  his  pious  successor.  It  again  derived 
its  orders  from  the  same  source  in  the  reign  of  the  second 
Charles,  and  it  still  continues  to  subsist,  like  a  bush  burning  yet 
not  consumed.  It  is  to  such  an  episcopacy  as  this  that  Calvin 
recommended  obedience,  and  utterly  condemned  those  who 
would  not  submit  themselves  to  its  easy  and  gentle  government. 
Durell  is  of  opinion  that  "  the  juncture  of  affairs  brought  it 
(parity  among  ministers)  to  the  doors  of  those  churches  where 
it  was  taken  in  and  maintained  ;  and  that  it  was  a  government, 
not  of  choice,  hut  of  necessity'^?'' 

Although  Beza,  who  succeeded  to  Calvin  in  the  chair  of 
Geneva,  distinguishes  bishops  into  divine,  human,  and  satanical, 
yet  he  writes  with  the  greatest  respect  of  the  episcopacy  of  the 
church  of  England  ;  of  which  he  says,  "  May  England  indeed 
enjoy  that  goodness  of  God  which  I  wish  may  he  perpetual  unto 
her ;  much  less  that  we  (which  they  object  to  us  most  falsely 
and  impudently)  prescribe  to  any  church  our  peculiar  example 
to  be  followed,  like  these  imskilful  persons  who  think  nothing 
right  but  what  they  do  themselves  :  let  them  enjoy  this  (mean- 
ing episcopacy)  who  will  and  can  2,"  And  again,  he  says, 
"  But  God  forbid  that  I  should  find  fault  with  the  order  (of 
bishops),  albeit  apostolical,  and  not  established  by  mere  divine 
appointment,  as  if  it  had  been  rashly  and  proudly  brought  in  ; 
yea,  who  can  deny  that  it  was  of  great  use  and  benefit,  while 
good  and  holy  bishops  were  over  the  churches  ?"  In  his  letter 
to  Archbishop  Whitgift,  dated  8th  of  March,  1591,  he  says  : 
"  In  my  writings  I  ever  impugned  the  Romish  hierarchy,  but 
never  intended  to  touch  or  impugn  the  polity  of  the  chtirch  of 
England,  or  to  exact  of  you  to  form  yourselves  to  our  pattern." 
To  Grindall,  bishop  of  London, he  writes:  "  How  much  greater 
punishment  shall  they  deserve  who  shall  contemn  thy  authority  ? 
— Jesus  keep  thee  and  govern  thee  by  his  Holy  Spirit,  and  con- 
firm thee  more  and  more  in  that  so  great  office  committed  to 
thee.  G  od  hath  appointed  thee  a  watchman  and  a  judged  But 
more  i^articularly,  when  disputing  with  Saravia,  he  alleges, 
"  If  there  are  any  fas  I  hardly  believe  there  are)  who  reject  all 
the  order  of  bishops,  God  forbid  that  any  man  of  a  sound 
MIND  should  assent  to  their  madness.^'' 


'  Durell's  View  of  Government. 
-  De  Min.  Grad.  c.  18,  21. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  127 

At  the  Synod  of  Doit,  when  the  Bishop  of  Llandafi",  who 
was  sent  there  on  the  part  of  England  Ly  James  VI.,  liad  in 
a  speech  highly  commended  the  episcopal  government  of  the 
church,  the  president  of  that  synod  returned  him  an  answer 
in  the  name  of  the  other  members  t  "  My  lord,  you  have  said 
well,  but  we  are  not  so  happy." 

After  Salmasius  had  written  in  defence  of  presbytery,  he  de- 
clared in  his  answer  to  Milton,  cited  by  Durell,  "  That  having 
observed  how  confusions  and  strange  en'ors  sprang  up  in 
England,  immediately  after  the  bishops  were  removed,  he  had 
changed  his  mind.  That,  being  taught  by  experience,  as  the 
following  day  is  teacher  of  the  former,  he  had  changed  his 
opinion."  Durell  also  shows,  that  David  Blondel  concluded 
his  apology  for  Jerom  in  these  words :  "  By  all  that  we  have 
said  to  assert  the  rights  of  Presbytery,  it  is  not  our  purpose  to 
invalidate  the  ancient  and  apostolical  institutions  of  epis- 
copal pre-eminency, hut  we  judge,  that  where  it  is  established 
conformable  to  the  ancient  canons,  it  must  be  carefully  pre- 
served ;  and  when  by  some  heat  of  contention  or  otherwise,  it 
hath  been  put  down  or  violated,  it  ought  to  be  reverently 
restored.'''  But  by  the  importunity  of  some,  whose  views  this 
remarkable  sentence  did  not  suit,  he  was  prevailed  on  to  ex- 
punge it  at  the  press.  In  proof  of  this  Durell  produces  a  letter 
of  Peter  du  Moulin,  wherein  he  shows  that  Blondel  acknow- 
ledged the  allegation  to  be  true. 

John  Knox  never  once  condemned  the  office  of  a  bishop  ; 
on  the  contrary,  he  set  up  superintendents  or  commissioners, 
"  that  all  things  in  the  church  might  be  carried  with  order  and 
well ;"  and  at  the  admission  of  Spottiswood  to  be  superinten- 
dent or  overseer  of  Lothian,  he  presided  and  preached  the  ser- 
mon, and  recommended  obedience  to  his  office,  alleging  that 
the  superintendents  were  not  only  expedient,  but  absolutely 
necessary.  On  that  occasion  he  tells  us  in  his  history,  "  First 
was  made  a  sermon,  in  which  these  heads  were  handl&dt  First, 
the  necessity  of  ministers  and  superintendents,  or  overseers,  ^c 
The  sermon  being  ended,  it  was  declared  by  the  same  minister, 
maker  thereof,  (John  Knox  to  wit),  that  the  lords  of  the  Secret 
Council  had  given  charge  and  power  to  the  churches  of  Lothian 
to  choose  Mr.  John  Spottiswood  superintendent  or  over- 
seer      After  was  called  the  said  John,  who  answering, 

the  minister  (Knox)  demanded,  if  any  man  knew  any  crime 
or  offence  to  the  said  Mr.  John  that  might  prevent  him  from 

being  called  to  that  office The  people  were  asked 

if  they  would  have  the  said  Mr.  John  as  superintendent  or  over- 


128  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  V. 

seer  ?  If  they  would  honour  and  obey  him  as  Christ's  minister, 
and  comfort  and  assist  him  in  every  tiling  pertaining  to  his 
charge  ?"  The  consent  of  the  people  was  the  whole  of  his  con- 
secration to  this  office  of  a  Knoxian  bishop  ;  the  apostolic 
ceremony  of  the  laying  on  of  hands  having  been  dispensed 
with.  In  the  prayer  which  followed,  the  chief  minister,  Knox, 
who  was  of  an  inferior  degree  to  him  whom  he  attempted  to 
make  a  bishop,  says ;"....  hast  appointed  in  thy  church 
teachers,  pastors,  and  apostles  to  instruct,  comfort,  and 
admonish  the  same.  Look  upon  us  mercifully,  O  Lord ;  thou 
that  only  art  king,  teacher,  and  high  priest  of  thine  own  flock  ; 
and  send  unto  this  our  brother,  whom,  in  thy  name,  we  have 
charged  with  the  chief  care  of  thy  church  within  the  bounds  of 
Lothian,  such  portion  of  thy  Holy  Spirit,"  &o.  The  prayer 
ended,  the  rest  of  the  ministers,  if  any  be,  and  elders  of  that 
church  present,  in  sign  of  their  consent,  shall  take  the  elected 
by  the  hand:  and  in  the  last  exhortation  to  the  elected,  Knox 
said,  "  Usurp  not  dominion,  nor  tyrannical  authority,  over  thy 
brethren  ;"  a  piece  of  advice  which  is  altogether  incompatible 
with  a  system  of  parity. 

When  John  Douglas  was  admitted  archbishop  of  St.  An- 
drews, John  Knox  preached  the  sermon, — a  decided  proof  of 
his  approbation  of  the  office  ;  and  Spottiswood  says  of  Knox, 
in  summing  up  his  life,  "  that  he  was  far  from  those  dotages 
wherein  some  that  would  have  been  thought  his  followers  did 
afterwards  fall ;  for  never  was  any  man  more  observant  of 
church  authority  than  he,  always  urging  the  obedience  of 
MINISTERS  to  their  superintendents,  for  which  he  caused 
divers  acts  to  be  made  in  the  Assemblies  of  the  Church,  and 
showed  himself  severe  to  the  transgressors."  In  the  parlia- 
ment of  1.560,  Knox  designates  the  prelates  who  had  separated 
from  the  communion  of  Rome,  as  those  who  "  had  re- 
nounced papistry,  and  openly  professed  Jesus  Christ  with 
us'''  And  his  letter  to  the  bishops  of  the  Church  of  England,, 
written  at  the  desire  and  in  the  name  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly, is  addressed — "  The  superintendents,  ministers,  and  com 
missioners  of  the  Cluirch  within  the  realm  of  Scotland,  to 
their  brethren  the  bishops  and  pastors  of  Efigland  who  have 
renounced  the  Roman  antichrist,  and  do  profess,  with 
them,  the  Lord  Jesus  in  sincerity,  wish  the  increase  of 
the  Holy  Spirit."  Here  are  the  bishops  and  pastors,  or  the 
superintendents  and  ministers  of  one  church,  addressing  as 
their  brethren  those  of  another  church  and  kingdom,  who, 
without  controversy,  were,   and  always  have  been,    of  the 


1561.]  CHL'RCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  120 

same  episcopal  principles.  Bat,  in  corroboration  of  these 
stubborn  matters  of  fact,  we  have  the  evidence  of  the  First 
Book  of  Discipline,  composed  by  Knox  and  those  who  after- 
wards themselves  became  bishops,  laying  down  a  "  good  and 
godly  polity,"  "  to  continue  for  all  time  coming  ;"  but  which, 
nevertheless,  was  set  aside  by  the  Presbyterian  party  when 
they  overturned  the  Knoxian  Church.  From  which,  and 
many  Acts  of  Assembly,  no  less  than  thirty  marks  of  superiority 
have  been  collected,  as  pertaining  to  the  office  of  a  superin- 
tendent or  bishop  ^ 

There  is  notan  instance  on  record  of  any  of  the  first  reforming 
clergy  or  laity  having  impugned  the  episcopal  office,  or  of  even 
having  called  its  just  authority  and  jurisdiction  in  question. 
On  his  trial,  Wishart  did  not  express  any  dissatisfaction,  or 
start  any  objection  that  his  judges  were  bishops,  which  he 
undoubtedly  would  have  done,  had  he  considered  their  order 
to  have  been  "  an  antichristian  corruption."  On  the  con- 
trary, he  not  only  gave  them  their  full  titles,  and  showed  them 
all  the  respect  and  deference  due  to  their  superior  place,  as 
bishops  and  judges  ;  but,  in  his  final  exhortation  to  the  peo- 
ple at  the  very  stake,  he  entreated  them  to  obey  and  respect 
their  bishops  :  "  I  beseech  you,  brethren  and  sisters,"  said  he, 
"  to  exhort  your  prelates  to  the  learning  of  the  word  of  God, 
that  they  may  be  ashamed  to  do  evil,  and  learn  to  do  good  2." 
He  was  earnest  that  the  Romish  bishops  should  abjure  their 
errors,  and  reform  their  scandalous  lives,  of  which  they  had 
too  much  need  ;  but  he  does  not  advise  them  to  abjure  their 
offices,  nor  the  people  to  reject  them.  In  short,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  produce  the  slightest  evidence  of  any  of  our  reformers, 
either  of  those  excellent  men  who  were  added  "  to  the  noble 
amy  of  martyrs,"  or  of  those  who  afterwards  settled  the 
church  and  drew  up  her  code  of  discipline,  being  enemies  to 
prelacy,  but  only  to  popery.  They  never  condemned  bishops 
as  such,  but  only  as  popish  bishops,  or,  as  Knox  called  them, 
"  the  generation  of  antichrist." 

At  the  period  of  our  reformation  there  was  not  the  slightest 
objection  offered  to  set  forms  of  prayer  ;  Knox's  history  is  full 
of  occasional  prayers,  composed  by  him  ;  the  public  service  of 
the  church  was  by  a  set  form  of  prayer ;  and  the  prayer-book 
sot  forth  by  Edward  VI.  of  England  was  the  form  in  univer- 
sal use. 

Sir  John  Borthwick  was  charged  by  the  Inquisition  with 
maintaining  "  that  the  doctrines  of  the  church  of  England, 

'   S&eante,  pages  112-118.  2  Knox. 

VOL.    I.  S 


130  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.   V. 

and  especially  her  Liturgy,  were  good  and  commendable, 
and  worthy  to  be  embraced  by  all  Christians  ;  and  that  the 
Church  of  Scotland  ought  to  be  governed  after  the  manner 
of  England."  And  John  Rough,  who  suffered  martyrdom  for 
the  Church  of  England,  asserted  on  his  trial  "  that  he  had 
read  the  prayers  of  the  Communion  Book,  set  forth  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  VI.,  and  that  he  did  approve  of  it,  as  agree- 
ing in  all  points  with  the  word  of  God."  From  which  it  is 
evident,  that  they  approved  of  set  forms  of  prayer  in  general, 
and  of  the  English  liturgy  in  particular ;  and  that  the  whole 
stress  of  what  is  now  called  worship  did  not  at  that  time  rest 
on  preaching,  for  this  pious  martyr  esteemed  reading  prayers 
to  be  of  infinitely  more  importance  than  the  vain-glorious 
talent  of  preaching.  In  extemporary  worship,  preaching  com- 
prehends almost  the  whole  of  the  public  service,  and  which  has 
become  the  idol  of  those  who  have  been  smitten  with  "  itching 
ears,"  to  the  unspeakable  injury  of  true  religion,  and  the  en- 
couragement of  vanity  and  ostentation  in  the  preacher.  The 
First  Book  of  Discipline  contains  an  order,  that  "  In  great 
towns,  we  think  it  expedient  that  every  day  there  be  either 
sermon  or  common  prayer,  with  some  exercise  of  reading  the 
Scriptures."  It  is  also  clear,  that  Knox  individually  preferred 
a  liturgical  service  in  the  w^orship  of  God.  He  entertained  ob- 
jections to  the  English  Service  Book,  and  therefore  employed 
the  influence  which  he  possessed  over  his  brethren  to  introduce 
in  place  of  it  the  liturgy  used  at  Geneva,  and  which,  in  conse- 
quence, has  been  frequently  called  by  his  name,  as  well  as 
known  by  the  title  of  the  "  Old  Scottish  Liturgy."  We  are 
informed  by  Spottiswood  that  he  had  set  forms  of  prayer  read 
every  day  to  his  family  ;  and  Richard  Bannatyne,  his  servant, 
secretary,  or  amanuensis,  tells  us  in  his  journal,  that  his  master 
continued  to  the  last  to  conduct  his  private  devotions  accoi'ding 
to  the  ritual  of  the  church  ;  and  that,  a  few  hours  before  he  ex- 
pired, he  repeated  aloud  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Belief. 
And  every  day  he  read  a  certain  chapter  in  both  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,  with  certain  psalms, "  whilk  psalms  he  passed 
through  everie  moneth  once  ^." 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that,  under  God,  the  Scottish  reforma- 
tion was  cherished  and  protected  by  English  influence.  Most 
of  those  men  who  had  been  the  chief  instruments  in  preach- 
ing and  planting  the  doctrines  of  the  reformation  had  imbibed 
their  princii)les  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  had  brought 
them  thence  to  Scotland.     Wishart  had  studied  in  Cambridge. 

1  Cited  in  Scottish  Ep.  Mag.  ii.  31. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  131 

John  Spottiswood,  the  first  superintendent  or  bishop  of  Lo- 
thian, was  one  of  Cranmer's  disciples, — "  was,  by  his  means, 
brought  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth  ;"  John  Willock,  and 
William  Harley,  were  both  natives  of  England  ;  the  former 
was  a  priest  of  that  church ;  and  John  Knox  himself  was  a 
priest  of  the  Church  of  England, — was  offered  a  bishopric  in 
it,  and  his  two  sons  were  educated  at  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge, and  became  priests  of  the  Church  of  England.  In 
conformity  with  the  English  influence  and  alliance,  our  re- 
fomiers  were  of  exactly  the  same  principles  in  doctrine  and 
discipline  as  the  Church  of  England,  and  held  the  same 
common  articles  of  the  Christian  faith.  They  unanimously 
considered  the  Church  of  England  to  be  so  well  constituted, 
that  it  was  lawful  to  join  in  her  communion,  and  which  they 
invariably  did  when  their  affairs  required  their  residence 
within  her  jurisdiction. 

There  is  not  any  evidence,  in  any  author  of  the  period 
now  under  consideration,  to  show  that  the  two  churches  of 
England  and  Scotland  had  opposite  communions,  till  many 
years  after  the  reformation,  when  Andrew  Melville  introduced 
an  entirely  new  polity.  Our  reformers  lived  in  communion 
with  the  Church  of  England ;  many  of  whom  officiated  and 
were  settled  in  her  parish  churches,  and  some  of  them  suffered 
martyrdom  for  her,  confessing  and  glorying  in  their  attach- 
ment to  her  doctrine  and  discipline.  In  their  public  deeds 
they  openly  and  solemnly  confessed  that  they  were  of  one 
religion  and  one  communion  with  the  Church  of  England. 
When  the  lords  of  the  Congregation  found  it  necessary  to 
solicit  foreign  assistance  to  expel  the  French,  who  were  the 
great  obstacles  to  the  establishment  of  the  reformation,  they 
resohed  in  the  first  place  to  apply  to  England.  Knox  says : 
"  We  thought  good  to  seek  aid  and  support  of  all  christian 
princes  against  her  (the  queen  regent's)  tyranny,  in  case  we 
should  be  more  sharply  pursued,  and  because  that  England 
was  of  the  same  religion.''^  Secretary  Cecil  replied  to  their 
application,  "  that  their  enterprise  misliked  not  the  English 
council."  This  comfortable  assurance  was  answered  by  the 
lords  of  the  Congregation,  which,  abridged  from  Knox,  is, 
"  They  perceive  their  messenger,  Master  Kirkaldy  of  Grange, 
hath  found  Cecil  an  unfeigned  favourer  of  Christ's  true  religion. 
As  touching  the  assurance  of  a  perpetual  amity  to  stand  be- 
twixt the  two  realms,  as  no  earthly  thing  is  more  desired  by 
them,  so  they  crave  of  God  to  be  made  the  instruments  by 
which  the  unnatural  debate  which  has  long  continued  between 


132  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

the  nations,  may  be  composed,  to  the  praise  of  God's  name, 
and  the  comfort  of  the  faithful  in  both  nations.  Their  con- 
federacy, amity,  and  league,  shall  not  be  like  the  pactions  made 
by  worldly  men  for  worldly  profit,  but,  as  they  require  it,  for 
God's  cause,  so  they  will  call  upon  his  name  for  the  observa- 
tion of  it Given  at  Edinburgh,  17th  July,  1559." 

This  confederacy  "  for  God's  cause" — this  "godly  conjunc- 
tion"— could  be  for  no  other  purpose  than  for  an  union  of  the 
churches  ;  that  as  the  English  reformation  was  perfected,  and 
that  church  legally  established,  the  Scottish,  which  was  only 
in  progress,  might  also  be  established  on  the  same  principles, 
and  engage  to  receive  the  doctrine,  worship,  rites,  and  govern- 
ment of  the  Church  of  England,  so  that  there  might  be  no 
difference  in  the  constitution  of  the  two  churches,  so  far  as 
the  distinction  of  the  two  states  would  allow.  We  have 
Buchanan's  word  for  the  truth  of  this  "godly  conjunction;" 
and  in  a  matter  of  this  sort  his  evidence  is  of  the  greatest 
importance.  He  narrates  the  circumstance  ten  years  after- 
wards. "  The  Scots,"  he  says,  "  some  years  before,  being  de- 
livered from  Galilean  slavery  by  the  English  assistance,  had 
subscribed  to  the  reliffious  ivorship  and  rites  of  the  Church  of 
England ;  and  that  surprising  change  in  affairs  seemed  to 
promise  to  Britain  quietness  and  rest  from  all  intestine  com- 
motions and  factions  1."  Here  Buchanan  plainly  asserts  a 
matter  of  fact,  which  his  authority  is  alone  sufficient  to 
establish,  although  there  were  no  other  evidence  of  a  "  godly 
conjunction"  between  the  churches;  and  in  consequence,  what 
was  more  natural  than  that  the  English  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  should  also  be  the  common  prayer  of  the  people  of 
Scotland  ?  It  accordingly  is  on  record  that  such  was  the  fact. 
In  the  preface  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  published  in 
the  reign  of  Charles  I.  the  compilers,  who  lived  when  the 
knowledge  of  this  circumstance  must  have  been  familiar  to 
them,  say — "  Our  first  reformers  were  of  the  same  mind  with 
us,  as  appeareth  by  the  ordinance  they  made,  that  in  all  the 
parishes  of  the  realm  the  common  prayer  should  be  read 
weekly  on  Sundays  and  other  festival  days,  with  the  lessons 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  confomi  to  'the  order  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  (meaning  that  of  England) ;  for  it  is 
known  that  divers  years  after,  we  had  no  other  order  for  com- 
mon prayer.  This  is  recorded  to  have  been  the  first  head 
concluded  in  a  frequent  council  of  the  lords  and  barons  pro- 

'  Buchanan,  cited  in  Fundameital  Charter  of  Presbytery. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  133 

fessing  Jesus  Christ.  We  keep  the  words  of  history — *  Religion 
was  not  then  placed  in  rites  and  gestures,  nor  men  taken  with 
the  fancy  of  extemporary  prayer^ .' " 

Knox  has  recorded  the  prayer  of  thanksgiving  composed  by 
himself,  and  inserted  in  the  history  that  goes  under  his  name, 
after  the  pacification  at  Leith,  July  1560,  which  decidedly 
demonstrates  the  friendly  relation  between  the  churches  which 
happily  subsisted  at  that  time,  and  is  a  complete  demonstra- 
tion of  Buchanan's  assertion  to  the  same  effect  already  quoted. 
The  following  makes  a  part  of  the  thanksgiving  prayer : — 
"  Seeing  that  nothing  is  so  odious  in  thy  presence,  O  Lord, 
than  is  ingratitude  and  violation  of  an  oath  and  covenant  made 
in  thy  name  ;  and  seeing  thou  hast  made  our  confederates  in 
England  the  instruments  by  whom  we  are  now  set  at  this 
liberty,  and  to  whom,  in  thy  name,  we  have  promised  mutual 
faith  again,  let  us  never  fall  to  that  unkindness,  O  Lord,  that 
either  we  declare  ourselves  unthankful  unto  them,  or  pro- 
faners  of  thy  holy  name.  Confound  the  counsel  of  those  that 
go  about  to  break  that  most  godly  league  contracted  in  thy 
name ;  and  retain  thou  us  so  firmly  together,  by  the  power  of 
thy  Holy  Spirit,  that  Satan  have  no  power  to  set  us  again  at 
discord.  Give  us  grace  to  live  in  that  christian  charity  which 
thy  Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  hath  so  earnestly  commended 
to  all  the  members  of  his  body,  that  other  nations,  provoked 
by  our  example,  may  set  aside  all  ungodly  war,  contention, 
and  strife,  and  study  to  live  in  tranquillity  and  peace,  as  it  be- 
cometh  the  sheep  of  thy  pasture,  and  the  people  that  do  daily 
look  for  our  final  deliverance  by  the  coming  again  of  our  Lord 
Jesus 2."  And  farther:  in  the  Old  Scottish  Liturgy  there  is  a 
thanksgiving  after  deliverance  from  the  tyranny  of  the  French, 
wherein  it  is  prayed,  "  Grant  unto  us,  O  Lord,  that  with  such 
reverence  we  may  remember  thy  benefits  received,  that,  after 
this,  in  our  default,  we  never  enter  into  hostility  against  the 
realm  and  nation  of  England.  Suffer  us  never,  O  Lord,  to 
fall  to  that  ingratitude  and  detestable  unthankfulness,  that  we 
should  seek  the  destruction  and  death  of  those  whom  thou 
hast  made  instruments  to  deliver  us  from  the  tyranny  of  merci- 
less strangers.  Dissipate  thou  the  counsels  of  such  as  deceit- 
fully travail  to  stir  the  hearts  of  the  inhabitants  of  either  realm 
against  the  other.  Let  their  merciless  practices  be  their  own 
confusion  ;  and  grant  thou,  of  thy  mercy,  Uiat  love,  concord, 

'  Preface  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  compiled  for  the  use  of  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  anno  1632. 
-  Knox's  History,  228. 


134  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

and  tranquillity,  may  continue  and  increase  amongst  the  in- 
habitants of  this  isle,  even  to  the  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  by  whose  glorious  gospel,  thou,  of  thy  mercy,  dost  call 
us  both  to  unity,  peace,  and  christian  concord,  the  full  perfec- 
tion whereof  we  shall  possess  in  the  fulness  of  thy  kingdom." 

It  appears  sufficiently  clear  from  this,  that  our  refonners, 
at  the  period  when  the  protestant  religion  was  established  as 
that  of  the  state,  held  the  same  doctrine,  discipline,  and 
common  prayers,  as  the  Church  of  England ;  that,  in  short, 
there  was  such  a  "godly  conjunction," — "most  godly  league," 
— such  "  unity,  peace,  and  christian  concord,"  between  the 
churches,  as  amounted  to  an  union.  But,  above  all,  we  have 
Buchanan's  testimony  for  the  fact,  that  "  the  Scots  subscribed 
to  the  religious  ivorship  and  rites  of  the  Church  of  England.'"' 
Here  we  have  in  reality  a  confederacy,  an  oath,  or  union,  be- 
tween the  protestant  churches  of  England  and  Scotland.  The 
Church  of  England  has  remained  the  same,  without  the  least 
change.  That  of  Scotland  has  made  many  changes,  and  has 
since  recorded  her  vow  to  extirpate  the  Church  of  England ; 
but  it  is  undeniable,  that,  at  this  period,  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land used  daily  the  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church  of  England, 
a  d  maintained  a  friendly  relation  with  her. 

It  also  appears  that  the  Scottish  reformers  preferred  a  public 
set  form  of  prayer  to  a  conceived  or  extemporary  form.  John 
Knox,  who  had  as  much  animal  heat  as  any  r£ian  of  that  day, 
used  in  the  public  service  the  Common  Prayer  Book  of  the 
Church  of  England,  which  continued  to  be  used  for  seven 
years  after  the  refonnation,  when  he  prevailed  with  his  brethren 
to  substitute  the  order  of  Geneva,  since  generally  known  by 
the  name  of  Knox's  Liturgy,  or  the  Old  Scottish  Liturgy.  This 
liturgy  continued  in  use,  not  only  during  all  the  period  while 
superintendents  governed  the  church,  but  for  many  years  after 
presbytery  was  introduced.  It  was  so  universally  received 
and  used,  and  it  was  held  in  such  high  esteem,  that  when  some 
men,  excited  by  extemporary  eloquence,  moved  in  the  Assem- 
bly held  at  Burntisland,  1601,  "that  there  were  sundry  prayers 
in  it  which  were  not  convenient  for  these  times,"  and  tliat 
a  change  was  desirable,  the  Assembly  rejected  the  motion,  and 
"  thought  good  that  the  prayers  already  contained  in  the  book 
should  neither  be  altered  nor  deleted ;  but  if  any  preacher 
would  have  any  other  prayers  added,  as  more  proper  for  the 
times,  they  should  first  present  them  to  be  tried  by  the  Gene- 
ral Assembly  '."     Even  so  laile  as  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 

^  ret.— Cald.— cited  in  Fund.  Charter  of  Presbytery. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  135 

teentli  century,  we  have  instances  of  caution  and  concern 
about  the  public  worship,  worthy  of  the  collective  wisdom  of 
the  National  Church,  than  which  nothing  more  decidedly 
shows  the  prevalence  of  a  liturgical  service.  Even  the  most  stub- 
born and  intractable  of  the  presbyterians  used  Knox's  liturgy 
as  regularly  as  those  did  who  were  of  episcopal  principles. 
Robert  Bruce,  one  of  the  most  dogmatic  and  insolent  men  of 
his  age,  when  banished  to  Inverness  for  his  seditious  conduct, 
anno  1605,  and  where  he  remained  in  disgrace  four  years, 
"  taught  every  Sunday  before  noon,  and  every  Wednesday,  and 
exercised  at  the  reading  of  the  prayers  every  other  night.'''' 
When  John  Scrimgeour,  another  champion  of  presbytery,  was 
cited  before  the  court  of  High  Commission,  1620,  and  was 
challenged  for  neglecting  the  Five  Articles  of  Perth,  but  particu- 
larly for  not  having  administered  the  eucharist  to  his  congre- 
gation on  their  knees,  he  answered,  "  there  is  no  warrantable 
form  directed  or  approven  by  the  kirk  besides  that  which  is 
extant  in  print,  before  the  Psalm  Book  (that  is,  Knox's 
Liturgy),  according  to  which,  as  I  have  always  done,  so  now  I 
minister  that  sacrament'^-''''  In  short,  a  lilurgy  continued 
partially  in  use  by  episcopalians  and  presbyterians  indiffe- 
rently, even  after  the  beginning  of  the  revolution  in  church  and 
state  in  King  Charles  I.'s  time  ;  and  Bishop  Sage  says,  that 
"many  old  people  then  alive  (in  1090)  remember  to  have  seen 
it  used  by  both  parties." 

The  following  are  extracts  from  some  of  the  prayers  in  the 
old  Scottish  liturgy  2,  wherein  the  Lords  Prayer  iv as  never 
omitted. 

The  prayer  for  the  ivhole  estate  of  Chrisfs  Church,  ap- 
pointed to  be  said  after  sermon,  concluded  with — "  In  whose 
name  we  make  our  humble  petitions  unto  thee,  even  as  he  has 
taught  us,  saying.  Our  Father,"  &c.  Another  prayer,  to  be 
said  after  sermon,  has  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  the  very  centre 
of  it. 

The  praj^er  to  be  used  when  God  threatens  his  judgments, 
concludes,  "  Praying  unto  thee  with  all  humility  and  sub- 
mission of  mind,  as  we  are  taught  and  commanded  to  pray, 
saying.  Our  Father^'  &c. 

The  prayer  to  be  used  in  times  of  affliction  ends,  "  Our  only 
Saviour  and  Mediator,  in  whose  name  we  pray  unto  thee  as 
we  are  taught,  saying,  Our  Father^''  &c. 

The  prayer  at  the  admission  (ordination)  of  a  superintendent 

^  Calderwood. 

"  A  new  edition  of  this  Liturgy  has  been  published  in  London,  edited  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Camming,  a  presbyterian  minister. 


136  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

or  minister : — "  Of  whom  the  perpetual  increase  of  thy  grace 
we  crave,  as  by  thee,  our  Lord  and  only  Bishop,  we  are  taught 
to  pray,  Our  Father^''  &c. 

The  prayer  for  the  obstinate,  (in  the  order  for  excommuni- 
cation) : — "  These  thy  graces,  O  Heavenly  Father,  and  farther 
as  thou  knowest  to  be  expedient  for  us,  and  for  thy  Church 
universal,  we  call  for  unto  thee,  even  as  we  are  taught  by  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  saying.  Our  Father,^''  &c. 

The  last  prayer  before  excommunication  : — "  This  we  ask 
of  thee,  O  Heavenly  Father,  in  the  boldness  of  our  Head  and 
Mediator,  Jesus  Christ,  praying,  as  he  has  taught  us,  saying, 
Our  Father,''  &c. 

The  confession  of  sins  in  times  of  public  fasting : — "  We  flee 
to  the  obedience  and  fearful  justice  of  Jesus  Christ,  our  only 
Mediator,  praying  as  he  has  taught  us,  saying.  Our  Father^'  &c. 

The  prayer  of  consecration  in  baptism  : — "  May  be  brought, 
as  a  lively  member  of  his  body,  unto  the  full  fruition  of  thy 
joys  in  the  heavens,  where  thy  Son,  our  Saviour  Christ, 
reigneth,  world  without  end ;  in  whose  name  we  pray,  as  he 
has  taught  us,  saying,  Our  Father^'  &c. 

Here  is  sufficient  evidence  that  the  Scottish  reformers 
made  use  of  set  forms  of  prayer ;  but,  above  all,  that  they  con- 
stantly used  that  most  excellent  prayer,  the  perfect  rule  of 
our  desires,  which  was  left  by  our  blessed  Lord  as  a  sacred 
legacy  to  his  Church  ;  and  which  ought  never  to  be  omitted, 
as  it  is  much  to  be  feared  that  our  prayers  will  not  be  accept- 
able at  the  throne  of  grace  when  it  is  proudly  rejected.  In 
conformity  with  the  universal  Church,  they  always  made  pub- 
lic confession  of  their  faith,  by  rehearsing  the  Apostles'  Creed 
every  time  they  met  for  public  worship;  and  which  was  re- 
peated immediately  after  the  prayer  for  the  whole  estate  of 
Christ's  Church,  with  this  introductory  petition  : — "  Almighty 
and  everlasting  God,  vouchsafe,  we  beseech  thee,  to  gi"ant  us 
perfect  continuance  in  thy  lively  faith,  augmenting  the  same 
in  us  daily,  till  we  grow  to  the  full  measure  of  our  perfection  in 
Christ,  whereof  we  make  our  confession,  saying,  I  believe  in 
God  the  Father,"  kc. 

In  the  Knoxian  Church  the  Floly  Scriptures  were  daily 
read  ;  and  in  the  Fii-st  Book  of  Discipline  (head  9)  the  follow- 
ing order  to  that  effect  is  recorded : — "  We  think  necessary 
that  every  church  have  a  Bible  in  English,  and  that  the  people 
convene  to  hear  the  Scriptures  read  and  interpreted  ;  that,  by 
frequent  reading  and  hearing,  the  gross  ignorance  of  the  people 
may  be  removed.  And  we  judge  it  most  expedient,  that  the 
scriptures  be  read  in  order  ;  that  is,  some  one  book  of  the  Old 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  137 

and  New  Testaments  be  begun  and  followed  foith  to  the  end." 
The  reader  was  one  of  the  three  orders  of  the  ministry,  whoso 
office  was  to  supply  the  want  of  ministers,  and  to  read  the 
Scriptures  and  the  Common  Prayers.  The  Scriptures  con- 
tinued to  be  read  in  churches  upwards  of  eighty  years  after  the 
reformation ;  and  even  the  Directory  itself,  in  the  present 
Westminster  Confession,  appoints  the  Scriptures  to  be  publicly 
read,  in  order  "  for  the  edifying  of  the  people  ;"  but  which, 
being  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  minister,  is  now  almost  entirely 
neglected. 

.Rules  are  laid  down  in  the  first  Book  of  Discipline  for  the 
time  and  nature  of  preaching:  "  The  Sunday, m  all  towns,  mast 
precisely  be  observed,  before  and  after  noon  ;  before  noon  the 
Word  must  he  preached,  sacraments  administered,  &c. ;  after- 
noon the  catechism  must  be  taught,  and  the  young  children  exa- 
mined thereon,  in  audience  of  all  the  people."  This  custom  of 
alternate  preaching  and  catechising  continued,  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  to  be  observed  in  tlie  public  worship  ;  and  the 
first  notice  of  any  change  in  the  custom,  that  is,  of  abolishing 
catechising  (which  is  the  best  of  all  possible  modes  of  preach- 
ing), and  introducing  a  sermon  in  the  afternoon,  is  in  that 
Assembly  which  condemned  episcopacy  in  the  year  1580.  It 
was  then  ordained  "  that  all  pastors  or  ministers  should  dili- 
gently travel  with  their  flocks  to  convene  unto  afternoon  sermon 
on  Sunday,  both  they  that  are  in  landward  and  in  burgh,  as  they 
siiall  answer  unto  Godi." 

The  reformed  Knoxian  church,  under  the  government  of 
superintendents,  used  several  hymns  in  public  worship.  Be- 
sides the  Psalms  of  David,  the  Veni  Creator,  the  Himible 
Suit  of  a  Sinner,  the  Magnificat,  or  Song  of  the  blessed  Virgin, 
also,  the  Nunc  dimittis,  or  Old  Simeon's  Song,  were  sung, 
and  the  psalms  and  hymns  were  always  concluded  with  the 
Gloria  Patri.  As  before  mentioned,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the 
Creed,  and  the  Ten  Commandments,  were  repeated  every  Lord's 
Day  in  the  public  worship  of  the  church, — than  which  nothing 
can  better  preserve  the  faith  and  morality  of  any  people.  Bishop 
Burnet  published  an  authentically  attested  letter,  which  he 
found  among  his  uncle  Johnston  of  Warriston's  papers,  which 
notices,  among  other  signs  of  the  times,  the  disuse  of  these 
solemn  and  laudable  practices.  "  When  some  designers," 
says  he,  "  for  popularity  in  the  western  parts  of  that  kirk, 
did  begin  to  disuse  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  worship,  and  the 
singing  the  conclusion  or  doxology  after  the  psalm,  and  the 

'  Petrie,  p.  404,  cited  in  Fundamental  Charter. 
VOL.  I.  T 


138  HISTORY   OF   THE  [CHAP.  V 

minister's  kneeling  for  private  devotions  when  he  entered  the 
pulpit,  the  General  Assembly  took  this  in  very  ill  part,  and  in 
the  letter  they  wrote  to  the  presbyteries,  complained  sadly 
that  a  spirit  of  innovation  was  beginning  to  get  into  the  kirk, 
and  to  throw  these  laudable  practices  out  of  it."  Beside 
these  "  laudable  practices,"  our  reformers  required  sponsors 
or  godfathers  in  baptism,  as  well  as  the  father  of  the  child.  In 
the  office  for  baptism  in  the  Old  Liturgy,  the  minister,  address- 
ing the  father  and  sponsors,  said,  "  finally,  to  the  intent,  that 
you  the  father  and  the  sureties  consent  to  the  performance 
hereof,  and  declare  here  before  the  face  of  this  congregation  the 
sum  of  that  faith  wherein  you  believe  and  will  instruct  this 
child :"  and  here  followed  the  apostles'  creed. 

The  old  or  Knox's  liturgy  contained  a  set  form  for  the  cele- 
bration of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  ;  and  the  First 
Book  of  Discipline  enacts,  "  that  this  sacrament  shall  be  ad- 
ministered "  four  times  in  the  year."  The  rubric  in  Knox's 
liturgy  intimates  a  more  frequent  communion  :  "  Upon  the 
day  that  the  Lord's  Supper  is  ministered,  which  commonly 
is  used  once  a  month."  There  were  not  any  assistant  ministers 
in  those  days,  neither  was  that  practice  introduced  till  1645. 
The  Confession  of  Faith  composed  by  Knox  and  his  coadjutors 
being  established  as  the  national  standard,  nothing  more  bur- 
densome was  required  for  qualifying  private  persons  for  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  than  that  "  they  could  say  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  the  articles  of  the  Belief,  and  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments, and  understood  the  use  and  virtue  of  this  holy 
sacrament^." 

At  the  period  of  the  reformation,  therefore,  a  set  form  of 
prayer  was  in  daily  use,  and  that  form  was  first  the  Prayei'- 
Book  of  Edward  VI.,  and  afterwards  the  old  Scottish  or  Knoxian 
liturgy.  Extemporary  prayers  did  not  come  in  by  authority 
till  after  the  introduction  of  presbytery,  which  was  not  accom- 
plished till  L580.  Our  Saviour  has  annexed  a  promise  to 
public  prayer  on  a  certain  condition,  with  which,  in  extem- 
porary prayers,  it  is  impossible  to  comply;  and  therefore  it  is 
to  be  feared  that  the  promise  may  not  be  fulfilled :  "  Again  I  say 
unto  you,  that  if  two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth  touching  any 
thing  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven."  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  this  gracious 
promise  belongs  to  public  prayers,  such  as  are  made  by  several 
persons,  but  at  the  least  by  tivo;  and  it  is  plain  also,  that  it  is 
to  such  public  prayers,  where  two  or  more  persons  shall  agree 

'  First  Book  of  Discipline,  ix. — Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery  generally. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  139 

together  beforehand  as  to  what  they  shall  ask ;  or,  in  other  words, 
to  a  national  precomposed  liturgy.  But  when  the  minister 
prays  extempore,  no  matter  how  many  people  hear  him,  it  is 
impossible  that  any  two  can  agree  together  touching  any  thing 
that  he  snail  ask  ;  for  no  man  knows  what  the  minister  will  ask, 
and  cannot  therefore  agree  to  it  beforehand,  and  perhaps  not 
afterwards.  But  a  minister  who  prays  extempore,  though 
never  so  well,  is  "  as  a  barbarian"  to  his  hearers  ;  he  might  as 
well  lock  up  his  prayers  in  a  dead  language,  which  St.  Paul 
condemns.  They  may,  perhaps,  "  agree"  to  it  after  they  have 
heard  the  extemporary  prayer ;  but  that  is  by  no  means  the 
condition  which  the  promise  requires,  for  it  is  given  only  to 
those  who  "agree"  beforehand  "what  they  shall  ask,"  and  con- 
sequently it  requires  a  previous  consent.  Those  who  use  a 
national  precomposed  liturgy  keep  close  to  the  condition  of  the 
promise ;  they  ask  for  nothing  but  what  they  have  agreed  on 
beforehand  touching  what  they  shall  ask,  and  therefore  have 
the  sure  and  certain  ground  of  God's  promise  to  believe  that 
their  prayers  will  be  heard,  "  and  that  it  shall  be  done  for  them 
of  his  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 

It  is  much  to  be  lamented  that  John  Knox  did  not  appear 
to  think  it  necessary  to  preserve  the  apostolical  succession ; 
for  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  church  planted  by  him  was 
entirely  deficient  of  orders.  Succession,  "  by  hand  to  hand 
from  the  apostles,"  is  the  divine  charter  of  the  christian  church, 
and  the  apostolical  office  is  handed  down  by  consecration,  as 
the  Aaronical  priesthood  was  by  hereditary  succession.  St. 
Chrysostom  maintains,  that  the  ordination  of  those  who  as- 
sume the  ministerial  character,  without  ordination  from  a 
bishop,  is  null  and  void :  for,  says  he — "  But  do  you  think  it 
sufficient  to  say  that  they  are  orthodox  and  sound  in  the  faith? 
Suppose  they  are  ;  yet  still  their  ordination  is  null  and  invalid, 
and  then  what  can  their  faith  signify  ?  Christians  ought  to 
contend  as  earnestly  for  valid  ordination  as  they  do  for 
their  very  faith  itself ;  for  if  it  be  lawful  for  every  pretender 
to  consecrate  and  make  themselves  priests,  then  farewell  altar, 
church,  and  priesthood  too^." 

Knox  has  not  left  us  in  any  doubt  that  those  "  certain  zealous 
men  who  took  upon  them  to  preach  "  were  altogether  deficient 
of  thepower  ofconferringorders;  for  he  says  expressly,  "before 
there  was  any  public  face  of  true  religion  within  this  realm,  it 
pleased  God,  of  his  great  mercy,  to  illuminate  the  hearts  of 
many  private  persons,  so  that  they  did  perceive  and  understand 

'  St.  Chrysostom,  torn,  iii.  p.  822,  edit.  Saville. 


140  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

the  abuses  that  were  in  the  papistical  church,  and  thereupon 
withdrew  themselves  from  participation  of  their  idolatry.  And 
because  the  Spirit  of  God  will  never  suffer  his  own  to  be  idle 
and  void  of  all  religion,  men  began  to  exercise  themselves  in 
reading  of  the  Scriptures  secretly  within  their  own  houses;  and 
variety  of  persons  could  not  be  kept  in  good  obedience  and 
honest  fame,  without  overseers,  elders,  and  deacons ;  and  so 
began  that  small  flock  to  put  themselves  in  such  order  as  if 
Christ  plainly  triumphed  in  the  midst  of  them  by  the  power  of 
his  gospel.  And  they  did  elect  some  to  occupy  the  supreme 
place  of  exhortation  and  reading ;  some  to  be  elders  and  helpers 
unto  them,  for  the  overseeing  of  the  flock;  and  some  to  be 
deacons,  for  the  collection  of  alms  to  be  distributed  to  the  ])oor 
of  their  own  body.  Of  this  small  beginning  is  that  order  which 
now  God  of  his  great  mercy  has  given  unto  us  publicly  within 
this  realm^.''^ 

The  following  extract  of  a  letter  from  Archbishop  Hamilton 
to  the  Archbishop  of  Glasgow,  who  was  then  at  Paris,  dated 
the  ISthof  August,  1560,  shows  the  violent  intrusion  of  the  pro- 
testant  ministers  into  sacred  offices,  and  their  unchristian  con- 
duct tov.ards  the  papal  clergy: — "  But  one  thing  is,  that  so 
long  as  the  new  preachers  are  tholed  (tolerated)  lolto  are  not 
admitted  by  the  ordinary,  but  come  in  by  force,  or  are  taken  in 
by  towns  at  their  own  hands,  so  that  they  will  not  allow  any 
manner  of  service  in  the  kirk  but  by  themselves,  and  utterly 
oppose  all  others,  bishops,  abbots,  parsons,  vicars,  who  will  not 
use  all  things  of  their  manner  as  they  prescribe  :  therefore  your 
lordship  must  be  diligeni  for  remedy  of  thir  (these)  things  ;  and 
as  reason  would,  that  no  alteration  were  made  of  God's  ser- 
vice, either  in  singing  or  saying  of  mass,  matins,  using  of  preach- 
ings and  sacraments,  against  both  the  prelate's  wills,  and  such 
like,  against  the  people's  own  wills.  But  it  might  be  sufficient 
to  any  that  would  be  of  this  new  opinion  to  use  their  own  con- 
science with  themselves,  and  not  tocummir  (frighten)  others,  to 
host  (threaten)  them  or  banish  them  the  country  without  they 
do  such  like  ;  or,  at  the  least,  to  hold  all  their  benefices  and  liv- 
ings from  them.  And  also,  it  is  shewn  that  they,  without  the 
consent  of  the  bishops,  will  put  into  every  kirk  ministers  to 
preach  and  use  the  sacraments  in  their  manner,  and  debar  all 
others.  And  thir  preachers  are  so  s editions,  ihdX  I  believe  there 
will  be  little  obedience  to   authority  so  long  as  they  have 

place There  is  none  of  this  new  band  has  will  either 

to  speak  or  accompany  with  any  of  us All  thir  new 

1  Knox,  p.  251. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND.  141 

preachers  persuade  openly  Ihe  nobility  in  the  pulpit  to  put 
violent  hands  and  slay  all  kirkmen  that  will  not  concur  and  take 
their  opinions,  and  openly  reproach  my  lord  duke  that  he  will 
not  begin  first,  and  either  cause  me  to  do  as  they  do,  or  else  to 
use  the  rigour  on  me  by  slaughter^  sword,  or,  at  least,  perpetual- 
imprisonment :  and  with  time,  if  they  be  tholed  (suffered),  no 
man  may  have  hfe  but  without  they  grant  their  articles;  lohich 
I  will  not.  Therefore  provide  a  remedy.  I  pray  your  lordship 
to  make  my  commendation  to  all  noblemen  of  our  acquaintance 
of  French,  being  at  court,  and  my  lord  Seton. 

"  Your  lordship  at  all  power, 

"  J.  Sanctandrois." 

The  want  of  canonical  consecration  was  an  evil  which  com- 
pletely destroyed  the  spiritual  character  of  the  superintendent 
or  Knoxian  church ;  for,  in  the  language  of  the  apostolic  age, 
the  bishop  represented  the  person  of  Christ,  and  the  presbyters 
and  deacons  were  subject  to  their  bishops,  as  the  apostles  were 
to  Christ,  who  is  called  an  apostle  by  the  author  of  the  epistle  to 
the  Hebrews;  and  the  laity  were  subject  to  their  bishops  and 
presbyters,  "  as  those  who  had  the  rule  over  them,"  as  these 
were  to  Christ.  It  was  likewise  then  maintained,  that  whoever 
was  in  communion  \vith  his  bishop  was  thereby  in  communion 
with  Christ  the  Head;  and  whoever  was  not  in  communion  with 
the  bishop  was  cut  off  ixoxn  communion  with  Christ ;  and  that 
the  sacraments,  when  administered  without  the  bishop's  autho- 
rity and  communion,  were  not  only  ineffectual,  but  provocation 
and  rebellion  against  the  Lord,  like  the  offerings  of  Korah,  or 
the  sacrifice  of  Cain.  In  Keith's  catalogue  of  Scottish  bishops 
we  have  the  names  and  succession  of  the  bishops  from  the 
earliest  antiquity  ;  and  in  every  Christian  country  the  succes- 
sion can  be  traced  upwards  to  the  fountain  head,  —Jesus  Christ 
and  his  apostles.  But  these  "  zealous  men"  assumed  to  them- 
selves the  places  of  overseers,  (bishops)  elders,  (presbyters)  and 
deacons  ;  and,  doubtless,  they  cannot  be  acquitted  of  the 
guilt  of  Korah,  which,  the  apostle  St.  Jude  says,  may  be  com- 
mitted in  the  Christian  as  well  as  in  the  Jewish  church. 

Jesus  Christ  himself  did  not  undertake  his  priesthood  without 
an  outward  call  and  public  consecration  or  anointing  by  a  voice 
from  heaven :  "  And  lo,  the  heavens  were  opened  unto  him, 
and  he  saw  the  Spirit  of  God,  descending  like  a  dove  and  light- 
ing upon  him:  and  lo,  a  voice  from  heaven,  saying,  this  is  my 
beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased''  Therefore  the  call  to 
the  priesthood  must  be  outward  and  by  authority,  and  not  by 
the  voice  of  the  people,  which  is  often  the  reverse  of  truth.    Con- 


142  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

viction  was  given  to  the  outward  senses  of  the  assembled  mul- 
titudes, and  He  who  was  ordained  a  priest  from  all  eternity  did 
not  execute  any  part  of  his  priestly  office  on  earth  till  after  his 
commission  was  proclaimed  by  the  voice  of  God  from  heaven, 
at  His  baptism,  in  the  audience  of  the  people,  when  the  Holy 
Sj^irit  visibly  descended  on  Him  in  the  shape  of  a  dove.  After 
being  thus  publicly  and  divinely  commissioned  from  heaven,  the 
inspired  apostle  informs  us,  "  Jesus  began  to  'preach^  St.  Paul 
says,  "  No  man  taketh  this  honour  upon  himself,  but  he  that  is 
called  of  God,  as  was  Aaron.  So  also  Christ  glorified  not  him- 
self to  be  made  an  high  priest."  If  He  who  had  so  long  before 
been  "  called  a  priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of  Melchizedec," 
and  in  whom  dvt^elt  the  "  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily,"  did 
not  take  upon  himself  the  honour  of  the  priesthood  without  an 
outward  and  visible  call  from  God,  what  must  be  the  guilt  of 
those  who,  without  any  outward  call  by  those  who  had  autho- 
rity to  send  labourers  into  the  vineyard,  took  upon  them,  by 
election  of  the  people, \.Q  assume  the  offices  of  "  overseers,  elders, 
and  deacons !" 

When  Andrew  Melville  was  occupied  in  preparing  his 
"  plot  for  a  presbytery,"  he  applied  for  assistance  to  Theodore 
Beza,  Calvin's  successor  at  Geneva,  who  wrote  a  tract,  wherein 
he  distinguished  episcopacy  into  three  kinds — divine,  human, 
and  satanical.  He  attributed  to  what  he  called  human  episco- 
pacy, but  which  is  of  apostolic  origin,  not  only  a  priority  of 
order,  but  a  superiority  of  power  and  authority  over  presbyters, 
bounded  by  laws  and  canons  for  the  prevention  of  tyranny. 
Beza  clearly  acknowledges,  that  of  this  kind  of  episcopacy  is 
to  be  understood  whatever  we  read  concerning  the  authority  of 
bishops  or  presidents,  in  Ignatius,  and  other  more  ancient 
writers.  Therefore,  we  assert  that  if  Christ  delegated  his 
power  to  his  apostles ;  and  they  to  others,  to  continue  to  the  end 
of  tlie  world ;  if  the  apostles  delegated  bishops  under  them,  in 
all  the  Christian  churches  in  the  world  in  the  apostolic  age, 
and  which  continued  for  fifteen  centuries  ;  if  it  was  not 
possible  for  churches  so  dispersed,  in  so  many  far  distant  re- 
gions, to  concert  all  together  and  at  once  to  alter  the  frame  of 
government  which  had  been  left  by  the  apostles ;  if  such  an 
alteration  of  government  could  not  be  accomplished  without 
great  notice  being  taken  of  it,  as  if  the  government  of  a  nation 
was  changed  from  democracy  to  monarchy ;  if  no  author  or 
historian  of  those  times  makes  tlie  least  mention  of  any  such 
change  of  government,  but  all  with  one  voice  speak  of  episco- 
pacy, and  the  succession  of  the  bishops  in  all  the  churches,  from 
the  days  of  the  apostles  ;  and  in  those  ages  of  zeal,  when  the 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  143 

christians  were  so  forward  to  sacrifice  their  lives  in  opposition 
to  any  error  or  deviation  from  the  truth ;  if  no  one  takes  any 
notice  of  episcojDacy  as  being  an  encroachment  on  the  rights  of 
presbyters  or  the  people,  or  a  deviation  from  the  apostolical  in- 
stitution ;  if  these  things  are  not  possible  to  any  thinking  man, 
then  episcopacy  must  be  the  primitive  and  apostolical  institu- 
tion.  And  it  is  as  impossible  to  be  otherwise,  as  to  suppose  that 
all  the  great  monarchies  in  the  world  should  be  turned  into  re- 
publics, or  the  republics  into  monarchies,  all  at  one  instant ; 
or,  that  the  whole  world  should  go  to  bed  as  presbyterians,  and 
rise  up  as  episcopalians,  and  yet  that  liobody  should  know  it, 
or  that  the  historians  of  those  times  should  take  no  notice  of 
it ;  or  any  man  could  be  found  to  assert  his  liberty  and  freedom 
against  such  a  flagrant  usurpation  ;  or,  that  none  of  those  who 
had  the  government  before,  should  complain  of  any  wrong 
done  them,  or  set  up  their  claims.    If  presbytery,  or  any  other 
form  of  government,  except  episcopacy,  had  been  the  primitive 
apostolical  institution,  the  bishops  could  never  have  stolen 
themselves  into  possession,  and  usurped  the  government  in  all 
churches  throughout   the  w^orld,  without   some  notice,    and 
without  vast  struggles,  either  by  the  honest  or  the  ambitious. 
The  change  of  the    church  go\'ernment  in    Scodand,    from 
modified  episcopacy  to  presbytery,  in  the  end  of  this  century, 
was  not  effected  without  the  most  violent  struggles  between 
the  superintendents  and  the  presbyterian  party.     How  then 
can  it  be  supposed  that  episcopacy  (if  an  usurpation)  should 
have  prevailed  in  all  the  churches  of  the  world,  without  the 
least  notice  or  opposition  by  any  whatever?     No  man  can  tell 
the  beginning  of  episcopacy,  short  of  the  apostles,  any  more 
than  the  beginning  of  monarchy,  short  of  Adam,  who  was  the 
first  king, — or  the  division  of  the  nations  after  the  flood  ;  but 
every  man  can  tell  when  presbytery  began.     There  was  not 
a  presbyterian  church  in  the  whole  world  before  the  days  of 
John  Calvin,  who  pleaded  necessity;  nor  in  Scotland  before 
Andrew  Melville,  who  was  governed  by  a  spirit  of  pride  and 
ambition.     Therefore  episcopacy  must  be  the  original  aposto- 
lical government  of  the  church  ;  for  that  government,  whose 
beginning  we  know  not,  must  have  been  firom  the  beginning  ^ 
The  sacred  office  of  the  ministry  is  essential  to  the  chris- 
tian church ;  and  as  Christ  instituted  and  ordained  the  apos- 
tles, and  sent  them  on  their  mission  with  a  promise  that  He 
would  be  with  them  to  the  end  of  the  world,  we  must  not  in- 
stitute a  new  order  of  ministers,  and  no  man  can  give  them  a 

'  Leslie's  Theological  Works. 


144  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  V. 

cliviiie  mission.  It  must  be  evident  to  every  person  exercis- 
ing any  consideration,  that  His  promise  must  apply  to  a  suc- 
cession of  ministers  from  the  apostles,  who  should  hold  the 
same  supereminent  rank  which  they  did ;  for  the  promise 
of  perpetuity  could  not  be  made  to  them  alone,  for  they  all 
died  violent  deaths  within  a  very  few  years,  and  the  end  of  the 
world  is  not  come  yet ;  so  that  it  must  have  been  to  their  suc- 
cessors in  office  also  that  He  promised  his  perijetual  pre- 
sence and  help.  We  are  informed  in  the  history  of  every 
christian  country,  of  the  succession  of  the  bishops  from 
the  hands  of  the  apostles  down  to  the  present  day  ;  and 
the  episcopacy  appears  to  have  been  as  universally  received 
as  the  sacraments  of  the  church  or  the  inspired  word  of  God. 

There  are  certain  marks  by  which  the  true  church  can  at  all 
times  and  in  all  places  be  distinctly  recognised  : — 1.  The  Word 
of  God ;  2.  The  means  of  Grace  ;  3.  A  regularly  authorised 
ministry.  The  word  of  God,  as  always  understood  and  in- 
terpreted by  the  faithful,  must  be  the  only  rule  of  faith  and  doc- 
trine^. The  appointed  means  of  grace  must  be  duly  and  re- 
gularly administered  ;  and  the  ministers  themselves  must  have 
a  commission  from  Christ  to  empower  them  to  act  in  his  name. 
"  Where  these  three  marks  are  clear  and  distinct,  there  the 
church  of  God  is  to  be  found.  Where  any  of  them  is  changed 
or  counterfeited,  there  the  church  is  in  error.  Where  any  of 
these  is  wanting,  there  the  church  is  not  2."  The_^r.9/  mark  is 
necessary,  because  it  is  impossible  to  please  and  serve  God 
aright  viuthout  a  lull  knowledge  of  His  will,  nor  to  make  this 
life  a  preparation  for  the  n(!xt.  The  second  mark  is  necessary, 
because  by  nature  we  are  born  in  wrath  and  spiritually  dead  ; 
and  therefore  it  is  necessary  that  we  be  born  again  in  the  one 
sacrament,  and  fed  and  nourished  in  spiritual  life  by  the  other. 
Spiritual  life  is  begun  in  the  soul  of  man  by  divine  aid  ;  and 
it  is  born,  strengthened,  and  brought  to  maturity,  by  those 
means  of  grace  which  He  has  instituted,  of  which  the  two 
sacraments  of  baptism  and  Lord's  Supper  are  the  principal : 
the  former  for  bringing  the  life  in  the  soul  to  the  birth,  and 
the  latter  for  nourishing  and  supporting  it.  The  third  mark  is 
necessary,  "  Because  Christ  is  not  merely ^he  only  Redeemer 
of  the  human  race,  but  also  the  only  Mediator  between  God 
and  man.  Hence,  correctly  speaking,  he  is  the  only  Prophet 
that  can  instruct  us  in  the  divine  will ;  the  only  Priest  that 
can  make  atonement  for  us  and  dispense  to  us  the  riches  of 

'  Acts,  ii.  41,  42. 

-    PratL's  Old  Paths,  where  is  the  Good  Way,  p.  4-5. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  145 

God's  grace  ;  and  the  only  king  that  can  give  laws  to  the 
kingdom  of  peace  or  church  of  God.  "  Without  me,"  says 
our  Saviour,  "  ye  can  do  nothing."  Therefore  none  but  the 
Messiah,  or  one  whom  he  has  authorised  to  act  in  his  stead, 
can  as  a  prophet  or  teacher  authoritatively  proclaim  "  peace 
and  good  will  towards  men  ;"  nor  as  a  priest  receive  a  child 
of  Adam  from  the  outer  state  in  which  it  is  naturally  born, 
into  the  church  of  God,  and  there  administer  to  it,  as  the 
adopted  child  of  God,  the  bread  of  life  and  cup  of  salvation  ; 
nor  as  a  king  give  laws  to  the  kingdom  of  righteousness,  and 
take  care  that  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in  order.  In 
short,  without  a  regularly  authorised  ministry,  there  can  be  no 
church  ^ 

At  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  treating,  the  church  of 
Scotland  being  under  the  dominion  of  the  see  of  Rome,  par- 
took of  all  its  errors  and  crimes.  In  consequence  she  had 
lost  the  first  mark  by  the  prohibition  of  the  Scripture ;  and 
also  the  second  mark,  by  adding  to  the  means  of  grace  of 
God's  own  appointment  five  rites  which  she  calls  sacra- 
ments, and  by  taking  away  the  cup  in  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  although  it  be  of  Christ's  own  appointment. 
She  had,  however,  in  a  great  measure  preserved  the  third 
mark,  but  not  so  completely  but  that  even  in  it  there  were 
some  flaws. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  system  which  supplanted  the  Roman 
church  restored  the  first  mark  by  importing  a  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  from  England,  and  earnestly  inculcating  its 
study  upon  all  classes ;  and  in  all  the  subsequent  changes 
which  it  has  undergone  it  has  ever  held  the  Bible  as  its  stan- 
dard. The  third  mark  was  entirely  disregarded,  and  has  ever 
since  continued  to  be  considered  of  so  little  importance,  that  the 
apostolical  rite  of  the  imposition  of  hands  was  laid  aside,  as 
a  ceremony  which  Knox  and  his  coadjutors  considered  per- 
fectly unnecessary.  They  separated  from  the  Roman  church 
and  destroyed \i,  and  did  not,  as  in  England,  reform  and  con- 
tinue it ;  but  established  an  entire  new  churchdom,  without 
any  divine  commission  so  to  do.  This  is  much  to  be  lamented, 
as  those  who  were  in  priests'  orders  had  no  authority  to  or- 
dain others,  far  less  to  beget  fathers  in  Christ  2,  which  Knox 
unhappily  took  upon  himself  to  do.  That  Knox  himself  was 
in  priests'  orders  is  a  fact  which  his  biographer,  the  late  Dr. 
M'Crie,  has  placed  beyond  dispute,  and  some  of  the  other 
leaders    were  also  priests ;    but  the  greater  number  of  the 

'  Old  Paths,  &c.   pp.  11, 12.  2  1  Cor.  iv.  15. 

VOL.  I.  U 


146  HISTORY  OF   THE  [CHAP.  V. 

preachers,  and  all  those  who  subsequently  became  ministers, 
were  totally  without  any  orders  whatever,  not  even  such  as 
the  superintendents  could  have  given  them ;  for  their  own  sup- 
posed call,  the  election  of  the  people,  and  the  civil  ceremony 
of  induction  to  the  living,  was  all  that  was  then  "  judged 
necessary."  As  the  third  mark  of  a  duly  authorised  ministry 
to  act  as  ambassadors  of  Christ  was  wanting,  it  followed  as  a 
matter  of  course  that  the  ministers  of  the  Scottish  reforma- 
tion were  entirely  deficient  of  the  second  mark,  or  the  means 
of  grace,  because  no  man  can  administer  the  sacraments  but 
one  who  is  duly  authorised  to  represent  Christ,  the  great 
High  Priest  of  the  Church  and  bishop  of  souls ;  and  as 
these  men  were  not  duly  called,  as  was  Aaron,  therefore  they 
could  not  enter  into  covenant  with  God,  nor  sign  and  seal  in  His 
name.  The  Scottish  reformers  therefore  greatly  erred  when 
they  assumed  the  christian  ministry  without  a  lawful  call  and 
ordination  from  men  having  authority  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ, 
handed  down,  as  Calvin  rightly  says,  "  from  hand  to  hand, 
from  the  Apostles,"  who  themselves  received  authority  from 
Christ,  as  he  did  from  the  Father  on  the  day  of  his  baptism 
by  John  in  Jordan.  The  mark  of  the  apostolical  succession 
has  been  handed  down  from  Christ  in  as  visible  a  manner  as 
either  of  the  other  two  marks — the  word  of  God  or  the  means 
of  grace.  The  divine  presence  was  promised  to  be  with  the 
church  till  time  shall  merge  into  eternity  ;  and  it  is  to  be  found 
only  in  connection  with  the  three  marks  of  the  church — the 
word  of  God,  the  means  of  grace,  and  the  Christian  ministry. 
It  is  painful  to  come  to  the  conclusion,  that  notwithstanding 
their  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  reformation  of  his  church, 
which  they  sincerely  felt,  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they 
were  altogether  deficient  of  the  second  and  third  marks  of 
the  christian  chmxh^ 

The  christian  church  succeeded  to  the  Jewish ;  and  the 
high  priest,  the  priest  and  the  Levite  of  the  latter,  gave  place, 
in  the  fulness  of  time,  to  the  bishop,  the  priest,  and  the  dea- 
con of  the  former.  The  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith  took 
away  or  abrogated  the  first  will  or  law  of  God  ;  that  is.  He 
took  away  the  law  and  the  legal  priesthood  and  sacrifices,  and 
established  the  second  will — that  is,  the  gospel  and  the  evan- 
gelical priesthood,  with  the  commemorative  sacrifice  of  Christ, 
by  the  which  will  or  evangelical  priesthood  and  sacrifice  we 


1  The  Old  Paths,  where  is  the  Good  Way  ;  by  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Pratt.  Parker, 
Oxford.  The  subject  which  is  here  only  alluded  to  is  there  amply  and  conclu- 
sively reasoned,  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  most  serious  attention. 


1561.]  CHUUCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  147 

are  sanctified  through  the  offering  of  Christ's  body  once  for 
all.  It  is  evident  from  St.  Paul's  words,  that  "  no  man  taketh 
this  honour — of  the  priesthood — upon  himself,  but  he  that  is 
called  of  God  ;"  that  it  is  a  most  honourable  office,  and  can  be 
derived  from  God  only,  who  is  the  fountain  of  honour ;  and 
therefore  our  reformers  having  taken  this  most  honourable  office 
on  themselves,  without  any  authoritative  call,  were  not  really 
priests  or  ministers  of  God,  but  their  claim  was  ideal  and  ima- 
ginary ;  and  it  is  a  melancholy  truth  that  they  ran  unsent. 

Although  the  Scoto-papal  church  possessed  the  third  mark, 
a  regular  ministry,  yet  it  was  so  debased  by  the  mixture  of 
lay-commendators,  who  were  called  bishops,  abbots,  and 
priors,  and  who  were  a  disgrace  to  the  functions  which  they 
usurped,  that  unhappily  our  reformers,  but  especially  their 
leader,  were  not  afraid  to  despise  their  dominion,  and  to  speak 
evil  of  the  dignitaries  who  had  legal  and  ecclesiastical  pos- 
session of  the  bishoprics  and  parochial  benefices.  They  became 
presumptuous  and  self-willed,  walking  after  the  flesh,  in  the 
lust  of  uncleanness,  and  despised  their  government  and  office . 
The  Scoto-papal  bishops  (always  excepting  the  commen- 
dators)  were  really  consecrated,  and  the  inferior  clergy  were 
really  called  as  was  Aaron  ;  but  how  was  he  called }  In  the 
old  law  God  gave  the  priesthood  to  Aaron  by  name,  and  en- 
tailed the  succession  in  his  family,  so  that  all  his  posterity 
were  priests.  When  this  priesthood  was  extinguished,  toge- 
ther with  the  Jewish  law,  God  glorified  Christ  and  made  Him 
the  first  high  priest  of  the  gospel,  "  a  priest  for  ever,  after  the 
order  of  Melchisedec"  And  Christ  still  executes  this  office 
himself  in  heaven,  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  and  continually 
intercedes  with  God  the  Father  for  his  Church  and  all  its 
members.  But  before  his  ascension,  he  conferred  the  priest- 
hood on  his  apostles  after  his  resurrection  :  "  as  my  Father 
hath  sent  me,  so  send  I  you,"  and  whosesoever  sins  ye  remit 
they  are  remitted  unto  them  ;  and  whosesoever  sins  ye  retain 
they  are  retained."  These  were  therefore  sent  as  priests,  for 
they  were  sent  as  Christ  himself  had  been  sent  by  the  Father, 
for  the  apostle  says  Christ  was  a  priest  for  ever ;  and  conse- 
quently they  and  their  successors  must  be  priests  likewise, 
for  He  sent  them  as  the  Father  had  sent  him.  He  promised 
to  be  with  them  even  to  the  end  of  the  world,  which  could  not 
be,  unless  tliey  were  to  have  successors  in  their  offices,  and 
their  priesthood  was  made  perpetual,  and,  like  his  own,  to  con- 
tinue for  ever.  The  apostles  conceived,  that  having  been  sent 
by  Christ  as  He  had  been  sent  by  the  Father,  that  they  had 
thereby  received  authority  to  send  others  also ;  and  accord- 


148  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.        [CHAP.  V. 

ingly  they  ordained  elders,  presbyters,  or  priests,  in  every 
church  that  they  had  planted.  Some  of  those  whom  the 
apostles  ordained  they  also  commissioned  to  ordain  others,  as 
appears  from  what  St.  Paul  said  to  Titus,  whom  he  constituted 
chief  bishop  or  superintendent  of  Crete.  "  For  this  cause 
left  I  thee  in  Crete,  that  thou  shouldest  set  in  order  the 
things  that  are  wanting,  and  ordain  elders  or  priests  in  every 
city."  And  also  to  Timothy,  whom  he  appointed  the  super- 
intendent or  bishop  of  Ephesus,  and  whom  he  instructed  to 
ordain  or  lay  hands  suddenly,  or  without  due  examination,  on 
no  man.  All  priests  had  not  the  fulness  of  apostolical  power, 
but  only  the  chief  priests  or  bishops.  There  were  many 
elders  or  priests  at  Ephesus  before  Timothy  was  sent  to  over- 
see them,  yet  the  power  of  ordination  was  confined  to  him  alone. 
By  the  bishops  whom  the  apostles  ordained  to  that  office  has 
the  succession  of  the  Christian  priesthood  been  continued 
down  to  the  present  time,  and  full  faith  and  assurance  may  be 
placed  in  Christ's  promise,  that  it  will  ever  flow  on  in  a  con- 
tinual stream  of  succession,  and  that  He  will  be  with  it  to  the 
end  of  the  world. 


149 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  SUPERINTENDENTS. 

The  Confession  of  Faithratified. — The  Protestants  court  Elizabeth. — Death  of  King 
Francis. — Embassy  to  France. — Instructions  respecting  the  mass. — Papal  party 
recommend  the  Queen  to  land  at  Aberdeen. — First  General  Assembly. — Pro- 
secution of  the  Romish  clergy. — Debate  betwixt  Knox  and  Bishop  Leslie. — 
An  Assembly. — "  Complaint"  to  Parliament. — Act  for  demolishing  abbeys 
and  churches — The  execution  of  this  act. — Noted  expression  of  Knox. — Re- 
flections.— Queen  Mary's  arrival — Her  proclamation. — A  riot  at  the  Chapel 
Royal. — Earl  of  Arran's  protest. — Knox  preaches  against  the  mass. — Con- 
ference with  the  Queen. — The  Queen  makes  a  progress. — The  thirds  of  the 
benefices  appropriated. — Suits  to  Rome  prohibited. — Church  lands  conveyed 
by  the  clergy  to  their  friends. — Bishop  of  Brechin. — Returns  ordered  of  the 
church's  revenues. — Petition  to  the  Queen  to  suppress  the  mass. — A  General 
Assembly — the  legality  of  its  meeting  questioned. — Queen  declines  to  ratify 
the  Book  of  Discipline. — Thirds  of  ecclesiastical  revenues. — Knox  gives  vent 
to  his  indignation.  —  Inauguration  of  Erskine  of  Dun. — Assembly. — Trial 
of  superintendents. — Immorality. — Burgh  laws. — Riots. — General  Assem- 
bly.— Superintendents. — Bishop  of  Galloway's  petition. — Assembly's  answer, 
—  Superintendent  Spottiswood.  —  Petition  or  remonstrance  to  the  Queen  — 
Knox  sent. 

1561. — In  the  late  convention  or  parliament  the  pope's  au- 
thority was  completely  abolished,  and  severe  penalties  were  im- 
posed on  those  who  should  thereafter  hear  or  say  mass.  The 
mantle  of  persecution  had  thus  fallen  from  the  old  hierarchy 
on  the  new.  Those  very  men  who  had  not  many  months  be- 
fore petitioned  the  late  queen  regent  for  simple  liberty  of  con- 
science and  permission  to  worship  God, enacted  that  the  sayers 
or  hearers  of  mass,  were,  for  the  first  fault,  to  suffer  confisca- 
tion of  all  their  goods,  and  a  corporal  punishment  at  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  judge  ;  for  the  second,  banishment ;  and  for  the 
third,  death !  thus,  unhappily,  displaying  the  same  persecuting 
and  vindictive  spirit  which  had  disgraced  the  Romish  church. 

The  Confession  of  Faith  and  Book  of  Discipline  were  rati- 
fied by  an  act  of  secret  council,  "  as  good  and  conform  to 
God's  word  in  all  points," — "  providing  that  the  bishops, 
abbots,  priors,  prelates,  and  beneficed  men,  who  have  already 
adjoined  themselves  unto  us,  bruik  the  revenues  of  their  bene- 
fices during  their  lifetime  ;  they  sustaining  and  upholding  the 
ministry  and  ministers  as  herein  is  specified,  for  the  preaching 


150  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP,  VI 

of  the  word  and  miiiistring  of  the  sacraments  ^"  The  rapa- 
cious nobility  who  had  unlawfully  appropriated  the  church's 
property,  ridiculed  the  new  hierarchy  as  "  a  devout  imagina- 
tion, wherewith  John  Knox  did  greatly  offend."  John  Knox 
was  ever  keenly  alive  to  recover  the  lost  "  patrimony  of  the 
kirk,"  which  had  been  seized  by  the  hand  of  violence,  at  a 
period  when  the  royal  authority  was  insufficient  to  control  the 
power  of  the  turbulent  nobility,  or  to  protect  the  church's 
property  and  rights. 

From  the  fate  of  Sir  James  Sandiland's  mission,  the  protes- 
tant  party  were  apprehensive  that  the  French  court  meditated 
farther  violence  to  their  liberties,  and  they  feared  that  Eliza- 
beth might  withdraw  her  support  from  them,  on  account  of  the 
losses  which  her  troops  had  sustained  on  the  last  expedition. 
After  the  dissolution  of  the  late  convention,  the  Earls  of  Glen- 
cairn  and  Morton  were  therefore  sent  to  London  to  return 
thanks  to  Elizabeth  for  her  powerful  and  seasonable  assis- 
tance ;  and  to  solicit  farther  support  in  the  event  of  French 
invasion.  But  the  death  of  Francis  dispelled  their  fears  and 
elevated  their  hopes  ;  and  the  protestant  nobility  despatched 
the  lord  James  to  France  to  persuade  Queen  Mary  to  return 
home  to  her  kingdom,  which  was  miserably  divided  by  two 
great  and  equally  bigoted  parties,  who  mutually  hated  and 
abused  each  other.  The  council  met  on  the  15th  of  January, 
and  cautioned  their  representative  respecting  his  sentiments 
on  the  Romish  worship,  which  he  would  witness  in  all  its 
splendour  at  the  court  of  France.  They  peremptorily  enforced 
upon  him  the  necessity  of  assuring  her  majesty  that  the  per- 
formance of  the  mass  would  not  be  tolerated  in  the  kingdom 
either  in  public  or  in  private.  But  the  lord  James  was  neither 
so  illiberal  nor  so  indelicate  as  his  stern  instructors,  and  re- 
plied :  "  I  shall  never  consent  that  mass  shall  be  performed 
in  public ;  but  if  the  queen  wishes  to  have  it  celebrated  in  her 
own  chamber,  who  could  stop  her  ?"  This  answer  was  not 
satisfactory  to  the  ministers.  Meantime,  the  popish  party, 
'which  was  both  numerous  and  powerful,  met  secretly,  and  re- 
solved to  send  Mr.  John  Leslie,  the  official  or  archdeacon  and 
vicar-general  of  Aberdeen,  and  afterwards  a  privy  coimcillor, 
president  of  the  Court  of  Session,  and  bishop  of  Ross,  to 
offer  their  duty  and  fidelity  to  her  majesty.  They  strongly 
recommended  her  majesty  to  return  home,  but  to  land  at 
Aberdeen,  where  the  papal  interest  was  still  powerful  and  the 
people  were  supremely  loyal ;  and  where  she  might  again  re- 

'  Knox. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  151 

establish  the  ancient  hierarchy  with  the  assistance  of  the  Earl 
of  Huntly  and  other  faithful  noblemen.  Mv.  Leslie  was  also 
instructed  to  represent  to  her  majesty  the  dangerous  character 
and  ambitious  designs  of  her  brother,  the  lord  James.  He 
assured  her  that  he  secretly  contemplated  the  usurpation  of  the 
crown,  and  he  recommended  his  detention  in  France,  at  least 
till  the  affairs  of  the  church  were  settled.  But  an  interview 
the  next  day  with  her  illegitimate  brother  removed  all  her  sus- 
picions of  his  treasonable  views,  and  "  Mr.  Leslie  acknow- 
ledges that  the  prior  soon  perceived  the  queen's  heart  to  be 
inclined  towards  him." 

The  protestant  hierarchy,  under  the  supremacy  of  John 
Knox  and  his  vigorous  direction,  held  their  first  General 
Assembly  on  the  20lh  of  December,  and  continued  their  sit- 
tings till  the  beginning  of  the  present  year.  There  were  only 
six  ministers  present;  the  remaining  thirty-four  members  were 
laymen,  and  they  sat  for  seven  sessions  without  a  president  or 
moderator,  after  which  Superintendent  Willock  was  placed  in 
the  chair.  This  assembly  prosecuted  the  war  vigorously  against 
the  sacred  buildings  ;  and  the  church  of  Restalrig,  which  was 
the  seat  of  a  deanery,  was  ordered  to  "  be  rased  and  utterly  de- 
stroyed, being  a  monument  of  idolatry."  They  also  petitioned 
the  privy  council  to  appoint  none  to  public  offices  but  the  pro- 
fessors of  the  reformed  religion  ;  and  to  inflict  sharp  punish- 
ments upon  all  idolaters  and  the  maintainers  of  idolatry  in  saying 
of  mass.  In  consequence,  a  continued  course  of  prosecutions 
was  instituted  against  the  papal  clergy  and  their  followers,  for 
the  celebration  of  the  I'ites  of  the  Romish  church.  Four  per- 
sons were  sumirioned  from  the  University  of  Aberdeen,  among 
whom  was  Mr.  Leslie,  to  sustain  a  controversy  with  Knox 
and  others  before  the  privy  council.  Each  party  claimed 
the  victory.  Mr.  Leslie  says,  the  papal  champions  argued  so 
learnedly  on  the  nature  and  efficacy  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
eucharist,  that  their  friends  were  greatly  strengthened  and 
edified,  and  their  opponents  confounded.  Knox,  on  the  other 
hand,  asserts  that  Leslie  was  an  ignorant  dunce  ;  and  Leslie 
said  of  Knox,  that  "  he  had  an  unbridled  licentiousness  in 
speaking,  mixed  with  a  virulent  fluency  of  words  i." 

Another  assembly  met  in  Edinburgh  on  the  26th  May,  and 
vehemently  importuned  a  convention  of  the  estates  which  was 
then  sitting  "  for  the  suppression  of  idolatry  thoughout  the 
whole  realm,  and  punishing  the  users  thereof."  One  of  the 
"  items"  of  their  "  complaint"  respects  the  diocesan  au  hority 

^  Keith,  b.  iii.  cap.  i.  p.  500. 


152  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VI 

of  the  superintendents,  that  "  maintenance  and  special  pro- 
vision be  made  for  superintendents,  for  the  erecting  and 
establishing  of  more  in  places  convenient,  and  for  punishing 
of  the  contemners  of  the  said  superintendents,  and  disobeyers 
of  them."  A  petition  was  presented  to  the  convention  re- 
plete with  the  most  uncharitable  abuse  of  their  opponents, 
and  the  most  unjust  reflections  upon  their  loyalty  to  the 
crown.  They  crave  the  most  severe  and  unrelenting  ven- 
geance on  the  papal  clergy,  whom  they  call  "  the  pestilent 
generation  of  the  Roman  antichrist" — "tyrants  and  dum- 
dogs ;"  and  "  that  such  order  may  be  taken,  that  we  have  not 
occasion  to  take  again  the  sword  of  just  defence  into  our 
hands."  This,  says  Bishop  Keith,  is  "  a  fair  acknowledgment 
that  the  new  form  was  introduced  by  the  sword."  These  men, 
into  whose  hands  the  ministers  said  they  had  resigned  the 
sword,  were  not  backward  in  complying  with  their  desires, 
and  an  act  was  forthwith  passed  for  demolishing  the  cloisters 
and  abbey  churches,  such  at  least  as  still  remained  entire  from 
the  fury  of  the  "  rascal  multitude."  To  the  Earls  of  Arran, 
Argyle,  and  Glencairn,  were  committed  the  barbarous  demoli- 
tion of  those  in  the  west  country ;  those  in  the  north  to  the 
lord  James;  and  those  in  the  midland  counties  "to  some 
barons  that  were  held  most  zealous."  "  Thereupon,"  says 
Spottiswood,  "  ensued  a  pitiful  vastation  of  churches  and 
church  buildings  throughout  all  parts  of  the  realm ;  for  every 
one  made  bold  to  put  to  their  hands,  the  meaner  sort  imitating 
the  ensample  of  the  greater  and  those  who  were  in  authority. 
They  rifled  all  the  churches  indifferently,  making  spoil  of  every 
thing  they  found.  The  vessels  appointed  for  the  service  of 
the  church,  and  whatsoever  else  made  for  decoration  of  the 
same,  were  taken  away  and  applied  to  profane  uses.  The 
buildings  of  the  church  defaced ;  timber,  lead,  bells,  put  to 
sale  and  alienated  to  merchants.  The  very  sepulchres  of  the 
dead  were  not  spared,  but  digged,  ript  up,  and  sacrilegiously 
violated.  Bibliotheques  destroyed,  the  volumes  of  the  fathers, 
councils,  and  other  books  of  human  learning,  with  the  regis- 
ters of  the  church,  cast  into  the  streets,  afterwards  gathered 
into  heaps  and  consumed  with  fire.  In  short,  all  was  ruined, 
and  what  had  escaped  in  the  time  of  the  first  tumult  did  now 
undergo  the  common  calamity;  which  was  so  much  the  worse 
that  the  violences  committed  at  this  time  were  shadowed  with 
the  warrant  of  ]^ublic  authority.  Some  ill-advised  preachers  did 
likewise  animate  the  people  in  their  barbarous  proceedings, 
crying  out,  '  that  the  places  where  idols  had  been  worshipped 
ought  by  the  law  of  God  to  be  destroyed,  and  that  the  sparing 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  1.53 

of  them  was  the  reserving  of  things  execrable,'  mistaking,  as 
if  the  comraandment  given  to  Israel  for  destroying  the  places 
where  the  Canaanite  had  worshipped  their  false  gods,  had  been 
a  warrant  for  them  to  do  the  like' ."  Knox  is  said  on  this  occa- 
sion to  have  used  the  noted  speech  ascribed  to  him,  "  that  the 
sure  way  to  banish  the  rooks  was  to  pull  down  their  nests ;" 
alluding  to  the  cloisters,  whose  plunder  animated  the  "  rascal 
multitude"  to  demolish  the  abbeys  ;  while  the  nobility  seized 
on  the  lands  belonging  to  these  societies. 

From  the  absence  of  the  queen  and  the  delegated  authority 
of  regents,  the  nobility  had  acquired  an  independence  highly 
dangerous  to  the  safety  and  just  power  and  authority  of  the 
crown.  The  robbery  and  spoliation  of  the  territorial  pos- 
sessions of  the  church  had  increased  their  wealth  and  means 
of  resisting  the  government,  and  indeed  of  setting  it  at  de- 
fiance, to  which  their  own  turbulent  inclinations,  and  the 
weakness  of  the  sovereign,  occasioned  by  frequent  and  long 
minorities,  but  too  fatally  contributed.  From  the  death  of 
Mary  of  Lorraine,  the  kingdom  had  been  without  a  regular 
government,  and  in  a  state  little  short  of  anarchy,  while  Eliza- 
beth had  gained  a  complete  ascendancy  in  the  councils  of  the 
kingdom,  and  contributed  to  keep  alive  and  foment  the  civil 
and  religious  dissensions,  which  the  "  rascal"  mode  of  reform- 
ing religion,  and  ths  plunder  and  devastation  of  the  churches 
and  church  property,  had  occasioned  among  the  Scots.  Add 
to  these  evils,  the  new  democratic  doctrines  that  had  been 
introduced,  and  the  inculcating  of  the  systems  of  ancient  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  all  their  antiscriptural  maxims  of  government, 
had  introduced  a  republican  spirit,  which  unhappily  prevails 
but  too  generally  there  at  this  day.  The  Scots  had  hitherto 
been  always  favourable  to  monarchy,  which  is  the  only  govern- 
ment of  divine  appointment,  and  the  Scottish  history  shows 
fewer  instances  of  breaches  of  the  regal  succession  than  that 
of  any  other  nation.  Loyalty  and  attachment  to  the  sovereign 
were  national  virtues  till  the  Genevan  doctrines  were  intro- 
duced, which  taught  them  resistance  to  lawful  governors  as  a 
principle  of  the  new  religion.  The  Grecian  were  the  first 
republics  that  ever  existed  in  the  world.  To  escape  from 
what  they  called  the  tyranny  of  that  hereditary  monarchy 
under  which  God  had  placed  them,  they  put  themselves 
under  the  insupportable  tyranny  of  thirty  tyrants  ;  and  tried 
every  scheme  of  government,  after  they  had  forsaken  the  right 
one.     Every  little  town  erected  itself  into  an  independent  re- 

^  Spottiswood's  MS.  cited  by  Keitli,  b.  iii.  c.  i.  pp.  502-4. 
vol,.  I.  X 


154  HISTORY   OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI 

public,  and  they  were  perpetually  engaged  in  war  with  each 
other,  manuring  their  common  country  with  Grecian  blood  ;  so 
that  since  Adam,  who  was  the  first  king,  so  lamentable  a  scene 
of  blood,  slaughter,  and  confusion,  never  was  seen  under  any 
monarchy,  as  these  Grecian  republics  exhibited.  Their  de- 
mocratical  governments  always  showed  the  greatest  ingratitude 
to  their  generals  and  deliverers  ;  ostracism  or  death  being  the 
lot  of  every  one  who  had  rendered  eminent  services  to  his 
country.  This  was  not  owing  to  any  greater  propensity  to 
injustice  or  ingratitude  in  the  Greeks  than  existed  in  any 
other  nation;  but  in  the  popular  form  of  their  government. 
Mercy  and  compassion  must  ever  be  incompatible  with  re- 
publican governments,  because  the  odium  of  a  guilty  deed  is 
divided  among  many,  and  every  individual  member  shifts  it  off 
his  own  conscience,  thinking  that  he  is  the  less  guilty  because 
others  are  concerned.  Bodies  of  men  never  pardon,  and  are  inca- 
pable of  mercy,  and  their  sentence  once  passed  cannot  be  revers- 
ed ;  such  governments,  therefore,  of  all  judgment  and  no  mercy, 
cannot  emanate  from  God.  Greece  has  long  suffered  the  just 
iudgments  of  God  for  setting  the  example  to  other  nations  of 
the  breach  of  his  monarchical  institution,  and  which  was 
held  up  as  the  model  for  the  Scots  to  follow,  rejecting  the 
plain  commands  of  Scripture,  and  the  long  line  of  illustrious 
monarchs  who  had  swayed  the  Scottish  sceptre.  To  this  re- 
publican spirit  which  Knox  introduced,  and  which  was  also 
sedulously  taught  by  Buchanan,  must  be  attributed  the  un- 
governable temper  which  distracted  the  whole  of  Mary's  reign, 
and  those  of  her  hereditary  successors,  and  produced  that 
rebellion  against  her  person  and  government  which  drove  her 
to  the  fatal  measure  of  throwing  herself  into  the  power  of  Eliza- 
beth. But  in  England,  on  the  contrary,  where  no  such  republi- 
can principles  had  been  as  yet  entertained,  where  there  was  a 
powerful  and  vigorous  government,  and  the  prerogative  of  the 
crown  was  strained  even  to  tyranny,  the  utmost  tranquillity 
and  prosperity  were  the  natural  fruits  of  obedient  subordina- 
tion ;  and  the  firm  sceptre  of  Elizabeth  is  yet  looked  back  to 
as  the  most  glorious  of  all  her  illustrious  predecessors. 

On  the  20th  of  August,  Mary  Stuart,  dowager  of  France, 
arrived  in  her  native  kingdom,  and  landed  at'Leith,  amidst  the 
joyful  acclamations  of  her  subjects.  Elizabeth  refused  her  a 
safe  conduct  through  or  even  along  the  coast  of  England  j 
and  as  the  lord  James,  with  the  crafty  Lethington,  had  been 
recently  at  the  court  of  England,  this  insult  is  ascribed,  not 
improbably,  to  their  advice.  It  is  also  insinuated  that  the 
lord  James  advised  the  treacherous  and  most  ungenerous  con- 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  155 

duct  pursued  by  Elizabeth,  of  fitting  out  a  fleet  to  seize  her 
person ;  but  which  she  providentially  escaped.  But  this  charge 
against  the  lord  James  rests  chiefly  upon  the  uncharitable 
suspicions  of  his  enemies,  grounded,  however,  on  the  duplicity 
and  bad  faith  of  Elizabeth.  The  first  act  of  Mary's  govern- 
ment was  one  of  grace.  She  issued  a  proclamation  of  her 
own  free  will,  wherein  she  assured  her  people,  "that  no 
change  or  alteration  should  be  made  in  the  present  state  of 
religion,  only  she  would  use  her  own  service  apart  with  her 
family,  and  have  mass  in  private  ^"  The  more  rational  men 
thought  this  not  unreasonable ;  but  the  fierce  bigots  of  the 
party  stormed  mightily,  and  protested  that  they  would  suffer 
neither  private  nor  public  mass ;  and  in  consequence,  when 
the  queen's  confessor  was  preparing  to  celebrate  that  rite  in 
the  chapel-royal,  he  was  attacked  by  a  riotous  mob,  who  de- 
molished the  furniture  of  the  chapel,  and  were  with  difliculty 
restrained  from  doing  instant  execution  on  the  ofiiciating 
priest,  against  whom  it  was  strongly  urged  to  enforce  the 
penalty  of  death,  awarded,  by  act  of  parliament,  to  the  sayers 
and  hearers  of  mass. 

At  the  instigation  of  some  unreasonable  adviser,  the  Earl  of 
Arran  declared,  in  the  hearing  of  the  herald  who  read  the  queen's 
proclamation,  that  he  would  not  consent  to  extend  any  protec- 
tion to  the  queen's  court  or  domestics ;  and  he  afterwards 
presented  a  formal  protest  to  the  queen  herself,  in  which  he 
threatened  that  "  idolaters  should  die  the  death,"  &c.  This, 
with  the  preceding  riot  and  obstruction  to  the  private  enjoyment 
of  her  religion,  exasperated  the  queen  ;  and  her  indignation 
was  still  farther  increased  by  the  violence  of  Knox,  who  on 
Sunday,  the  last  day  of  August,  inveighed  with  his  usual  bitter 
animosity  against  idolatry,  and  said,  "  that  one  mass  was  more 
frightful  to  him  than  if  a  thousand  anned  enemies  were  landed 
in  any  part  of  the  kingdom  to  suppress  the  whole  religion." 
This  sermon  created  a  mighty  sensation  both  in  the  city  and  in 
the  court.  The  queen,  therefore,  sent  for  Knox,  and  accused 
him  of  having  raised  a  part  of  her  subjects  against  her  mother 
and  herself,  and  of  having  been  the  cause  of  great  sedition  and 
slaughter  in  England.  Knox  not  only  defended  himself,  but 
attacked  the  queen's  principles,  "  the  vanity  of  the  papistical 
religion,  and  the  deceit,  pride,  and  tyranny  of  that  Roman  anti- 
christ." He  severely  inveighed  against  the  proclamation  for 
liberty  of  conscience,  which  she  had  issued,  as  being  hypo- 
critical and  evil  designed.    But  Bishop  Leslie,  who  was  better 

'  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  ii.  505. — Knox,  b.  iv.  263-4. 


156  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VI. 

able  to  judge  of  the  prospects  of  his  own  church  than  Knox, 
dates  the  entire  ruin  of  the  papal  religion  m  Scotland  from  her 
proclamation  on  the  25th  of  August;  because  it  had  given  the 
Knoxian  party  the  royal  sanction  to  the  reformed  religion,  of 
which  it  was  before  entirely  destitute  i.  Of  course  Knox  claims 
a  triumph  over  the  queen's  theology;  but  we  have  no  other 
authority  than  his  own  version  of  the  conversation,  which  must 
be  taken  with  reserve.  He  says,  "  he  found  in  her  a  proud 
mind,  a  crafty  wit,  and  an  obdurate  heart  against  God  and  his 
truth r  that  is,  against  his  opinions:  from  which  it  maybe 
gathered  that  his  victory  had  not  been  so  easy  as  he  makes  it 
appear  in  his  book. 

The  queen  made  a  progress  to  her  chief  towns  during  the 
autumn,  and  had  mass  celebrated  wherever  she  went,  and  par- 
ticularly on  her  return  to  Holyrood  House,  on  All  Saints'  Day, 
the  first  of  November.  Knox  and  some  other  ministers  made 
violent  complaints  to  such  of  the  nobility  as  were  then  at  court ; 
but  the  warmth  of  the  palace  fire  had  made  them  less  zealous, 
and  they  began  to  doubt  "  whether  subjects  might  put  hand 
to  suppress  the  idolatry  of  their  prince."  This  created  a  violent 
dispute  between  the  lords  and  Knox,  and,  as  they  could  not 
agree,  the  latter  proposed  to  refer  it  to  their  brethren  at  Geneva ; 
"  yet,"  says  Heylin,  "  they  shewed  plainly,  by  insisting  on  that 
proposition,  both  from  whose  mouth  they  had  received  the  doc- 
trine of  maldng  sovereign  princes  subject  to  the  lusts  of  the 
people,  and  from  whose  hands  they  did  expect  the  defence 
thereof2." 

The  ordinary  revenue  not  being  sufficient  for  the  expenditure 
of  the  crown,  the  church  property  was  sacrificed  to  make  up  the 
deficiency,  and  the  third  part  of  all  the  revenues  of  the  clergy, 
both  prelates  and  beneficed  priests,  was  devoted  to  this  pur- 
pose ;  which  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  the  more  readily  agreed 
to  yield  up,  in  order  that  they  might  be  secured  of  the  residue. 
"  It  carried  some  show  of  commodity,"  says  Spottiswood,  "  at 
first,  but  turned  eventually  to  very  little  account,  for  the  clergy 
undervalued  their  property,  and  the  produce  left  the  protestant 
ministry  scarcely  any  thing,  for  this  third  was  to  be  divided  be- 
twixt the  court  and  the  new  hierarchy." 

On  the  lOlh  of  September  there  was  published  an  Act  of 
Privy  Council,  which  had  then  the  force  of  law  during  the 
intervals  of  parliament,  discharging  all  suits  in  the  court  of 

I  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  2,  p.  50G.— Knox,  b.  iv.  p.  2G5-8. 

•-  Heylin's  History  of  Presbyterians,  b.  iv.  p.  14G.— Keith's  History,  b.  iii. 
c.  2,  p.  500. 


1561.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  157 

Rome  for  church  lands.  When  the  papal  clergy  saw  that  there 
was  no  prospect  that  their  churcli  would  ever  recover  its  former 
ascendancy,  and  that  in  a  short  time  they  would  be  ejected  from 
their  benefices,  they  began  to  convey  the  lands  to  their  friends, 
as  the  act  says,  "  in  feu-farm  and  heritage;"  and  those  to  whom 
the  lands  were  conveyed  sent  to  Rome  and  obtained  confirma- 
tions of  the  said  lands.  This  act,  therefore,  stopped  the  con- 
firmations from  Rome,  mider  the  pain  of  barratry  or  simony, 
the  punishment  of  which  was  banishment  and  infamy ;  but  the 
alienations  were,  nevertheless,  allowed  to  proceed.  "  The 
popish  churchmen,"  says  Archbishop  Spottiswood,  "  who 
were  in  a  foolish  pity,  suffered  to  enjoy  their  livings  (partly 
out  of  malice  to  religion  [he  means  the  reformation],  and  partly 
of  a  fear  they  conceived  to  be  spoiled  of  their  benefices),  made 
away  with  all  their  rents,  manses,  glebes,  tithes,  and  what- 
soever else  belonged  to  the  church,  unto  some  great  ones  that 
were  their  friends  and  kinsmen,  who  found  the  means,  by  mak- 
ing corrupt  laws,  to  strengthen  their  titles,  and  so  from  time 
to  time  have,  imder  colour  of  right,  defi-auded  the  church  of 
her  due  patrimony."  It  was  the  queen's  '■^  foolish  pity'"  which 
consummated  this  wicked  sacrilege,  by  giving  her  consent  in 
parliament ;  but  even  then  she  acted  under  the  treacherous  ad- 
vice of  councillors  who  had  a  present  or  remote  interest  in  the 
spoliation  of  the  church.  The  rents  of  the  church  were 
alienated  by  the  titular  bishops  and  abbots,  who  got  possession 
after  the  change  in  religion.  A  more  flagrant  instance  of  this 
presentation  of  laymen  to  bishoprics,  and  of  the  interested  ob- 
jects of  the  nobility  in  counselling  the  queen  to  bestow  the 
patronage  of  the  crown,  cannot  be  shewn  than  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  Alexander  Campbell  to  the  bishopric  of  Brechin. 
This  boy  was  the  son  of  Campbell  of  Ardkinglas,  of  the  family 
of  Argyle,  and  in  the  year  15G6  he  received  a  royal  license  to 
go  to  Geneva  to  finish  his  education,  where  he  remained  at 
school  till  1574.  This  grant  of  the  bishopric  contained  a  new 
and  unheard-of  power  to  dispose  and  alienate  the  benefices  as 
well  of  the  spirituality  as  of  the  temporality  of  the  bishopric  ! 
viz.  "  with  power  to  him  to  give  and  dispose  of  each  benefice, 
as  well  of  spiritual  as  of  temporal  dignity,  or  other  things  within 
the  diocese  of  Brechin  now  vacant,  or  when  it  shall  happen  that 
the  same  shall  become  vacant,  which  were  formerly  in  the  gift  or 
patronage  of  the  bishops  of  Brechin."  This  boy -bishop  never  was 
consecrated,  nor  ever  exercised  any  other  part  of  the  episcopal 
functions,  than  to  comply  with  the  above  clause  in  his  grant  to 
alienate  a  great  part  of  the  lands  and  tithes  of  the  bishoj^ric  to 
the  chief  of  his  family,  the  Earl  of  Argyle  :  "  and  truely,"  says 


158  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

Keith,  "he  made  sufficient  use  afterwards  of  this  power;  for 
he  alienated  most  part  of  the  lands  and  tithes  of  the  bishopric 
to  his  chief  and  patron  the  Earl  of  Argyle,  retaining  for  his 
successors  scarce  so  much  as  would  be  a  moderate  competency 
for  a  minister  in  Brechin."  The  Earl  of  Argyle  had  also  secured 
the  greater  part  of  the  lands  belonging  to  the  bishopric  of  the 
Isles. 

On  the  22d  of  December,  the  privy  council  issued  an  order 
requiring  a  return  to  be  made  of  the  revenues  of  all  the 
bishoprics,  abbeys,  monasteries,  priories,  and  religious  houses 
of  every  description  in  the  kingdom ;  those  on  the  south  of  the 
Grampians  were  to  be  given  in  before  the  24th  of  January ; 
and  those  on  the  north  of  that  immense  ridge  of  mountains, 
before  the  10th  of  February,  1662.  For  obvious  reasons  the 
revenues  were  greatly  underrated  by  the  parties  interested,  and 
the  returns  were  made  as  low  as  possible.  The  Archbishop 
of  St.  Andrews,  the  Bishops  of  Moray,  Dunkeld,  and  Ross, 
v^olimtarily  offered  to  resign  one-third  part  of  their  revenues 
for  the  use  of  the  queen,  out  of  which  she  was  to  pay  a  small 
allowance  to  the  protestant  preachers  ^      The  lord    James, 

^  The  revenues  of  the  church  were  immensa  :  they  have  been  recently 
enumerated  with  great  industiy  by  Mr.  Lawson,  from  whose  useful  work  we  shall 
extract  the  returns  of  the  diocese  of  St.  Andrews.  The  Archbishop  of  St.  An- 
drews "  ranked  next  to  the  royal  family,  and  with  whom  was  the  exclusive  right 
of  crowning  the  Scottish  monarchs.  The  power  of  the  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews 
was  as  extensive  in  matters  temporal  as  it  was  in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  In  virtue 
of  his  office  he  was,  like  the  bishops  of  Durham,  count  palatine  and  lord  of  re- 
gality, the  latter  jurisdiction  being  equivalent  to  that  exercised  in  modem  times 
by  a  sheriff  or  steward,  while  the  lands  within  the  bounds  of  the  regality  belonged 
to  the  lord  of  the  regaUty,  either  in  property  or  superiority.  Three  of  those  re- 
gahties  belonged  to  the  archbishopric  :  Monymusk,  in  Aberdeenshire  ;  KirkUston, 
in  LiuUthgowshire ;  and  St.  Andrews,  in  Fife.  The  lordship  of  Monymusk, 
according  to  Buchanan,  was  conferred  on  the  see  in  1057,  in  consequence  of  a 
vow  made  by  Malcolm  IV.,  grandson  of  David  I.,  to  St.  Andrew,  titular  saint  of 
Scotland.  At  the  revolution  of  1688,  when  the  present  presbyterian  church  sup- 
planted the  episcopal  establishment,  the  Marquis  of  Huntly  was  chief  vassal, 
paying  the  annual  sum  of  £'300  Scots  of  feu-duties  to  the  see.  The  lordship  of 
Kirkliston,  sometimes  called  the  regality  of  St.  Andrews  south  of  the  Forth,  was 
vei-y  ancient,  but  it  is  not  known  by  whom  it  was  erected.  It  was  of  considerable 
extent,  comprehending  the  greatest  part  of  the  counties  of  Stirling,  Linlithgow, 
Edinburgh,  and  Haddington.  The  earls  of  Winton,  attainted  in  1715,  were 
heritable  bailies  of  this  regality,  until  they  sold  their  right  hi  1677  to  the  ancestor 
of  the  present  earls  of  Hopetoua.  The  lordship  of  St.  Andrews,  erected  prior 
to  the  year  1309,  but  by  whom  is  uncertain,  was  the  most  comprehensive  of 
the  three,  extending  to  all  the  lands  held  of  the  archbishop,  of  the  prior  and  con- 
vent, and  of  the  provostry  of  Kirkheugh  in  the  coimties  of  Fife,  Perth,  Forfar, 
and  Kincardine,  as  well  as  in  the  counties  south  of  the  Forth  not  included  in  the 
other  regalities.  The  Learmonths  of  Dairsie  in  Fife  were  the  heritable  bailies 
of  the  archbishop  in  this  important  regality  till  1663,  when  the  office  was  conferred 
upon  the  earls  of  Crawford.  Since  the  Revolution  of  1688,  the  crown  has  exer- 
cised all  the  privileges  of  these  regylities,  and  others  of  a  similar  nature  in  the 


1561.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND,  159 

who  had  been  created  earl  of  Mar,  with  the  other  leading  pro- 
testant  noblemen,  were  appointed  to  modify  the  stipends ;  and 

other  Scottish  dioceses.  By  a  tax-roll  of  16G5,  it  appears  that  one  marquis, 
fifteen  earls,  three  discounts,  and  five  barons,  besides  many  persons  of  inferior 
rank,  held  lands  of  the  archbishop.  It  was  said  by  Dr.  John  Spottiswood,  son 
of  the  archbishop  and  historian,  that  the  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  could  leave 
England,  travel  far  into  Scotland,  and  lodge  every  night  on  his  own  lands,  or  on 
lands  held  of  him. 

"  The  Archbishops  of  St.  Andrews  could  judge  in  many  civil  cases  which  are  now 
competent  to  the  Court  of  Session.  They  were  supreme  judges  in  matters  criminal 
within  their  own  regalities  :  they  were  admirals  in  all  places  within  their  bounds, 
which  comprehended  the  whole  sea-coast  between  the  Forth  and  the  Tay :  and 
they  had  also  the  privilege  of  coining  money  confirmed  to  Archbishop  Shevez  by 
James  III.  in  1480,  and  hence  called  the  golden  charter.  They  were  conserva- 
tors of  the  privileges  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  perpetual  moderators  or  chair- 
men of  national  or  provincial  synods,  constant  chancellors  of  the  University  of 
St.  Andrews,  and  sat  in  parliament  as  temporal  lords  in  all  the  following  capa- 
cities : — Lord  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  primate  of  the  kingdom,  first  of  both 
estates  spiritual  and  temporal,  lord  of  the  lordship  and  priory  of  St.  Andrews, 
lord  Keig  and  Monymusk,  lord  Byrehills  and  PoldufF,  lord  Kirkliston,  lord 
Bishopshire,  lord  Muckhartshire,  lord  Scotscraig,  lord  Stow,  lord  Monymail, 
lord  Dairsie,  lord  Angus,  lord  Tyningham,  and  lord  Little  Preston. 

"  In  the  '  Reliquice  Divi  Andrerp'  by  Martine,  we  have  a  list  of  all  the  '  bene- 
fices and  prelacies,'  as  he  calls  them,  belonging  to  the  see,  in  which  the  incum- 
bents were  confirmed  by  the  archbishops  of  St.  Andrews,  taken  from  a  tax-roll 
of  the  archbishopric  in  1547.  Under  the  archdeaconry  of  St.  Andrews  he 
enumerates  twenty-sLx  benefices ;  under  the  deaconry  of  St.  Andrews,  twenty- 
one  ;  under  that  of  Fothric,  four ;  Gowrie,  six  ;  Angus  or  Forfar,  fifteen ; 
Mearns,  seven  ;  Linlithgow,  twenty-one ;  Haddington,  eight ;  Dunbar,  fifteen ; 
the  Merse,  or  Berwickshire,  eight  ;  in  all  131  benefices,  none  of  which  was  under 
£^Q  of  annual  valued  rent,  besides  a  number  of  churches  and  chapels  in  various 

parts  of  the  kingdom Proceeding,  therefore,  to  the  record  preserved 

among  the  Harleian  MSS.  in  the  British  Museum,  we  find  the  following  state- 
ment of  the  rental  of  the  archbishopric  as  returned  by  Archbishop  Hamilton  in 
1561-2,  exclusive  of  the  priory  and  other  religious  establishments  in  the  diocese  : — 

ARCHBISHOPRIC  OF  ST.  ANDREWS. 

Annual  rental  in  money      .......      £2904  17     2 

Wheat,  30  chalders,  8  bolls,  3  firlots,  1  peck. 
Barley,  41  chald.  10  bolls,  2  firlots,  1  peck. 
Oats,  67  chald.  13  bolls,  3  firlots. 
Meal,  12  bolls. ;  Pease,  4  tibs. 
[In  the  Books  of  the  Assumption,  there  is  a  deduction 
allowed  to  the  archbishop  for  necessary  payments,  so 
that  the  money  is  reduced  to  £2460.  1  7s. 

Wheat  to  21  chald.  8  bolls,  1  firlot,  3^  pecks. 
Barley  to  29  chald.  10  bolls,  2  pecks. 
Oats  to  51,  chald.  5  bolls,  1 
Archdeaconry  of  St.  Andrews 
Archdeaconry  of  Tiviotdale 
Archdeaconry  of  Lothian,    consisting 
Currie,  Restalrig,  and  Crookstone 

£4451    17     2 
For  the  other  dioceses,  which  were  equally  liberally  endowed  with  money  and 
grain,   we  refer  to   Mr.  Lawson's  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Scotland,  a  very 
interesting  work. 


iirlot,  3^  pecks.] 

•         •          •         •         . 

GOO     0     0 

•         •         •         ■         • 

226     6     8 

of  the  parsonages  of 

•                  •                 •                 • 

720  13     4 

160  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VI. 

Wishart,  laird  of  Pitarrow,.  the  brother  of  him  who  had  been 
burnt  in  the  year  1546,  was  appointed  pay-master.  "All  these 
persons  were  known  to  be  first-rate  men  among  the  godly, 
earnest  sub  verters  of  the  ancient  establishment,  and  keen  promo- 
ters of  the  new  discipline.  And  '  who,'  says  Knox,  *  would  have 
thought  that  when  Joseph  ruled  in  Egypt  his  brethren  should 
have  travelled  for  victuals — so  busy  and  circumspect  were  the 
modificators  that  the  ministers  should  not  be  over-wanton,  that 
three  hundred  marks  was  the  highest  that  was  appointed  to 
any.'"  The  bishop  asserts  the  books  of  Assignation  show  that 
Knox  has  not  here  understated  the  sum,  but  that  the  highest 
was  really  as  he  states  it^. 

The  queen  called  a  convention  of  estates,  but  no  churchmen 
were  admitted.  It  was  ordained  in  it,  that  touching  religion 
nothing  should  be  meddled  with,  but  that  all  things  should  re- 
main in  the  same  state  they  were  in  on  the  day  that  the  queen 
landed  at  Leith.  There  was  likewise  an  act  passed  nominating 
a  council,  consisting  of  twelve  of  the  nobility,  among  whom 
was  included  the  lord  James,  who  is  designated  the  Prior  of 
St.  Andrews  2. 

1562, — Certain  commissioners  of  the  church  petitioned  the 
queen  to  abolish  the  mass  and  other  superstitious  rites  of  the 
Romish  Church,  and  to  inflict  punishment  against  blasphemy 
and  contempt  of  the  word ;  and  that  popish  churchmen  should 
be  excluded  from  places  in  session  and  council.  To  which 
the  queen  indignantly  replied,  "  that  she  would  do  nothing  in 
prejudice  of  the  religion  she  professed;  and  hoped, before  a 
year  was  expired,  to  have  the  mass  and  Catholic  profession 
restored  throughout  the  whole  kingdom^."  But  by  the  in- 
sidious policy  of  the  lord  James,  whom  she  had  created  earl 
of  Moray,  she  completely  prostrated  the  church  which  she  was 
so  anxious  to  uphold.  Balfour  says,  "  George  Earl  of  Huntly, 
Lord  Chancellor  of  Scotland,  is  killed  this  year,  and  his  second 
son  beheaded,  and  his  eldest  son  sentenced  likewise  to  lose 
his  head ;  but  by  the  queen's  clemency  the  rigour  of  that  sen- 
tence was  moderated  to  perpetual  prison  in  Dunbar  Castle  ;  at 
this  same  time  also  the  Earl  of  Sutherland  was  banished  the 
realm,  and  John  Hamilton,  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  im- 
prisoned ;  and  all  this  was  done  (as  the  queen  herself  set  down 
under  her  owvl  hand)  by  the  power  of  her  brother  James,  earl 
of  Moray,  with  the  queen,  to  weaken  the  popish  faction  :  ere 
she  knew  either  his  designs  or  what  herself  w'as  doing,  she 

^  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  2,  p.  508.       «  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  326-7.       *  Spottiswood. 


1562.]  CHURCH  of  Scotland.  KU 

undid  her  best  friends,  and  those  that  stood  most  for  the  pope's 
authority  and  Romish  religion  in  Scotland  ^" 

The  third  assembly  convened  about  the  end  of  December ; 
but  continued  its  sittings  into  this  year.  The  warmth  of  the 
palace  fire  had  slackened  the  zeal  of  some  of  the  "  earnest 
professors"  among  the  nobility ;  and  it  was  mooted  whether 
or  not  the  new  ecclesiastical  establishment  might  convocate 
assemblies  without  the  queen's  license,  and  enact  ecclesiastical 
laws,  which  trenched  in  many  cases  upon  the  civil  rights  of  her 
majesty's  subjects.  This  unexpected  check  rather  discom- 
posed Knox's  temper ;  but  he  was  obliged  to  submit.  The 
Book  of  Discipline  was  thereupon  presented  to  her  majesty 
for  her  approbation  and  ratification  ;  but  she  declined  to  ratify 
it.  Till  that  period  the  ministers  had  lived  upon  the  scanty 
benevolence  and  voluntary  offerings  of  their  followers  ;  the 
tithes  and  rents  having  been  still  paid  to  the  papal  incumbents. 
The  revenue  of  the  crown  w^as  dilapidated  entirely  during  the 
queen's  minority,  and  was  not  even  sufficient  for  the  domestic 
expenses  of  the  court.  The  Lords  of  the  Council  therefore 
ordered  that  the  third  part  of  all  the  rents  of  the  ecclesiastical 
benefices  should  be  appropriated  to  the  use  of  the  queen  ;  the 
other  two-thirds  to  remain  with  the  papal  incumbents  ;  and 
that  the  queen's  third  should  be  divided  betwixt  her  majesty 
and  the  Knoxian  ministers.  The  ministers  were  indignant  at 
this  regulation  ;  for  they  challenged  the  whole  revenue  of  the 
church  as  having  devolved  without  diminution  on  them,  and 
Knox  gave  utterance  to  his  indignation  in  his  usual  powerful 
and  vituperative  language.  He  affirmed  from  the  pulpit 
"  That  the  Spirit  of  God  was  not  the  author  of  that  order,  by 
which  two  parts  of  the  church  rents  were  given  to  the  devil, 
and  the  other  third  part  was  to  be  divided  between  God  and 
the  devil.  Oh,  happy  servants  of  the  devil  (meaning  the 
papal  clergy),  and  miserable  servants  of  Jesus  Christ  (his  own 
brethren  to  wit),  if,  after  this  life,  there  were  not  hell  and 
heaven  [2"  In  short,  he  made  no  scruple  in  asserting  that  the 
devil,  or  the  papal  clergy,  would  eventually  get  three  parts 
of  the  third.  In  this  short  speech  one  cannot  help  observing 
the  uncharitable  sentiments  of  this  remarkable  man,  although 
allowance  must  be  made  for  the  rude  manners  of  the  age,  and 
the  bitter  disappointment  which  followed  the  evil  and  most 
disastrous  course  which  he  had  pursued  with  the  view  of 
working  out  a  good  end. 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  228. 

=  Knox's  Hist.— Keith's  Hist.— Heylin's  Hist,- M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox. 

VOL.  I  Y 


162  HISTORY  OF  TirE  [CIIAF.  VI. 

Knox  was  the  superintentent  of  all  the  superintendents,  a  title 
somewhat  similar  to  that  of  the  "  man  of  sin,"  against  whom 
he  was  constantly  pouring  out  the  vials  of  his  wrath,  namely, 
the  servus  servorum  of  all  saints.  He  accordingly  went 
early  in  this  year  to  Montrose  to  preside  at  the  election  and 
admission,  which  means  the  ordination,  of  John  Erskine 
esquire,  of  Dun,  near  that  town,  as  superintendent  of  Angus 
and  Mearns^.  The  same  questions  were  here  propounded,  and 
answers  given,  as  at  the  inauguration  of  Spottiswood  ;  but,  as 
then,  there  was  no  laying  on  of  hands.  Notwithstanding  the 
peculiar  form  which  the  Scottish  reformation  took  of  destroy- 
ing all  the  land-marks  and  all  the  sacred  edifices  of  the  church 
which  had  been  dedicated  to  the  service  of  God,  yet,  so  far 
from  there  being  any  reformation  of  morals,  there  seems  to 
have  been  if  possible  a  greater  laxity  than  ever.  For  it  is 
stated  that  in  another  assembly  which  met  at  Edinburgh  on 
Christmas-Day,  Superintendent  Winram,  of  the  district  of  Fife, 
was  especially  accused  of  slackness  in  his  visitations ;  neglecting 
the  affairs  of  kirks  ;  of  being  much  given  to  worldly  business  ; 
negligent  of  preaching ;  rash  in  excommunicating  ;  and  sharp 
in  exacting  tithes.  Even  the  respectable  superintendent  o^ 
Angus  and  Meams,  who  had  been  so  recently  admitted  by  the 
infallible  head  of  all  the  superintendents,  himself  was  vehe- 
mently accused  of  admit tinff  popish  priests  of  vicious  lives  to 
the  new  order  of  readers  or  deacons  "in  his  diocese;''^  of 
rashly  admitting  others  as  readers  without  trial  and  examina- 
tion ;  of  choosing  men  of  vicious  lives  as  elders  or  ministers ; 
of  peniiitting  the  non-residence  of  ministers,  who  neglect  the 
sick,  come  too  late  on  Sundays,  and  depart  "  incontinent  after 
the  sermon ;"  and  of  their  neglecting  to  catechise  the  youth, 
and  to  meet  together  at  the  conferences'^.  The  consequence 
was,  that  the  people  being  thrown  loose  from  all  moral  instruc- 
tion and  restraint, fell  into  the  utmost  depravity  of  manners,  and 
it  is  acknowledged, "  that  suddenly  the  most  part  of  us  declinea 
from  the  purity  of  God's  word,  and  began  to  follow  the  world, 
and  so  again  to  shake  hands  with  the  devil  and  with  idolatry." 
This  is  a  fair  acknowledgment  that  the  religious  distractions 
of  the  times,  and  the  inefficiency  of  the  aew  ministers,  had 
driven  many,  who  had  clean  escaped  from  the  pollutions  of 
popery,  back  into  its  pale  in  search  of  that  peace  which  the 
new  church  was  unable  to  bestow. 

All  the  sins  of  the   flesh — fornication,  adultery,  and  incest 
— flourished  to  such  an  extent  amongst  the  godly  and  earnest 

>  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  133.  2  Calderwood's  True  Hist,  p   32. 


1562.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  163 

professors,  that  it  became  necessary  to  make  a  borough  law 
for  carting  the  guilty  parties  through  the  towns,  in  order  to 
put  them  to  shame ;  and  the  carting  of  an  infamous  fellow 
of  the  name  of  Sanderson  created  a  dangerous  riot  in  Edin- 
burgh this  year  ^  Another  riot  also  occurred  in  consequence 
of  the  queen's  uncle,  the  Marquis  d'Elbeuf,  and  the  lord  John, 
prior  of  Coldingham,  one  of  her  majesty's  illegitimate  brothers, 
breaking  open  Cuthbert  Ramsay's  house  in  order  to  caiTy  off 
Alison  Craik,  his  daughter  in  law,  who  was  gratuitously 
"  suspected"  to  have  been  the  Earl  of  Arran's  concubine.  This 
gave  the  preachers  and  the  earnest  professors  a  favourable 
opportunity  of  insulting  the  queen  by  a  petition  for  summary 
veugeance  on  her  uncle.  She  returned  for  answer,  "  that  her 
uncle  was  a  stranger,  and  had  a  young  company ;  but  she 
should  take  such  order  with  him  as  should  give  them  no 
cause  to  complain."  But  Knox  remarks,  "  and  so  deluded 
she  the  just  petitions  of  her  subjects ;"  and  then  inserts  in 
his  book  a  most  offensive  and  indecent  tirade  against  the 
queen  and  her  co-religionists.  The  queen's  answer  might 
have  satisfied  reasonable  men,  and  Mr.  Randolph,  in  one  of 
his  letters,  remarks,  "  that  the  queen  reproved  the  doers  in 
words  sharp  enough ;"  but  Knox  forgot  to  pluck  the  beam  out 
of  his  own  eye  before  he  made  this  "  horrible  villainy  a  fruit 
of  the  cardinal's  good  catholic  religion,"  which  "  we  shortly 
touch,  to  let  the  world  understand  what  subjects  may  look  for 
from  such  magistrates,  for  such  to  them  is  pastime  2."  We 
have  just  seen  that  such  "  horrible  villainy"  was  as  rife  among 
the  reformers  as  it  had  ever  been  in  the  papal  church,  for  as 
they  had  removed  the  channels  of  grace  which  produce  the 
fruits  of  Ore  Spirit,  so  it  is  not  mai-vellous  that  the  fruits  of  the 
flesh  and  all  its  filthy  lusts  should  abound. 

In  May,  this  year,  the  queen  issued  a  proclamation  against 
making  any  alteration  in  the  form  of  the  religion  which  she 
found  established  on  her  arrival,  until  the  meeting  of  parlia- 
ment, when  "  a  final  order  by  their  (the  three  estates)  advice 
and  public  consent  might  be  taken  in  the  said  matter."  She 
also  created  her  illegitimate  brother  James,  earl  of  Moray, 
and  conferred  on  him  all  the  property  belonging  to  that  earl- 
dom, part  of  which  had  been  held  in  trust  by  the  earls  of 
Huntly,  Avhich  laid  the  foundation  of  a  long  and  deadly  feud 
between  these  powerful  noblemen. 

The  fourth  General  Assembly  met  in  the  dwelling-house  of 
Henry  Laws,  on  the  29th  of  June  :  "  in  the  quhilk  wer  pre- 

*  Knox's  Hist.  b.  iii.  p.  252. 

2  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  2.  pp.  508-10.— Knox,  b.  iv.  p.  276-7. 


16'4  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

sent  the  superintendents,  ministers,  and  commissioners."  Five 
superintendents  or  titular  bishops  are  specified  by  name,  and 
sixteen  ministers,  which  appear  to  have  been  the  whole  strength 
of  the  ]5rotestant  party,  and  they  were  all  from  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  the  metropolis.  The  principal  business 
before  it  was  the  regulation  of  the  due  subordination  of  the 
ministers  to  their  superintendents  ;  and  "  it  was  ordained,  that 
if  ministers  be  disobedient  to  superintendents,  that  they  must 
be  subject  to  correction  :"  and  again,  "  the  slander  raised 
upon  Mr.  Robert  Hamilton,  minister  of  Hamilton,  was  re- 
mitted to  the  trial  of  the  superintendent  of  Glasgow  to  remove 
him  out  of  the  ministry,  if  he  thought  expedient."  These 
are  plain  and  undeniable  marks  of  episcopal  power  which 
were  lodged  in  that  order  of  the  ministers  which  Knox  desig- 
nated superintendents.  In  the  second  session,  the  true  bishop 
of  Galloway,  who  had  turned  protestant,  petitioned  to  be  per- 
mitted to  retain  his  diocese,  and  to  officiate  in  it  as  a  superin- 
tendent of  the  new  order  which  Knox  had  established.  The 
Bishop  of  Galloway  was  not  present  as  a  constituent  member, 
but  he  degraded  his  sacred  office  by  petitioning  to  be  allowed 
to  denude  himself  of  canonical  orders,  and  to  take  part  and 
lot  with  uncanonical  laymen  and  schismatics  from  the  Church 
Catholic,  who  had  ventured  to  usurp  offices  to  which  they 
were  never  "  called  as  was  Aaron."  While  the  Assembly 
were  taking  laudable  measures  to  enforce  obedience  to  the 
pseudo-episcopacy  which  had  succeeded  to  the  functions  of  the 
papal  hierarchy,  they  rejected  the  fellowship  of  one  who  had 
canonical  ordination,  and  had  been  lawfully  put  into  posses- 
sion of  his  bishopric.  "  It  was  answered  by  the  Assembly  to 
the  petition  of  Mr.  Alexander  Gordon,  anent  the  superinten- 
dentship  of  Galloway — 1st.  That  they  understand  not  how  he 
hath  any  nomination  or  presentation,  either  by  the  lords  of 
secret  council  or  province  of  Galloway.  2dly.  Albeit  he 
hath  presentation  of  the  lords,  yet  he  hath  not  observed  the 
order  kept  in  the  election  of  superintendents,  and  therefore 
cannot  acknowledge  him  for  ane  superintendent  lawfully  called 
/oj'  the  present ;  but  offered  unto  him  their  aid  and  assistance 
if  the  kirks  in  Galloway  shall  sute  (petition) ,^nd  the  lords  pre- 
sent :  and  require th  that  before  he  depart,  he  subscribe  the 
Book  of  Discipline.  Further,  it  was  concluded  that  letters 
should  be  sent  to  the  kirks  of  Galloway,  to  learn  whether 
they  required  any  su])erintcndent  or  not,  and  whom  they  re- 
quired '."     This  Assembly  gives  another  instance  of  the  epis- 

*  2d  Sees.  1st  July,  from  the-  Register  citcil  in  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  ii.   p.  512. 


1562. J  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  165 

copal  office  of  the  superintendents,  on  the  complaint  of  John 
Douglass  of  Pumerston,  in  the  name  of  the  parishioners 
of  Calder ;  that  in  consequence  of  their  minister  having  been 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  a  superintendent,  they  were  "  defrauded 
diverse  times  of  the  preaching  of  the  word."  To  this  it 
was  answered, "  the  profit  of  many  kirks  was  to  be  preferred 
to  the  profit  of  one  particular,  and  that  the  kirk  of  Calder 
should  either  be  occupied  by  himself  [i.  e,  by  Douglass,  a  lay- 
man !)  or  by  some  other  qualified  person  in  his  absence,"  &c. 
Well  and  truly,  indeed,  might  Archbishop  Spottiswood  call 
the  Scottish  reformation  "  irregular  and  disordered." 

A  petition  to  the  queen  was  drawn  up  by  Knox,  and  agreed 
to  by  the  assembly,  but  which  was  conceived  in  such  rude 
and  offensive  language,  that  Secretary  Lethington  refused  to 
receive  it.  It  was  called  a  petition,  but  it  was  rather  a  peremp- 
tory demand,  to  which  they  would  brook  no  denial,  to  put 
away — 1st,  "  that  idol  and  base  service,  the  mass  ;"  2dly,  for 
the  "  punishment  of  horrible  vices,  such  as  adultery,  fornica- 
tion, open  whoredom,  blasphemy,  contempt  of  God,  of  his  word 
and  sacraments ;  which  in  this  realm  do  even  so  abound  that 
sin  is  reputed  to  be  no  sin."  3dly.  For  the  relief  of  the  poor 
and  the  poor  ministers,  who  are  so  cruelly  used  by  this  last 
pretended  order  taken  for  sustentation,  and  "  that  those  idle 
bellies  (the  papal  clergy)  who  by  law  can  crave  nothing  shall 
confess  that  they  receive  their  sustentation  and  maintenance, 
not  of  debt,  but  of  benevolence.''''  4thly.  "  That  order  be 
taken  without  delay  to  put  the  protestant  ministers  in  posses- 
sion of  the  glebes  and  glebe  houses,"  although  the  former  in- 
cumbents were  guaranteed  the  possession  during  their  lives. 
Stilly.  That  all  men  be  compelled  to  submit  to  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  superintendents,  under  a  menace  of  taking  the  law  by 
violence  into  their  own  hands.  6thly.  That  the  lay-impro- 
priators  be  compelled  to  sustain  the  ministers.  7thly.  "  We 
desire  the  churches  to  be  repaired,  and  that  sayers  and  hearers 
of  mass  be  severely  punished ;  and,  Sthly,  We  most  humbly 
desire  of  your  majesty,  &c.  a  positive  answer  to  every  one  of 
these  heads  before  written,^''  &c.^  Secretary  Lethington  recast 
the  above  remonstrance  rather  than  petition,  and  then  it  was 
presented  by  superintendents  Spottiswood  and  Winram,  to 
whom  her  majesty  replied,  "  Here  are  many  fair  words ;  I 
cannot  tell  what  the  hearts  are^." 

This   assembly  sent  Knox  into  Ayrshire  and  Galloway, 
where  he  promoted  a  seditious  association  to  maintain  by 

'  Knox,  h.  iv,  p.  282—4.  -  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  ii.  515. 


166  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

arms  the  protestant  ministers,  "  against  all  persons,  power 
and  authority  that  will  oppose  itself  to  the  doctrine  proposed 
and  by  us  received  i."  While  in  the  west  country,  Knox  held 
a  dis])utation  with  Quinton  Kennedy,  Abbot  of  Crossraguel, 
and  uncle  of  the  earl  of  Cassilis  ;  but  it  came  to  nothing,  and 
both  parties  claimed  the  victory  without  deciding  any 
point  of  faith  or  discipline.  Knox's  controversial  powers 
consisted  chiefly  in  rude,  unmannerly,  and  railing  speeches, 
and  overbearing  bluster ;  in  which  qualities  he  seems  to  have 
been  an  overmatch  for  every  man  of  his  age.  The  gentry  of 
his  own  persuasion  alleged,  with  too  much  appearance  of  truth, 
if  we  may  judge  by  the  spirit  and  language  of  his  history,  that 
all  the  preaching  of  the  ministers  was  turned  into  railing ;  and 
the  English  resident  took  notice,  in  his  letters  to  his  court, 
"  that  Mr.  Knox  deborded  too  far  in  the  pulpit  from  decency 
and  sobriety." 

1563. — The  Roman  Catholic  clergy  were  now  in  their  turn 
beginning  to  feel  the  rigours  of  persecution.  The  laws  made 
in  the  parliament  of  1560  were  put  in  force  against  all  who 
either  said  or  heard  mass.  Archbishop  Hamilton  had  been 
committed  to  Edinburgh  Castle  ;  Quinton  Kennedy,  abbot  of 
Crossraguel,  the  prior  of  Whitehom,  with  a  number  of  priests 
and  monks,  were  likewise  committed  close  prisoners,  for  hear- 
ing and  saying  of  mass  2.  These  severities,  together  with 
the  countenance  which  the  queen  showed  to  the  refonned 
ministers,  and  her  consent  to  acts  of  parliament  in  their 
favour,  induced  them  to  hope  that  she  would  renounce  the 
Romish  communion.  Notwithstanding  that  she  protected  the 
persons  of  the  superintendents  and  ministers,  and  by  procla- 
mation established  their  religion,  and  now  exercised  severities 
against  the  clergy  of  her  own  church,  yet  they  ungratefully 
reviled  her  person,  and  insulted  her  crown  with  the  most  in- 
decent and  libellous  language ;  even  the  grave  has  not  yet 
covered  the  infamous  lies,  calumnies,  and  forgeries,  which  a 
political  and  religious  faction  invented  and  handed  down  to 
posterity,  to  blacken  and  defame  the  character  of  this  most 
accomplished  and  unfortunate  princess. 

Calderwood  informs  us  that  "  Master  Knox  went  at  this 
time  to  Dumfries,  to  the  admission  of  a  superintendent ;"  and 
found  that  the  Bishop  of  Galloway  "  had  corrupted  the  most 
part  of  the  gentlemen ;"  but  he  does  not  tell  us  how  he  had  cor- 
rupted them.  He  left  Robert  Pont  there  as  his  surrogate,  and  de- 
ferred the  admission  of  bishop  G  ordon  for  the  present ;  and  there 

1  Knox,  b.  iv.  286.  2  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  328. 


1563.]  CHrTRCH  OF  Scotland.  167 

appeal's  to  be  no  one  else  that  applied  for  that  office  from  the 
honour-givmg  hands  of  Master  Knox,  who  gave  the  whole  of 
the  superior  order  of  the  superintendents  their  orders,  mission, 
jurisdiction,  and  succession.  This  fact  alone  shews  the  incon- 
sistency and  inversion  of  the  whole  Knoxian  scheme,  where  an 
inferior  minister  ordained  the  superior  order :  and  here  is  a 
duly  and  canonically  consecrated  bishop  stooping  to  be  re- 
ordained  or  admitted,  as  it  was  called  by  men  who  thus  ran 
unsent,  and  to  receive  installation  to  his  own  diocese,  from 
which  he  had  never  been  legally  ejected.  Caldervvood 
apologizes  for  the  episcopal  powers  of  the  superintendents : 
"  for  as  yet,"  says  he,  "  presbyteries  were  not  constitute,  nor 
could  be,  for  scarcity  of  ministers^  f  and  I  may  here  add  that 
presbyteries  were  not  so  much  as  thought  of,  far  less  consti- 
tuted, till  the  year  1579,  full  twenty  years  after  the  government 
of  the  kirk  was  settled  by  Knox. 

"  It  has  been  an  old  observation,"  says  Leslie  2,  "  that 
wherever  presbytery  was  established,  there  witchcraft  and 
adultery  were  particularly  rampant.  Witchcraft  is  a  spiritual 
adultery,  and  the  carnal  commonly  accompanies  it ;  and  re- 
bellion is  called  witchcraft."  The  carnal  witchcraft  was  a  foul 
stain  also  that  accompanied  the  other  mark.  From  Dumfries, 
Master  Knox  went  to  Jedburgh,  to  investigate  a  scandal  of  adul- 
tery into  which  the  lay-minister  Methuen  had  again  fallen,  and 
who  had  been  removed  from  Dundee  with  ignominy  for  the 
same  abominable  sin.  He  was  found  guilty,  and  condemned 
to  do  public  penance  on  the  "  Cutty  Stool"  at  the  door  of 
St.  Giles's  Cathedral,  Edinburgh,  for  three  successive  Sun- 
days. Methuen  performed  part  of  his  sentence,  but  being 
overwhelmed  with  disgrace  he  fled  to  England :  "  prudential 
reasons,'''  says  M'Crie,  "  were  not  wanting  to  induce  the 
reformed  church  of  Scotland  to  stifle  this  affair,  and  to  screen 
from  public  ignominy  a  man  who  had  acted  a  distinguished 
part  in  the  late  reformation  of  religion^." 

The  fifth  general  assembly  met  in  the  end  of  the  last  year, 
and  continued  its  sittings  during  the  month  of  January.  In 
this  assembly  the  episcopal  character  of  the  superintendents 
was  clearly  shewn  ;  complaints  were  made  that  the  north 
country  was  entirely  destitute  of  ministers,  and  that  there  was 
no  superintendent  for  the  diocese  of  Aberdeen.  George  Hay, 
John  Row,  and  Adam  Herriot,  were  proposed  as  candidates 
for  that  diocese,  and  the  gentry  were  directed  to  elect  one  of 

>  Calderwood's  True  Hist.  32,  33.  2  Rehearsals,  iii.  03. 

3  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  250,  251. 


168  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

them  forthwith ;  and  Erskine,  the  superintendent  of  Angus  and 
Meams,  was  appointed  to  inaugurate  the  elected  superinten- 
dent in  the  Cathedral  of  Old  Aberdeen.  John  Hepburn, 
the  minister  of  Brechin,  was  sent  to  the  diocese  of  Moray, 
to  search  for  men  qualified  for  the  ministry,  and  to  send  such 
to  be  ordained  by  the  superintendent  of  Aberdeen,  till  one 
should  be  appointed  to  superintend  the  diocese  of  Moray. 
David  Forrest  and  Patrick  Cockburne  were  proposed  to  the 
district  of  Jedburgh,  to  be  elected  their  superintendent,  and 
the  person  chosen  was  to  be  inaugurated  by  the  superinten- 
dent of  Lothian  and  Mr.  Knox.  Bishop  Gordon  was  at  last 
appointed  superintendent  of  Galloway,  and  to  be  inaugurated, 
that  is,  ordained,  by  the  superintendent  of  Glasgow  and 
Master  Knox,  and  in  the  meantime  the  assemblv  licensed  him 
"  to  admit  ministers,  exhorters,  and  readers,  and  to  do  such 
other  things  as  were  before  accustomed  in  planting  of  kirks." 
The  assembly  also  "  empowered  every  superintendent  within 

his  own  bounds  or  diocese to  translate  ministers  from 

one  kirk  to  another  as  they  shall  consider  necessary ;  and  .... 
charged  the  ministers  to  obey  the  voice  and  commandment  of 
their  superintendents."  It  was  ordained  that  "  an  uniform 
order  should  be  kept  in  the  ministration  of  the  sacraments, 
solemnization  of  marriages,  and  burial  of  the  dead,  ac- 
cording to  the  book  of  Geneva.  Item,  that  the  communion 
be  administered  four  times  in  the  year  within  boroughs,  and 
twice  in  the  country  parishes.  The  superintendents  were  ap- 
pointed to  confer  with  the  privy  council  respecting  the  charge 
for  the  Communion  elements  ;  and  it  was  concluded  that  no 
minister,  &c.  take  upon  them  to  cognosce  (inquire  into)  or  de- 
cide in  cases  of  divorcement,  except  the  superintendent'^ ^ 

All  presbyterian  authors  pertinaciously  maintain  that  the 
order  of  superintendents  was  merely  a  temporary  institution, 
and  even  assert  that  none  other  were  ever  appointed  but  the 
original  five.  From  the  registers  of  the  assemblies,  however,  we 
have  seen  that  several  superintendents  were  added  to  the  original 
number,  and  provision  made  for  more ;  besides  every  precaution 
was  taken  to  procure  respect,  consideration,  and  obedience  to 
their  government.  This  is  an  unexceptionable  confirmation 
of  the  words  of  Erskine  of  Dun,  one  of  tliese  superinten- 
dents, who  said,  in  a  solemn  report  to  the  regent,  "  I  under- 
stand a  bishop  or  superintendent  to  be  but  one  office,  and  where 
the  one  is  the  other  is.''''  These  transactions  evince  distinctly 
to  how  low  an  ebb  the  royal  authority  had  fallen,  when  Knox, 

»  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  iii.   p.  51G— 19. 


15C3.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  169 

with  his  obsequious  assemblies,  disposed  of  all  the  higher 
ku'k  preferments  without  ever  dreaming  of  consulting  the 
crown  ;  and  he  abrogated  the  old  and  enacted  new  laws  touch- 
ing the  liberty  and  the  consciences  of  the  subject,  with  more 
despotism  than  if  he  had  been  the  undoubted  sovereign  of  the 
realm.  A  petition  was  presented  to  the  queen  for  the  esta- 
blishment of  judges  in  every  province,  to  inquire  into  the  cases 
of  adultery,  &c.,  which  were  of  such  frequent  occurrence  as 
to  amount  to  a  plague-spot  upon  the  nation.  Order  was  taken 
for  compelling  ministers  to  receive  induction  from  the  super- 
intendents ;  and  "  because  the  rare  number  of  ministers  suf- 
fereth  not  any  kirk  to  have  a  several  minister,"  two  or  three 
neighbouring  parishes  were  united,  and  the  inhabitants  of  all 
were  compelled  to  resort  to  one  of  them.  It  must  be  con- 
fessed that  the  Knoxian  system  had  not  improved  either  the 
morals  or  the  manners  of  the  people  ;  and  that  stern  professor 
had  little  right  to  cast  the  first  stone  at  the  papal  clergy,  for 
their  immoralities,  or  for  neglect  of  their  sacerdotal  duties. 
We  have  seen  the  whole  kingdom,  as  it  were,  laid  under  an 
INTERDICT,  from  the  want  of  ministers  to  officiate,  and  several 
parishes  united  under  one ;  an  evil  that  remains  to  this  day, 
as  these  unions  were  never  afterwards  disunited;  and  hence 
the  enormous  extent  of  many  of  the  parishes,  which  prevents 
many  old  people  fi'om  attending  the  parish  church.  It  was 
also  ordained,  "  that  no  work  should  be  set  forth  in  print,  or 
published  in  writing,  touching  religion  or  doctrine,  before  it  be 
presented  to  the  superintendent  of  the  diocese,  revised  and 
approved  by  him."  If,  says  Bishop  Keith,  in  a  note,  "  this 
had  any  view  to  the  prohibiting  the  publication  of  controversy 
in  matters  of  religion,  it  would  be  construed  to  proceed  from 
a  consciousness  of  something  we  need  not  name^." 

In  August,  a  riotous  mob  attacked  the  palace,  with  the  view 
of  executing  summary  vengeance  on  the  queen's  domestic 
chaplain,  who  continued  to  say  mass  in  the  royal  household. 
With  the  utmost  difficulty  the  priest  made  his  escape ;  but 
numbers  of  the  citizens  who  attended  his  ministrations  were 
seized  and  lodged  in  prison.  The  queen  was  much  incensed 
at  this  wanton  insult,  which  was  entirely  promoted  by  the  pro- 
testant  preachers.  John  Knox  was  summoned  before  the  privy 
council,  charged  with  having  been  the  author  of  this  sedition, 
and  with  having  treasonably  convocated  the  lieges  by  his  mis- 
sive letters.     He  appeared  with  a  number  of  the  ministers  and 

>  Keith's  Hist.  b.  iii.  c.  iii.  p.  622-26. 
VOL.    I.  Z 


170  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

others  whom  he  had  brought  together,  and  answered,  "  that  he 
was  never  a  preacheu  of  rebellion,  nor  loved  to  stir  up  tumults ; 
contrariwise,  he  taught  all  people  to  obey  their  magistrates  and 
princes  under  God.  As  for  the  convocation  of  the  subjects, 
he  had  received  from  the  church  command  to  advertise  his 
brethren,  when  he  saw  a  necessity  for  their  meeting — especially 
if  he  saw  religion  to  be  in  peril."  Then,  rudely  addressing  the 
queen,  "  he  charged  her  in  the  name  of  the  Almighty  God,  and 
as  she  desired  to  escape  his  heavy  wrath  and  indignation,  to 
forsake  that  idolatrous  religion  which  she  professed,  and,  by 
her  power,  maintained  against  the  statutes  of  the  realm.^" 
Terrified  by  the  menacing  appearance  of  his  supporters,  the 
privy  council  acquitted  him,  and  he  says  that  they  actually 
praised  God  for  his  modesty  and  sensible  answers ! 

1564. — The  seventh  General  Assembly  met  at  the  close  of 
the  last  year,  and  chose  Willock,  the  superintendent  of  the 
West,  as  the  moderator.     Hitherto  there  had  not  been  any 
such  functionary  in  any  of  their  Assemblies.     At  which,  the 
chief  business  was  along  speech  from  Knox,  in  justification  of 
what  the  law  had  declared  high  treason  in  seditiously  summon- 
ing the  ministers  to  meet  and  overawe  the  government.    "  The 
letter,"  says  Keith,  "  was  surely  very  seditious  ;  and  to  grant 
Mr.  Knox  a  liberty  to  write  letters  of  such  a  strain  was  nothing 
less  than  to  keep  a  trumpeter  of  rebellion  on  daily  ivages.''''    The 
Assembly  also  settled  a  number  of  those  complaints  from  the 
ministers  against  their  superintendents,  and  of  these,  in  turn, 
against  the  ministers  for  disobedience  to  their  authority.  Several 
old  women  were  accused  of  witchcraft ;  and  many  young  women 
of  fornication  with  the  ministers;    an  evil  symptom  of  the 
Knoxian  church,  which  occupied  a  very  considerable  portion 
of  the  time  of  every  Assembly  and  Synod.     Many  complaints 
were  also  made  of  the  poverty,  and,  in  some  cases,  the  utter 
destitution  of  the  ministers,  from  the  grinding  rapacity  of  the 
lay  impropriators.    It  would  appear  that  the  Book  of  Discipline 
of  the  new  kirk  had  not  met  with  universal  nor  cordial  approba- 
tion ;  for  its  consideration  and  revisal  was  again  pressed  on  the 
privy  council,  and  it  was  referred  to  a  committee,  consisting 
entirely  of  laymen,  for  revisal  2. 

Knox  and  his  brethren  held  a  communion  in  the  month  of 
April ;  but,  hearing  that  a  priest  was  celebrating  mass  in  the 
chapel  royal,  they  left  their  communion,  and  with  some  of  the 
magistrates  went  and  seized  the  priest,  with  all  his  assistants, 

1  Spottiswood.—Heylin,  p.  155.  "  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  3,  p.  526-32. 


1564.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  171 

and  lodged  them  in  gaoP.  The  same  day  they  dressed  the 
priest  in  his  surplice,  and  set  him  up  upon  the  market-cross, 
with  the  chaUce  fastened  to  his  hand,  where  he  was  pelted  witli 
filth  for  the  space  of  an  hour.  The  next  day  he  was  publicly 
accused  and  convicted  in  course  of  law,  which  adjudged  him  to 
death  ;  but,  as  the  law  had  never  been  confirmed  by  royal  au- 
thority, he  escaped  death,  but  was  again  pilloried  for  four 
hours,  when  the  brutal  rabble  would  have  killed  him  had 
he  not  been  rescued  by  the  provost.  The  queen  was  much  in- 
censed at  this  wanton  insult  to  herself  and  her  religion,  and  she 
threatened  the  provost  with  heavy  vengeance  ;  but  finding  on 
inquiry  by  the  lord  advocate  that  he  had  done  his  duty,  she 
excused  him,  and  denounced  the  parties  concerned  to  the  next 
or  eighth  General  Assembly,  which  met  on  the  25th  of  June. 
But,  instead  of  giving  her  majesty  any  satisfaction,  the  Assembly 
drew  up  an  article  to  be  presented  to  parliament,  in  which  it 
was  desired,  "  that  the  papistical  and  blasphemous  mass,  with 
all  the  papistical  idolatry  and  papal  jurisdiction,  be  universally 
suppressed  and  abolished  throughout  this  realm,  not  only  in  the 
subjects,  but  in  the  queen's  own  person."  Great  was  the  out- 
cry, only  a  few  years  previous  to  this,  by  Knox  and  his  brethren 
for  liberty  of  conscience,  and  against  the  unmerciful  tyranny 
of  the  papal  prelates  in  not  permitting  them  to  have  the  free 
use  of  the  new  religion ;  butnow,  when  in  possession  of  power, 
they  refiised  tlie  slightest  liberty  of  conscience  even  to  their 
sovereign,  who  had  shewn  such  wonderful  liberality  towards 
them  2, 

Several  foreign  princes  solicited  Mary's  hand  in  maniage  ; 
but  the  old  Countess  of  Lennox,  the  lady  Margaret,  grand- 
daughter of  Henry  VII.,  induced  the  queen  to  select  her  son, 
the  lord  Henry  Steward,  for  her  second  husband.  Henry 
Lord  Darnley  was  descended  of  the  blood-royal  of  England, 
and  next  after  the  queen  of  Scotland  was  the  heir  apparent 
of  the  throne  of  England.  He  was  the  son  of  the  lady  Mar- 
garet Douglas,  the  queen's  own  grandmother,  the  widow  of 
James  IV.,  and  daughter  of  Henry  VII.,  who,  after  James's 
death,  married  the  Earl  of  Angus ;  consequently  Wa^  next 
after  Mary  the  nearest  in  proximity  of  blood  to  the  English 
throne.  By  this  marriage,  she  united  her  own  title  to  that 
throne  with  the  only  man  who  could  have  disputed  it  with  her. 

'  This  was  a  reversal  of  our  Saviour's  injunction  :  "  Therefore,  if  thou  brmg 
thy  gift  to  the  altar,  and  there  rememberest  that  thy  brother  hath  aught  against 
thee  ;  leave  there  thy  gift  before  the  altar,  and  go  thy  way  ;  first  be  reconciled  to 
thy  brother,  and  then  come  and  offer  thy  gift." — Si.  Matt.  v.  23-24. 

2  Keith's  History.— Heyliu's  History,  p.  155.— Knox,  b.  v.  p.  325. 


172  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

And  like  the  union  of  the  roses  by  their  royal  ancestor,  these 
two  illustrious  individuals  united  the  rose  and  the  thistle,  never, 
it  is  devoutly  to  be  hoped,  to  be  again  separated.  There 
was  good  policy  in  this  marriage ;  for  Darnley,  being  so  nearly 
allied  to  the  crown  of  England,  might  have  married  into  some 
powerful  family,  and  have  disputed  the  succession,  which  would 
have  been  more  plausible,  as  he  was  a  native  of  England, 
whereas  the  queen  of  the  Scots  was  an  alien.  Besides,  he  was 
of  the  same  religion  as  herself,  much  about  her  own  age,  and 
very  agreeable  in  his  person.  This  match  met  with  violent  op- 
position from  the  ministers  ;  and  Knox  denounced  it  with  his 
usual  scumlity  from  the  pulpit.  He  desired  his  audience  to 
note  the  day,  "  that  whensoever  the  nobility  of  Scotland,  who 
profess  the  Lord  Jesus,  should  consent  that  an  infidel  (and  all 
papists  are  infidels,  he  said,)  should  be  head  to  their  sovereign, 
they  did,  so  far  as  in  them  laid,  banish  Christ  Jesus  from  this 
realm  ;  yea,  and  bring  God's  judgment  upon  the  country,  a 
plague  upon  themselves,  and  do  small  comfort  to  herself." 
Notwithstanding  their  opposition  and  the  intrigues  of  Elizabeth, 
the  queen  married  the  lord  Darnley  in  the  chapel-royal,  Holy- 
rood  House,  in  the  month  of  July.  The  ceremony  was  per- 
formed by  the  Dean  of  Restalrig  according  to  the  ritual  of  the 
Roman  church ;  and  the  next  day  Henry  was  proclaimed  king 
by  sound  of  trumpet,  and  associated  with  the  queen  in  the 
government. 

On  the  15th  of  December  the  high  court  of  parliament  met 
chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  the  Earl  of  Lennox's  for- 
feiture ;  and  an  act  was  then  passed  in  which  the  queen  was 
declared  to  be  of  full  age.  Besides  these,  there  was  another 
act  for  the  "  confirmation  of  feus,"  which  declared,  "  that  the 
queen's  confirmation  of  infeftraents  of  feus,  or  seisin  and 
delivery  of  property  given  by  the  prelates,  was  as  valid  as  if 
the  same  had  been  obtained  from  the  pope  ;  and  that  no  in- 
feftments  of  kirk-lands  not  confirmed  by  her  majesty  should 
be  of  any  avail."  Another  act  provided,  "  that  scandalous 
livers  should  be  punished  first  by  imprisonment,  and  then  to 
be  publicly  shewn  to  the  people  with  ignominy :  to  celebrate 
mass  was  made  forfeiture  of  goods,  lands,  and  life,  except  in 
the  queen's  chapel.  But  Knox  complains  that  this  severe 
enactment  was  never  put  in  execution. 

1565. — The  ninth  General  Assembly  met  in  the  latter  end 
of  December  of  the  last  year,  and  elected  Superintendent 
Erskine,  of  Dun,  as  their  moderator.  Early  this  year  seditious 
letters  were  circulated,  desiring  the  protestants  to  remember 
what  the  eternal  God  had  wrought,  &c.,  and  admonishing  the 


1565.]  CHuncH  of  Scotland.  I73 

brethren  to  strive  and  avert  the  evil  which  they  ascribed  to 
the  queen's  marriage.  "  By  these  letters,"  says  Knox,  "  many 
brethren  were  animated,  and  their  spirits  roused,  minding  to 
provide  as  God  should  give  them  grace^T  This  means  that 
they  would  appeal  to  arms,  and  which  they  did  in  the  course  of 
the  summer  ;  but  rebellion  may  be  ascribed  to  another  spirit, 
who  promjjts  to  all  the  evil  works  of  the  flesh,  rather  than  to 
the  operation  of  divine  grace,  which  is  first  pure  and  then 
peaceable ;  two  qualities  which  we  regret  to  think  were  de- 
cidedly wanting  in  the  Knoxian  system.  The  superintendent 
of  Lothian  petitioned  the  queen  for  the  punishment  of  adul- 
tery, the  practice  of  which  increased  daily,  and  also  of  idolatry, 
and  for  the  entire  suppression  of  the  mass.  The  queen  assured 
liim  that  there  should  be  "  such  provision  made  as  should 
serve  to  their  contentment."  And  her  majesty  wrote  to  the 
Archbishop  of  St.  Andrevvs,  and  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen, 
"  that  they  should  not  do  any  such  thing  as  was  feared  by 
the  protestants^." 

The  tenth  General  Assembly  met  in  Edinburgh  on  the  25th 
of  June,  and  Superintendent  Willock  was  chosen  moderator. 
From  the  complaints  of  ministers  against  their  superintendents, 
and  theirs  against  the  ministers,  wdth  those  of  the  people  against 
both,  there  appears  to  have  been  the  utmost  confusion  in  every 
parish  in  the  i-ealm.  The  ministers  removed  from  one  kirk  to 
another,  as  it  suited  their  own  private  convenience  or  caprice, 
without  any  authority,  and  took  possession  without  induction 
or  presentation,  leaving  the  deserted  parish  entirely  without  a 
minister.  Of  others  it  was  complained,  that  the  communion 
had  not  been  administered  in  their  parishes  for  six  years  !  that 
is,  since  the  violent  silencing  of  the  papal  clergy,  who,  with  all 
their  faults,  never  neglected  the  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments. But,  in  fact,  prayer  and  praise,  and  the  sacraments, 
had  been  supplanted  by  the  rage  for  preaching,  which  had  been 
introduced  by  these  men  v^'ho  ran  unsent ;  for  it  is  notorious 
that  all  those  who  were  added  to  the  Knoxian  ministry  since 
the  original  few  who  were  priests,  were  altogether  laymen. 
But  the  preachers  were  so  scarce  that  vast  numbers  of  the 
])arishes  were  not  supplied  even  with  such  lay  preachers  as 
they  could  appoint. 

The  Assembly  drew  up  the  following  petition  to  the  queen, 
which  was  presented  at  Perth,  where  the  court  then  was ; 

1  Knox's  History,  b.  v.  p.  324. 

"  Keith's  History,  b.  iii.  c.  4,  p.  539. — Knox's  History,  b.  v.  p.  325. 


174  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

but  who  deferred  the  answer  to  it  till  after  her  return  to  Edin- 
burgh, where  she  could  have  the  advice  of  her  privy  council : — ■ 

1 .  That  the  papistical  and  blasphemous  mass,  with  all  popish 
idolatry,  with  the  pope's  jurisdiction,  should  be  universally 
suppressed  and  abolished  through  the  whole  realm, — not  only 
amongst  the  subjects,  but  in  her  majesty's  own  person  and 
family ; — oifenders  to  be  punished  according  to  law.  That  the 
true  religion,  formerly  received,  should  be  professed  by  the  queen 
as  well  as  by  the  subjects,  and  people  of  all  sorts  bound  to  re- 
sort on  the  Sundays,  at  least,  to  the  prayers  and  preaching  of 
God's  word,  as  in  former  times  they  were  holden  to  hear  mass. 

2.  That  sure  provision  be  made  for  the  sustentation  of  the 
ministry,  as  well  for  the  time  present  as  for  the  time  to  come, 
and  their  livings  assigned  them  in  the  places  where  they  serve, 
or  at  least  in  the  places  next  adjacent ;  and  that  they  should  not 
be  put  to  crave  the  same  at  the  hands  of  any  others.  That  the 
benefices  now  vacant,  or  that  have  fallen  void  since  the  month 
of  March  1558,  and  such  as  should  happen  hereafter  to  be  void, 
should  be  disponed  to  persons  qualified  for  the  ministry,  on  trial 
and  admission  (ordination)  by  the  superintendents.  That  no 
bishopric,  abbacy,  priory,  deanery,  provostry,  or  other  benefice, 
having  more  churches  than  one  annexed  thereto,  should  be  dis- 
poned in  time  coming  to  any  one  man ;  but  that  the  churches 
thereof  be  disponed  to  several  persons,  so  as  every  man  having 
charge  may  serve  at  his  own  church,  according  to  his  vocation. 
And  to  this  effect,  that  the  glebes  and  manses  be  given  for  the 
residence  of  ministers,  and,  likewise,  that  the  churches  be 
repaired;  and  an  act  be  made  in  next  parliament  to  that 
effect. 

3.  That  none  should  be  permitted  to  have  charge  of  schools, 
colleges,  and  universities,  or  to  instruct  youth,  either  publicly 
or  privately,  till  they  were  tried  by  the  superintendents  in 
their  visitation  of  the  churches,  and  after  trial  admitted  to  their 
charge. 

4.  That  all  lands  founded  of  old  to  hospitality  should  be 
restored  and  applied  to  the  sustentation  of  the  poor;  and  that 
lands,  annual  rents,  or  other  emoluments  belonging  sometime 
to  the  friars  of  whatsoever  order,  as  likewise  the  annuities, 
alterages,  obits,  and  the  other  duties  pertaining  to  priests,  be 
applied  to  the  same  use,  and  to  the  upholding  of  schools  in 
the  places  where  they  lay. 

5.  That  horrible  crimes  abounding  in  the  realm,  without 
any  correction,  to  the  great  contempt  of  God  and  His  Holy 
Word;  such  as  idolatry,  blaspheming  of  God's  name,  manifest 
violation  of  the  Lord's  Day,  witchcraft,  sorcery,  and  enchant- 


1565.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  175 

ment  ;  adultery,  incest,  open  whoredom,  maintaining  of 
brothels,  murder,  slaughter,  theft,  rife  and  oppression,  with 
many  other  detestable  crimes,  may  be  severely  punished,  and 
judges  appointed  in  every  province  for  executing  the  same, 
and  that  by  act  of  parliament. 

6,  That  some  order  should  be  devised  and  established  for 
the  relief  of  the  poor  laboui'crs  of  the  ground,  who  are  op- 
pressed in  their  tithes  by  leases  set  over  their  heads,  and  they 
thereby  forced  to  take  unreasonable  conditions. 

This  petition  shews  the  intolerance  of  the  reforming  ministers 
of  the  period,  and  exhibits  a  most  lamentable  list  of  crimes,which 
appear  to  have  filled  the  country  with  violence  and  impurity. 
Although  toleration  for  the  opinions  of  others  was  then  un- 
known, yet  there  was  none  of  the  infidel  liberality  of  the  pre- 
sent day,  which  confounds  all  distinctions.  The  queen,  though 
belonging  to  a  most  intolerant  church,  showed  the  native  good- 
ness and  charity  of  her  heart  in  her  answer,  as  well  as  the  dig- 
nity befitting  her  high  station,  as  head  or  civil  governor  of  the 
church.  She  has  been  so  reviled  and  hunted  down  as  disso- 
lute, cruel,  and  tyrannical,  and  the  author  of  Knox's  history 
has  given  such  an  uncharitable  and  unjust  construction  to  all 
her  actions,  and  whose  misrepresentations  have  been  so  inter- 
woven with  the  history  of  her  reign,  that  unless  a  more  candid 
account  of  that  period  had  been  left  on  record,  her  noble  and 
dignified  answer  would  not  be  credited. 

The  queen's  answer  was  delivered  in  writing  in  the  following 
terms  : — First,  when  it  was  desired  that  the  mass  should  be 
suppressed  and  abolished,  as  well  in  her  majesty's  own  person 
and  family  as  amongst  the  subjects,  her  highness  didanswerfor 
herself,  that  she  was  in  nowise  persuaded  that  there  was  any 
impiety  in  the  mass ;  and  trusted  her  subjects  would  not  press 
her  to  do  against  her  conscience.  For,  not  to  dissemble,  but  to 
deal  plainly  with  them,  she  neither  iriight  nor  would  forsake 
the  religion  wherein  she  was  educated  and  brought  up,  believ- 
ing the  same  to  be  the  true  religion,  and  grounded  upon  the 
word  of  God.  Besides,  she  knew  that  if  she  should  change 
her  religion  it  would  lose  her  the  fiiendship  of  the  king  of 
France  and  other  great  princes,  her  friends  and  confederates, 
whose  displeasure  she  would  be  loth  to  hazard,  knowing  no 
friendship  that  might  countervail  theirs.  Therefore  she  desired 
all  her  loving  subjects  who  have  had  experience  of  her  good- 
ness, how  she  had  neither  in  times  past,  nor  yet  in  time  coming 
did  intend  to  force  the  consciences  of  any  one,  but  to  permit 
every  one  to  serve  God  in  such  manner  as  they  are  persuaded 


176  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

to  be  the  best ;  that  they  likewise  would  not  urge  her  to  any 
thing  that  stood  not  with  the  quietness  of  her  own  mind. 

That  to  establish  the  superintendent  church,  they  knew  the 
same  could  not  be  done  but  by  consent  of  the  three  estates  in 
parliament.  And  how  soon  the  same  should  be  convened, 
whatsoever  the  estates  should  condescend  unto,  her  majesty 
should  thereto  agree,  assuring  them  in  the  meanwhile  that 
none  should  be  troubled  for  using  themselves  in  religion  ac- 
cording to  their  consciences,  and  so  should  have  no  cause  to 
fear  any  peril  to  their  lives  or  heritages. 

That  her  majesty  did  not  think  it  reasonable  that  she  should 
defraud  herself  of  so  great  a  part  of  the  patrimony  of  the 
crown,  as  to  put  the  patronages  of  the  benefices  forth  of  her 
own  hands,  seeing  the  public  necessities  of  the  crown  did  re- 
quire a  great  part  of  the  rents  to  be  still  retained.  Notwith- 
standing, her  majesty  was  pleased  that  her  own  necessity  being 
supplied,  after  it  should  be  considered  what  might  be  a  rea- 
sonable sustentation  to  the  ministers,  a  special  assignation 
should  be  made  to  them,  forth  of  the  nearest  and  most  com- 
modious places,  wherewith  her  majesty  should  not  inter- 
meddle, but  suffer  the  same  to  come  to  their  use. 

That  her  majesty's  liberality  to  the  poor  should  be  as  far 
extended  as  with  reason  can  be  expected. 

And,  for  the  other  articles,  her  majesty  promised  to  do  there- 
in as  the  three  estates  convened  in  parliament  should  ap- 
point ^ 

In  this  assembly,  it  was  ordained  that  every  minister,  ex- 
horter,  and  reader,  shall  have  one  of  the  psalm  books  lately 
printed,  and  use  the  order  contained  therein,  in  prayers,  mar- 
riages, and  ministration  of  the  sacraments,  according  to  the 
book  of  Common  Order — that  is,  the  Prayer  Book  2.  Calder- 
wood  is  too  thorough  a  presbyterian  to  give  the  whole  order : 
he  omits  the  mention  of  the  office  of  the  burial  service,  but 
which  omission  is  supplied  by  Petrie.  This  was  the  first  in- 
troduction of  the  Geneva  Prayer  Book.  Heretofore  the  Eng- 
lish book  had  been  in  use,  and  which  the  leaders  in  the 
Assembly  found  the  greatest  difficulty  in  setting  aside.  It  was 
also  debated  whether  the  superintendents  of  Galloway  and 
Orkney  might,  without  prejudice  to  their  episcopal  func- 
tions, sit  as  Lords  of  Session  or  Judges 3.  Here  is  another 
instance  of  the  extension  of  the  number  of  the  superinten- 

1  Spottiswood,  190.  —  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  iv.  541-2.  —  Knox,  b.  iv.  328-9.  — 
Heylin,  159. 

-  Spottiswood.  3  Calderwood,  p.  39.— Keitli,  538. 


1566.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  177 

dents ;  and,  as  if  impelled  by  a  fatal  necessity',  Calderwood 
adds,  "  Here  ye  see  superintendent  and  commissioner  are 
taken  for  one  tiling,  and  the  bishojjs  of  Galloway  and  Orkney 
are  called  commissioners  of  GaTloway  and  Orkney." 

The  king,  as  he  was  now  styled,  attended  divine  service  at 
St.  Giles's  church,  with  the  view  of  removing  the  pretext  of 
religion  from  the  factious  and  turbulent  nobility,  who  viewed 
his  elevation  to  the  throne  with  considerable  jealousy.  John 
Knox,  the  preacher,  being  in  the  faction  of  the  discontented 
nobles,  bitterly  reviled  the  king,  and  inveighed  against  the 
queen  and  her  whole  court.  He  denounced  them  as  idolaters, 
and  threatened  them  with  both  temporal  and  eternal  punish- 
ments ;  adding,  "  that  God  sets  in  that  room  (of  princes),  for 
the  offences  and  ingratitude  of  the  people,  boys  and  women — 
that  God  justly  punished  Ahab  and  his  posterity,  because  he 
would  not  take  order  with  that  harlot  Jezebel,'''  meaning  the 
queen.  For  this  insolence  he  was  cited  before  the  queen  and 
privy  council ;  but  so  far  was  he  from  expressing  contrition, 
that  he  not  only  justified  what  he  preached,  but  insulted  the 
queen  to  her  face,  and  used  epithets  the  most  opprobrious,  and 
unworthy  of  any  man  to  use  to  the  vilest  of  her  sex ;  besides 
launching  the  thunders  of  his  eloquence  against  that  religion, 
however  erroneous  in  many  points,  to  which  she  conscientiously 
adhered,  and  in  which  she  had  received  her  Christianity. 
The  queen  burst  into  an  hysterical  fit  of  tears,  an  affection  to 
which  she  was  subject,  on  hearing  herself  stigmatised  as  a 
tyrant  and  Jezebel,  and  that  for  the  wickedness  of  the  land 
the  kingdom  had  been  placed  under  the  dominion  of  a  woman 
and  boys.  It  is  probable  that  John's  boldness  was  increased 
by  the  countenance  of  the  leading  men  in  her  majesty's 
council ;  for  the  whole  punishment  of  his  audacity  was  sus- 
pension from  preaching  for  some  months ;  and  in  order  to 
throw  odium  on  the  queen,  and  give  an  air  of  persecution  to 
the  whole  affair,  Craig,  the  other  minister,  refused  to  officiate 
during  Knox's  disgrace,  which  occasioned  a  commotion  among 
the  people'. 

1566. — The  eleventh  General  Assembly  met  in  December 
of  the  preceding  year  at  Edinburgh;  Superintendent  Erskine 
of  Dun  was  chosen  moderator ;  but  before  proceeding  to 
business,  the  ministers  appointed  difast,  "  for  avoiding  of  the 
plagues  and  scourges  of  God,  which  appeared  to  come  upon 
the  people  for  sins  and  ingratitude."  This,  says  Knox,  "  was 
the  first  public,  fast  that  was  kept  since  the  reformation,  which 

>  Spottiswood. —  Keith,  547. 
VOL.  I.  2  A 


178  HISTORY  OF   THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

exercise  became  frequent  afterwards."  Fasting  became  after- 
wards a  political  engine  of  sedition, but  even  in  Queen  Mary's 
time  tlie  hypocrisy  of  such  fasts  was  seen  through  and  appre- 
ciated ;  for  when  she  heard  that  the  "  professors"  were  at  their 
holy  work,  suspecting  some  covert  design,  she  exclaimed,  "  I 
am  more  afraid  of  that  than  of  ten  thousand  men  at  arms." 

Spottiswood,  superintendent  of  Lothian,  and  Winram, 
superintendent  of  Fife,  that  is,  the  bishops  of  Lothian  and 
Fife,  with  Row,  minister  of  Perth,  and  Lindsay,  minister  of 
Leith,  were  appointed  to  wait  on  the  queen,  and  to  represent 
the  lamentable  destitution  of  the  inferior  clergy,  caused  by  with- 
holding the  thirds.  The  queen  replied  to  this  earnest  appeal 
to  her  justice  and  benevolence,  that  she  was  always  minded 
that  the  ministers  should  be  paid  their  stipends,  and  if  there 
was  any  deficiency  therein,  the  fault  lay  with  Pitarro,  the 
comptroller,  who  had  the  collection  and  disposal  of  the  thirds, 
and  who  was  besides  one  of  their  own  persuasion.  The  de- 
puties were  also  instructed  to  remonstrate  with  the  queen  on 
her  majesty's  reply  to  their  petition,  saying,  "  that  it  was  no 
small  grief  to  the  hearts  of  good  and  christian  subjects  to 
hear,  that  though  the  trumpet  of  Christ's  evangel  had  been  so 
long  blown  in  the  realm,  and  His  mercy  so  plainly  offered 
in  the  same,  her  majesty  should  continue  unpersuaded  of  the 
truth  of  that  religion  which  they  preached  and  professed,  it 
being  the  same  which  Christ  Jesus  revealed  to  the  world, 
whereof  He  made  His  apostles  messengers ;  wherefore,  in  the 
name  of  the  eternal  God  (with  the  reverence  that  became 
them),  they  required  her  highness  to  use  the  means  w^hereby 
she  might  be  persuaded  of  the  truth,  such  as  conference  with 
learned  men,  and  disputation  with  the  adversaries,  which  they 
were  ready  to  offer  when  and  where  her  grace  should  think 
expedient.  And  as  to  the  impiety  of  the  mass,  we  dare  be 
bold  to  affirm,  that  in  that  idol  there  is'  impiety ;  fi'om  the 
beginning  to  the  ending  it  is  nothing  else  but  a  mass  of 
impiety ;  the  author  or  sayer,  the  action  itself,  the  opinion 
thereof  conceived,  the  hearer  and  gazer  upon  it,  allows 
sacrilege,  pronounces  blasphemy,  and  commits  most  abomina- 
ble idolatry,  as  we  have  ever  offered,  and  yet  offer  ourselves, 
most  manifestly  to  prove As  we  are  desirous  altoge- 
ther that  her  grace's  necessity  should  be  relieved,  so  our  duty 
craves  that  we  should  notify  to  her  grace  the  true  order  that 
should  be  observed  to  her  in  this  behalf;  which  is  this,  the 
ieinds  (tithes)  are  properly  reputed  to  he  the  patrimony  of  the 
kirk,  upon  the  which,  before  all  things,  they  that  travel  in  the 
ministry  thereof  and  the  poor  indigent  members  of  Christ, 


1566.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  179 

ought  to  be  sustained,  the  kirks  also  repaired,  and  the  youth 
likewise  brought  up  in  good  letters." 

In  this  Assembly  numerous  complaints  were  made  that  the 
ministers  were  exceedingly  roughly  handled  by  the  higher 
classes  when  they  reproved  them  for  their  open  and  notorious 
vices ;  blows  and  even  wounds  being  commonly  given  in  re- 
turn for  their  reproofs.  It  was  asked,  "  If  baptism  be  adminis- 
tered by  a  papist  priest  or  in  the  papistical  manner,  shall  it 
be  reiterated  ?"  It  was  answered,  "  When  such  children  come 
to  years  of  understanding,  they  should  be  instructed  in  the 
doctrine  of  salvation  :  the  corruption  of  the  papistry  must  be 
declared  to  them,  w'hich  they  must  publicly  damn  before  they 
be  admitted  to  the  Lord's  table,  which,  if  they  do,  there  needs 
not  the  external  sign  to  be  reiterated  :  for  no  papist  ministers 
baptism  without  water  and  some  form  of  words,  which  are  the 
jjrincipals  of  the  external  sign.  We  ourselves  were  baptized 
by  papists,  whose  corruptions  and  abuses  now  ive  damn,  cleav- 
ing only  to  the  simple  ordinance  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  the 
virtue  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  makes  baptism  to  work  in 
us  the  proper  effect  thereof,  without  any  reiteration  of  the  ex- 
ternal sign."  This  shows  that  the  Knoxian  church  held  that 
there  w^as  grace  given  through  the  sacrament  of  baptism  ;  in 
which  they  entirely  differ  from  their  successors,  the  Melvillian 
presbyterians,  who  maintain  that  it  is  a  dead  ordinance,  by 
which  a  name  is  given  to  the  recipient,  but  that  it  does  not 
convey  the  graces  of  regeneration,  adoption,  vocation,  justi- 
fication, or  sanctification.  The  superintendents  of  Lothian 
and  Fife,  with  Mr.  Row,  were  a  deputation  to  wait  on  their 
majesties,  and  to  complain  of  the  non-payment  of  the  ministers' 
stipends,  and  also  to  beg  of  the  queen  to  listen  to  a  disputa- 
tion between  the  ministers  and  friars.  The  queen  replied, 
"  That  she  was  always  minded  that  the  ministers  should  be 
paid  their  stipends,  and  if  there  were  any  fault  therein  the 
same  came  by  some  of  their  own  sort,  who  had  the  handling 
of  the  thirds.  Always  by  the  advice  of  her  council  she  should 
cause  such  order  to  be  taken  therein,  that  none  should  have 
occasion  to  complain.  As  to  the  second  she  would  not  jeopard 
her  religion  upon  such  as  were  there  present ;  for  she  knew 
well  enough  that  the  protestants  were  more  learned  ^" 

This  Assembly  decided,  that  a  superintendent  may  not  sus- 
]3end  a  minister,  exhorter,  or  reader,  without  the  assistance  of 
the  nearest  discreet  ministers ;  and  in  the  decision  of  ques- 
tions, the  superintendent  was  required  to  act  with  the  advice 

•  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  iv.  p.  555. — Spottiswood,  b.  iv  p.  193. 


180  HISTORY  OF    THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

of  the  nearest  reformed  kirk  ^.  These  are  clecidedly  episcopal 
functions,  and  the  Assembly  only  enforced  St.  Paul's  commands 
to  Timothy,  not  to  hear  an  accusation  against  a  presbyter,  but 
before  two  or  three  witnesses.  This  Assembly  also  appointed 
Knox  and  Craig  to  draw  up  a  form  of  prayer  for  occasions  of 
fasting,  which  they  did,  and  Calderwood  informs  us  it  was 
added  to  the  Common  Prayer  Book,  which  our  early  reformers 
constantly  used. 

The  intrigues  of  queen  Elizabeth  to  prevent  Mary's  marriage 
had  produced  a  rebellion  amongst  some  of  the  Scottish  nobles, 
among  whom  the  earl  of  Moray  was  the  chief.     Mary  col- 
lected an  army  and  suppressed  the  rebellion,  and  the  nobles 
were  expelled  the  country  ;  she  was  inclined  to  have  recalled 
them,  and  to  forget  their  treason,  but  by  the  advice  of  her 
uncle,  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,  she  summoned  a  parliament 
to  meet  in  March,  and  commanded  the  banished  lords  to  ap- 
pear at  its  bar.     In  this  parliament  the  popish  prelates  were 
restored  to  their  seats ;  but  it  was  prorogued  in  consequence 
of  the  disgraceful  assassination  of  David  Rizzio,  the  queen's 
private  secretary,  in  her  presence.     After  participating  in  this 
inhuman  deed,  the  king,  without  consulting  the  queen,  issued 
a  proclamation  commanding  all  who  had  come  to  Edinburgh 
for  the  meeting  of  parliament  to  depart  the  city  within  twelve 
hours,  on  pain  of  death.      In  her  letter  to  the  archbishop  of 
Glasgow,  giving  an  account  of  this  most  barbarous  murder,  to 
be   communicated  to  the  court  of  France,  the  queen  says : 
"  The  spiritual  estate  being  placed  therein  (in  parliament)  in 
the  ancient  manner,  tending  to  have  done  some  good,  anent 
restoring  the  old  religion,  and  to  have  proceeded  against  our 
rebels  (the  banished  lords),  according  to  their  demerits  ;  which 
as  for  such  occasions  as  are  notoriously  known,  we  thought 
necessarily  should  be  punished 2."     M'Crie  roundly  accuses 
queen  Mary  of  having  signed  a  bond  for 'the  extirpation  of 
the  protestants,  and  cites  Bishop  Keith  for  his  authority.   This 
is  a  gratuitous  assumption,  arising  out  of  that  malignant  hatred 
which  the  presbyterian  party  have  ever  entertained  for  the 
memory  of  that  most  charitable  and  ill-used  princess.    Bishop 
Keith  cites  part  of  a  letter  from  Randolph  to  Cecil,  of  the 
6th  of  February,  as  follows  : — "  Since  that  time  tliere  came 
from  France,  Clomau,  by  land,  from  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine, 
and  Thornton,  by  sea,  from  the  archbishop  of  Glasgow  ;  since 
whose    arrival    no    good   to  the  lords.      Bond   to   introdvce 
popery  in  all  Christendom  signed  by  queen  Mary,  and  tht 

'  Calderwood.  =  Given  at  length  in  Keith,  b.  ii.  c.  ix.  p.  330-35. 


156(>.J  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  181 

original  to  be  sent  back  by  Mr.  Stephen  Wilson  ^"  But 
surely  to  introduce  popery,  and  to  extirpate  the  protestants, 
cannot  be  to  the  full  extent  considered  as  convertible  terms. 
John  Knox  approved  of  the  murder  of  Rizzio,  and  it  is  by 
no  means  improbable  that  he  was  in  the  guilty  councils  of  the 
perpetrators  ;  for  immediately  on  the  queen's  resuming  the 
government  after  her  escape  from  the  conspirators,  who 
threatened  "  to  cut  her  in  collops"  he  fled  from  Edinburgh, 
and  wandered  for  some  time  in  Ay rshire,  where  he  had  formerly 
excited  the  inhabitants  to  sedition.  His  biographer  seems  a 
good  deal  puzzled  to  find  a  plausible  excuse  for  his  abscond- 
ing at  this  lime,  and  winds  up  by  saying,  "  it  was  deemed 
prudent  for  him  to  withdraw."  And  so  apprehensive  was  he 
of  justice  that  "  it  does  not  appear  that  he  returned  to  Edin- 
burgh, or  at  least  that  he  resumed  his  ministry,  until  the  queen 
was  deprived  of  the  government  2". 

By  advice  of  her  council,  the  queen  removed  to  Edinburgh 
Castle,  preparatory  to  her  accouchment,  and  there  gave  birth 
to  a  son,  on  the  19th  of  July,  to  the  great  joy  of  the  nation. 
On  her  first  entry  into  the  castle,  she  entertained  her  nobility 
at  a  banquet,  and  reconciled  them  to  each  other.  And  the 
General  Assembly,  which  was  sitting  at  the  same  time,  sent  the 
superintendent  of  Lothian  to  congratulate  the  queen  on  her  safe 
delivery,  and  to  request  that  she  would  permit  the  prince  to  be 
baptized  according  to  the  form  nsed  in  the  reformed  church. 
The  superintendent  was  very  graciously  received,  but  no  answer 
was  returned  on  the  subject  of  baptism.  She  presented  the 
child  to  the  good  superintendent,  who,  falling  on  his  knees, 
"  conceived  a  short  and  pithy  prayer,"  with  which  the  queen 
was  much  pleased,  and  listened  attentively.  Solemn  thanks 
were  returned  to  God  for  the  birth  of  the  prince,  in  the  Cathe- 
dral of  St.  Giles.  The  prince  had  been  removed  to  Stirling 
about  the  end  of  August,  and  preparations  were  made  for  his 
baptism.  To  honour  the  solemnity,  the  king  of  France  sent 
the  count  de  Briance,  the  duke  of  Savoy  Monsieur  de  Croke, 
and  queen  Elizabeth  sent  the  earl  of  Bedford,  who  presented 
from  his  sovereign  a  font  of  gold,  "  weighing,"  says  Spottis- 
wood,  "  two  stone  weight,"  with  a  bason  and  ewer  for  the 
baptism.  The  prince  was  baptised  by  Hamilton',  archbishop 
of  St.  Andrews,  assisted  by  the  bishops  of  Dunkeld,  Dumblane, 
and  Ross,  in  their  robes  and  copes,  on  the  15th  of  December, 
vA'ith  all  the  ceremonies  customary  in  the  Romish  church,  the 

•  Keith,  App.  p.  167.— M'Crie's  LU'e  of  Kno.^,  p.  202, 
"  -M'Cric's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  294. 


182  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

spittle  excepted,  which  the  queen  commanded  to  be  omitted. 
The  French  ambassador,  count  de  Briance,  earned  the  royal 
infant  from  his  chamber  to  the  chapel,  walking  through  a  lane 
formed  by  the  nobility  and  gentlemen,  each  holding  in  his 
hand  a  "•  procket  of  wax."  The  earl  of  i^  thole  followed  the 
ambassador, bearing  the  great  sierge  of  wax,the  earl  of  Eglinton 
carried  the  salt,  the  lord  Semple  the  cude,  and  the  lord  Ross 
the  bason  and  ewer.  The  queen  of  England  was  represented 
by  the  countess  of  Argyle,  who  held  the  prince  at  the  font. 
The  earl  of  Bedford,  and  the  Scottish  protestant  nobles,  stood 
without  the  chapel  duringthe  service,  and  refused  to  witness  the 
sacrament  of  baptism  when  administered  by  a  Roman  catholic 
bishop.  The  prince  was  immediately  proclaimed  Charles 
James,  James  Charles,  Prince  and  Steward  of  Scotland, 
Duke  of  Rothsay,  Earl  of  Carrick,  Lord  of  the  Isles,  and 
Baron  of  Renfrew^. 

In  the  twelfth  Assembly,  which  met  in  June,  superintendent 
Erskine  was  chosen  moderator.  The  usual  topics,  of  the  in- 
crease of  certain  sins  wdiich  an  apostle  said  should  not  be 
so  much  as  named  amongst  christians,  with  the  cruel  destitution 
of  the  protestant  ministers,  chiefly  occupied  their  attention.  A 
fast  was  ordered  to  be  observed  throughout  the  whole  realm  on 
the  two  last  Sundays  of  July,  and  the  communion  to  be  ad- 
ministered at  the  same  time.  The  immoral  lay  minister  Paul 
Methuen  was  reconciled  to  the  kirk  after  prostrating  himself 
before  the  assembled  brethren  "  with  weeping  and  howling." 
Knox  mentions  another  "  supplication  by  the  superintendents, 
with  the  other  ministers  of  the  churches,"  complaining  most 
piteously  of  the  poverty  and  utter  destitution  of  the  ministers, 
by  withholding  payment  of  the  thirds.  This  petition  was 
presented  to  the  queen  by  the  superintendent  of  Galloway,  who 
had  recently  been  made  a  privy  councillor  and  a  judge  of  the 
court  of  session  :  in  consequence  he  would  nO  longer  submit  to 
be  styled  overseer  or  superintendent  of  Galloway,  but  insisted 
on  receiving  his  ancient  title.  He  earnestly  entreated  her 
majesty  to  compassionate  the  ministers,  who  were  really  suffer- 
ing all  the  horrors  of  unmitigated  poverty  ;  but  from  the  queen 
he  only  received  "  a  good  answer  and  fair  promises."  In  Septem- 
ber there  was  a  meeting  of  the  superintendents  at  St.  Andrews 
to  receive  and  read  letters  from  the  churches  of  Geneva,  Berne, 
and  Basil,  and  a  copy  of  their  confession  of  faith  ;  to  whom  an 
answer  was  returned,  "  that  they  agreed  in  all  points  with 
those  churches,  and  differed  in  nothing  from  them  :  albeit,  in 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  iv.  y.  197. — Balfour's  Annals,  i.  p.  336. 


1560.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  183 

keeping  of  some  festival  days  our  church   assented  not,  for 
only  the  Sabbath  Day  was  kept  in  Scotland  ^" 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  the  Roman  catholic 
bishops  and  clergy  were  allowed  to  retain  their  benefices 
during  life,  but  were  compelled  to  pay  a  third  part  of  their  re- 
venues, known  by  the  name  of  the  thirds;  and  collectors  were 
appointed  to  receive  and  pay  the  thirds  into  her  majesty's 
exchequer,  where  it  was  appropriated  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
crown,  instead  of  being  divided  amongst  the  indigent  ministers. 
On  the  .3d  of  October  the  queen  held  a  privy  council,  at 
which  were  present  John,  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  ;  Alex- 
ander, bishop  of  the  Candida  casa  or  Galloway  ;  John,  bishop 
of  Ross  ;  Adam,  bishop  of  Orkney ;  and  Robert,  bishop  of 
Dunkeld,  when  it  was  decreed,  "  that  in  time  coming  all 
small  benefices,  parsonages,  vicarages,  and  others  extending 
in  yearly  rental  to  the  sum  of  three  hundred  marks,  or  within, 
as  shall  happen  to  become  vacant,  shall  always  be  disponed 
to  such  persons  as  the  superintendents  and  assembly  of  the 
kirk,  after  due  examination,  shall  find  able,  qualified,  and 
efficient,  and  thereafter  nominated  and  presented  to  their 
majesties;  which,  being  so  nominated  and  presented,  their 
highnesses  shall  admit  them,  and  by  their  authority  cause 
them  to  be  answered  of  the  fruits  and  duties  of  the  said 
benefices  ;  attour,  whensoever  any  bishopric,  abbacy,  priorj^, 
or  other  prelacy,  that  have  tlie  patronage  of  such  small  bene- 
fices, shall  happen  to  vaik  and  fall  to  their  majesties'  disposi- 
tion and  presentation,  as  likewise  of  all  them  that  are  presently 
vacant ;  their  highnesses  promised  in  verbo  principum  that 
they  shall  always  retain  in  their  own  hands  the  power  and  title 
of  the  disposition  of  the  said  small  benefices  to  the  effect  above 
written,  and  shall  cause  the  persons  to  whom  their  majesties 
dispone  the  said  prelacies  and  great  benefices  to  consent 
thereto  before  their  majesties  make  any  right  of  the  principal  to 
them  2."  Notwithstanding  this  favourable  act  of  council,  the 
distress  of  the  ministers  does  not  seem  to  have  been  much 
alleviated,  nor  their  position  much  improved ;  for  their  com- 
plaints increased  both  in  number  and  magnitude,  and  they  were 
nowfeeling  the  effects  of  theirown  injustice  to  theformer  occu- 
pants, and  the  irregular  and  disgraceful  manner  in  which  they 
had  u.surped  the  sacred  offices  of  the  ministry.  It  likewise 
appears  that  Mary  had  no  intention  of  superseding  the  old 
episcopal  possessors  of  the  sees  and  abbeys  which  were  still 

1  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  v.  p.  557-60. 

2  Ibid.  p.  161. 


184  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VI. 

to  be  maintained  in  the  papal  succession.  In  the  next  December 
the  above  act  was  followed  up  by  an  act  of  assignation  under  the 
queen's  hand,  extending  to  the  sum  of  ^£10,000  Scots  in  money, 
and  400  chalders  of  grain,  for  the  stipends  of  the  ministers.  But 
when  they  were  paid,  the  shave  to  each  of  the  inferior  minis- 
ters was  only  100  merks,  or  £o.  lis.  sterling;  and  300  merks 
was  the  highest  sum  paid  to  the  superintendents,  who  had 
the  expense  of  travelling  throughout  their  dioceses  to  defray. 
Knox  was  indignant  at  this  procedure,  and  publicly  asserted  in 
his  sermon,  "  if  that  order  for  maintaining  the  ministers  ended 
well,  his  judgment  failed  him, — for  he  saw  two  parts  fairly 
given  to  the  devil  (meaning  the  Romish  clergy),  and  the  third 
must  be  divided  between  God  and  the  devil," — that  is,  between 
the  protestant  ministers  and  the  queen.  The  poor  pittance 
that  was  allotted  to  these  patient  sufferers  was  neither  regularly 
nor  fully  paid, — the  queen's  necessities  had  first  to  be  relieved, 
and  therefore  the  ministers  must  wait.  They  were  reduced  to 
the  utmost  extremity,  and  their  keen  resentment  produced  much 
discussion  in  the  Assemblies.  It  at  last  became  a  proverb, 
that  "  the  good  laird  of  Pitarro  was  ane  earnest  professour  of 
Christ,  but  the  great  devil  receive  the  comptroller." 

1567. — The  thirteenth  General  Assembly  met  as  usual  on 
Christmas-day  of  the  preceding  year,  and  Superintendent 
Erskine  of  Dun  was  again  elected  moderator.  The  assemby 
took  into  consideration  the  late  act  of  council  and  the  queen's 
assignation,  and  after  much  discussion  it  was  resolved — 
"  Always  they  most  heartily  thank  the  lords  that  bestowed 
their  labours  and  pains  in  purchasing  the  foresaid  assigna- 
tion ;  most  heartily  requesting  their  honours  to  persevere 
while  they  bring  it  to  some  perfection.  Nevertheless,  the 
whole  assembly  solemnly  protested  that  this  acceptation  of  the 
foresaid  assignation,  for  the  relief  as  said  is,  prejudges  not 
the  liberty  of  the  kirk  to  sute  (petition)  for  tliat  thing  which 
justly  pertaiueth  to  the  patrimony  of  the  same  in  time  and 
place  convenient,  in  any  time  hereafter."  Commissioners 
were  chosen  to  divide  the  assignation  of  money  and  victual 
among  the  ministers.  And  it  was  unanimously  affirmed  that 
the  tithes  belong  of  right  to  the  protestant  kirk,  and  ought  not 
to  be  paid  to  any  persons  (meaning  the  papal  clergy)  "  who 
bear  no  office  in  the  kirk  of  God ;"  and  that  the  censures  of 
the  church  should  be  denounced  against  all  those  who  re- 
fuse or  neglect  to  pay  their  tithes  to  the  kirk  only. 

The  General  Assembly  were  indignant  at  the  queen's  pre- 
ferring the  Roman  catholic  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  to 
baptize  the  prince ;  but  that  was  merely  a  passing  shadow, 


1567.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  185 

compared  with  the  resentment  which  they  felt  at  his  restora- 
tion to  his  ancientjurisdictioujin  confirming  testaments,  giving 
collation  to  benefices,  and  the  other  subjects  usually  judged 
of  in  the  church  courts.  The  archbishop  came  with  a  retinue 
of  a  hundred  horsemen  to  take  possession  of  his  renewed 
rights ;  but,  by  advice  of  the  earl  of  Moray,  the  lord  provost 
deterred  him  from  his  design  by  the  assurance  that  his  pre- 
sence would  create  a  sedition  and  tumult  in  the  cit3\  It  does 
not  appear  that  he  ever  was  able  to  exercise  any  of  his  privi- 
leges, except  in  the  solitary  instance  of  divorcing  the  infa- 
mous earl  of  Both  well,  by  whose  advice  and  contrivance,  and 
with  his  own  divorce  and  other  deep  and  dangerous  objects 
in  view,  the  archbishop  had  been  restored  to  his  ancient  ju- 
risdiction. The  General  Assembly  petitioned  the  nobility 
and  lords  of  secret  council  to  exert  their  authority  to  pre- 
vent the  archbishop  from  acting  on  his  commission,  stating 
that  the  causes  ti'ied  in  these  courts  did  entirely  pertain  unto 
the  true  Church  ;  that  the  setting  up  of  the  "  Roman  anti- 
christ" was  a  violation  of  the  laws  of  the  realm,  recognized 
by  her  majesty  on  her  arrival  in  this  kingdom,  and  by  several 
subsequent  proclamations.  This  was  followed  by  an  intem- 
perate letter  from  John  Knox,  in  which  he  demanded  of  the 
nobility,  gentlemen,  burgesses,  and  commoners, — "  Whether 
that  this  usurped  tyranny  of  the  Roman  antichrist  shall  be 
any  longer  suffered  within  this  realm,  seeing  that  by  just  law 
it  is  already  abolished  ?  Secondly,  Whether  that  we  shall  be 
bound  to  feed  the  idle  bellies  upon  the  patrimony  of  the  kirk, 
which  justly  appertains  unto  the  ministers  ?  Thirdly,  Whe- 
ther that  idolatry,  and  other  abominations,  shall  be  any  longer 
maintained  and  defended  ?"  * 

The  mutual  good  understanding  that  happily  subsisted  at 
this  period  between  the  Knoxian  establishment  and  the  Church 
of  England,  has  been  already  shewn.  They  looked  on  each 
other  as  fellow  labourers  in  the  same  sacred  cause  of  restoring 
the  church  to  the  purity  and  simplicity  of  primitive  episco- 
pacy. The  Scottish  superintendents  and  ministers  were  satis- 
fied that  the  bishops  and  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England 
had  "  renounced  the  Roman  antichrist,  and  professed  with 
them  the  Lord  Jesus  in  sincerity  ;"  and,  as  a  decided  proof 
that  John  Knox,  the  sternest  "  professour"  of  his  age,  con- 
templated the  Church  of  England  to  be  a  sound  member  of 
the  universal  church,  he  sent  his  two  sons  to  be  educated  in 
the  University  of  Cambridge,  where  they  attended  the  Eng- 

'  Knox,  b.  V.  p.  347-9. — Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  v.  567. — Spottiswood,  b.  iv.  197. 
VOL.  I.  2  B 


186  HISTORY   OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

lish  service,  were  members  of  the  English  chui'ch,  and  one  of 
them  received  his  orders  and  held  a  living  within  her  juris- 
diction. But  this  is  not  surprising ;  for  we  have  Buchanan's 
testimony  that  at  that  time  "  the  Scots  subscribed  to  the  rites 
and  worship  of  the  Church  of  England;"  and,  consequently, 
were  in  communion  with  that  church.  John  Knox  was  de- 
sirous of  visiting  his  sons  at  that  celebrated  university,  and 
projected  a  journey  into  England,  with  the  concurrence  and 
license  of  the  General  Assembly.  At  his  request,  the  Assem- 
bly required  him  to  write  a  letter  to  the  English  bishops,  in 
their  name,  in  favour  of  some  of  the  factious  puritanical 
preachers,  who  scrupled  to  wear  the  decent  habits  of  the 
church.  Accordingly,  Knox  penned  a  long  letter,  addressed 
as  follows : — "  To  the  superintendents,  ministers,  and  commis- 
sioners of  the  church  within  the  realm  of  Scotland,  to  their 
brethren  the  bishops  and  pastors  of  England,  who  have  re- 
nounced the  Roman  antichrist,  and  do  profess  with  them  the 
Lord  Jesus  in  sincerity, — wish  the  increase  of  the  Holy  Spirit^" 
The  sentiments  of  our  titular  bishops  and  ministers  were  in  the 
highest  degree  charitable  towards  "  their  brethren"  in  Eng- 
land, and  plainly  shewed  that  they  thought  the  Church  of 
England  had  renounced  the  Roman  antichrist,  and  professed 
the  reformed  doctrines,  or,  in  their  own  words,  "  the  Lord 
Jesus  in  sincerity^''  as  well  as  themselves ;  and,  accordingly, 
they  express  for  them  the  Christian  and  brotherly  charity 
which  the  orthodox  and  sincere  Christians  of  one  national 
church  ought  to  have  for  those  of  another.  They  prayed 
that  they  might  be  blessed  with  "  the  increase  of  the  Holy 
Spirit ;"  which  is  a  very  different  conclusion  from  the  senti- 
ments of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  which  binds  all 
its  subscribers  utterly  to  extirpate  the  Church  of  England.  In 
the  conclusion  of  the  letter,  they  say :  "  The  Lord  Jesus  rule 
your  hearts  in  his  true  fear  unto  the  end,  and  give  unto  you 
and  us  victory  over  that  conjured  enemy  of  true  religion,  the 
Roman  antichrist,  whose  wounded  head  Satan  by  all  means 
laboureth  to  cure  again;  but  to  destruction  shall  he  and  all  his 
maintainors  go,  by  the  power  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  to  whose 
mighty  protection  we  heartily  commit  you.  From  our  General 
Assembly  at  Edinburgh,  the  27th  December,  1566  V 

The  above  is  the  original  inscription  of  the  letter,  as  it  is  to 
be  found  in  Keith's,  Spottiswood's,  and  Petrie's  histories,  and 
also  in  the  manuscript  copy  of  the  Acts  of  Assembly  ;  but  sub- 

'  Spottiswood. — Petrie. 

2  Spottiswood,  b.  iv.  p.  198. — Keith,  b.  iii.  p.  565. — Knox,  b.  v.  p.  319. 


1567.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  187 

sequent  historians  of  the  pvesbyteriau  complexion  have  altered 
the  address  to  correspond  with  the  principles  which  they  now 
choose  to  fix  upon  Knox  and  his  contemporaries.     It  would 
altogether  spoil  their  speculations  were  it  to  be  supposed  that 
Knox  had  ever  recognized  the  bishops  and  clergy  of  England 
as  a  church  of  Christ  which  had  renounced,  in  common  with  the 
Knoxian  church,  "  the  Roman  antichrist."     Presbyterian  au- 
thors have,  therefore,  altered  the  superscription  to, "  The  su- 
perintendents with  other  ministers,"  &c. ;  to  indicate  that  the 
titular  bishops  and  ministers  were  of  the  same  rank  and  office. 
There  is  also  another  omission  in  the  amended  address,  pro- 
ceeding from  similar  motives,  and  intended  to  answer  a  simi- 
lar purpose.     Knox  addresses  the  English  bishops  as  having 
renounced  the  Roman  antichrist,  and  as  professing  the  Lord 
Jesus  in    sincerity ;  but  the  editors  of  Knox's  history,  and 
other  presbyterian  writers,  who  identify  episcopal  government 
with  the  Roman  antichrist,  have  found  it  expedient  to  leave 
out  that  expression,  and  also  the  words  in  sincerity,  as  imply- 
ing too  great  a  compliment  to  the   Anglican  church.     They 
have  also  omitted  Knox's  desire  for  the  increase  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  upon  his  southern  brethren,  because  it  was  an  indirect  ad- 
mission that  the  Anglican  bishops  and  clergy,  and  theirfaithful 
people,  already  possessed  some  measure  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  all  presbyterian  authors  are  exceedingly  unwilling  to 
admit.     In  this  letter  Knox  writes,  "  We  return  to  our  former 
humble  supplication,  which  is,  that  our  brethren  who  amongst 
you  refuse  these  Romish  rags  may  find  of  you  who  are  the 
prelates  such  favour  as  our  Head  and  master  commandeth 
every    one  of  His  members  to  shew  to    another ;"  but  this 
would  have  been  inconsistent   with  the    presbyterian    turn 
wliich  it  was  afterwards  desired  to  give  to  Knox's  sentiments. 
His  presbyterian  editors    accordingly  have   altered  Knox's 
words,  the  prelates,  into  "  who  use  and  urge  them^''  namely, 
the  clerical  habits,  because  it  was  now  become  inconvenient 
to  admit  that  a  General  Assembly  had  ever  owned  the  Angli- 
can bishops   as  prelates ;  it  was  therefore    advisable,    says 
Bishop  Sage,  "  io  falsify  a  little,  acaA  foist  in  more  suitable 
epithets  :  to  call  them  not  prelates,  but  users  and  urgers  of 
the  ceremonies  ^"     M'Crie  glosses  over  this  powerful  instance 
of  the  prelatical  system  of  our  early  reformers  in  the  easiest 
way  possible  :  he  says,  Knox's  sons  resided  with  their  mother's 
relations  (who  was  a  native  of  Newcastle),  and  obtained  their 
education  in  the  English  seminaries;  whereas,  in  fact,  they 

^  Fundamental  History  of  Presbytery,  p.  37. 


188  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VI. 

were  both  educated  at  Cambridge,  where  one  of  them  died,  and 
was  there  buried,  and  the  other  lived  and  died  a  parish  priest  in 
England.  M'Crie  says  that  this  letter  procured  no  relief  for 
the  tender  consciences  of  the  puritans,  who  strained  at  the 
gnat  of  the  clerical  vestments,  while  they  swallowed  the  cam.el 
of  schism  and  resistance  to  the  powers  that  be.  "  Though 
the  superior  clergy,"  he  adds,  "  had  been  more  zealous  to 
obtain  it  than  they  were,  Elizabeth  was  inflexible,  and  would 
listen  neither  to  the  supplications  of  her  bishops  nor  to  the 
advice  of  her  councillors.  Knox's  good  opinion  of  the  P2ng- 
lish  queen  does  not  seem  to  have  been  improved  by  this  visits 

These  circumstances, — the  education  of  Knox's  sons  in  an 
English  university,  one  of  whom  held  the  living  of  Clacton 
Magna,  and  this  authorised  letter  from  the  superintendents 
and  ministers  of  the  church  in  convocation,  to  those  of  Eng- 
land,— are  decided  proofs  of  the  "  godly  conjunction"  and 
mutual  communion  formerly  noticed,  and  confirms  Buchanan's 
testimony,  that  "  the  Scots  subscribed  to  the  rites  and  worship 
of  the  Church  of  England."  This  good  understanding  con- 
tinued unabated,  till  the  furious  zeal  of  Andrew  Melville,  by 
revolutionising  the  ecclesiastical  government  of  Scotland, 
which  would  eventually  have  procured  valid  consecation,  en- 
tirely broke  off"  the  communion  and  friendly  intercourse  of  the 
two  churches. 

The  dark  and  bloody  revolution  of  this  period  is  well  known, 
and  seldom  has  there  been  so  much  and  such  systematic  villainy 
practised  as  by  the  Scottish  nobles  against  their  ill-used  and 
too  confiding  queen.     The  earl  of  Both  well,  who  was  a  most 
infamous  and  profligate  character,  murdered  the  king  by  stran- 
gling him,  and  then,  to  conceal  his  villainy,  blew  the  house  up 
where  he  lodged,  with  gunpowder.    Moray  beheld  the  breach 
between  Mary  and  her  husband  with  secret  though  well-dis- 
sembled satisfaction.    The  licentious  Bothwell,  says  a  modern 
writer,  "  had  acquired  a  great  ascendancy  in  the  national 
councils  ;  that  ambition  which  he  had  long  cherished  now 
began  to  unfold"  (of  marrying  the  queen  and  usurping  the 
crown) ;  "  he  cast  his  aspiring  eyes  towards  Mary,  and  already 
marked  her  out  as  his  own,  while  Mary  only  noticed  him 
with  her  favour  on  account  of  his  devotedness  to  her  service  ; 
and  he  had  long  meditated  the  destruction  of  her  husband. 
Of  insinuating  manners,  he  easily  acquired  the  queen's  confi- 
dence ;  and  his  pretended  courtesy  and  respect  not  only  made 
favourable  impressions  on  her,  but  taught  her  to  behold  him 

'  M'Crie's  Life  of  Kno.x,  p.  295. 


1567.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  189 

with  gratitude.  He  appeared  to  her  the  only  one  of  her 
nobles  whom  she  could  trust,  for  she  had  found  them  all  one 
day  her  friends,  and  the  next  joining  in  cabals  against  her. 
He  was  at  this  time  almost  at  the  head  of  the  government, 
and  yet  he  was  destitute  of  talent  and  ability.  He  knew 
nothing  of  politics,  was  insensible  to  glory  and  magnanimity, 
a  despiser  of  patriotism,  a  man  of  boisterous  passions  and 
unruly  desires.  In  private  life  he  was  the  same  unprincipled 
man, — ambitious,  licentious,  prodigal,  and  libertine  ;  inclined 
to  villainy  from  his  natural  disposition,  and  inured  to  baseness 
from  a  long  course  of  sensual  gratification.  He  was  able  to 
form  the  most  criminal  enterprises,  and  equally  courageous 
to  put  them  to  the  trial.  He  ridiculed  all  religion,  honour, 
and  integrity  ;  he  was  haughty  and  proud,  yet  mean  and  a 
sycophant.  His  exterior  was  handsome,  his  manners  pleas- 
ing ;  he  was  an  adept  in  the  practice  of  those  allurements 
which  attract  the  notice  and  excite  the  admiration  of  the 
female  sex.  Reckless  of  futurity,  he  only  sought  the  gratifica- 
tion of  his  vicious,  unprincipled,  and  libertine  desires  ;  and 
he  cared  not  whether  he  accomplished  these  by  the  sword,  the 
dagger,  or  the  poisonous  draught  ^"  This  unprincipled  noble- 
man divorced  his  own  wife,  and  seizing  the  person  of  his 
sovereign,  confined  her  in  his  own  castle,  and  where  there  is 
no  doubt  that  he  forcibly  committed  a  rape  upon  her  person. 
In  an  unhappy  hour,  and  on  the  recommendation  of  her  noble 
councillors,  she  gave  her  hand  to  Bothwell,  whom  she  created 
Duke  of  Orkney.  The  marriage  was  scarcely  celebrated, 
when  the  same  noblemen  who  had  recommended  Mary  to 
marry  Bothwell  now  took  arms  under  pretence  of  delivering 
the  queen  from  a  murderer,  and  to  protect  the  prince  her  son. 
The  earl  of  Moray  planned  all  these  transactions ;  but  with 
his  usual  cautious  policy  he  retired  to  France  till  his  designs 
were  ripe  for  execution.  The  queen  gathered  farces  to  dissi- 
pate this  rebellion,  but  she  was  obliged  to  yield  to  the  superior 
powers  and  stronger  position  of  the  rebels.  This  band  of  un- 
principled noblemen  and  successful  traitors  stripped  the  un- 
fortunate queen  of  her  power  and  dignity,  and  subjected  her 
to  the  most  wanton  insults,  and  finally  committed  her  close 
prisoner  to  Lochleven  Castle,  kept  by  the  earl  of  Moray's 
mother,  with  the  intention  of  being  removed  by  violence  either 
secret  or  judicial. 

The  next  day  after  her  commitment  to  Lochleven  Castle, 
the   earl  of  Glencairn  went  to  the  chapel  royal  of  Holyrood 

'  Lawson's  Life  of  Regent  INIoray,  pp.  242,  243. 


190  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VT. 

House,  where  he  defaced  and  tore  all  the  sacerdotal  and  other 
vestments,  broke  down  and  destroyed  the  altar,  and  demolished 
all  the  images  and  furniture  of  the  chapel.  For  this  sacrilegious 
assault  he  was  highly  applauded  by  Knox  and  his  brethren  ; 
but  as  it  was  done  without  the  consent  of  the  confederate  lords, 
many  of  them  were  deeply  offended  at  Glencairn  for  taking 
upon  himself  to  execute  this  barbarous  insult  on  their  sovereign 
and  her  religion  without  their  advice  or  concurrence.  They 
felt  the  impolicy  of  this  rash  act  just  at  that  juncture,  inas- 
much as  the  loyal  peers  were  gathering  forces  with  the  view 
of  liberating  the  queen  and  restoring  her  to  the  government. 
These  assembled  at  Hamilton,  to  concert  measures  for  her 
relief:  to  whom  the  faction  which  had  imprisoned  their  sove- 
reign wrote,  entreating  them  to  concur  in  restoring  order  and 
government,  but  they  indignantly  rejected  all  communication 
with  regicides  and  traitors,  refused  admission  to  their  messen- 
ger, and  returned  their  letter  unopened.  The  General  Assem- 
bly, being  then  sitting  in  Edinburgh,  interfered  immediately  to 
unite  the  loyal  and  rebel  lords,  and  prorogued  their  meeting 
till  the  20th  of  July,  in  order  to  give  time  for  their  missives  to 
perform  their  services.  This  was  the  fourteenth  Assembly, 
and  which  met  on  the  25th  of  June,  of  which  George  Bu- 
chanan, principal  of  St.  Leonard's  College,  St.  Andrews,  was 
chosen  moderator ;  which  is  a  practical  instance  of  the  con- 
tempt of  the  Knoxians  for  holy  orders,  for  George  was  never 
in  any  holy  function  of  the  ministry,  but  was  a  known  and 
acknowledged  layman.  The  rebel  nobles  who  had  now  taken 
possession  of  the  government  in  the  name  of  the  infant  prince, 
moved  the  ministry  to  continue  the  prorogation  of  the  Assem- 
bly, and  which  was  done.  The  ministers  Knox,  Douglas,  Row, 
and  Craig,  were  commissioned  to  write  to  the  lords  at  Hamil- 
ton, "  to  entreat  and  admonish  all  persons  truly  professing  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  within  the  realm,  as  well  noblemen  as  barons, 
and  those  of  the  other  estates,  to  meet  and  give  their  personal 
appearance  at  Edinburgh,  on  the  20th  of  July,  for  giving  their 
advice,  council,  and  concurrence  in  matters  then  to  be  proponed, 
especially  for  purging  the  realm  of  popery,  the  establishing 
the  policy  of  the  church,  and  restoring  the  patrimony  thereof  to 
the  just  possessors,  that  is,  to  the  Knoxian  ministry.  The  loyal 
nobility  declined  the  offers  made  them  by  the  Assembly  and 
the  confederate  lords,  alleging  with  justice  insecurity  of  person 
and  property,  us  Edinburgh  was  at  that  very  time  in  possession 
of  the  rebel  faction:  but  at  the  same  time  they  professed  their 
attachment  to  the  protestant  establishment.  The  prince's  party, 
however,  held  a  convention,  and  as  their  obvious  policy  was 


1567.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  191 

to  stand  on  good  tenns  with  the  ministers,  they,  of  their  own 
authority,  enacted  several  laws  for  the  benefit  of  the  church, 
but  which  they  entirely  neglected,  when  they  found  themselves 
strong  enough  to  stand  without  the  help  of  the  ministers.  The 
articles  were  as  follow  : — 

1.  That  the  acts  made  in  the  parliament  holden  at  Edin- 
burgh, the  24th  of  August,  1560,  touching  religion  and 
abolishing  the  pope's  authority,  should  be  extracted  from  the 
registers,  and  have  the  force  of  a  public  law  ;  and  that  the 
said  parliament,  in  so  far  as  concerned  religion,  should  be 
maintained  and  defended  by  them,  as  a  parliament  lawful,  and 
holden  by  sufficient  commission  from  the  queen,  then  being  in 
France,  and  be  ratified  in  the  first  parliament  which  should 
happen  to  be  kept  within  the  realm. 

2.  That  until  perfect  order  might  be  taken  for  restoring 
the  patrimony  of  the  church,  the  act  of  assignation  of  the 
thirds  of  benefices  for  the  sustentation  of  the  ministry  should 
be  put  in  due  execution. 

3.  That  the  act  of  council,  which  was  made  with  consent 
of  her  majesty,  touching  the  conferring  of  small  benefices 
within  the  value  of  300  merks  to  ministers,  shovdd  be  put  in 
practice ;  as  likewise  the  act  for  annuals,  obits,  and  alterages, 
especially  within  burghs. 

4.  That  in  the  first  lawful  parliament  which  should  be  kept, 
the  church  of  Christ  within  this  kingdom  should  be  fully 
restored  unto  the  patrimony  belonging  to  the  same,  and  nothing 
be  passed  in  parliament  before  that  and  other  matters  of  the 
church  were  first  considered  and  approved. 

5.  That  none  should  be  permitted  to  bear  charge  in  schools, 
colleges,  and  universities,  nor  allowed  publicly  or  privately  to 
instruct  the  youth,  except  such  as  should  be  first  tried  by  the 
superintendents  and  visitors  of  the  church,  who,  being  found 
meet,  should  be  admitted  by  them  to  their  charge. 

6  and  7.  That  all   crimes   and    offences,  &c.   should    be 

severely  pmiished ;    and  that  seeing  the  horrible 

murder  of  the  king,  her  majesty's  husband,  is  a  crime  most 
odious  in  the  sight  of  God,  &c.  the  noblemen,  barons,  and 
other  professors,  should  employ  their  whole  forces,  strength, 
and  power,  for  the  just  punishment  of  all  and  whatsoever  per- 
sons that  should  be  tried  and  found  guilty  of  the  same. 

8.  Since  it  has  pleased  God  to  give  a  native  prince  unto  the 
country,  who  in  all  appeacance  shall  become  their  king  and 
sovereign,  lest  he  should  be  murdered  and  wickedly  taken 
away  as  his  father  was,  the  nobility,  barons,  and  others  un- 


192  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

derscribing,  should  assist,  maintain,   and  defend  the  piince 
against  all  that  should  attempt  to  do  him  injury. 

9.  That  all  kings  and  princes  that  in  any  time  hereafter 
shall  happen  to  reign  and  have  the  rule  in  this  realm,  should, 
in  their  first  entry,  and  before  they  be  either  crowned  or  in- 
augurated, give  their  oath  and  faithful  promise  unto  the  true 
church  of  God,  for  maintaining  and  defending  by  all  means 
the  true  religion  of  Christ  presently  professed  within  the 
realm. 

10.  That  the  prince  should  be  committed  to  the  education 
of  some  wise,  godly,  and  grave  man,  to  be  trained  up  in  virtue 
and  the  fear  of  God  ;  that  when  he  cometh  to  years,  he  may 
discharge  himself  sufficiently  of  that  place  and  honour  where- 
unto  he  is  called. 

11.  That  the  nobility,  barons,  and  others  underscribing, 
should  faithfully  promise  to  convene  themselves  in  arms  for 
the  rooting  out  of  idolatry,  especially  the  blasphemous  mass, 
without  exception  of  place  07'  person.  And  likewise  should 
remove  all  idolaters  and  others  not  admitted  to  the  preaching 
of  the  Word,  from  the  bearing  of  any  function  in  the  church 
which  may  be  a  hindrance  to  the  ministry  in  any  sort;  and  in 
their  places  appoint  superintendents,  ministers,  and  other 
needful  members  of  the  church.  And  farther,  should  faithfully 
bind  themselves  to  reform  all  schools,  colleges,  and  universities 
within  the  realm,  by  removing  all  such  as  be  of  a  contrary 
profession,  and  bear  any  charge  therein,  and  planting  faithful 
teachers  in  their  rooms;  lest  the  j^outh  should  be  corrupted 
with  poisonable  doctrine  in  their  lesser  years,  which  afterwards 
would  not  easily  be  removed  ^. 

The  religion  then  professed  was  that  of  titular  episcopacy 
under  the  government  of  superintendents,  or  bishops  ;  but,  as 
already  noticed,  these  governors  were  not  onl^^altogether  without 
consecration  and  mission,  but  they  were,  unhappily,  elected  by 
the  people,  and  did  not  possess  those  orders  which,  to  use  Cal- 
vin's words, "  had  descended  from  Christ  by  hand  to  hand  from 
the  apostles."  However,  such  as  the  Knoxian  church  was,  the 
estates  were  determined  to  maintain  it.  They  did  maintain  it, 
and  transmitted  it  to  James  when  he  assumed  the  reins  ot 
government ;  and  they  bound  him  by  his  coronation  oath  by  all 
means  to  maintain  and  defend  this  true  or  ^wasi-episcopal 
church  of  God.  In  these  articles  we  have  the  force  of  law 
given  to  a  system  which  even  the  presbyterian  historian  Dr. 

1  Spoitiswood's  History,  b.  iv.  p.  209-10. 


1567.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  193 

Cook  has  the  candour  to  admit  was  decidedly  prelatical,  and 
which  Erskine  of  Dun,  one  of  the  Knoxian  prelates,  proves  by 
just  argument  to  have  been  episcopal;  "  for,"  says  he,  "  I  un- 
derstand that  a  bishop  or  superintendent  be  but  one  office,  and 
where  the  one  is  the  other  is."  These  articles  likewise  require  all 
teachers  to  be  licensed  by  the  superintendents,  and  who  are  also 
in  the  eleventh  article  classed  among  "  the  needful  members  of 
the  churchP  In  opposing  the  introduction  of  the  presbyteriau 
system,  James  acted  up  to  the  letter  and  s])irit  of  his  coronation 
oath,  which  bound  him  "  to  maintain  and  defend  by  all  means 
the  true  religion  of  Christ"  at  that  time  professed  within  the 
realm.  From  these  premises,  therefore,  the  consequence  is 
undeniable,  that  if  Knox's  titular  episcopacy  was  "  the  true 
church  of  God,"  as  the  act  affirmed,  Melville's  presbytery  was  not 
the  true  church,  and  therefore,  as  an  innovation  and  destruc- 
tion of  that  polity  which  his  coronation  oath  required  him 
"  to  maintain  and  defend,"  he  acted  consistently  and  con- 
scientiously in  opposing  "  by  all  means'^  the  introduction  of 
the  presbyterian  model. 

On  the  dissolution  of  the  convention,  the  lords  Ruthven  and 
Lindsay  were  despatched  to  the  queen's  prison,  to  force  from 
her  a  resignation  of  her  crown.  This  was  an  insult  that  might 
have  been  spared,  as  the  rebel  faction  had  the  whole  govern- 
ment in  their  own  hands,  and  had  determined  on  elevating  the 
unconscious  prince  to  the  throne  before  his  time,  that  they  might 
enjoy  the  supreme  power,  and  secure  for  themselves  and  friends 
what  still  remained  of  the  ecclesiastical  property.  A  resigna- 
tion under  such  circumstances  could  not  be  binding,  and,  as 
her  life  was  threatened,  the  queen  signed  an  instrument,  with- 
out reading  it,  by  which  she  resigned  the  crown  to  her  son,  and 
the  regency  to  the  earl  of  Moray,  her  bastard  brother,  who  some 
time  before  had  fled  into  France.  He  was,  however,  in  close  cor- 
respondence with  his  fellow- traitors  at  home  ;  and  he  suddenly 
arrived  at  Berwick,  having  left  France  in  haste,  as  that  govern- 
ment, knowing  his  dangerous  designs,  had  determined  to 
arrest  him,  on  the  application  of  archbishop  Beaton,  the 
queen's  ambassador.  He  arrived  in  Edinburgh  on  the  lltli 
of  August,  and  soon  afterwards  wantonly  insulted  his  captive 
sister  and  queen, by  visiting  her  in  her  dungeon.  There  he  bar- 
barously insulted  her  fallen  greatness,  and  added  to  her  misery 
and  distress  by  openly  accusing  her,  in  the  presence  of  their 
mutual  attendants,  of  the  crimes  of  adultery  and  murder.  At 
the  same  time,  with  the  most  consummate  hypocrisy,  he  desired 
her  to  remember,  that  all  the  evils  with  which  she  was  afflicted 
were  the  effects  of  her  sins  against  God,which  were  but  an  earnest 

VOL.  I.  2  c 


194  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP,  VI. 

of  future  and  eternal  punishment.  The  aflflicted  queen  patiently 
submitted  to  these  unmanly,  unjust,  and  uncharitable  railings, 
and  begged  in  tears,  that,  as  a  brother,  he  would  spare  her  life 
and  reputation.  "  The  latter,"  he  said,  "  is  already  lost,  and 
as  for  your  life,  the  parliament  must  look  to  that  ^ ."  On  saying 
these  threatening  words,  he  flung  rudely  out,  slamming  the 
door.  This  cruel  usage  Avas  the  more  unexpected  and  galling, 
as  she  had  ever  been  much  attached  to  him,  and  had  ever 
placed  a  fatal  confidence  in  him,  which  he  repeatedly  betrayed, 
and  which  she  as  often  pardoned,  and  again  received  him 
into  favour ;  and  when  she  heard  of  his  untimely  end,  she 
shed  tears,  and  prayed  for  his  soul's  welfare. 

The  deed  of  resignation,  and  the  investiture  of  Moray  as 
regent,  were  read  at  the  cross  with  the  usual  formalities,  on  the 
25th  of  July,  and  immediately  after,  the  duke  of  Rothsay  was 
crowned  king  at  Stirling  on  the  29th  of  July.  The  earl  of 
Morton  and  the  lord  Hume,  as  proxies,  took  the  new  corona- 
tion oath.  The  bishop  of  Orkney,  with  the  superintendents 
of  Lothian  and  Angus,  placed  the  crown  on  the  infant's  head, 
and  John  Knox  preached  the  sermon  2;  but  Throgmorton,  the 
English  ambassador,  refused  to  be  present  at  that  solemnity, 
lest  he  should  seem  to  countenance  the  queen's  deposition^. 

During  the  progress  of  this  horrible  revolution,  the  asso- 
ciated lords  were  greatly  assisted  by  the  protestant  ministers. 
Nothing,  says  Crawford,  was  preached  but  rebellion  and  re- 
venge ;  and  the  late  king's  murder  was  their  common  theme. 
Hatred  against  the  unfortunate  queen,  whom  they  stigmatized 
as  the  perpetrator,  was  sedulously  inculcated  from  the  pulpits, 
and  devoutly  believed  by  the  commonalty,  who  readily  cheered 
the  regent  and  the  lords  when  they  appeared  in  public,  as 
patriots  and  protectors  of  the  liberties  of  the  people.  A  large 
portion  of  the  people  were  completely  debauched  from  their 
allegiance  to  the  queen  by  the  factious  preachers,  among  whom 
Knox  was  the  most  conspicuous,  and  the  most  violent  in  his 
invectives.  "  Thus,"  says  Heylin,  "  the  confederates  and 
the  kirk  are  united  together ;  and  hard  it  is  to  say  whether 
of  the  two  were  least  excusable  before  God  and  man.  But 
they  followed  the  light  of  their  own  principles,  and  thought 
that  an  excuse  sufficient,  without  fear  of  either.  The  news 
of  these  proceedings  alarms  all  Christendom,  and  presently 
ambassadors  are  despatched  from  France  and  England  to  me- 
diate with  the  confederates  (they  must  not  be  called  rebels) 

'  Crawford.  ^  Spottiswood. — Knox. — Buchanan,  ed.  1821,  v.  iii.  240. 

^  Balfour's  Annals. 


1567.']  CHURCH  of  Scotland.  195 

for  the  queen's  delivery.  Throgmorton,  for  the  queen  of  England, 
presseth  hard  upon  it,  and  shewed  himself  exceeding  earnest 
and  industrious  in  pursuance  of  it.  But  Knox  and  self-interest 
prevailed  more  amongst  them  than  all  intercessions  whatsoever, 
there  being  nothing  more  insisted  upon  by  that  fiery  spirit 
than  that  she  was  to  be  deprived  of  her  authority  and  life 
together  ;  and  this  he  thundered  from  the  pulpit  with  as  great 
confidence  as  if  he  had  received  his  doctrine  at  Mount  Sinai 
from  the  hands  of  God,  at  the  giving  of  the  law  to  Moses. 
Nor  was  Throgmorton  thought  to  be  so  zealous  on  the  other 
side  as  he  outwardly  seemed  ;  for  he  well  knew  how  much  it 
might  concern  his  queen  in  her  personal  safety,  and  the  whole 
realm  of  England  in  its  peace  and  happiness,  that  the  poor 
queen  should  be  continued  in  the  same  (or  a  worse)  condition 
to  which  these  wretched  men  had  brought  her  :  and  therefore 
it  was  suspected  by  some  knowing  men  that  secretly  he  did 
more  thrust  on  her  deprivation  with  one  hand  than  he  seemed 
to  hinder  it  with  both  i." 

When  the  regent  and  the  associated  lords,  as  they  were  called, 
discovered  that  the  loyal  nobility  were  resolved  to  support  the 
just  rights  of  the  queen,  and  that  they  were  so  powerful  as  to 
be  able  to  restore  her  to  the  throne  by  force  of  arms,  they 
found  it  prudent  to  court  the  ministers,  and  to  grant  what  had 
been  so  long  the  object  of  their  petitions,  "  with  all  the 
strongest  grimace  they  could  put  on."  Knox  says,  "The 
lords  at  Edinburgh  seeing  this  (the  power  and  resolution  of  the 
loyal  nobility),  joineth  absolutely  with  the  Assembly,  and  pro- 
miseth  to  make  good  all  the  articles  they  thought  fit  to  resolve 
upon  in  the  Assembly  :  but  how  they  performed  their  pro- 
mises, God  hiowsr  And,  says  Bishop  Keith,  "  had  this 
gentleman  been  as  sagacious  as  he  wa.?,  fiery  and  scurrilous,  he 
might  have  learned  before  this  time  what  was  to  be  expected 
from  the  heads  of  his  faction,  when  the  affair  of  money  came 
into  the  plea^" 

The  regent  Moray  summoned  a  parliament  to  meet  in  Edin- 
burgh on  the  15th  day  of  December.  Great  show  and  splen- 
dour were  shown  at  the  riding  ;  the  earls  of  Angus,  Huntly, 
and  Argyle,  carried  the  crown,  sceptre,  and  sword ;  yet 
considerable  fears  were  entertained  by  the  confederates  of 
interruption  from  the  queen's  friends,  w  ho  were  much  more 
numerous  than  they  at  first  suspected.  This  was  called  by  the 
associated  lords  the  first  parliament  of  James  VI.,  and  it  con- 
tained of  the  first  estate  four  bishops  and  fourteen  abbots ;  or 

*  Heylin's  Presbyterians,  b.  v.  p.  171.  -  Keith,  b.  iii.  c.  vi.  p.  584. 


196  HISTOiiY  OF  TME  [CHAP.  VI. 

the  second,  twelve  earls  and  fifteen  lords;  of  the  third,  three 
masters,  or  eldest  sons  of  barons,  thirty  representatives  of  burghs, 
and  five  officers  of  state,  in  all  eighty-three  members.  In 
the  preceding  parliament  in  April  there  were  nine  bishops  ; 
but  the  spiritual  peers  were  not  the  protestant  superintendents, 
but  the  popish  bishops,  who,  although  sternly  prohibited  from 
publicly  exercising  their  functions,  or  even  privately  enjoying 
their  superstition,  yet  they  still  constituted  the  first  estate  of 
parliament.  There  were  twenty-one  earls  at  that  time  in 
Scotland,  and  as  there  were  twelve  of  that  rank  present  in  this 
parliament,  Keith  does  not  hesitate  to  state  that  it  was  a 
"  packed  meeting  only,  and  consisted  of  persons  picked  out 
for  the  purpose,  namely,  burrows  to  over- vote  the  peers ^." 
Their  first  transaction  was  the  recognition  of  the  regency  of  the 
earl  of  Moray,  which,  in  such  a  meeting,  was  carried  without 
any  opposition ;  and  they  made  resistance  to  his  government 
to  bear  the  character  of  high  treason.  Then,  to  smooth  down 
the  rufiled  brows  of  the  Assembly,  the  meeting  asserted  the 
v'alidity  of  the  parliament  of  the  year  15G0,  and  confirmed 
the  acts  respecting  religion  which  had  been  passed  in  that 
convention  ;  but  which  the  queen  had  never  been  persuaded 
to  ratify  with  the  royal  authority.  Although  this  parliament 
ratified  the  Confession  of  Faith,  yet  they  passed  over  the  Book 
of  Discipline  without  any  notice  whatever.  Neither  did  they 
fulfil  the  promise  which  the  confederate  lords  had  made  to  the 
last  Assembly,  when  they  stood  in  need  of  its  moral  influence  ; 
which  was,  "  to  put  the  faithful  kirk  of  Jesus  Christ  professed 
within  this  realm  in  full  liberty  of  the  patrimony  of  the  kirk 
according  to  the  Book  of  God,  and  the  order  and  practice  of 
the  primitive  kirk ;"  even  although  this  promise  had  been 
made  with  the  express  provision  "  that  nothing  shall  pass  in 
parliament  till  the  time  the  interests  of  the  kirk  foresaid  be  first 
considered,  approved,  and  established."  So  that  in  reality 
they  very  well  deserved  Knox's  indignant  reproach  ;  but  it 
is  somewhat  doubtful  whether  the  Bible  or  the  Book  of  Dis- 
cipline be  meant  in  the  above  sentence.  They  must  have 
given  the  designation  of  the  Book  of  God  to  the  First  Book 
of  Discipline,  which  would  imply  grievous  sacrilege  in  the 
Melvillians,  who  afterwards  discarded  it  and  substituted  the 
SECOND  Book  of  Discipline  and  Form  of  presbyterial  church- 
government,  and  which  is  the  formulary  in  existence  and  use 
at  the  present  day  in  Scotland. 

But  that  the  lords  might  not  altogether  break  faith  with  so 

'  Keith,  b.  ii.  c.  xiii.  p.  467. 


1567.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  197 

useful  abody  of  auxiliaries,  and  who  might  resist  their  authority, 
as  they  had  fonnerly  done  that  of  the  queen,  the  parliament 
took  the  affairs  of  the  kirk  first  under  their  consideration.  And 
the  Confession  of  Faith  was  ratified,  and  dissentients  w^ere 
declared  to  be  excommunicated; — the  thirds  of  the  w^hole  bene- 
fices were  ordered  to  be  paid  to  the  ministers  in  all  time  com- 
ing, "  till  the  kirk  came  into  possession  of  her  own  patrimony, 
which  is  the  tithes."  "  The  matter  of  the  policy  and  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  church  w'as  referred  to  the  consideration  of  certain 
lords  delegated  by  the  estates  ;  but  for  the  restitution  of  the 
patrimony,  which  was  'promised  to  be  the  first  work  of  the 
parliament,  though  the  regent  did  what  he  could  to  ha\'e  the 
church  possessed  of  the  same,  it  could  not  be  obtained.  Only 
the  thirds  of  benefices  were  granted  to  the  church  for  pro- 
vision of  the  ministers;  the  superplus^  or  what  should  be  found 
remaining  after  the  ministers  were  provided,  being  applied  to 
the  support  of  the  public  affairs  of  the  estate  ^"  "  Item  (says 
Calderwood),  that  laick  persons  present  qualified  persons  to 
the  superintendent  or  commissioner  of  the  kirk ;  and  if  the 
superintendent  refuse  to  admit  (ordain)  the  person  presented, 
it  shall  be  lawful  to  the  patron  to  appeal  to  the  superinten- 
dent and  ministers  of  that  province,  and  if  they  refuse,  it  shall 
be  lawful  to  appeal  to  the  General  Assembly  ^."  Thus  we  see 
that  every  public  act  of  the  Knoxian  church  and  the  state 
tended  all  along  to  maintain  the  episcopal  powers  and  preroga- 
tives of  the  superintendents,  of  which,  besides  the  above,  the 
following  act  of  parliament  is  a  proof. 

"  Anent  the  abolishing  the  pope  and  his  usurped  authority. 
15th  December,  1567. 

"  Item,  Our  sovereign  lord,  with  the  advice  of  his  dearest 
regent,  and  three  estates  of  this  present  parliament,  ratifies 
and  approves  the  act  underwritten,  made  in  the  parliament 
holdeu  at  Edinburgh  the  24th  day  of  August,  the  year  of  God 
one  thousand  five  hundred  and  sixty.  And  of  new,  in  this 
present  parliament,  statutes  and  ordains  the  said  act  to  be 
as  one  perpetual  law  to  all  our  sovereign  lords  lieges,  in  all 
times  coming.  Of  the  which  the  tenor  follows :  Item,  The 
three  estates  understanding  that  the  jurisdiction  and  authority 
of  the  bishop  of  Rome,  called  the  pope,  used  within  this 
realm  in  times  bypast,  has  not  only  been  contumelious  to  the 
eternal  God,  but  also  very  hurtful  and  prejudicial  to  our  sove- 
reign's authority  and  common  weal  of  this  realm  :  therefore  it 
is  statute  and  ordained,  that  the  bishop  of  Rome,  called  the 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  p.  214.  ^  Calderwood's  True  Hist.  p.  43. 


198  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

pope,  have  no  jurisdiction  nor  authority  within  this  realm,  in 
any  time  coming.  And  that  none  of  our  said  sovereign's  sub- 
jects, in  any  times  hereafter,  suit  or  derive  title  nor  right  of 
the  said  bishop  of  Rome,  or  his  sect,  to  any  thing  within  this 
realm,  under  the  pains  of  barratry,  that  is  to  say,  proscription, 
banishment,  and  never  to  bruike  honour,  office,  nor  dignity, 
within  this  realm.  And  the  contraveners  hereof  to  be  called 
before  the  justice,  or  his  deputies,  or  before  the  lords  of  the 
session,  and  punished  therefore,  conform  to  the  laws  of  this 
realm.  And  the  furnishers  of  them  with  finance  of  money, 
and  purchasers  of  their  title  of  right,  or  maintainors  or  de- 
fenders of  them,  shall  incur  the  same  pains.  And  that  no 
bishop  nor  other  prelate  of  this  realm  use  any  jurisdiction  in 
time  coming,  by  the  said  bishop  of  Rome's  authority,  under 
the  pain  foresaid.  And  therefore  of  new  decerns  and  ordains 
the  contraveners  of  the  same,  in  any  time  hereafter,  to  be 
punished  according  to  the  pains  in  the  foresaid  act  above 
rehearsed  1." 

This  parliament  confirmed  and  ratified  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  which  continued,  through  all  the  changes  which  the 
establishment  underwent,  to  be  the  national  standard,  till  the 
present  Westminster  Confession  superseded  it.  It  was  enacted, 
that  every  succeeding  sovereign  should  take  the  newly  adopted 
oath  on  liis  coronation,  to  maintain  the  protestant  religion  as 
then  prof  essed  and  established ;  and  that  none  but  those  hold- 
ing the  religion  of  the  state  should  hold  or  enjoy  any  offices 
under  government,  except  these  offices  should  be  hereditary. 
The  discipline  and  jurisdiction  of  the  church  was  referred  to 
the  consideration  of  a  select  committee  of  lords,  delegated  by 
the  regent  and  three  estates ;  but  although  the  superintendents 
and  ministers  made  the  most  strenuous  exertions  for  the  re- 
covery of  the  alienated  property  of  the  church,  and  to  deprive 
the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  of  their  preferments,  which  they 
had  enjoyed  from  the  commencement  of  the  reformation,  yet 
they  could  obtain  nothing  but  a  confirmation  of  the  thirds, 
that  had  been  before  granted  them,  but  which  they  had  never 
fully  enjoyed.  Even  of  this  miserable  pittance,  care  was 
taken  to  deprive  them  of  a  part,  for  the  support  of  the  usurp- 
ing government.  Collectors  were  appointed  by  government 
to  collect  the  thirds,  and,  after  paying  the  share  allotted  to  the 
ministers,  to  pay  the  balance  into  the  exchequer.  It  is  rather 
a  singular  feature  in  the  history  of  that  period,  that  the  Romish 
clergy  were  protected  by  law,  admitted  to  sit  as  the  first  estate 

'  Stevenson's  Coll.  Acts  Par.  p.  7. 


1567.]  CHTTRCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  199 

of  parliament,  and  guaranteed  in  their  livings,  although  the}- 
were  rigorously  excluded  from  exercising  their  functions  either 
publicly  or  privatel}',  under  penalty  of  fine,  forfeiture,  and  even 
death.  This  was  a  line  of  policy  which  most  probably  must 
be  attributed  to  the  friendship  of  the  nobility  and  gentry,  as 
most  of  the  papal  bishops  and  clergy  were  the  younger  mem- 
bers or  illegitimate  sons  of  noble  families. 

In  this  parliament,  the  subject  of  the  unhappy  queen's  im- 
prisonment was  fiercely  debated,  some  voting  for  perpetual 
imprisonment,  others  for  putting  her  to  death,  but  all  agreed 
in  renouncing  her  lawful  authority,  and  continuing  the  usurpa 
lion  of  her  sou.  The  rebels  and  regicides  of  this  reign  were 
the  great  prototypes  and  examples  of  those  of  a  subsequent 
period ;  when,  acting  on  the  arguments  now  advanced  by 
Knox  and  Buchanan  i,  and  the  precedent  established  by  the 
confederates,  they  rose  in  arms  against  the  Lord's  anointed, 
and  murdered  her  grandson,  under  pretence  of  the  power  oi 
the  people, — that  many-headed,  but  headless  monster.  Bu- 
chanan laboured  to  prove  the  pernicious  doctrine  that  the 
supreme  power  of  the  Scottish  nation  was  in  the  people,  and 
that  the  sovereign  was  merely  their  delegate  \  and  consequenly 
that  he  was  under  their  control  and  censure,  and  might  be  de- 
posed or  otherwise  punished.  This  was  the  working  out  of  the 
Genevan  system  ;  but  it  had  also  a  close  affinity  to  popery,  for 
by  this  base  means  the  people  were  taught  not  only  to  arraign 
their  prince,  but  that  the  ministers  might  excommunicate  him  at 
their  pleasure.  But  we  are  taught  to  pray  for  kings  and  for  all 
in  authority ;  and  to  obey  them  not  only  for  wrath  but  also  for 
conscience  sake  ;  for  they  are  expressly  declared  to  be  God's 
ministers  to  execute  His  laws,  for  there  is  no  power  but  of  Him, 
and  that  is  ordained  by  Him.  And  it  is  emphatically  added, 
"  Whosoever  resisteth  the  power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of 
God;  and  they  that  resist  shall  receive  to  themselves  damna- 
tion 2."  "  So  excellent  a  proficient,"  says  Heylin,  "  did  this 
man  shew  himself  in  the  school  of  Calvin,  that  he  might 
worthily  have  challenged  the  place  of  divinity  reader  in  Geneva 
itself^."  But  the  sovereign  can  politically  do  no  wrong  ;  for 
the  most  despotic  prince  acts  entirely  by  advice  of  his  consti- 
tutional advisers, — is  amenable  to  none  but  God, — is  the  source 
and  fountain  of  all  law,  justice,  and  power, — and  cannot  be 
judged  by  subjects*  There  is  no  law  in  existence  for  that  pur- 
pose J  no  judge  has,  or  can  have,  a  commission  to  try  the  sove- 

'  De  Jure  Regni  apud  Scotos.  ^  Rom.  xiii.  1—8. 

^  History  of  Presbyterians,  b.  v.  p.  169. 


200  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

reign,  for  who  is  to  give  it  ?  The  sovereign  will  not, — the  people 
cannot, — and  whoever  takes  that  authority  is  a  rebel,  whether 
it  be  done  by  solemnity  of  parliament,  or  the  individual  act 
of  a  successful  usurper.  It  was  finally  detennined  to  keep 
the  queen  in  perpetual  imprisonment,  w^hich  there  is  little 
doubt  would  have  been  extremely  brief,  as  the  usurping 
government  would  never  have  known  peace  or  security  during 
her  lifetiine,  and  while  there  was  a  possibility  of  escape 
or  rescue  by  her  loyal  nobility,  who  were  both  numerous  and 
powerful. 

The  sixteenth  General  Assembly  met  in  Edinburgh  on  the 
25th  of  December,  and  John  Row,  minister  of  Perth,  was 
chosen  moderator.  Complaints  were  preferred  against  several 
of  the  superintendents  for  neglecting  the  visitation  of  their 
dioceses ;  and  the  superintendent  of  Orkney  was  deposed  from 
his  functions  for  having  performed  the  ceremony  of  marriage 
between  the  queen  and  Bothwell,  notwithstanding  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  very  noblemen  who  now  administered  the 
government.  The  persecuted  queen  was  punished  therefore 
for  marrying  Bothwell  on  the  recommendation  of  a  large 
majority  of  her  nobles.  The  bishop  of  Galloway  was  rebuked 
for  having  neglected  the  oversight  and  government  of  his 
diocese  for  the  preceding  three  years,  for  attending  at  court 
and  privy  council,  and  for  having  been  appointed  a  judge  of 
the  Court  of  Session.  The  countess  of  Argyle  was  condemned 
to  do  penance  in  the  chapel  royal  Stirling,  and  to  be  openly 
rebuked,  for  having  assisted  at  the  baptism  of  the  duke  of 
Rothsay  by  a  Roman  Catholic  bishop  i;  and  it  was  left  to  the 
authority  of  the  superintendent  of  Lothian  to  appoint  the 
time  and  manner  of  her  penance, — a  mark  of  superiority  in 
that  ofhce  which  has  been  already  noticed. 

It  will  be  seen  in  the  preceding  pages  hov^,  differently  the  re- 
formation of  religion  was  effected  in  Scotland  and  in  England. 
In  the  latter  country  the  unruly  passions  of  the  sovereign 
prompted  him  to  relieve  the  Church  of  England  fi'om  the  un- 
just oppresson  of  the  pope's  dominion.  This  important  step 
gave  the  illustrious  governors  of  that  church  freedom  to  take 
such  orders  with  her  affairs  as  the  long  oppression  and  the 
manifold  corruptions  of  the  papacy  had  produced ;  for  it 
has  been  well  remarked  that  "  the  papal  supremacy  is  the 
HEAL  PIVOT  of  papal  error r  In  removing  the  real  pivot  of 
papal  error,  Henry  VIII.  prohibited  all  ajrtpeals  and  resort  to 

'  Spottiswoofl,  b.  V.  p.  254. — Keith,  b.  iii.  o.  vi.  np.  586-8. — Calderwood'.« 
True  History,  p.  44. 


1567.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  201 

the  see  of  Rome  ;  procured  the  church  of  England  to  acknow- 
ledge him  as  the  supreme  temporal  head  of  the  church  in  Eng- 
land, and  to  promise  in  verbo  sacerdotii,  which  was  equivalent 
to  an  oath,  neither  to  promulge  nor  execute  any  ecclesiastical 
constitutions  without  his  consent  and  authority  ;  and  after  that 
he  passed  the  famous  act  for  suppressing  for  ever  the  pope's 
usurped  power  in  England.  He  then  ordered  the  Bible  to  be 
translated  and  published  in  English,  and  the  free  perusal  of  it 
to  all  his  people,  which  had  formerly  been  forbidden  ;  and  com- 
manded the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed,  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, and  the  public  prayers,  to  be  read  in  the  English 
tongue.  The  papal  tyranny  having  been  removed,  the  episco- 
pate, from  its  natural  elasticity,  had  room  to  act  and  expand. 
Cranmer  and  the  other  Anglo-reformers  were  actuated  by  the 
most  astonishingly  comprehensive  and  liberal  views,  for  the 
age  in  ^vhich  they  lived,  and  for  the  circumstances  under 
which  they  were  placed.  "  The  great  essential  truths  of  re- 
ligion they  lay  down  with  precision,  and  enforce  with  energy; 
yet  with  a  latitude  so  judicious  as  to  allow  men  with  very  va- 
rious shades  of  opinion  to  subscribe  the  same  confessional,  and 
to  unite  in  the  same  communion  and  fellowship,  though  differ- 
ing in  tlie  modes  in  which  they  apprehend  and  in  which  they 
explain  the  fundamental  truths  which  they  all  equally  allow. 
The  Church  of  England  seems  intentionally  to  have  opened 
her  arms  so  wide  as  to  embrace  all  within  her  pale  who  re- 
jected the  errors  of  the  church  of  Rome  and  of  the  anabap- 
tists, whatever  minute  differences  might  subsist  among  the 
various  individuals  and  parties  which  it  was  thus  her  object 

to  combine The  practical    system    of  the  church  of 

England,  as  happily  settled  by  Cranmer  and  his  coadjutors, 
bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  that  of  the  first  Christians ;  and 
it  was  unhappily  interrupted,  as  theirs  was,  by  the  fire  of  per- 
secution and  the  fervour  of  speculative  BissENTioy^." 

In  the  first  attempt  at  a  reformation  in  Scotland,  the  fa- 
vourers of  the  new  doctrines  were  content  to  petition  for  tole- 
ration, and  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  their  worship  without  enter- 
ing into  speculative  schemes  of  church  government.  As  their 
numbers  uicreased  their  views  expanded,  and  nothing  short  of 
the  entire  demolition  of  the  papal  church  would  satisfy  their 
ambition.  The  nobles  saw,  from  the  weakness  of  the  crown, 
that  they  might  possess  themselves  of  the  lands  belonging  to 
the  cathedral  churches  and  to  the  monastic  bodies,  and 
therefore  they  encouraged  and  supported  the  polemical  views  of 

^  Bp.  Walker's  Life  or  Cranmer,  in  Scot.  Episc.  Mag.  1821,  p.  7. 
VOL.  I.  2  D 


202  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VI. 

Knox  and  his  coadjutors.  Hence  the  reformation  in  Scot- 
land, commenced  and  continued  in  rebellion  and  armed 
resistance  to  the  powers  then  in  being,  and  antimonarchical 
and  rebellious  principles  throughout  the  whole  history  of  the 
Knoxian  and  Melvillian  communions  were  incorporated  in 
their  constitutions.  The  Scottish  protestants,  howev^er,  used 
the  English  liturgy  for  a  number  of  years ;  till  Calvin  de- 
nounced it  as  containing  "  many  tolerable  fooleries  ....  and 
many  relics  of  the  dregs  of  popery  ;  and  that  though  it  was 
lawful  to  begin  with  such  beggarly  rudiments,  yet  it  behoved 
the  learned,  godly,  and  grave  ministers  of  Christ  to  set  forth 
something  more  refined  from  filth  and  rustiness^.''''  Knox  ac- 
cordingly, being  slavishly  bound  to  the  opinions  of  this  enemy 
of  the  church's  peace,  gradually  introduced  Calvin's  liturgy,  and 
which  was  called  the  Book  of  Common  Order,  a  copy  of  which 
was  republished  in  the  year  1840,  and  which  is  divested  of 
what  he  called  "  tolerable  fooleries," — "  filth  and  rustiness," 
and  it  is  more  nearly  allied  to  the  Geneva  doctrines.  They  used 
the  Apostle's  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Doxology ; 
but  which  the  presbyterians  have  entirely  laid  aside,  and,  in- 
stead, have  adopted  the  solemn  league  and  covenant.  Knox 
himself  was  in  holy  orders  ;  but  his  friend  Calvin,  whose  per- 
son he  held  in  admiration  2,  never  was  in  orders  :  hence  Knox 
taught  his  followers  to  despise  the  apostolic  succession  of  the 
episcopal  order,  and  the  laying  on  of  hands.  If  any  man  was 
thought  qualified,  and  he  was  elected  by  the  people  and  re- 
cognised and  inducted  by  the  superintendent,  it  was  sufficient 
to  constitute  what  they  called  a  minister  of  the  gospel.  The 
superior  or  quasi  episcopal  order  of  the  superintendents  had 
no  other  ordination  than  the  answering  of  certain  questions,  a 
few  prayers,  and  the  acclamation  of  the  people  then  present- 
Knox  himself  inaugurated  the  whole  gf  the  superinten- 
dents, and  in  the  face  of  apostolic  practice  and  that  of  the 
whole  church,  besides  St.  Paul's  careful  instructions  to  Timothy, 
he  judged  the  ancient  and  universal  rite  of  the  laying  on 
of  hands  not  necessary.  This  daring  omission  continued  till 
about  the  year  1592,  when  king  James  insisted  upon  its  re- 
sumption, and  then  they  were  mere  laymen  who  did  lay  on 
hands  ;  all  the  Romish  priests  who  had  renounced  popery  had 
long  before  that  time  been  removed  to  another  world. 

Notwithstanding  this  uncanonical  condition  of  the  Knoxian 
establishment,  which  it  is  to  be  feared  brought  it  within  the  woe 
pronounced  by  St.  Jude — "  Woe  unto  them  !  for  they  have 

1  Heylin's  Hist.  b.  vi.  207,  208.  ^  ju^g    y^^.  16. 


1567.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  203 

gone  in  the  way  of  Cain,  and  ran  greedily  after  the  error  of 
Balaam  (covetousness  and  sacrilege)  for  reward,  and  perished 
in  the  gainsaying  of  Gore ;"  yet  they  were  only  a  degree  worse 
than  the  Scoto-papal  church  had  been  before.  At  the  period 
of  the  reformation  it  seems  very  doubtful  if  many  of  the 
bishops  were  in  holy  orders  at  all,  but  were  mere  laymen. 
From  the  king  down  through  the  different  gi'adations  of  the 
peerage,  the  higher  preferments  in  the  church  were  bestowed 
on  the  younger  members  of  their  families  and  on  their  illegi- 
timate issue.  For  some  time  preceding  the  reformation,  the 
popes  had  conceded  to  the  Scottish  kings  the  privilege  of 
nominating  to  all  the  vacant  bishoprics,  abbacies,  and  priories 
in  the  kingdom.  JNIany  persons  were  accordingly  preferred 
who,  from  their  age  and  characters,  were  unworthy  of  such 
places,  and  who  were  never  ordained  to  any  holy  function 
whatever  in  the  church.  Boys,  and  sometimes  children,  were 
presented  and  installed,  and,  when  of  age,  sat  in  parliament 
as  bishops,  abbots,  and  priors,  though  they  were  mere  lay- 
men. By  this  fraudulent  and  sacrilegious  usurpation  the 
rents  and  revenues  of  the  church  were  appropriated  and  be- 
came the  private  property  of  the  fathers  of  these  comraenda- 
tors  while  they  were  under  age.  As  a  natural  consequence,  these 
lay  prelates  having  neither  clerical  education  nor  good  moral 
dispositions,  brought  the  greatest  reproach  upon  the  church 
by  their  immoral  and  vicious  lives ;  for  being  sworn  to  celi- 
bacy, they  indulged  in  every  criminal  excess  of  lust  and  riot- 
ous living.  The  sacred  functions  of  their  offices  were  entirely 
neglected,  or  if  performed,  being  the  usurpation  of  laymen, 
were  null  and  void;  and  their  example  introduced  such  a 
deluge  of  ignorance,  and  every  species  of  vice,  amongst  all 
ranks,  as  loudly  demanded  a  refonnation,  and  gave  the  pro- 
testant  ministers  too  good  an  excuse  for  assailing  their  cha- 
racters. We  do  not,  however,  find  that  morality  was  at  all 
improved  under  their  successors  ;  but  rather  grew  more  re- 
laxed. The  principal  topic  which  occupied  the  attention  of 
every  General  Assembly  was  the  continual  increase  of  the 
dreadful  sins  of  fornication,  adultery,  incest,  and  bestiality ; 
of  which  even  the  ministers  themselves  were  frequently  ac- 
cused. "  Had  none,"  says  Bishop  Keith,  "  but  pious  and 
prudent  men  set  about  the  work  of  reformation,  and  had  they 
put  their  hands  to  the  real  abuses  only,  we  in  this  kingdom 
might  ha\'e  obtained  a  reformation  preferable  perhaps  to  that 
of  any  other  country  :  and  how  greatly  had  that  age  and  pos- 
terity applauded  their  conduct,  and  been  obliged  to  their  la- 
bours !      But,  to  our  grievous  misfortune,  things  went  too 


204  HISTOllY  OF  THE  [CHAF,  VI. 

much  otherwise.  And  because  the  ignorance  and  viciousness 
of  a  great  many  of  the  then  priests  was  too  visible  either  to 
be  denied  or  palliated,  therefore  the  leaders  (or  I  might  more 
justly  say  the  leading  man)  of  the  reformation  presumed  boldly 
to  declare  against  the  order  of  priesthood  altogether,  and  to 
introduce  in  its  room  a  new-fashioned  sort  of  ministry,  un- 
known to  the  christian  church  for  all  preceding  generations  : 
a  TBodel,  by  its  own  inward  constitution,  the  fruitful  source  of 
innumerable  subdivisions  and  schisms,  in  so  far  that  it  subjects 
the  holy  order  to  the  designation  of  the  multitude  in  the  seve- 
ral nations  of  Christendom,  and  by  which,  of  consequence, 
the  clergy  and  religion  of  all  countries  have  an  equal  claim, 
and  the  priests  of  the  Roman  church  are  as  truly  the  ministers 
of  Jesus  Christ  (upon  the  Knoxian  principle)  as  any  of  the 
reformed,  by  their  having  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  people 
on  their  side.  In  a  word,  so  intoxicated  was  the  principal  di- 
rector of  our  reformation  with  the  extravagancies  he  had  seen 
in  foreign  parts,  that  (contrary  to  good  advice  given  him)  un- 
less he  got  every  thing  plucked  up  that  had  been  before,  he 
could  never  suffer  himself  to  be  persuaded  but  that  popery  was 
still  regnant  in  the  land  ;  and  unless  prince  and  peer,  priest 
and  people,  would  accommodate  themselves  to  his  devout 
imaginations,  there  was  hardly  any  safety  for  them  at  alP." 
We  may  therefore  say  of  Knox's  devout  imagination  what 
Archbishop  Bramhall  said  of  the  church  of  Rome  :  "  That 
church  which  hath  changed  the  apostolical  creed,  the  aposto- 
lical succession,  the  apostolical  regiment,  and  the  apostolical 
communion,  is  no  apostolical,  orthodox,  or  catholic  church. 
But  the  church  of  Rome  hath  changed  the  apostolical  creed, 
the  apostolical  succession,  the  apostoUcal  regiment,  and  the 
apostolical  constitution.  Therefore  the  church  of  Rome  is 
no  apostolical,  orthodox,  or  catholic  church  ;"  and  therefore 
we  are  compelled  to  say  of  Knox's  devout  imagination  and 
new-made  scheme,  in  which  the  like  changes  had  been  made, 
that  it  was  "  no  apostolical,  orthodox,  or  catholic  church." 

The  knowledge  of  divine  truth  and  respect  for  their  sacred 
offices  nmst  have  been  at  a  low  ebb  amongst  the  papal  clergy, 
whenwefindthebishopof  Galloway  submitting  to  be  newly  or- 
dained or  inaugurated  to  the  office  of  a  superhitcndent,  and  vari- 
ous priests  making  similar  submissions.  As  for  the  other  bishops 
and  abbots  who  joined  the  new  establishment  of  Knox,  they 
were  mere  laymen,  never  having  been  in  holy  orders,  although 
they  enjoyed  the  titles  and  revenues  of  their  sees  and  abbeys, 

'  Keith,  b.  Hi.  c.  ri.   591. 


1567.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  205 

and  sat  in  parliament  as  spiritual  peers.  It  is,  perhaps,  happy, 
for  the  well-being  of  the  Scottish  church,  that  the  papal  line  of 
succession  was  entirely  extinguished,  for  it  is  hard  to  say  how 
many  really  enjoyed  the  apostolic  character.  And  therefore,  had 
the  Scottish  prelateskept  up  their  succession, it  might  not  have 
been  free  from  taint ;  but  it  pleased  God  to  suppress  it  entirely 
for  the  sacrilegious  intrusion  of  laymen  into  holy  functions,  and 
for  the  flagitious  wickedness  and  cruelty  of  the  whole  Scoto- 
papal  hierarchy.  For  the  universal  wickedness  of  the  people, 
the  Knoxian  devout  imagination  was  allowed,  by  open  and 
direct  rebellion,  and  in  defiance  of  the  sovereign  power,  to  gain 
an  establishment  which  has  led  to  all  the  ecclesiastical  confu- 
sion which  has  distracted  that  country  ever  since=  The  state- 
militant  in  which  the  protestant  ministers  lived  with  the  papal 
clergy,  and  the  rudeness  of  the  age,  made  them  use  language  and 
epithets,  not  only  to  their  adversaries,  but  to  their  sovereign, 
unwarrantable  and  churlish  in  the  last  degree.  Towards  the 
queen,  in  their  language  and  sentiments,  they  seemed  to  have  cut 
the  ninth  commandment  out  of  the  decalogue,  as  the  Romanists 
have  removed  the  second,  in  order  mutually  to  enjoy  their 
natural  propensities  :  and  as  the  one  worshipped  saints,  carved 
images,  and  the  creatures  of  bread  and  wine,  so  the  other 
made  the  chief  part  of  religion  to  consist  in  railing  at  the  Lord's 
anointed,  and  at  the  papal  hierarchy.  Knox's  sole  object 
seems  to  have  been  to  pluck  up  and  destroy  the  papal  church, 
but  he  made  no  provision  for  supplying  the  place  of  the  parochial 
clergy  ;  and,  as  the  popish  priests  were  sternly  prohibited  from 
exercising  their  functions,  the  whole  kingdom  was  in  a  manner 
laid  under  an  interdict.  In  consequence  there  were  none  to 
administer  the  sacraments,  to  bury  the  dead,  or  to  unite  those 
who  were  given  in  marriage  ;  and,  being  left  as  sheep  without 
shepherds,  the  people  yielded  to  the  lusts  and  impure  desires 
of  the  flesh,  and  their  last  state  was  worse  than  their  first.  With 
the  new  ministers  the  sacraments  gradually  fell  into  contempt 
and  neglect ;  and  there  were  instances  where  the  communion 
had  not  been  administered  for  more  than  six  years.  The  whole 
of  religion  seemed  to  consist  in  preaching,  in  which  the 
heavenly  gift  of  charity  was  entirely  thrown  overboard  ;  "  but," 
says  Dr.  Bisse,  an  eminent  English  divine,  "  it  was  a  remarka- 
ble saying,  founded  on  the  reason  of  things,  that  a  preaching 
church  cannot  stand." 


206 
CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  SUPERINTENDENTS  AND  TITULAR  BISHOPS. 

1568. — Execution  of  Darnley's  murderers. — Queen  escapes  from  Lochleven. — 
Battle  of  Langside. — Moray's  severity. — Cathedrals  of  Aberdeen  and  Moray 
unroofed. — General  Assembly. — Transactions. — Bishop  of  Orkney  absolved. — 

Fast. 1569. — Duke  of  Chattelherault  claims  the  regency  in  the  name  of  the 

queen. — An  Assembly. — The  duke  courts  the  Assembly. — Negociations. — The 
duke  and  lord  Herries  committed  to  the  castle. — Petition  to  separate  the  juris- 
diction of  the  church  from  the  state. — Remarks  on  this  subject. — Transactions 
of  the  Assembly. — Four  priests  tried,  condemned,  and  pilloried. — A  woman 
burnt  for  witchcraft. — Several  executions. — An  Assembly. — The  superintendent 

of  Argyle  rebuked. — Declaration  signed. 1570. — Murder  of  the  regent. — 

State  of  the  country. — Assembly. — Transactions. — Petitions  for  more  super- 
intendents.— Lennox  regent. — Seventy-five  prisoners  hanged. — The  ministers 
refuse  to  pray  for  the  queen. — Bothwell  superintendent  of  Orkney. — Assembly. 
— Ministers  utter  treasonable  words  in  their  sermons. — Commission  to  treat 
with  the  duke  of  Chattelherault. 1571. — Dunbarton  Castle  taken  by  stra- 
tagem.— The  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  found  in  it,  and  hanged  at  Stirling. — 
His  character. — The  queen's  friends  hold  a  parliament  in  Edinburgh. — Lennox 
holds  a  parliament  in  Stirling. — Assault  and  capture  of  Stirling. — Regent  taken 
prisoner  and  shot. — His  death  and  character. — Earl  of  Mar  made  regent. — 
Discharged  the  collectors  of  the  kirk. — Superintendent  Erskine's  letter  to  the 
regent. — Remarks. — General  Assembly. — Petition  the  regent. — Act  for  farther 
spoliation  of  church  property. — Bishop  Sage's  reflections  on  this  act. — Knox's 
letter  to  the  Assembly. — Spottiswood's  description  of  the  church  government. 

— Number  of  the  ministers. 1572. — Assembly  at  Leith. — Commissioners 

appointed. — New  polity  there  agreed  upon. — Mr.  Fergusson's  sermon. — 
Vacant  bishoprics  filled  up. — Douglass  made  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews. — His 
inauguration. — Knox's  protest. — Reflections. — Assembly. — Committee  ap- 
pointed.— Act  exempting  certain  superintendents  from  the  archbishop's  juris- 
diction.— Another  Assembly. — An  act  respecting  the  titles  of  offices. — Expla- 
nation of  the  act. — Names  of  the  new  bishops. — Act  of  parliament  ratifying  the 
acts  of  Assembly. — Death  of  the  regent — Morton  elected  regent. — Distressed 
state  of  the  country. — Fast  appointed  on  account  of  the  Bartholomew  massacre, 
— Knox's  last  sermon — His  death — His  character — Sentiments — His  prayers — 
His  ecclesiastical  polity — His  recommendation  to  Edward  VL — Dr.  M'Crie's 
account — His  character,  by  Spottiswood. — Reflections. — Mr.  Palmer's  mistake. 

—  A    parliament. 1573. — Kirkaldy    surrenders    Edinburgh    Castle — His 

character. — Lethington  commits  suicide. 

15()8. — As  the  Knoxian  church  had  now  received  the 
security  of  a  legal  establishment  by  the  authority  of  the  late 
})arliament  and  the  unequivocal  protection  of  the  secular  arm, 


1568.]  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  207 

we  may  account  that  event  a  new  era  in  its  history.  The  regent 
Moray  went  in  circuit  round  the  kingdom,  holding  justice  Airs, 
and  is'  represented  both  by  Sir  James  Melville  and  Buchanan, 
his  own  partisans,  as  having  acted  with  great  rigour  and 
severity,  and  net  without  strong  suspicion  of  having  been  in- 
fluenced by  political  motives ;  but  the  English  ambassador  says 
in  one  of  his  letters  :  "  In  Scotland,  things  are  quietly  governed 
by  the  regent,  who  doth  acquit  himself  very  honourably  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  religion  and  virtue,  Avithout  respect  of  persons  ^" 
In  the  month  of  January,  the  regent  did  execution  on  Hepburn, 
Hay,  Powrie,  and  Dalgleish,  four  of  the  inferior  accessories  in 
the  murder  of  the  late  king.  These  men  "  took  God  to  record 
that  this  murder  was  done  by  Moray  and  Morton's  counsel, 
invention,  and  drift  committed  ;  and  that  they  never  knew  the 
queen  to  be  participant  or  ware  thereof  2."  Yet,  on  the  credit 
of  the  forgeries  of  these  two  noblemen,  the  whole  guilt  has 
been  thrown  on  the  unhappy  queen,  and  most  devoutly  be- 
lieved even  by  sensible  men ;  although  writers  of  acknow- 
ledged abilities  and  integrity  have  fully  substantiated  the 
queen's  innocence,  and  the  guilt  of  the  noblemen. 

On  the  7th  of  February,  an  act  of  council  was  issued  for 
unroofing  the  cathedrals  of  Aberdeen  and  Moray,  under  pre- 
tence that  "  provision  must  be  made  for  the  entertaining  of 
the  men  of  war,  whose  service  cannot  be  spared,  while  the  re- 
bellious and  disobedient  subjects,  troublers  of  the  common- 
wealth in  all  parts  of  this  realm,  be  reduced."  Foreseeing 
resistance  to  this  sacrilege,  the  council  denounced  severe 
vengeance  on  the  inhabitantsof  those  cities  who  should  obstruct 
the  removal  of  the  lead  from  the  roofs.  Among  the  members 
of  council  who  were  present  and  concurred  in  this  iniquitous 
act,  were  the  bishops  of  Galloway  and  Orkney,  and  the  com- 
mendator  of  Coldingham^.  Among  those  to  whom  the  execu- 
tion is  addressed  are  the  bishops  of  Moray  and  Aberdeen,  and 
Thomas  Menzies,  Esq.  of  Pitfoddels,  provost  of  the  latter 
city,  and  whose  descendant  is  at  present  the  chief  prop  of  the 
Scottish  Romanists,  having  conveyed  great  part  of  his  landed 
property  for  a  Jesuit  seminary  at  Blairs,  in  Aberdeenshire. 
But  their  short-sighted  policy  did  not  serve  the  purpose  for 
which  this  senseless  sacrilege  was  committed;  for  tradition 
affirms,  that  the  vessel  in  which  it  embarked  was  wrecked, 
and  the  lead  which  had  been  sanctified  by  the  temples  of  God 
was  lost.     The  Cathedral  of  Moray  was  one  of  the  most 

^  Keith,  b.  ii.  c.  13,  p.  469.         "  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  343.— Crawfords's  Mem. 
3  Keith,  b.  ii.  c.  13,  p.  468. 


208  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

splendid  in  the  British  empire ;  but,  in  consequence  of  this 
sacrilegious  act,  it  is  now  a  shapeless  mass  of  ruins.  The  his- 
tory of  the  queen's  escape  from  Lochleven  Castle,  the  defeat 
of  her  army,  and  her  own  imprudent  flight  into  England,  are 
well  known  to  every  reader  of  the  history  of  that  period. 
Immediately  on  her  escape,  she  issued  a  proclamation,  de- 
nouncing her  late  resignation  of  the  crown  as  an  act  extorted 
from  her  through  fear  of  her  life,  and  therefore  null  and  of  no 
effect;  and  called  on  all  her  loyal  subjects  to  join  her  standard. 
After  the  fatal  battle  of  Langside,  her  loyal  friends  experienced 
the  tender  mercies  of  the  regent.  He  plundered  Hamilton 
Palace,  and  carried  off  all  the  money,  plate,  and  other  valua- 
bles. He  summoned  all  the  loyalists  to  appear  before  the 
privy  council,  to  answer  for  such  crimes  as  might  be  there  ob- 
jected against  them.  Some  dared  not  trust  their  persons  in  the 
power  of  a  man  whom  no  laws  could  bind,  and  others  declined 
to  appear,  because  they  disowned  his  usurped  authority.  In 
consequence,  he  demolished  their  houses,  harassed  their 
tenants,  carried  off'  and  sold  their  cattle,  and  confiscated  the 
proceeds  for  the  use  of  the  exchequer.  In  the  prosecution  oi 
his  avarice  and  revenge  he  forfeited  the  estates  of  all  the 
queen's  adherents  wdthout  even  the  form  of  a  triaP. 

The  General  Assembly  met  in  July  at  Edinburgh,  and  John 
Willock,  the  superintendent  of  the  west,  was  duly  elected  mo- 
derator, which  dignity  he  at  first  refused  to  accept,  on  account 
of  the  factious,  disorderly  conduct  of  the  ministers,  where  all 
would  command,  and  none  would  obey  ;  "  for  even  then,"  says 
Spottiswood,  "  the  multitudes  that  convened,  and  the  indiscreet 
behaviour  of  some  who  loved  to  seem  more  zealous  than  others, 
did  cause  a  great  confusion."  Due  obedience,  however,  having 
been  promised,  the  superintendent  of  the  west  took  his  seat  as 
president  of  the  Assembly.  It  was  then  enacted,  "  That  none 
should  be  admitted  to  have  voice  in  these  Assemblies  but  super- 
intendents, visitors  of  churches,  commissioners  of  shires  and 
universities,  and  such  ministers  as  the  superintendents  should 
choose  in  their  diocesan  synods  and  bring  with  them,  behig 
men  of  knowledge,  and  able  to  reason  and  judge  of  matters  that 
should  happen  to  be  propounded."  And,  "  that  no  matters 
should  be  moved  which  the  superintendents  might  and  ought 
to  determine  in  their  synods."  Some  severe  acts  were  passed 
against  those  who  still  adhered,  in  spite  of  the  penal  laws,  to 
the  church  of  Rome,  and  excommunication  was  denounced 
against  all  obstinate  papists.     Threatenings  of  ecclesiastical 

*  Crawford's  Memoirs. 


1569.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  209 

wrath  were  vented  also  against  those  guilty  of  a  fearful  list  of 
the  most  horrid  and  unnatural  crimes,  with  which  the  country 
seems  to  have  been  fdled  :  "  That  papists,  continuing  obstinate 
after  lawful    admonition,  should  be   excommunicated ;  and 
that  the  committers  of  murder,  incest,  adultery,  and  other  such 
heinous  crimes,  should  not  be  admitted  to  make  satisfaction 
by  any  particular  church  till  they  did  first  appear  in  the  habit 
of  penitents  before  the  General  Assembly,  and  there  receive 
their  injunctions."     A  committee  was  appointed,  including 
John  Knox,  to  revise  and  draw  up  a  form  of  excommunica- 
tion, which  was  approved  and  added  to  the  Geneva  Prayer 
Book,  then  in  use.     Before  the  Assembly  broke  up,  the  bishop 
of  Orkney,  on  his  own  petition,  was  absolved  from  his  former 
sentence  of  deposition,  and  restored  to  his  functions,    and 
ordained  to  make  an  apology  in  his  sermon,  to  be  preached 
in  the  chapel-royal,  Holyrood  House,  "  and  crave  forgiveness 
of  God,  the  church,  and  estate,  which  he  had  offended."     The 
Assembly  petitioned  the  regent,  "  that  the  pei-sons  nominated 
in  parliament  for  the  matter  of  policy  or  jurisdiction  of  the 
church,  should  be  ordained  to  meet  at  a  certain  day  and  place, 
for  concluding  the  same."     To  keep  the  peace  with  the  minis- 
ters, who  were  complete  masters  of  public  opinion,  the  regent 
acceded,  and  appointed  the  eighth  of  the  following  August  for 
a  conference ;  but  an  excuse  was  easily  found  for  delay  ;  and 
in  the  end  the  conference  never  took  place,  and  commissioners 
from  the  church  attended  the  parliament  as  usual  ^      The 
ministers  appointed  a  solemn  fast  and  thanksgiving  for  the 
miraculous  escape  of  their  patron,  the  regent,  who  pretended 
to  have  discovered  a  plot  for  his  assassination  by  the  lyon-king- 
at-arms  and   Patrick  Hepburn,  parson  of  Kenmore^,     The 
lord-lyon  was  tried  and  put  to  death,  and  the  poor  parson  was 
condemned  and  hanged,  and  his  body  denied  the  benefit  of 
sepulture.     It  is  a  common  trick  with  usurpers  to  get  up  sham 
conspiracies,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  rid  of  dangerous  enemies, 
or  of  consolidating  their  own  power. 

1569. — The  duke  of  Chattelherault,  on  his  arrival  from 
France,  claimed  the  regency  of  the  kingdom  in  right  of  his  pro- 
pinquity of  blood  to  the  crown.  He  issued  a  proclamation 
commanding  the  subjects  to  acknowledge  no  other  authority 
than  thatof  their  lawful  sovereign  queen  Mary,  whose  commis- 
sion as  regent  he  held.  In  it  he  complained,  "  that  being 
nearest  of  blood  to  the  crown,  and  consequently  tied  to  its  in- 

'  Calderwood's  True  History,  p,  45. — SpoUiswood,  b.  v.  p.  219. 
"  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  345. 

VOL.  I,  2  E 


210  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAr.  VII. 

terests,  a  few  tumultuous  persons  had  nevertheless  preferred  to 
the  higliest  dignity  in  the  kingdom  a  man  base  born,  and  one 
whose  ambitious  practices  rendered  him  unfit  for  so  great  a 
trust ;"  adding,  "  that  he  was  duly  appointed  regent  by  the 
queen,  and  if  acknowledged,  he  would  speedily  put  an  end  to 
the  civil  war,  and  restore  his  banished  sovereign  without  ex- 
pense of  blood."  Queen  Elizabeth  had  acquired  the  sovereignty 
of  Scotland  through  the  guilt  of  Moray  and  his  party,  and  who 
were  completely  subservient  to  her  will ;  it  was  therefore  her 
interest  to  support  him,  and  crush  the  rising  hopes  of  the  loyal 
nobility  in  the  advancement  of  the  duke  of  Chattelhcrault  to  the 
regency.  She  openly  protested  against  the  duke's  project,  and 
threatened  to  invade  the  kingdom  in  support  of  her  creature 
Moray,  who  issued  a  counter  proclamation,  charging  the  lieges, 
in  the  king's  name,  to  meet  him  at  Glasgow.  Thus  the  crime 
of  depriving  the  queen  of  her  birthright  steeped  the  kingdom 
in  greater  guilt,  as  "  crowns  by  blood  acquired,  must  be  by 
blood  maintained." 

The  General  Assembly  being  convoked  at  the  same  time  in 
Edinburgh,  the  duke  addressed  a  letter  to  them,  in  which  he 
stated  his  claims,  and  appealed  to  them  as  the  ministers  of  peace 
to  assist  him  in  his  anxious  design  of  pacifying  the  country, 
and  prayed  them,  "  in  God's  behalf,  to  make  his  mind  and  in- 
tention known  to  the  people."     He  likewise  requested  them  to 
send  some  of  their  number  to  "  reason  with  himself,  whom 
they  should  find  easy  to  be  ruled  in  all  matters  according  to 
God's  word  and  equity."     To  this  letter  the  assembly  cau- 
tiously replied,  "  that  they  should  communicate  his  grace's 
letter  to  the  regent,  and  ascertain  whether  it  was  his  pleasure 
that  they  should  send  any  of  their  number  to  treat  with  the 
duke."    Accordingly,  the  Assembly  appointed  the  superinten- 
dents of  Lothian  and  Fife,  with  John  Row,  minister,  to  treat 
with  the  regent  for  license  to  hold  a  conference  with  the  duke. 
The  regent's  license  seems  to  have  been  obtained ;  and  the 
superintendents  so   far  succeeded  in  their  mission  that  the 
duke  agreed  to  go  to  Glasgow  and  submit  himself  to  the  re- 
gent's authority  ;  stipulating,  however,  that  he  and  his  friends 
should  be  restored  to  their  honours  and  possessions.     On  the 
other  hand,  Moray  required  that  the  duke  should  give  security 
for  the  continuance  of  himself  and  his  friends  in  obedience 
to  the  existing  government,  when  they  should  all  be  accepted. 
The  earls  of  Argyle  and  Huntly  refused  to  be  included  in 
this  agreement ;  and,  before  the  security  was  given,  the  duke 
himself  began  to  regret  the  facility  with  which  he  had  com- 
promised the  rights  of  his  sovereign.     He  came  to  Edinburgh, 


15G9.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  211 

but  desired  to  procrastinate  his  submission  till  the  month  of 
May,  when  the  two  earls  might  be  expected,  and  the  queen's 
will  Imown.     He  was  informed  that  the  two  earls  were  treat- 
ing separately  for  themselves,  and  he  was  asked  what  he  in- 
tended to  do  in  case  the  queen  should  refuse  her  consent.    He 
answered,  with  more  ingenuousness  than  prudence,  "  that  he 
was  drawn  against  his  will  to  make  the  promise  he  had  made, 
and  that  if  he  were  freed  of  it  he  would  never  consent  to  the 
like."     This  answer  being  deemed  unsatisfactory,  the  duke 
and  the  Lord  Herries  who  accompanied  him,  were  committed 
close  prisoners  to  the  Castle^.     Sir  James  Balfour  says,  "  In 
February  of  the  year   1569,    the  earl  of  Moray,  regent,   re- 
turned out  of  England,  where  he  had  remained  since  the  21st 
of  September  in  the  preceding  year.     The  regent  having  laid 
a  sure  foundation  for  the  young  king  with  Queen  Elizabeth, 
and  also  lulled  Queen  Mary  asleep  with  hopes  of  her  enlarge- 
ment, that  he  might  the  more  easily  catch  her  friends,  calls  a 
convention  of  the  estates  of  the  realm  to  meet  at  Edinburgh, 
immediately  after   his  return.      Amongst  the  first,  come  the 
Duke  of  Chatelherault  and  the  Lord  Henies ;  them  both  he 
catches,  and  commits  to  close  prison  in  the  Castle  of  Edin- 
burgh 2." 

The  commissioners  were  also  intrusted  with  petitions  from 
the  church,  to  be  presented  to  the  regent,  to  whom  they  were 
far  more  obedient  and  respectful  than  they  had  been  to  their 
lawful  sovereign,  to  request  that  beneficed  persons  not  having 
functions  in  the  church,  or  in  other  words,  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic incumbents,  and  subject  only  to  payment  of  thirds,  should 
be  compelled  to  contribute  for  sustentation  of  the  poor ;  that 
i\  remedy  might  be  provided  against  the  chopping  and  chang- 
ing of  benefices,  diminution  of  rentals,  and  subletting  of 
tithes  on  long  leases,  on  purpose  to  defraud  the  protestant 
ministers  and  their  successors ;  that  pluralities  might  be 
abolished  ;  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  church  might  be  sepa- 
rated from  the  state ;  and  that,  without  incumng  his  grace's  or 
the  privy  council's  displeasure,  they  might  launch  the  Assem- 
bly's thunders  at  the  earl  of  Huntly,  who  had  displaced  the 
church's  collectors,  and  substituted  his  own  in  their  place, 
and  by  his  own  authority  ^. 

"  Such  respect,"  says  Spottiswood,  "  was  carried  at  that 
lime  to  the  civil  power,  as  the  church  could  not  proceed  in 
censures  against  men  in  prime  places  without  their  knowledge : 


1  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  p.  28. — Crawford's  Memoirs,  p.  121. 
'  Auuals,  i.  349.  ■^  Spottiswood,  b.  v.  p.  228. 


212  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

the  neglect  whereof  in  after  times  brought  with  it  great  trou- 
bles both  to  the  church  and  state."     The  spirit  of  resistance  ta 
the  supreme  power  was  gradually  unfolded  as  the  Knoxian 
church  began  to  yield  its  pretensions  to  the  Melvilian,  which 
was  entirely  based  on  resistance  to  the  authority  of  both  the 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  authorities.     Yet  in  this  petition  there 
is  a  strong  step  made  in  advance,  by  the  superintendents  pe- 
titioning the  regent  to  separate  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  ju- 
risdictions, in  imitation  of  the  gradual  encroachments  of  the 
pope,  who  commenced  by  exempting  the  clergy  and  spiritual 
persons  from  the  secular  powers.     This  claim  of  exemption 
was  afterwards,  when  the  presbyterians  were  struggling  with 
the  crown  for  an  establishment,  carried  to  the  full  extent  of 
entire  exemption  from  the  power  of  the  civil  judge.     It  is  the 
prerogative  of  the  crown  to  call  synods  of  the  clergy,  and  to 
preside  in  them,  and,  in  consequence,  to  give  ecclesiastical 
canons  or  decrees  the  force  of  civil  law,  which  the  clergy  of 
themselves  cannot  do.    The  sovereign  has  found  it  necessary  at 
all  times  to  preside  in  all   the  Scottish   general  assemblies, 
in  order  to  jirotect  his  own  rights,  and   to  guard  against  a 
strong  inclination  in  that  body  to  assume  to  themselves  the 
exercise  of  the  civil  power  and  its  prerogatives.     Some  eccle- 
siastical causes  are  founded  on  the  civil  laws,  such  as  the  pro- 
bate of  wills,  certificates  of  bastardy,  legal  divorces,  and  simi- 
lar causes  ;  which,  although  in  their  o\\'n  nature  they  may  be 
spiritual,  yet  the}^  have  the  temporal  penalties  annexed  to  them 
of  heresy,  excommunication,  &c.,  and  consequently  must  be 
cognizable  by  the  civil  law.     The  Assembly  were  now  dis- 
posed to  draw  all  such  causes  to  their  own  bar  as  had  formerly 
been  judged  by  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  and  the  other 
popish  bishops,  in  their  consistory  courts.     But  the  spirit  of  re- 
sistance to  the  civil  power  had  not  yet  taken  full  possession  of 
the  assemblies — that  spirit,  which  should  be  driven  out  into  a 
herd  of  swine,  was  reserved  for  another  system  which  had  not 
as  yet  been  mooted  ;  and  it  was  not  till  the  ministers  disputed 
the  authority  and  place  of  the  superintendents,  that  they  fell 
I'rom  one  evil  to  another,  and  set  at  nought  the  just  authority 
of  the  sovereign,  which  is  called  by  St.  Paul  "  the  ordinance 
of  God."    This  Assembly  decreed  that  the  University  of  St.  An- 
drews should  confer  degrees  in  divinity  on  competent  persons ; 
and  also  ordained  that  superintendents  should  command  the 
readers,  who  held   an    office    equivalent  to  deacons  in   the 
church,  to  abstain  from  administering  the  sacraments,  under 
the  pain  of  being  accused  as  abusers,  and  criminal  ^ 

'  Ciilderwood's  True  Hist.  4.0. — Spottiswood,  b.  v.  p.  228. 


1569.]  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND.  213 

As  a  proof  of  the  zeal  with  which  the  regent  was  now  actu- 
ated for  the  advancement  of  the  protestant  cause,  he  arrested 
four  Roman  Catholic  clergymen  at  Dunblane,  who  were  tried 
and  readily  convicted  of  having  celebrated  mass,  and  they  were 
condemned  to  be  hanged,  in  terms  of  the  act  of  parliament ; 
but,  by  an  ostentatious  display  of  mercy,  he  commuted  their 
sentence  fi'om  the  gallows  to  being  baited  at  the  stake  by  the 
rabble.  He  ordered  them  to  be  chained  to  the  market-cross  at 
Stirling,  habited  in  their  vestments,  with  their  books  and  chalices 
collected  beside  them.  When  the  rabble  had  pelted  their  per- 
sons with  stones,  filth,  and  other  missiles,  for  the  space  of 
an  hour,  their  books  and  vestments  were  burnt  by  the 
hands  of  the  common  hangman.  At  St.  Andrews,  Mother 
Nicknevin,  a  reputed  sorceress,  was  condemned  for  that  imagi- 
nary crime,  and  cruelly  burnt  alive.  Knox  was  present  at 
this  cruel  imitation  of  the  papal  system,  and  addressed  the 
wretched  woman. 

According  to  the  regent's  severe  policy,  Paris,  a  French- 
man, was  executed  by  his  order,  as  one  of  the  inferior  actors 
in  the  horrid  drama  of  the  gunpowder  plot,  of  which  the 
regent  was  himself  reputed  the  chief  instigator.  The  noble 
characters  in  that  tragedy  were  bound  by  their  own  self- 
interest  to  keep  the  secret  of  Moray's  share  of  the  guilt,  and, 
besides,  were  too  powerful  for  his  arm  openly  to  reach ;  but 
the  inferior  actors  were  easily  removable  under  the  colour  of 
law  and  justice,  and  execution  once  done  on  them,  they  could 
not  impeach  their  superiors.  Paris  solemnly  asserted  the 
queen's  innocence  on  the  scaffold.  The  regent  hanged  Wil- 
liam Stuart,  the  lord  lyon-king-at-arms,  on  a  charge  of  necro- 
mancy, but  in  reality  for  his  firm  uncompromising  attachment 
o  his  imprisoned  sovereign  ^. 

Another  Assembly  met  this  year  in  July,  at  Edinburgh, 
from  whom  commissioners  were  sent  to  the  regent  and  parlia- 
ment, then  sitting  at  Perth,  to  renew  their  application  of  last 
year,  to  which  they  had  received  no  answer,  far  less  any  re- 
dress ; — "  that  a  portion  of  the  tithes  might  be  allotted  for  the 
sustentation  of  the  poor, — the  labourers  of  the  ground  be  per- 
mitted to  gather  the  tithes  of  their  proper  corns,  paying  for 
the  same  a  reasonable  duty, — and  that  the  thirds  of  benefices, 
being  really  separated  from  the  two  other  parts,  the  collectors 
of  the  church  might  peaceably  intromit  therewith,  for  the 
more  ready  payment  of  the  ministers,  according  to  their  as- 
signations."    But  the  impoverished  ministers  were  doomed 

>  Crawford,  Mem.  128.— Balfom's  Anmh,  i.  345. 


214  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

again  to  feel   that  disappointment  of  "  hope  deferred  which 
makcth  the  heart  sick." 

In  this  Assembly,  Cresswell,  superintendent  of  Argyle, 
was  rebuked  for  accepting  the  bishopric  of  the  Isles,  without 
having  previously  received  the  Assembly's  sanction  ;  and  for 
having  assisted  at  the  riding  and  deliberations  of  the  parlia- 
ment summoned  by  the  queen  after  the  murder  of  her  hus- 
band. They  approved  of  superintendent  Erskine  of  Angus's 
visitation  of  Marischal  College,  Aberdeen,  and  of  his  depriva- 
tion of  the  principal  and  some  of  the  professors,  and  which  had 
been  confirmed  by  government.  The  regent  required  the 
Assembly  to  subscribe  the  following  declaration  ;  which  must 
be  a  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  those  who  reckon  Knox's 
polity  to  have  been  after  the  presbyterian  model,  for  here  the 
members  of  the  Assembly  are  sworn  to  the  maintenance,  in 
strict  integrity,  of  his  episcopal  establishment: — "  We,  whose 
names  are  underwritten,  do  ratify  and  approve  from  our  very 
hearts  the  confession  of  faith,  together  with  all  other  acts 
concerning  our  religion,  given  forth  in  the  parliament  holden  at 
Edinburgh  the  24th  day  of  August,  15G0,  and  the  15th  De- 
cember, 1567  ;  and  join  ourselves  as  members  to  the  true 
kirk  of  Christ,  whose  visible  face  is  described  in  the  said  act, 
and  shall  in  time  coming  be  participant  of  the  sacraments 
now  most  faithfully  and  publicly  ministered,  and  submit  us  to 
the  jurisdiction  and  discipline  thereof  ^" 

1570. — On  the  23d  January,  the  earl  of  Moray,  in  passing 
through  Linlithgow,  fell  by  the  hand  of  a  vile  assassin,  which 
made  his  miserable  country  such  a  prey  to  factions  and  tumults, 
that  at  no  ibrmer  time  had  there  been  such  anarchy.  After 
his  death  the  highways  were  covered  with  robbers ;  nor  durst 
the  unfortunate  traveller  who  escaped  from  these  banditti  pro- 
fess his  attachment  either  for  the  queen,  or  the  infant  occupy- 
ing her  place,  lest  he  who  asked  the  question  should  murder 
him  to  evince  his  own  loyalty.  "  In  short,"  says  Crawford, 
"  order  was  wholly  banished,  justice  lay  buried  and  unseen, 
and  many  found  now,  when  too  late,  that  the  kingdom  suffered 
more  in  one  year  by  civil  war,  than  by  obeying,  in  many,  the  most 
barbarous  tyrants."  By  the  intrigues,the  gold,  and  the  menaces 
of  Elizabeth,  who  was  the  queen  de  facto,  Matthew  earl  of 
Lennox,  and  grandfather  to  the  prince,  was  appointed  regent. 
He  was  an  Englishman  born,  his  whole  property  lay  in  Eng- 
land, and,  besides,  he  left  his  wife  as  a  hostage  in  Elizabeth's 
hand,  to  preserve  him  firm  in  his  allegiance  to  her,  and  to 

'  Calderwood's  True  Ilist.  45. 


1570.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  215 

secure  her  sovereignty  over  Scotland,  which,  by  the  guilty 
policy  of  the  former  regent,  she  had  acquired.  The  ministers 
were  dismayed  and  horror-struck  with  this  inhuman  murder ; 
and  being  at  the  time  in  convocation,  ordained  that,  in  detes- 
tation of  it,  the  murdcrei",  with  all  the  parties  concerned  in  it, 
should  be  excommunicated  in  all  the  principal  burghs  of  the 
kingdom.  This  most  detestable  assassination  was  committed  by 
a  Mr.  Hamilton,  from  motives  of  private  revenge,  and  shows 
the  barbarous  manners  and  maxims  of  the  age.  Moray  was 
in  the  thirty-eighth  year  of  his  age  when  he  was  cut  off  in  this 
dreadful  manner.  He  recommended  the  young  prince  to  the 
care  of  those  nobles  who  were  present  in  his  apartment,  and 
died  a  little  before  midnight- 

The  following  are  the  remarks  of  archbishop  Spottiswood 
on  this  detestable  murder,  with  whom  the  regent  was  evidently 
a  favourite : — "  The  death  of  the  regent  was  by  all  good  men 
greatly  lamented,  especially  by  the  commons,  who  loved  him 
as  their  father  whilst  he  lived,  and  now  mourned  grievously  at 
his  death.  The  great  things  he  had  wrought  in  his  life,  (hav- 
ing in  the  space  of  one  year  and  a  little  more  quieted  the  state, 
which  he  found  broken  and  disordered),  made  his  very  enemies 
speak  of  him  after  his  death  with  praise  and  commendation. 
Above  all,  his  virtues,  which  were  not  a  few,  shined  in  piety 
towards  God,  ordering  himself  and  family  in  such  sort,  as  it 
did  more  resemble  a  church  than  a  court.  For  therein,  besides 
the  exercise  of  devotion  which  he  never  omitted,  there  was  no 
wickedness  to  be  seen,  nay,  not  an  unseemly  or  wanton  word 
to  be  heard.  A  man  truly  good,  and  worthy  to  be  ranked 
amongst  the  best  governors  that  this  kingdom  hath  enjoyed, 
and  therefore  to  this  day  honoured  with  the  title  of  the  good 
regent^y 

This  Assembly  chiefly  occupied  their  session  with  making 
laws  and  constitutions  for  their  own  governance ;  among 
others,  an  act  for  the  inauguration  of  ministers  at  their  entry, 
— meaning  such  ordination  as  they  could  give  ;  "  whereunto 
(says  Spottiswood)  the  revolt  of  some  preachers  gave  occa- 
sion, that,  forsaking  the  pulpit,  took  to  pleading  of  causes 
before  the  lords  of  session."  To  this  course  the  ministers  wei'e 
probably  driven  by  the  state  of  poverty  and  utter  destitution 
to  which  they  were  reduced  by  the  rapacity  and  avarice  of  the 
nobility,  who  had  robbed  the  church  of  her  just  rights,  and  by 
the  retention  of  the  benefices  by  the  Romish  clergy ;  and  perhaps 

Spottiswood;  b.  V.  pp.  233-34. 


216  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP,  VH- 

to  the  lessons  of  contentious  wrangling  which  they  learnt  in  the 
court  of  session  maybe  ascribed  that  spirit  of  resistance  to  both 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  authority  which  unhappily  actuated 
them,  and  which  increased  in  the  succeeding  ages.  The  division 
of  labour  between  the  pulpit  and  the  bar  naturally  produced  a 
litigious,  captious  disposition,  and  an  inclination  to  interfere  in 
all  the  broils  which  distracted  that  miserable  kingdom  during  the 
sixteenth  century;  and  its  misery  was  entirely  occasioned  by  its 
misgovernment,  rebellion,  and  ecclesiastical  insubordination. 
The  Assembly  enacted,  that  five  thousand  merks  should  be 
paid  annually  out  of  the  thirds,  for  support  of  the  prince's 
household.  During  the  actual  reign  of  the  queen,  Knox  vehe- 
mently contended  against  such  an  appropriation  of  the  thirds, 
as  he  said  it  was  bestowing  a  share  of  that  miserable  pittance 
"  on  the  devil."  They  also  enacted  that  the  complaints  of  the 
want  of  superintendents  which  were  so  frequently  made  from 
many  parts  of  the  kingdom,  that  had  not  yet  been  supplied, 
owing  to  the  scarcity  of  men  duly  qualified  for  the  office, 
"  shall  be  heard  and  provided  for,  according  to  the  necessities 
of  the  country^." 

The  country  was  harassed  by  internal  wars  and  tumults, 
and  by  invasions  on  the  side  of  England.  Lennox  was  queen 
Mary's  bitter  enemy,  and  persecuted  her  loyal  friends  and  ad- 
herents, who  composed  the  greater  part  of  her  people,  with  un- 
relenting fury.  The  gallant  and  loyal  Huntly  was  in  arms  for  her 
interest,  and  had  garrisoned  the  church  of  Brechin,  but  which 
was  taken  by  the  regent,  who  hanged  the  whole  garrison  on 
the  spot,  consisting  of  seventy-five  individuals.  Their  captain 
purchased  his  life  with  a  large  sum  of  money  and  the  greatest 
part  of  his  estate.  John  Kelso,  a  protestant  minister,  was 
strangled  and  burnt  for  the  murder  of  his  wife  ;  and  two  men, 
for  an  unnatural  crime,  were  dipped  three  times  into  the  North - 
Loch,  into  which,  at  that  time,  the  common  sewers  ran,  and 
afterwards  were  buried  alive'^.''^ 

In  the  many  convulsions  and  revolutions  of  the  state,  which 
were  constantly  occurring  at  this  period,  the  protestant  minis- 
ters were  so  far  from  being  passive  agents,  that  they  openly 
aggravated  the  crimes  unjustly  charged  against  the  queen. 
Contrary  to  every  precept  of  the  christian  religion,  which  they 
ought  to  have  taught,  they  stirred  up  and  increased  the  blind 
zeal  of  the  furious  people,  inflamed  their  discontent,  and 
openly  preached,  "  that  to  pray  for,  or  to  forgive  our  real  or 

>  Spottiswood,  D.  V.  p.  235.  '  Crawford. 


1570.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  217 

reputed  enemies,  was  no  part  of  a  christian's  duty."  They  ap- 
plied all  their  inferences  to  maintain  the  lawfulness  of  rebellion ; 
and  "that  kings  and  queens,  the  Almighty's  lieutenants  on  earth , 
were  accountable  to  the  people,  as  lawful  judges  of  all  their 
actions."  John  Knox  was  incontrovertibly  the  head  of  the 
church,  being  the  pope,  as  it  were,  over  all  superintendents 
and  ministers,  and  although  he  possessed  the  richest  benefice 
in  the  kingdom,  yet  he  set  the  example  of  refusing  to  pray 
for  the  queen  in  public,  which  was  immediately  followed  by 
the  other  ministers.  A  young  gentleman  named  Innes  chalked 
a  severe  reprimand  on  Knox's  door,  for  his  disloyalty  and 
uncharitable  invectives  against  the  persecuted  queen,  who 
required  his  prayers  now  more  than  ever. 

On  the  Sunday  after  the  regent's  murder,  Knox  preached 
entirely  on  civil  affairs  ;  and  after  long  and  bitterly  inveighing 
against  her  majesty  and  all  her  adherents,  and  paying  a  high 
eulogium  on  her  enemies  and  the  usurpers  of  her  throne,  with 
some  notes  of  admiration  on  treason  and  rebellion,  all  of  which 
he  affirmed  to  be  the  cause  of  God  and  religion,  he  concluded 
with  these  remarkable  words — "  What  others  may  think  I 
know  not,  neither  do  I  care  ;  but  Mary  Stuart  never  was  a 
queen  in  my  opinion,  and  I  am  sure  she  is  none  now  \  nor 
shall  I  ever  be  forced,  against  the  light  of  my  own  conscience, 
to  acknowledge  her  hereafter,  instead  of  our  sovereign,  since 
God  and  the  people  of  this  land  have  laid  her  justly  aside  for 
her  crying  sins."  Nor  did  he  stop  here,  but,  assembling  the 
other  city  ministers,  they  unanimously  resolved, "  That  for  ever 
hereafter  no  clergyman  should  presume  to  pray  for  the  queen, 
she  being  utterly  unworthy  of  such  a  benefit  ^"  The  majority 
of  the  people  were  loyal  to  the  queen,  and  were  only  prevented 
from  re-seating  her  on  the  throne  of  her  ancestors,  by  the 
power  of  the  regent,  who  was  openly  assisted  by  the  queen  of 
England.  Knox's  assertion,  that  her  majesty  was  "  laid  aside 
by  God  and  the  people,"  is  to  maintain  that  God  is  the  author 
of  rebellion,  against  which  He  has  denounced  the  heaviest 
penalties,  seeing  it  is  as  the  sin  of  witchcraft,  and  is  almost  never 
repented  of,  and  to  call  that  faction  the  people,  which  con- 
sisted only  of  a  small  minority  of  the  nation. 

In  the  Assembly  held  in  the  early  part  of  the  year  a  number 
of  complaints  were  heard  against  Adam  Bothwell,  titular 
bishop  of  Orkney,  who  had  been  appointed  superintendent  ot 
liis  own  diocese ;  one  of  which  was,  that  he  still  kept  up  the 

*  Crawford. 
vor.  I  2  F 


218  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIE. 

style  and  title  of  bishop  of  Orkney  with  the  addition  of  "  the 
reverend  father  in  God."  This  bishop  or  superintendent  was 
never  ordained  to  any  holy  function  in  the  church,  but,  like 
many  of  the  Scoto-Romish  prelates  of  that  day,  was  a  mere 
layman. 

The  twenty-second  General  Assembly  met  in  July,  and 
passed  an  ordinance  to  oblige  ministers  at  their  admission  to 
protest  solemnly  that  they  would  never  desert  their  vocation 
to  follow  secular  pursuits,  under  the  pain  of  intamy  and  per- 
jury ^  James  Carmichael,  master  of  the  Grammar-school  oi 
St.  Andrews,  brought  a  charge  against  Mr.  Hamilton,  minister 
of  that  city,  for  some  points  of  doctrine  delivered  in  the  pulpit. 
Spottiswood  says  these  points  are  not  expressed ;  but  most 
likely  they  involved  high  treason,  for  the  chancellor  and  privy 
council  sent  a  deputation  to  the  Assembly  "  to  require  them  to 
forbear  all  decision  in  that  matter,  seeing  ii  concerned  the  king's 
authority,  and  contained  some  heads  tending  to  treason  which 
ought  to  be  tried  by  the  nobility  and  council,  willing  them  not 
the  less  to  proceed  in  such  things  as  did  appertain  to  their 
own  jurisdiction."  The  Assembly  judged  this  reasonable,  and 
yielded  obedience  :  "  so  far  were  they  in  those  times  from  de- 
clining the  king  and  council  in  doctrines  savouring  of  treason 
and  sedition,  as  they  did  deem  them  competent  judges  thereof." 
It  was  not  till  after  the  spirit  of  Andrew  Melville  began  to 
brood  over  the  assemblies,  that  they  took,  and  have  ever  since 
continued  to  assume,  the  initiative  in  civil  affairs,  and  to  enact 
laws  which  were  only  competent  for  parliament.  A  commission 
was  given  to  the  superintendent  of  Angus  and  Mearns,  with 
several  ministers,  to  confer  with  the  duke  of  Chatelherault  and 
the  other  lords  in  the  queen's  interest,  and  endeavour  to  bring 
them  to  acknowledge  the  king's  authority  ;  and  they  were  autho- 
rised to  menace  these  noble  lords  with  the  spiritual  sword  of 
excommunication,  in  case  they  should  resist  their  persuasions^. 
This  was  an  imitation  of  the  papal  thunder ;  neither  would 
it  have  been  an  empty  threat  had  the  ministers  actually  de- 
nounced it ;  for  it  would  have  involved  the  loss  of  the  whole 
property  of  these  noblemen,  which  would  have  been  thereby 
escheat  to  the  crown. 

1571. — The  exhortations  of  the  ministers,  and  their  inflam- 
matory harangues,  were  of  essential  service  to  the  regent  in  con- 
solidatinghispowerby  excitingthepopularprejudices  in  his  fa- 
vour, and  which  induced  him  to  persecute  the  loyalists  with  in- 

^  Calderwood,  p.  47.  '  Siiottiswood,  b.  v.  p.  242. 


1571.]  CHLRCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  '219 

creased  rigour.  The  castle  of  Dunbarton  was  held  for  the 
queen,  but  which  the  regent  was  determiued  to  reduce.  It 
was  taken  by  one  of  the  most  daring  stratagems  on  record ;  and 
John  Hamilton,  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  was  found  in  it ; 
who  was  marked  out  for  instant  destruction,  as  a  loyalist, 
and  as  one  of  the  loyal  family  of  Hamilton.  He  was  sent 
to  Stirling,  and  indicted  for  high  treason,  and  of  being 
"  participand  of  king  Henry's  murder."  Finding  the  court  de- 
termined on  his  ruin,  he  conducted  himself  with  firmness  and 
moderation  ;  but  as  the  court  could  not  prove  any  of  the  charges 
against  him,  he  was  unjustly  condemned,  on  a  former  forfeiture 
of  one  of  the  rebel  parliaments,  and  hanged  immediately;  and 
to  add  insult  to  injustice,  he  was  hanged  in  his  episcopal  robes, 
over  the  battlements  of  Stirling  Castle, — a  lasting  memorial 
of  Lennox's  sacrilegious  cruelty  and  revenge,  and  a  revolting 
specimen  of  the  manners  of  the  age.  We  have  now  witnessed 
the  murder  of  two  archbishops  of  St.  Andrews ;  a  third  was 
added  at  a  subsequent  period,  all  of  which  are  justified  and 
gloried  in  to  this  day, — a  sure  sign  that  the  guilt  of  blood  sticks 
to  that  guilty  land,  as  whosoever  says  "  God  speed"  to  a  man 
is  partaker  in  his  sin.  The  judicial  murder  of  the  archbishop 
was  hurried  over,  in  order  to  prevent  Elizabeth  from  saving 
him  by  an  exertion  of  the  royal  prerogative,  inasmuch  as  she 
was  the  sovereign  de  facto, — the  regent  being  merely  her  vice- 
roy. This  sacrilegious  murder  was  the  occasion  of  a  civil  war, 
which  set  the  father  against  the  son,  and  the  son  against  the 
father,  and  desolated  the  kingdom  for  two  years  ^. 

"  This  was  the  first  bishop,"  says  Spottiswood,  "  that 
suffered  by  form  of  justice  in  this  kingdom.  A  man  he  was 
of  great  action,  wise,  and  not  unlearned,  but  in  life  somewhat 
dissolute.  His  death,  especially  for  the  manner  of  it,  did  greatly 
incense  his  friends,  and  was  disliked  of  divers,  who  wished  a 
greater  respect  to  have  been  carried  to  his  age  and  place.  But 
the  suspicion  of  his  guiltiness  in  the  murders  of  the  king  and 
regent  made  him  of  the  common  sort  less  resetted.  It  is  said, 
that,  being  questioned  of  the  regent's  murder,  he  answered, 
*  that  he  might  have  stayed  the  same,  and  was  sorry  he  did  it 
not.'  But  when  he  was  charged  with  the  king's  death,  he 
denied  the  same.  Yet  a  priest,  called  Thomas  llobinson,  that 
was  brought  before  him,  affirmed  that  one  John  Hamilton  had 
confessed  to  him,  on  his  death-bed,  that  he  was  present  by  his 
direction  at  the  murder.  Whereupon  he  (the  archbishop)  re- 
plied, '  that,  being  a  priest,  he  ought  not  to  reveal  confessions ; 
and  that  no  man's  confession  could  make  him  guilty.'     But 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  p.  252. — Crawford. 


220  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

for  none  of  those  points  was  he  condemned,  nor  the  ordinary 
form  of  trial  used,  though  he  did  earnestly  request  the  same  ; 
only  upon  the  forfeiture  laid  against  him  in  parliament  he  was 
put  to  death,  and  the  execution  hastened,  lest  the  queen  of 
England  should  have  interceded  for  his  life^" 

Few  transactions  can  more  decidedly  shew  by  what  evil 
passions  men  were  governed  in  the  period  under  review,  than 
the  murder  of  this  distinguished  prelate,  who  fell  a  sacrifice  to 
private  revenge  under  the  colour  of  justice,  and  to  the  political 
and  religious  distractions  of  the  country  ;  and  few  men  have 
suffered  more  injustice  from  the  envenomed  tongues  and  pens 
of  political  and  religious  adversaries  than  John  Hamilton,  the 
last  Roman  catholic  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews.  He  was  the 
natural  brother  of  the  regent  Arran,  and,  according  to  the  pre- 
vailing sin  of  his  church  and  of  his  age,  he  was  "  somewhat  dis- 
solute ;"  but  there  is  no  evidence  sufficient  to  connect  him 
with  the  base  and  unnatural  murders  of  Darnley  and  Moray. 
Spottiswood  only  gives  it  as  a  rumour, — it  is  said;  and  when  we 
consider  the  reckless  and  uncharitable  way  in  which  the  most 
atrocious  accusations  were  then  circulated  against  political  and 
religious  adversaries,  such  loose  evidence  as  it  is  said,  cannot 
be  received  as  proof  by  the  impartial  historian.  Although  his 
advice  to  his  sovereign  might  not  have  been  always  the  most 
judicious,  yet,  amidst  all  the  treachery  with  which  she  was 
surrounded,  he  remained  faithful  to  her  to  the  last.  After  the 
unfortunate  battle  of  Langside,  when  "  all  but  honour  was 
lost,"  he  attended  the  unhappy  queen  as  far  as  the  Solway  ; 
and  on  seeing  that  she  was  determined  to  reject  his  advice, 
leave  her  own  kingdom,  and  throw  herself  into  the  power  of  her 
rival,  he  waded  knee-deep  into  the  water,  held  back  her  boat, 
and  conjured  her  by  every  argument  which  his  agitated  mind 
could  suggest  not  to  trust  her  person  in  England.  Finding 
all  his  efforts  vain,  he  took  a  final  and  melancholy  leave  of  his 
sovereign,  as  if  he  had  a  presentiment  of  the  violent  and  bloody 
deatli  which  awaited  both  her  and  himself,  His  next  concern 
was  to  provide  for  his  own  personal  safety,  which  could  only 
be  done  by  seeking  shelter  among  his  friends,  who,  although 
depressed  by  their  recent  defeat,  were  not  subdued,  but  were 
numerous  and  powerful.  He  lurked  amongst  his  friends  of 
the  name  of  Hamilton  for  some  time;  but  at  length  took 
shelter  in  the  strong  hold  of  Dmibarton  Castle  on  the  Clyde, 
which  was  held  for  queen  Mary.  Immediately  after  the  battle 
of  Langside,  the  regent  Moray  proclaimed  him  a  traitor,  and 
on  whom  he  would  have  done  execution  had  he  fallen  into  his 

*  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  p.  252. 


1571.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  221 

hands;  but  his  own  murder  prevented  that  act  of  wickedness. 
"  There  is  some  ground,"  says  Mr.  Skinner,  "  to  suspect  that 
the  earl  of  Morton,  who  had  been  gaping  for  the  revenues  ot 
St.  Andrews,  and  who  managed  Lennox  as  he  pleased,  had 
been  the  chief  promoter  of  the  primate's  hasty  fate  ;  for,  im- 
mediately on  his  death,  he  solicited  so  strongly  for  the  rich 
temporalities  of  that  see,  that  by  threatening  to  leave  the  court 
in  case  of  a  refusal,  so  overawed  Lennox,  who  could  not  do 
without  him,  that  he  obtained  a  gift  of  them  ;  which,  through 
all  the  various  forms  of  polity  that  ensued,  he  took  care  not  to 
part  with." 

Kirkaldy  of  Grange,  who  had  been  intrusted  by  the  regent 
Moray  with  the  command  of  Edinburgh  Castle,  returned  to 
his  duty  to  the  queen ;  and  the  loyal  nobility  assembling  in 
Edinburgh,  the  Duke  of  Chatelherault  summoned  a  parlia- 
ment to  meet  on  the  12th  of  June,  in  the  name  and  by  the  au- 
thority of  the  queen,  wherein,  "  by  authority  of  parliament,  they 
ordained  the  said  pretended  dimission,  renunciation,  and  over- 
giving  of  the  crown  by  the  queen,  consequently  the  corona- 
tion of  her  son,  and  the  usurped  government  of  the  regent,  to 
have  been  from  the  beginning  null,  and  of  no  force  nor  effect; 
and,  therefore,  commanded  all  the  subjects  to  acknowledge 
the  queen  for  their  sovereign."  At  the  same  time  they  enacted, 
"  that  none  should  innovate  or  alter  the  fonn  of  religion  and 
ministration  of  the  sacraments,  as  at  present  professed  and  esta- 
blished within  the  realm."  The  act  also  commanded  all  super- 
intendents, ministers,  and  readers,  to  pray  publicly  in  the 
churches  for  the  queen,  as  their  only  sovereign,  the  prince 
her  son,  the  council,  the  nobility,  and  the  whole  body  of  the 
commonwealth.  On  the  13th  June  these  statutes  were  pro- 
claimed at  the  market-cross  with  the  usual  formalities.  Len- 
nox likewise  summoned  a  parliament  to  meet  at  Stirling, 
in  the  prince's  name,  on  the  28th  of  August,  when  he  pro- 
cured a  sentence  of  forfeiture  to  be  passed  against  the  duke 
of  Chatelherault,  and  all  the  loyal  nobility.  Commissioners 
from  the  assembly  presented  a  petition  to  this  parliament, 
craving  that  benefices  may  be  only  bestowed  on  qualified  per- 
sons, and  that  incest  and  other  grievous  crimes  may  be 
punished.  The  regent  approved  of  this  petition,  but  the  earl 
of  Morton  reproached  them  with  contumelious  words,  and 
vowed  to  lay  their  pride  and  put  order  to  them.  The  super- 
intendent of  Fife  inhibited  John  Douglas,  rector  of  the  univer- 
sity of  St.  Andrews,  and  who  was  elect  of  the  archbishopric, 
from  voting  in  parliament  in  name  of  the  kirk,  under 
pain  of  excommunication  ;  but   Morton  commanded  him  to 


222  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  VII. 

vote  as  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  under  pain  of  treason. 
In  the  parliament  held  at  Stirling,  the  regent  Lennox  pro- 
duced the  young  prince,  and  made  a  speech  to  the  estates, 
during  which  the  prince,  looking  up  to  the  roof,  discovered  a 
hole,  in  consequence  of  some  slates  having  been  displaced, 
and  at  its  conclusion  archly  observed,  "  I  think  there  is  a  hole 
in  this  parliament."  "  Ominous  words,  which,  says  Balfour, 
were  found  true  ;  for  in  the  same  month,  about  the  ending  of 
the  parliament,  there  came  to  Stirling  in  the  night,  ere  the 
nobility  or  town  knew,  the  earl  of  Huntly,  the  queen's  lieu- 
tenant, Claud  Hamilton,  with  the  lairds  of  Buccleugh  and 
Ferniherst ;  and  ere  day  broke,  had  possessed  themselves  of 
the  town,  crying  '  for  God  and  the  queen  !'  so  that  those  that 
were  for  the  king  and  his  regent,  for  the  multitude  of  enemies 
could  not  come  to  a  head,  but  wherever  they  could  see  any 
that  belonged  to  the  regent,  they  killed  him  without  mercy." 
The  lord  Claud  Hamilton  took  advantage  of  the  security  un- 
der which  the  regent  and  the  nobility  of  his  party  lived  at 
Stirling,  to  undertake  to  surprise  them  and  revenge  his  uncle 
the  archbishop's  death.  A  little  before  sunset  on  the  2d  Sep- 
tember, he  and  a  party  consisting  of  200  horse  and  300  foot, 
started  from  Edinburgh,  and  ardved  at  Stirling  about  sunrise 
next  morning.  The  regent  was  taken  prisoner  by  Scott  of 
Buccleugh,  and  was  immediately  mounted  behind  him,  for 
the  purpose  of  being  carried  off;  but  unhappily,  "  ane  wicked 
fellow  lift  up  his  jack,  and  shot  him  through  the  body  with  his 
pistol.  The  earl  of  Lennox,  thus  killed  by  a  pack  of  wicked 
traitors,  who  departed  the  town  immediately,  and  the 
earl  of  Marre  declared  regent,  concluded  the  parliament. 
This  was  the  hole  which  the  young  king  did  see  in  the 
parliament,  although  he  meant  nothing  less^."  Lennox  was 
interred,  without  any  ceremony,  in  the  chapel  of  the  castle. 
He  was  entirely  under  the  influence  of  Morton,  who  had  such 
an  ascendancy  over  him  that  Crawford  says  he  could  have 
made  him  forfeit  his  word  of  honour  ten  times  in  a  day.  Spot- 
tiswood,  however,  says,  that  after  commending  the  prince  to  the 
care  of  the  nobility,  and  sending  his  love  to  Meg  his  wife,  "  he 
took  leave  of  them  all  one  by  one,  requesting  them  to  assist 
him  with  their  prayers,  in  which  he  himself  continued  some 
hours,  and  so  most  devoutly  ended  his  life.  A  man  he  was  of 
noble  qualities,  tried  with  both  fortunes  ;  and  if  he  had  enjoyed 
a  longer  and  more  peaceable  time,  he  had  doubtless  made  the 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  350,  351.— Spottiswood,  b.  v.  256,  257.— Crawford's 
Memoirs. 


1571.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  223 

kingdom  happy  by  his  government."  The  queen's  parliament 
at  Edinburgh  also  passed  bills  of  forfeiture  against  the  nobility 
on  the  prince's  side^ 

At  this  time  the  kingdom  suffered  all  the  horrors  of  civil  war 
and  the  inveterate  rancour  of  domestic  faction.  Knox  being  a 
violent  partisan  of  the  prince's  government,  was  obliged  to  leave 
Edinburgh  and  retire  to  St.  Andrews,  during  the  time  that  the 
loyalists  held  that  city,  and  the  bishop  of  Galloway  occupied 
his  church  and  pulpit.  On  the  5th  September,  the  earl  of  Marr 
was  elected  regent  by  the  prince's  party;  and  the  whole  king- 
dom being  divided  in  their  allegiance  amidst  these  civil  dis- 
sensions, the  General  Assembly  took  the  side  of  the  prince, 
and  issued  an  ordinance  that  he  should  be  acknowledged  as 
king,  and  prayed  for  accordingly. 

In  the  beginning  of  November  the  regent  Marr  discharged 
the  collectors  of  the  kirk  from  gathering  the  thirds,  because  it 
was  alleged  that  neither  the  ministers'  stipends  nor  the  part 
allotted  to  the  use  of  the  king  were  paid  ;  which  would  imply 
embezzlement  on  the  part  of  that  "  earnest  professour"  the 
laird  of  Pittarrow,  whom  the  kirk  had  already  consigned  to  the 
devil.  This,  however,  was  supposed,  and  not  improbably,  to 
have  been  a  plot  of  Morton's,  who  had  made  a  simoniacal  agree- 
ment with  Douglass,  whom  he  had  presented  to  the  see  of  St. 
Andrews,  with  the  reservation  of  the  revenues  to  himself  On 
this  occasion,  Mr.  Erskine  of  Dun,  the  superintendent  of 
Angus  and  Mearns,  wrote  what  Calderwood  calls  "  a  prolix 
letter"  on  the  subject  of  tithes  ;  the  part  relating  to  vi^hich  is 
here  subjoined,  and  that  also  which  relates  to  the  episcopal 
office  and  duties  of  the  superintendents. 

He  maintains  that  the  tithes  belong  wholly  and  solely  to 
the  kirk,  "  which  only  has  the  ministration  and  distribution  of 
s])iritual  things.  Since  by  the  kirk  spiritual  offices  are  distri- 
buted, and  men  received  and  admitted  thereto,  and  the  admi- 
nistration of  the  power  is  remitted  by  the  kirk  to  bishops  and 
superintendents  ;  wherefore,  to  the  bishops  and  superinten- 
dents pertain  the  examination  and  admission  (ordination)  of 
men  into  benefices  and  offices  of  spiritual  cure,  whatsoever 
benefice  it  be,  as  well  bishoprics,  abbacies,  and  priories,  as 
other  benefices.  That  this  pertains,  by  the  Scriptures  of  God, 
to  the  bishop  or  superintendent  is  manifest;  for  the  apostle 
Paul  writes,  in  the  2d  epistle  to  Timothy,  chap.  ii.  v.  2, '  These 
things  that  thou  hast  heard  of  me,  many  bearing  witness,  the 
same  deliver  to  faithful  men,  who  shall  be  able  to  teach  others.' 

1  Crawford.— Spottiswood,  b.  v.  252—257. 


224  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

Thus  the  apostle  refers  the  examination  to  Timothy,  of  the 
quality  and  ability  of  the  person,  when  he  says  to  men  able 
to  teach  others ;  and  also  the  admission  (ordination)  he  refers, 
where  he  bids  him  deliver  to  him  the  same  that  is  able  to 
teach  others.  And  in  another  place,  1  Timothy,  chap.  v. 
verse  22,  •  Lay  hands  on  no  man  suddenly,  neither  be  par- 
taker of  other  men's  sins  :  keep  thyself  pure.'  By  laying  on 
of  hands  is  understood  admission  to  spiritual  offices,  the  which 
the  apostle  wills  not  that  Timothy  do  suddenly,  without  just 
examination  of  their  manners  and  doctrine.  The  apostle  also, 
writing  to  Titus,  bishop  of  Crete,  puts  him  in  remembrance  of 
his  office,  which  was  to  admit  and  appoint  ministers  in  every 
city  and  congregation  ;  and,  that  they  should  not  do  the  same 
rashly  and  without  examination,  he  expressed  the  qualities  and 
conditions  of  all  men  that  should  be  admitted,  as  at  length  is 
contained  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  epistle  aforesaid.  The 
deacons  that  were  chosen  at  Jerusalen  by  the  whole  congrega- 
tion were  received  and  admitted  by  the  apostles,  and  that  by 
the  laying  on  of  their  hands,  as  St.  Luke  writes  in  the  6th  chap- 
ter of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Thus  we  have  expressed 
plainly  by  Scripture,  that  to  the  office  of  a  bishop  pertains 
examination  and  admission  into  spiritual  cure  and  office,  and 
also  to  oversee  them  that  are  admitted,  that  they  walk  up- 
rightly and  exercise  their  office  faithfully  and  purely  ;  to  take 
this  power  from  the  bishop  or  superintendent  is  to  take  away 
the  office  of  a  bishop,  that  no  bishop  be  in  the  kirk.  There  is 
a  spiritual  jurisdiction  and  power  which  God  has  given  unto 
His  kirk  and  to  them  that  bear  office  therein  ;  and  there  is  a 
temporal  jurisdiction  and  power  given  of  God  to  kings  and 
civil  magistrates.  Both  the  powers  are  of  God,  and  most  agree- 
ing to  the  fortifying  one  of  the  other  if  they  be  rightly  used. 

As  to  the  question,  if  it  be  expedient  a  superintendent 

be  where  a  qualified  bishop  is  ?  I  understtmd  that  a  bishop  or 
superintendent  to  be  but  one  office,  and  where  the  one  is  the 
other  is  ^" 

It  is  not  surprising  that  Calderwood  has  entirely  suppressed 
this  remarkable  letter,  which  is  valuable  in  so  far  as  it  incon- 
trovertibly  proves  that  the  Knoxian  kirk  was  not  presbyterian, 
but  that  it  was  altogether  episcopalian ;  the  names  only  hav- 
ing been  changed,  but  not  the  offices,  to  mark  the  intense 
hatred  which  they  felt  for  the  papal  church.  It  is  a  singular 
delusion  by  which  they  were  blinded  to  the  necessity  of  cano- 
nical  ordination,  and  the  laying  on  of  hands,  which  Knox 

>  Bannatyne's  Jour.  p.  279,  cited  in  Scot.  Ep.  Mag.  ii.  p.  26.     Anno  1821. 


1571.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  225 

declared  to  be  unnecessary ;  yet  in  this  well-reasoned  letter 
the  superintendent  quotes  Scripture  to  shew  the  necessity  and 
the  apostolic  institution  of  the  imposition  of  hands.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  Knox  intended  the  superintendents  to  be  perma- 
nent officers  of  his  devout  scheme,  for  he  himself  ordained  (that 
is,  in  his  language,  admitted)  no  less  than  ten  of  them,  before 
the  Concordat,  which  will  shortly  be  mentioned,  when  the  old 
names  of  offices  were  restored. 

The  General  Assembly  met  in  the  month  of  August,  "and 
gave  commission  to  certain  brethren  to  go  to  the  lord  regent, 
his  grace,  and  to  the  parliament,  humbly  to  request  and  desire, 
in  the  name  of  the  kirk,  the  gi'antiug  of  such  heads  and  articles, 
and  redress  of  such  complaints,  as  should  be  given  to  them  by 
the  kirk."  At  that  period  parliaments  were  of  very  short  dura- 
tion, and,  in  fact,  they  only  met,  as  it  were,  to  register  the  king 
or  regent's  edicts,  as  all  things  were  prepared  in  readiness  be- 
fore their  sitting  down.  Proclamation  was  made  a  month  or 
so  before  the  meeting  of  parliament,  requiring  all  bills  to  be 
given  in  to  the  lord  registrar,  which  were  to  be  presented  in 
the  succeeding  session  of  parliament,  that  they  might  be 
brought  to  the  king  or  regent,  to  be  perused  or  considered  by 
them,  and  such  only  as  they  allowed  were  to  be  put  into  the 
chancellor's  hands  to  be  proposed  to  the  parliament,  and  none 
other.  The  Assembly,  therefore,  knew  what  subjects  affecting 
the  church  would  be  discussed  in  the  ensuing  parliament, 
and  what  farther  spoliation  of  its  property  was  to  be  carried 
with  an  appearance  of  law.  Those  noblemen  who  held  the 
church  lands  had  seized  them  by  violence,  without  any  other 
title  than  that  of  possession,  because  the  removal  of  the  Romish 
hierarchy  had  left  its  property  without  a  legal  possessor.  But 
an  act  was  made  in  this  parliament,  "  obliging  all  the  sub- 
jects who  in  former  times  had  held  their  land  and  possessions 
of  priors,  prioresses,  convents  of  friars  and  nuns,  thereafter 
to  hold  them  of  the  crown."  "  This,"  says  Sage,  "  was  an 
awakening,  an  alarming  act ;  those  who  heretolbre  had  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  the  church's  patrimony  had  done  it  by 
force  or  by  connivance,  without  law  and  without  title ;  so 
there  were  still  hopes  of  recovering  what  was  possessed  so 
illegally  ;  but  this  was  to  give  the  sacrilegious  possessors  law 
on  their  side.  As  things  should  now  stand,  it  would  be  an  easy 
matter  to  obtain  grants,  now  that  the  crown  was  made  the  imme- 
diate superior  :  and  then  there  would  be  no  recovering  from  the 
laity  what  was  then  possessed  by  colour  of  law.  It  was  indeed 
an  awakening  act,  and  roused  the  donnant  spirit  of  the  minis 
ters,  and  set  their  wits  to  work.  Now  they  began  to  see  the  error 
\OL.  I.  2  G 


226  HISTORY  OF  THE     "  [cHAP.  VII. 

of  drawing  the  new  scheme  of  polity  in  the  First  Book  of  Dis- 
cipUne,  and  receding  from  the  old  polity :  now  they  sensibly 
felt  that  making  a  new  scheme  had  unhinged  all  the  church's 
interests,  exposed  her  patrimony,  and  made  it  a  prey  to  the 
ravenous  laity  ;  and  that  it  was  therefore  time  to  bethink 
themselves,  and  by  their  strength  and  skill,  if  possible,  to  put 
a  stop  to  such  notorious  robbery  ^"  Accordingly,  Knox  wrote 
to  the  Assembly  which  was  then  sitting  at  Stirling, — "Because 
the  daily  decay  of  natural  strength  doth  threaten  me  with  a  cer- 
tain and  sudden  departing  from  the  misery  of  this  life,  I  ex- 
hort you,  brethren,  yea,  in  the  fear  of  God,  I  charge  you,  to 
take  heed  to  yourselves,  and  the  flock  over  which  God  hath 
placed  you  ministers.  What  your  behaviour  should  be,  I  am 
not  now,  nor  have  I  need,  as  I  think,  to  express,  but  to  charge 
you  to  be  faithful  I  dare  not  forget.  And  unfaithful  ye  shall 
be  counted  before  the  Lord  Jesus,  if,  with  your  consent,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  you  suffer  unworthy  men  to  be  thrust  into 
the  ministry  of  the  church,  under  whatsoever  pretext.  Re- 
member the  Judge  before  whom  we  must  give  account,  and 
flee  this  as  you  would  eschew  hell  fire.  This  will  be  a  hard 
battle,  I  grant ;  but  there  is  a  second  will  be  harder, — that  is, 
to  withstand  the  merciless  devourers  of  the  church's  patri- 
mony. If  men  will  spoil,  let  them  do  it  to  their  own  peril 
and  condemnation  ;  but  communicate  ye  not  with  their  sins, 
of  what  estate  soever  they  be,  neither  by  consent  nor  silence, 
but  with  public  protestation  make  known  to  the  world,  that 
ye  are  innocent  of  such  robbery,  and  that  ye  will  seek  redress 
thereof  at  the  hands  of  God  and  man.  God  give  you  wis- 
dom, strength,  and  courage  in  so  good  a  cause,  and  me  a 
happy  end  2." 

The  murder  of  the  earl  of  Lennox,  the  regent,  threw  affairs 
into  confusion,  and  nothing  farther  was  done  at  that  time  ;  but 
his  successor,  the  earl  of  Marr,  app6inted  a  meeting  of 
the  Assembly,  for  the  following  January,  for  the  adjustment  of 
all  the  matters  in  dispute. 

"  At  this  time,"  says  Spottiswood,  "  the  churchmen  began 
to  think  somewhat  more  seriously  of  the  policy  of  the  church 
than  before  ;  for  the  first  draught  being  neither  liked  univer- 
sally among  themselves,  nor  approved  by  the  council,  they 
saw  it  needful  to  agree  upon  a  certain  form  of  government  that 
might  continue.  Unto  this  time  the  church  had  been  governed 
bv  superintendents  and  commissioners  of  comities,  as  they  were 

1  Fund.  Ch.  of  Presbytery,  p.  181,  182.— Spottiswood,  b.  v.  p.  258. 
-  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  pp.  257-8. 


1571.]  CHTTRCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  227 

then  named.  The  commissioners  were  alterable,  and  were 
either  changed,  or  had  their  commissions  renewed,  in  every 
Assembly.  The  superintendents  held  their  office  during  life, 
and  their  power  was  episcopal;  for  they  did  elect  and  ordain 
ministers,  they  presided  in  synods,  and  directed  all  church 
censures;  neither  was  any  excommunication  pronounced  with- 
out their  warrant.  They  assigned  the  stipends  of  the  ministers, 
directing  the  collectors  (who  were  then  chosen  by  the  Genei-al 
Assembly)  to  distribute  the  thirds  of  benefices,  as  they  thought 
convenient.  If  any  surplusage  was  found  in  the  accounts  the 
same  was  given  by  their  appointment  to  the  supply  of  the  public 
state  ;  and  in  such  respect  were  they  with  all  men,  as  notwith- 
standing the  dissensions  that  were  in  the  country,  no  exceptions 
were  taken  at  their  proceedings  by  any  of  the  parties,  but  all 
concurred  in  the  maintenance  of  religion,  and  in  the  treaties  of 
peace  made,  that  was  ever  one  of  the  articles ;  such  a  reverence 
was  in  those  times  carried  to  the  church,  the  very  form  pur- 
chasing them  respect.  But  the  church  considering  that 
things  could  not  long  continue  in  that  state,  the  superintendents 
being  grown  in  years,  and  most  of  them  serving  on  their  own 
charges,  which  burthen  it  was  not  to  be  hoped  others  when 
they  were  gone  would  undergo,  thought  meet  to  intercede  with 
the  regent  and  estates,  for  establishing  a  sure  and  constant 
order  in  providing  men  to  those  places,  when  they  should  fall 
void,  and  settling  a  competent  moyen  for  their  entertainment. 
To  this  effect,  commission  was  given  to  the  superintendents  of 
Lothian,  Fife,  and  Angus,  and  with  them  were  joined  David 
Lindsay,  Andrew  Hay,  John  Row,  and  George  Hay.  These 
were  appointed  to  attend  the  parliament,  and  deal  with  the 
regent  and  estates,  that  some  course  might  be  taken  in  that 
business.  But  the  regent's  death,  and  the  troubles  which 
thex'eupon  issued,  made  all  to  be  continued  for  that  time^" 

So  heavy  had  the  Knoxian  interdict  fallen  upon  the  land, 
that  at  this  time  there  were  only  252  ministers,  157  exhorters, 
and  508  readers,  and  which,  with  the  exception  of  four,  were  all 
laymen.  And  so  scarce  were  the  ministers,  that  to  07ie  was 
committed  the  administration  of  the  sacraments  for  the  whole 
county  of  Peebles.  It  was  many  years  before  the  country  could 
adapt  itself  to  "  the  violent  disordered"  state  which  the  refor- 
mation introduced ;  and  in  the  interval  so  much  immorality 
was  produced  as  has  never  been  entirely  eradicated  2. 

*  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  p.  258. 

2  Note  to  Life  and  Times  of  Archbishop  Hamilton  in  Episcopal  Magazine, 
V.  ii.  p.  337. 


228  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

1572. — On  the  12th  of  January  the  Assembly  met  at  Leith, 
"  where,  after  great  instance  made  with  the  regent  and  council, 
for  settling  the  policy  of  the  church,"  it  was  determined  that 
six  members  of  the  privy  council  should  meet  an  equal  number 
of  members  of  Assembly,  "  to  treat,  reason,  and  conclude  upon 
that  business."  The  privy  council  appointed  the  earl  of 
Morton,  then  lord  chancellor;  lordRuthven;  the  abbot  of  Dum- 
fermline;  Macgill,  keeper  of  the  rolls;  Sir  John  Bellenden, 
lord  Justice  Clerk;  and  Mr.  Colin  Campbell ;  and  the  Assem- 
bly nominated  the  superintendents  of  Angus,  Fife  and  Orkney, 
the  commissioners  of  Clydesdale,  and  the  West,  with  Mr. 
Craig,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh.  The  meeting 
took  place  accordingly ;  and,  "  after  divers  meetings  and  long 
deliberation,  grew  to  the  conclusions  following  :"  which  were, 
in  effect,  that  the  old  polity  should  be  revived  ;  only  with  some 
trifling  alterations  which  the  change  that  had  taken  place 
in  religion  seemed  to  render  necessary : — 

1.  That  the  archbishoprics  and  bishoprics  presently  void 
should  be  disponed  to  the  most  qualified  of  the  ministry. 

2.  That  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  should  be  exercised  by  the 
bishops  in  their  dioceses. 

3.  That  all  abbots,  priors,  and  other  inferior  prelates,  who 
should  happen  to  be  presented  to  benefices,  should  be  tried  by 
the  bishop  or  superintendent  of  the  bounds,  concerning  their 
qualification  and  aptness  to  give  voice  for  the  church  in  parlia- 
ment, and  upon  their  collation  be  admitted  to  the  benefice,  and 
not  otherwise. 

4.  That  to  the  bishoprics  presently  void,  or  that  should  hap- 
pen hereafter  to  fall  void,  the  king  and  regent  should  recommend 
fit  and  qualified  persons  ;  and  their  elections  be  made  by  the 
chapters  of  the  cathedral  church.  And  forasmuch  as  divers 
of  the  chapters'  churches  were  possessed  by  men  provided  be- 
fore his  majesty's  coronation,  who  bare  np  office  in  the  church, 
a  particular  nomination  should  be  made  of  ministers  in  every 
diocese,  to  supply  their  room,  until  the  benefices  should  fall 
void. 

5.  That  all  benefices  of  cure  under  prelacies  should  be  dis- 
posed to  actual  ministers,  and  to  none  other. 

6.  That  the  ministers  should  receive  ordination  from  the 
bishop  of  the  diocese,  and,  where  no  bishop  was  yet  placed, 
from  the  superintendent  of  the  bounds. 

7.  That  the  bishops  and  superintendents  at  the  ordination 
of  ministers,  should  exact  of  them  an  oath  for  acknowledging 
his  majesty's  authority,  and  for  obedience  to  their  ordinary 


1572.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  229 

in  all  things  lawful,  according  to  the  form  then  condescended 


on^ 


The  above  articles  are  from  archbishop  Spottiswood's 
History ;  and  as  Caldervvood's  object  was  to  misrepresent  the 
ecclesiastical  transactions  of  that  period  for  the  purpose  of  im- 
posing the  belief  on  his  readers  that  the  Knoxian  scheme  was 
pi'esbyterian,  his  account  of  this  Concordat  is  also  subjoined. 

They,  the  twelve  commissioners  aforesaid,  "  think  good  in 
consideration  of  the  present  estate,  that  the  names  and  titles  of 
archbishops  and  bishops  are  not  to  be  innovated,  nor  yet  the 
bounds  of  the  dioceses  confounded,  but  to  stand  and  continue 
in  time  coming  as  they  did  before  the  reformation  of  religion  ; 
at  the  least,  till  the  king's  majority,  or  consent  of  parliament. 
That  there  be  a  certain  assembly  or  chapter  of  learned  minis- 
ters annexed  to  every  metropolitan  and  cathedral  seat.  That 
the  dean,  or,  failing  the  dean,  the  next  in  dignity  in  the 
chapter,  use  the  jurisdiction  in  spirituals  as  the  bishop  might 
have  used  during  the  time  of  the  vacancy.  That  all  arch- 
bishops and  bishops  that  shall  be  admitted  thereafter,  exercise 
no  farther  jurisdiction  in  spiritual  functions  than  the  superinten- 
dents have  and  presently  do  exercise,  till  the  same  be  agreed 
upon.  And  that  all  archbishops  and  bishops  be  subject  to  the 
kirk  and  General  Assembly  thereof  in  spiritualibus,  as  they  are  to 
the  king  in  temporalibus,  and  have  the  advice  of  the  best  learned 
of  the  chapter  to  the  number  of  six  at  least,  in  the  admission  of 
such  as  shall  have  function  in  the  kirk ;  as  also  that  it  be  lawful 
to  as  many  others  of  the  chapter  as  please,  to  be  present  at  the 
admission  and  to  vote  thereanent^." 

In  short,  the  deputies  from  the  General  Assembly,  and  those 
from  the  privy  council,  agreed  that  the  old  polity  should  be  re- 
vived and  take  place,  only  with  some  little  alterations,  which 
seemed  necessary  from  the  change  that  hadbeen  made  inreligion. 
This  was  the  second,  but  not  a  new  model,  of  the  polity  as  esta 
blished  in  the  Church  of  Scotland  subsequent  to  the  reformation, 
and  that  too  during  Knox's  life-time,  but  at  a  very  considerable 
distance  from  presbyterian  equality  among  the  ministers. 
Indeed,  the  episcopal  government  was  so  decided  and  manifest, 
that  neither  of  the  two  presbyterian  champions — Petrie  and 
Calderwood — have  the  assurance  to  deny  it,  although  ihey 
attempt  to  invalidate  the  legality  of  that  Assembly,  and  have 
been  followed  by  all  subsequent  historians  of  that  particular 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  p.  260. — Heylin's  History  of  the  Presbyterians,  b.  v. 
p.  180. 

*  Calderwood,  pp.  .50,  51. 


230  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CH-V.?.  VII. 

bias.  The  constitution  which  was  settled  by  the  free  vote  and 
consent  of  this  General  Assembly  was  much  the  same  as  we 
have  ever  since  had  in  the  times  of  real  episcopacy.  For  by  this 
agreement  those  who  were  to  have  the  old  prelatical  power  were 
also  to  have  the  old  prelatical  names  and  titles  of  archbishops 
and  bishops;  the  old  division  of  the  dioceses  was  to  take  place; 
the  patrimony  of  the  church  was  to  run  much  in  the  old 
channel ;  particularly,  express  provision  was  made  that  chap- 
ters, abbots,  priors,  &c.  should  be  continued,  and  enjoy  their 
old  rights  and  privileges  as  churchmen  ;  and,  in  general,  things 
were  put  into  a  regular  course,  to  continue  without  alteration 
till  the  prince  should  come  of  age  ^ 

Calderwood  and  Petrie  are  both  exceedingly  anxious  to  in 
validate  the  authority  of  this  Leith  Assembly,  and,  among 
various  other  reasons,  they  object,  that  the  bishops  could  noi, 
be  any  thing  more  than  the  superintendents  had  been,  "  from 
the  limitedness  of  the  power  which  was  then  granted  to 
bishops."  They  insist  strongly  on  this  very  trifling  objection, 
and  it  is  very  true  they  had  not  any  more  power ;  but  we  have 
already  enumerated  no  less  than  thirty  marks  of  episcopal  pre- 
eminence which  the  superintendents  enjoyed.  These  were,  in 
effect,  bishops,  and  possessed  all  the  power  of  bishops,  the 
name  only  differing,  and  was  any  thing  but  that  parity  among 
the  ministers,  which,  Calvin  says,  "  breedeth  strifes."  Though 
those  bearing  the  name  of  bishop  had  no  more  power  than 
those  who  bore  the  name  of  superintendent,  yet  their  privileges 
were  more  extensive  ;  the  former  were  not  answerable  to  their 
own  diocesan  synods,  as  the  latter  inconsistently  were,  but 
only  to  the  General  Assembly  of  the  whole  national  church. 
It  has  long  been  objected  that  this  was  not  a  free  Assembly. 
That  this,  however,  was  not  the  sentiment  of  the  church 
itself,  is  obvious  from  many  subsequent  Assemblies  having 
frequently  allowed,  approved  of,  and  insisted  on,  its  validity  ; 
and,  even  after  episcopacy  was  called  in  question,  it  cost  the 
presbyterian  party  much  struggling  and  many  years  of  con- 
tention before  they  could  abolish  it.  "  Would  all  subsequent 
Assemblies,"  says  Sage,  "  have  suffered  these  bishops  to  sit 
and  vote  as  such  in  the  national  convocations?  Would  they 
have  tried  and  censured  them  as  bishops  ?  Would  they  have 
put  them  to  their  duty  as  bishops,  if  they  had  not  owned  them 
as  bishops  ?  And,  was  there  any  other  foundation  for  own- 
ing them  as  bishops  at  that  time,  except  the  agreement  at 
Leith  1?" 

'  Fuiidaiientul  Cluirtcr  of  Presbytery,  p.  185  6.  ^  Ibid.  p.  201. 


1572.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  231 

At  the  first  session  of  this  General  Assembly,  on  the  12  th 
of  January,  Mr.  Fergusson,  the  minister  of  Dumfermline,  was 
appointed  to  preach  before  the  regent,  privy  council,  and  the 
Assembly ;  and  he  shewed  in  vivid  but  true  colours  the  state 
of  utter  demoralization  of  the  people,  and  the  inefficiency  of 
the  reforming  ministers  to  occupy  the  place  which  they  had 
seized  in  such  a  tumultuary  and  irregular  way. 

"  There  the  same  accusations  and  com])laints  that  God 
used  of  old  by  his  prophet  against  the  Jews,  serve  this  day 
against  them  that  are  like  the  Jews  in  transgression ;  yea, 
they  serve  against  us.  For  this  day  Christis  spoiled  amongst  us, 
while  that  which  ought  to  maintain  the  ministry  of  the  kirk 
and  the  poor  is  given  to  profane  men,  flatterers  in  court ^ 
ruffians,  and  hirelings  :  the  poor  in  the  meantime  are  oppressea 
with  hunger,  the  kirks  and  temples  decaying  for  lack  of  minis- 
ters and  upholding,  and  the  schools  utterly  neglected.  But  now 
to  speak  of  your  temples  where  the  Word  of  God  should  be 
preached,  and  the  sacraments  ministered,  all  men  see  to  what 
miserable  ruin  and  decay  they  are  come;  yea,  they  are  so  pro- 
faned, that,  in  my  conscience,  if  I  had  been  brought  up  iii 
Germany,  or  in  any  other  country  where  Christ  is  truly 
preached,  and  all  things  done  decently  and  in  order,  accord- 
ing to  God's  Word,  and  heard  of  that  purity  of  religion  that  is 
among  you,  and  for  the  love  thereof  had  taken  travel  to  visit 
this  land,  then  I  should  have  seen  the  foul  deformity  and  deso- 
lation of  your  kirks  and  temples,  which  are  more  like  sheep-cots 
than  the  house  of  God,  I  could  not  have  judged  that  there  had 
been  any  fear  of  God  or  right  religion  in  most  part  of  this 
reahn  :  and  as  for  the  ministers  of  the  Word,  they  are  utterly 
neglected,  and  come  in  manifest  contempt  amongst  you:  ye  rail 
upon  them  at  your  pleasure.  Of  their  doctrine,  if  it  serve  not 
your  turn,  and  agree  not  with  your  appetites,  ye  are  become 
impatient ;  and,  to  be  short,  we  are  now  made  your  table-talk, 
whom  ye  mock  in  your  mirlh,  and  threaten  in  your  anger. 
This  is  what  moves  me  (let  men  judge  as  they  list)  to  lay  before 
yom-  eyes  the  miserable  estate  oi  the  poor  kirk  of  Scotland,  that 
thereby  ye  may  be  provoked  to  pity  it,  and  to  restore  the  things 
that  unjustly  ye  spoiled  it  of  Cleanse,  then,  your  hands  of  all 
impiety,  especially  of  sacrilege,  whereby  ye  spoiled  the  poor, 
the  schools,  the  temples  and  ministers  of  God's  Word ;  yea, 
Christ  himself  1." 

In  consequence  of  the  agreement  or  concordat  at  Leith,  the 
vacant  bishoprics  were  filled  up.     John  Douglas,  provost  Oi 

^   Cited  by  Rev.  C.  J.  Lyon,  in  Episc.  Mag.  new  series,  v.  ii.  p.  340. 


232  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VII. 

the  New  College  St.  Andrews,  and  who  had  formerly  been 
domestic  chaplain  to  Morton,  was  by  his  influence  advanced  to 
the  see  of  St.  Andrews  ;  James  Boyd  to  the  see  of  Glasgow ; 
James  Paton  to  that  of  Dunkeld ;  and  Andrew  Graham  to 
Dunblane.     The  other  sees  were  already  occupied  ^     After 
the  judicial  murder  of  archbishop  Hamilton,  the  revenues  of 
the  see  of  St.  Andrews  were  bestowed  on  the  avaricious  earl  of 
Morton  ;  but  he,  wishing  to  enjoy  his  unjust  possession  with 
some  colour  of  decency,  made  a  simoniacal  bargain  with  John 
Douglas,  his  own  chaplain,  who  had  been  a  Carmilite  friar,  to 
accept  the  title,  to  whom  he  paid  one  hundred  pounds  out  of 
its  legal  revenues,  and  appropriated  all  the  remainder  to  him- 
self.     Douglas  was  in  consequence  elected  titular  archbishop 
(titular,  for  want  of  real  ecclesiastical  consecration)  and  he  was 
accordingly  admitted  to    this  archbishopric  by  the  General 
Assembly,  which  met  at  Perth  in  the  following  August  2.    The 
regent  issued  a  commission  to  Robert  Stewart,  titular  bishop 
of  Caithness,  and  two  superintendents,  to  consecrate  Douglas. 
"  Though,"  says  Keith,  "  there  be  no  ground  to  think  that  this 
person  was  ever  duly,  and  according  to  the  constant  invariable 
usage  of  the  primitive  catholic  church,  vested  with  any  sacred 
character  at  all,  yet  it  is  a  little  diverting  to  observe  how  the 
men  at  the  helm  of  public  affairs  in  those  days,  grant  commis- 
sion to  him  to  assist  in  the  consecration  of  other  men  to  the 
sacred  office  of  bishop.     I  persuade  myself  the  preamble  Oi 
the  following  commission  will   surprise  most  people : — Our 
sovereign  lord,  with  advice,  &c.  ordains  ane  letter  to  be  made 
under  the  Great  Seal  in  due  form,  direct  to  the  reverend  father 
in  God,  Robert  bishop  of  Caithness,  and  the  superintendents  of 
Angus,  Fife,  Lothian,  or  any  other  lawful  bishops  or  superin- 
tendents within  this  realm  .  .  .  . ;  commanding  them  to  con- 
secrate the  said  Mr.  John  Douglas,  elected,  as  said  is,  ane 
bishop  and  pastor  of  the  metropolitan  kirk  of  St  Andrews 

at  Leith,  the  9th  day  of  February,  in  the  year  of 

God,  1571-2." 

Douglas  was  old  and  infirm,  and  held  several  offices  besides, 
so  that  it  was  hardly  possible  that  he  could  conscientiously  dis- 
charge the  functions  of  them  all.    John  Knox,  who  was  present 

'  Cruickshanks  on  this  occasion  says — "  But  Satan,  envying  the  prosperity  of 
this  infant  chui-ch,  excited  some  of  the  statesmen  against  her,  who,  having  posses- 
sion of  the  churches'  rents  and  the  prelates'  benefices,  contrived  a  method  for  secur- 
ing the  possession  of  them  for  themselves,  by  getting  some  Tulchan  bishops,  as 
they  were  called,  who  might  have  the  name  of  the  whole  benefice,  but  receive  only 
a  small  part  of  the  revenue,  leaving  the  rest  in  the  hands  of  these  nobles." 

*  Keith's  Cat.  of  Scot.  Bish.  edited  by  bishop  Russel,  p.  39  and  216. 


1572.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  233 

at  St,  Andrews  at  the  time,  complained  of  this  accumulation 
of  offices  ;  and  when  he  found  that  the  General  Assembly  had 
confirmed  Douglas  in  possession  of  his  pluralities,  he  remon- 
strated against  their  decision,  and  protested  against  the  union 
of  so  many  offices  in  the  person  of  an  infirm  old  man.    "  Here 
we  may  see,"  said  he, "  what  corruption  the  kirk  has  now  come 
unto,  that  puts  more  upon  the  back  of  one  old  unable  man 
than  ten  persons  are  able  to  bear;  for,  after  he  was  chosen 
bishop,  the  university  continued  him  rector,  which  is  enough 
for  one  to  discharge ;  now,  also,  he  is  continued  in  the  pro- 
vostry  of  the  New  College,  which  likewise  is  sufficient  for  one 
man's  charge  ;    besides  his  bishopric,  which  six  good  able 
men  could  do  no  more  than  discharge  that  cure  ;  and  yet, 
nevertheless,  all  this  is  laid  upon  his  back,  a  man  both  unable 
to  travel  in  body  as  a  man  should  do,  and  more  unable  of  his 
tongue  to  teach,  the    principal  office  of  a  bishop  ^"      There 
could  not,  however,  be  a  stronger  proof  of  Knox's  approba- 
tion, if  his  opinion  is  to  be  the  genuine  standard  and  authority 
for  the  divine  right  of  Episcopacy,  than  his  having  preached  at 
the   admission  of  archbishop  Douglas.     After  this  event  ec- 
clesiastical affairs  proceeded  in  a  regular  way,  only  that  these 
titular  bishops  and  superintendents  had  no  canonical  ordina- 
tion, but  were  mere  laymen,  and  had  no  spiritual  character 
whatever.     Knox  not  only  preached  at  the  inauguration,  but 
he  was  also  one  of  those  who  elected  Douglass  in  conformity 
with  the    conge  (Teslire ;   and  therefore,  under  such  circum- 
stances, his  protest  against  the  office  of  a  bishop,  and  that  too 
in  the  face  of  his  own  institution  of  superintendents,  whom 
his  friend  Erskine  asserted  were  the  same  in  office  as  bishops, 
would  have  been  the  utmost  stretch  of  inconsistency.    Presby- 
terian authors  have  asserted  that  the  restoration  of  the  name 
of  bishops  was  a  contrivance  of  the  nobility  in  the  prince's  inte- 
rest, for  a  general  spoliation  of  the  church.     The  regent  him- 
self was  really  favourable  to  the  Knoxian  church  ;  and  what- 
ever views  of  farther  sacrilege  others  may  have  entertained, 
his  plan  of  restoring  the  ancient  titles  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  one  of  the  most  sagacious  for  that  purpose.     "  If  the 
court,"  says  bishop  Sage,  "  had  such  a  design  as  is  pretended, 
I  must  confess  1  do  not  see  how  it  was  useful  for  them  to  fall 
on  such  a  wild  project  for  accomplishing   their   purposes. 
Why  be  at  all  this  pains  to  re-establish  the  old  polity,  if  the 
only  purpose  was  to  rob  the  church  of  her  patrimony  ?  Might 
not  that  have  been  done  without  as  well  as  with  it  ?     Could 

>  Bannatyne's  Journal,  331,  (cited  in  Epis.  Mag.  ii.  33.) 
VOL.   1.  2  H 


•23-1  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

they  have  wished  the  church  in  weaker  circumstances  for  as- 
serting her  own  rights  than  she  was  in  before  this  agreement  ? 
Was  it  not  as  easy  to  have  possessed  themselves  of  a  bishop- 
ric, an  abbacy,  or  a  priory,  when  there  were  no  bishops,  nor 
abbots,  nor  priors,  as  when  there  were  ?  What  a  pitiful  po- 
lity, or  rather  what  an  insolent  wickedness,  was  it,  as  it  were, 
to  take  a  coat  which  was  no  man's,  and  put  it  on  one  and 
possess  him  of  it,  and  call  it  his  coat,  that  they  might  rob  him 
of  it  ?  Or,  making  the  uncharitable  supposition  that  they  could 
have  ventured  on  such  a  needless,  such  a  mad  fetch  of  ini- 
quity, were  all  the  clergy  so  short-sighted  that  they  could  not 
penetrate  into  such  a  palpable,  such  a  gross  piece  of 
cheatery  ?"  ^ 

Another  Assembly  met  at  St.  Andrews  on  the  6th  March, 
and,  according  to  Calderwood,  John  Douglas,  the  newly  ap- 
pointed archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  with  John  Knox,  and 
several  others,  were  appointed  by  the  Assembly  a  committee, 
to  meet  in  Knox's  house,  to  revise  the  articles  agreed  on  at 
Leith  in  January  2.  The  result  of  their  inquiries  is  not  re- 
corded ;  which  shews  that  the  articles  of  Leith  had  been  satis- 
factory to  the  committee  and  the  church  generally.  As  cer- 
tain superintendents  had  been  established  within  the  diocese  of 
St.  Andrews,  and  they  were  still  to  be  continued,  it  became 
necessary  to  exempt  them  from  the  new  archbishop's  jurisdic- 
tion. Accordingly,  the  Assembly  passed  an  act  "  ordaining 
the  superintendent  of  Fife  to  use  his  ownjurisdiclion,  as  before, 
in  those  provinces  not  subject  to  the  archbishop  of  St.  An- 
drews ;  and  requesting  him  to  concur  with  the  said  archbishop 
in  his  visitations,  or  otherwise  when  he  required  him,  until  the 
next  Assembly.  And  in  like  manner,  the  superintendents  of 
Angus  and  Lothian,  without  prejudice  of  the  said  archbishop, 
except  by  virtue  of  his  commission  3." 

On  the  6th  of  August  another  Assembly  met  at  Perth, 
when  the  superintendents  of  Angus  and  Fife,  with  several 
others,  were  oppointed  a  committee,  "  to  consider  the  heads 
and  articles  concluded  at  Leith,  January  last  by  past,  and 
what  they  find  therein  either  to  be  retained  or  altered,  to  re- 
port it  again  to  the  Assembly ;  and  ordain  all  and  sundry  bre- 
thren that  have  any  reasons  to  allege  against  the  said  conclu- 
sions, to  convene  with  the  foresaid  brethren  the  said  day,  or 
before,  and  shew  their  opinions,  with  certification  that  they 
shall  not  be  heard  after'*."    There  was  such  a  wholesome  terror 


'  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery,  p.  197.  ^  Calderwood,  55. 

'  Petrie,  375,  cited  in  Fund.  Ch.  203.  '  Calderwood,  57. 


1572.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  235 

of  popery  on  the  minds  of  the  protestants  of  that  time,  that 
thev  were  apprehensive  that  to  give  the  same  offices  the  an- 
cient names  would  infallibly  produce  popery ;  and  lest  a 
change  of  name  should  produce  a  change  of  religion,  they  ob- 
jected to  altering  the  title  of  superintendents  into  that  of  arch- 
bishops and  bishops.  Although  they  cheerfully  continued 
under  the  titular  Episcopal  government,  yet  they  preferred  the 
title  of  superintendent  to  that  of  bishop,  lest,  "  by  using  any 
such  names,  they  should  ratify,  or  consent  i'.nd  agree,  to  any 
kind  of  papistry  or  superstition  ;"  and  therefore  they  protested 
against  any  change  of  the  titles,  till  the  prince  should  come  of 
age.  The  committee  reported  to  the  Assembly,  and  the  fol- 
lowing act,  grounded  on  their  report,  was  framed  : — 

"  Forsamickle  as  in  the  Assembly^  holden  in  Leith  in  Janu- 
ary last,  certain  commissioners  were  appointed  to  travel  with 
the  nobility  and  their  commissioners,  to  reason  and  conclude 
upon  divers  articles  and  heads  then  thought  good  to  be  con- 
ferred upon  ;  according  to  which  commission  they  proceeded  at 
divers  diets  and  conventions,  and  finally  agreed,  for  that  time, 
upon  the  said  heads  and  articles,  as  the  same  produced  in  this 
Assembly  proports,  in  which,  being  considered  and  read,  are 
found  certain  names,  such  as  archbishop,  dean,  archdeacon, 
chancellor,  chapter  ;  which  names  are  thought  scandalous  and 
offensive  to  the  ears  of  many  of  the  brethren,  appearing  to 
sound  to  papistry  :  Therefore  the  whole  Assembly,  in  one  voice, 
as  well  those  that  were  in  commission  at  Leith,  as  others, 
solemnly  protest  that  they  mean  not  by  using  any  such  names 
to  ratify  or  consent  and  agree  to  any  kind  of  papistry  or  super- 
stition, and  wish  rather  the  names  to  be  changed  into  other 
names  that  are  not  scandalous  and  offensive.  And  in  like  man- 
ner, protest  that  the  said  heads  and  articles  agreed  upon  be 
only  received  as  an  interim,  till  farther  and  more  perfect  order 
may  be  obtained  at  the  hands  of  the  king's  majesty's  regent  and 
nobility,  for  the  which  they  will  press,  as  occasion  shall  serve  : 
unto  the  which  protestation  the  whole  Assembly  convened,  in 
one  voice  adhered  i." 

In  this  act,  the  Assembly  at  Leith,  which  restored  the  an- 
cient names,  is  recognised  as  a  lawful  and  free  Assembly,  and 
episcopacy  is  also  acknowledged ;  for  they  do  not  protest  against 
the  system,  but  the  name,  as  savouring  of  "  papistrie,"  against 
which  they  had  a  feverish  apprehension.  It  was  declared, 
that  by  using  the  ancient  titles  the}''  did  not  mean  to  restore 
the  popish  superstition  ;  but  it  was  agreed  that  the  name  of 

'  Calderwood,  58. 


2S6  HISTORY  OF  THL  [CHAP.  VII. 

bishop  should  be  used  for  archbishop  ;  the  chapter  be  called 
the  bishop's  assembly,  the  dean  to  be  called  the  moderator  of 
the  assembly,  and  a  report  was  ordered  to  be  made  suggest- 
ing what  names  might  be  substituted  for  archdeacon,  chan- 
cellor, abbot,  and  prior  ;  but  Spottiswood  says  that  no  such 
report  was  ever  made.  This,  says  Heylin,  "  brings  into  my 
mind  the  fancy  of  some  people  in  the  deserts  of  Africa,  who, 
having  been  terribly  wasted  with  tiffers,  and  not  able  other- 
wise to  destroy  them,  passed  a  decree  that  none  should  thence- 
forth call  them,  tigers ;  and  then  all  was  well  !"i 

This  Assembly  recognised  and  approved  of  the  appoint- 
ment of  Douglas  to  the  see  of  St.  Andrews,  James  Boyd  to 
the  archbishopric  of  Glasgow,  James  Paton  to  the  bishopric 
of  Dunkeld,  and  Andrew  Graham  to  the  bishopric  of  Dun- 
blane. Ecclesiastical  affairs  were  now  beginning  to  wear  a 
more  regular  aspect,  and  order  to  succeed  the  confusion  which 
had  hitherto  reigned.  Bishop  Russell  cites  part  of  a  letter 
from  Knox  to  the  Assembly,  in  which  he  approves  of  the  late 
arrangement,  and  "  requests  that  his  brethren  would  enact 
that  all  bishoprics  vacant  may  be  presented,  and  qualified  per- 
sons nominated  thereunto,  within  a  year  after  the  vaking 
thereof,  according  to  the  order  taken  in  Leith,  by  the  conunis- 
sioners  of  the  nobility  and  of  the  kirk,  in  the  month  of  January 
last  2."  Knox  suggests  also  that  an  act  be  made  "  decreeing  and 
ordaining  all  bishops,  admitted  by  the  order  of  the  kirk  noio 
received,  to  give  an  account  of  their  whole  rents  and  intromis- 
sions therewith  once  in  the  year  2."  And  in  furtherance  of 
the  regent's  good  intentions,  the  second  parliament  of  James 
VI.  cap.  35,  passed  an  act  for  the  "  ratification  of  the  free- 
dom of  the  true  Kirk  of  God,"  at  Stirling,  28th  August, — 
"  Item,  Our  sovereign  lord,  with  advice  and  consent  of  his 
said  regent,  the  three  estates,  and  haill  body  of  this  present 
parliament,  has  ratified,  and  by  this  preseftt  acte  ratifies  and 
approves,  all  and  quhatsomever  actes  and  statutes  made  of 
befoir  by  our  soveraine  lord,  or  his  predecessoures,  anent  the 
freedom  and  liberty  of  the  trew  Kirk  of  God  and  religion,  now 
publicly  professed  within  this  realme^." 

In  the  month  of  October,  the  earl  of  Marr,  the  regent,  died, 
his  end  having  been  hastened  by  the  confusion  and  mis- 
carriages of  his  regency.  He  was  allowed  by  both  parties  to 
have  been  a  good,  well-intentioned  man  ;  but  Morton  exer- 
cised such  an  influence  over  him  that  he  engrossed  the  whole 

'   Heylin,  lib.  v.  180-1.— Spottiswood,  b.  v.  260.— Caldervvood,  58. 

■  Hist,  of  C'h.  in  Scotland,  etc.  i.  332,  ■''  Stevenson's  Coll.  13, 


1572.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  287 

power  and  patronage,  and  the  earl  of  Marr  merely  enjoyed 
the  empty  name  of  regent.     On  the  fh-st  of  November,  Mor- 
ton was  elected  to  the  regency,  which  had  all  along  been  the 
grand  object  of  his  guilty  ambition,  and  he  was  more  thoroughly 
the  abject  creature  of  Elizabeth  than  either  of  the  preceding 
regents.     The  contentions  between  the  successful  rebels,  who 
governed  in  the  name  of  the  infant  prince,   and  the   devoted 
adherents  of  the  illustrious  but  unfortunate  queen  Mary,  pro- 
duced on  both  sides  the  most  horrible  barbarities  and  acts  ot 
tyranny  on  the  defenceless  people.     The  castle  of  Edinburgh 
was  held  for  the  queen  by  Kirkaldy  of  Grange,  and  Leith  was 
garrisoned  by  the  earl  of  Morton  in  the  name  of  the  prince ; 
and  both  parties  sent  out  detachments  to  harass  and  oppress 
the  inoffensive  inhabitants   of  the  neighbourhood.     On   one 
occasion,  Morton  burnt  all  the  corn  mills  near  Edinburgh,  and 
placing  troops  in  ambush  in  all  the  approaches  to  the  city,  he 
incercepted  the  farmers  going  to  market  with  provisions,  two 
of  whom  he  hanged,  and  branded  all  the  others  on  the  cheek. 
He  also   seized   five  women  going  to  market,  whose  sex  was 
no  protection,  one  of  whom  he  drowned,  the  others  he  ordered 
to  be  whipped,  and  branded  on  the  top  of  the  thigh.  These  bar- 
barities were  not  confined  to  one  side  ;  for  Kirkaldy  also  made 
the  most  cruel  and  revolting  reprisals.     Whoever  was  caught 
carrying  provisions  to  the  prince's  party  at  Leith  were  hanged 
where    caught ;  and   Kirkaldy   had  a  diabolical   pleasure  in 
playing  the  artillery  of  the  Castle  on  the  innocent  and  de- 
fenceless inhabitants  of  the  city  ;  so  that  for  some  time  these 
l»arbarous   cruelties  were   mutually  kept  up,  no  man  being 
spared  by  either  party,  whatever  was  his  rank,  or  howsoever 
he  was  taken  i. 

Some  days  of  fasting  and  humiliation  were  ordered  to  be 
obsei'ved  on  account  of  the  most  diabolical  massacre  of  the 
protestants  in  France,  which  filled  the  whole  kingdom  with 
terror  and  dismay.  Solemn  thanks  were  offered  up  at  Rome 
for  this  inhuman  outrage  on  christian  feelings  and  duties,  and 
medals  were  cast  by  order  of  the  pope  to  perpetuate  its  memory. 
"  It  inflicted  a  deep  wound  on  the  exhausted  spirit  of  Knox. 
Besides  the  blow  struck  at  the  reformed  body,  he  had  to  la- 
ment the  loss  of  many  individuals  eminent  for  piety,  learning, 
and  rank,  whom  he  numbered  among  his  acquantance.  Be- 
ing conveyed  to  the  pulpit,  and  summoning  up  the  remainder 
of  his  strength,  he  thundered  the  vengeance  of  heaven  against 
'  the  cniel  murderer  and  false  traitor,  the  king  of  France,'  and 

'  Crawford,  Mem.  245. 


238  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAF.  VII. 

desired  Le  Croc,  the  French  ambassador,  to  tell  his  master  that 
sentence  was  pronounced  against  him  in  Scotland,  that  the 
divine  vengeance  would  never  depart  from  him  nor  from  his 
house,  if  repentance  did  not  ensue  ;  but  his  name  would  re- 
main an  execration  to  posterity,  and  none  proceeding  from  his 
loins  should  enjoy  his  kingdom  in  peace.  The  ambassador 
complained  of  the  indignity  offered  to  his  master,  and  re- 
quired the  regent  to  silence  the  preacher ;  but  this  was  re- 
fused, upon  which  he  left  Scotland  ^" 

On  the  24th  November,  John  Knox  departed  this  life.  He 
was  an  eminent  instrument  in  the  hand  of  God  in  reclaiming 
the  nation  from  the  errors  of  popery  ;  but  had  he  meddled 
less  with  secular  affairs,  and  paid  more  obedience  to  his  sove- 
reign, he  would  have  left  a  more  exalted  monument  of  piety 
behind  him.  Unhappily  for  his  sovereign  and  his  country,  he 
constantly  advocated  the  cause  of  rebellion,  and  encouraged 
resistance  to  lawful  authority.  He  refused  even  to  pray  for 
the  queen,  and  by  the  force  of  his  example  and  influence  he 
prevented  others  from  praying  for  her,  "  as  being  utterly  un- 
worthy of  such  a  benefit ;"  in  consequence,  he  has  left  such  a 
sting  behind  him  as  has  deluged  these  kingdoms  with  blood, 
and  plunged  them  into  anarchy  and  rebellion,  and  an  evil  spirit 
of  democratical  turbulence,  which  extinguished  the  church  of 
the  three  kingdoms  and  the  monarchy  in  a  deluge  of  blood  and 
fire.  The  doctrines,  unhappily,  which  he  taught,  and  by  his 
influence  which  the  protestant  ministers  generally  taught  from 
the  pulpit,  wei*e,  that  it  belonged  to  the  rabble  to  reform  religion 
publicly,  and  by  force, — to  reform  the  state,  if  it  would  not  re- 
form the  church, — to  extirpate  all  false  religion  by  their  own 
authority, — to  assume  to  themselves  a  power  to  overturn  the 
powers  that  are  ordained  of  God, — to  depose  them,  and  set  up 
new  powers  in  their  stead  ;  for  which,  see  Knox's  Appellation, 
where  these  doctrines  are  gravely  taught.  '  Knox  and  his  co- 
adjutors also  taught,  that  the  doctrine  of  defensive  arms  was 
necessary, — that  passive  obedience,  or  non-resistance,  was  sin- 
ful, when  people  have  the  means  of  resistance,  which  exactly 
corresponds  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Jesuits  ;  and  that  Daniel 
and  his  fellows  did  not  resist  by  the  sword,  because  God 
had  not  given  them  the  power  and  the  means.  He  taught, 
moreover,  contrary  to  truth  and  fact,  that  the  primitive  Chris- 
tians assisted  their  preachers  even  against  their  rulers  and 
magistrates,  and  suppressed  idolatry,  wheresoever  God  placed 
the  forcible  means  within  their  power ;  and  that  it  is  lawful  for 

'  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  336-7. 


1572.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  239 

private  men  to  punish  idolaters  with  death,  if  by  any  means 
God  gives  them  power.  He  maintained,  that  the  judicial 
laws  of  Moses  continued  still  obligatory,  particularly  that  the 
laws  punishing  adultery,  murder,  and  idolatry,  with  death, 
were  still  binding ;  that  in  obedience  to  these  laws,  sentence 
was  to  be  executed,  not  only  on  subjects,  but  on  sovereign 
princes  ;  that  whosoever  executes  God's  law  on  such  crimi- 
nals is  not  only  innocent,  but  within  the  limits  of  his  duty, 
though  he  have  no  commission  from  man  for  it ;  that  Samuel's 
slaying  Agag,  the  fat  and  dehcate  king  of  Amalek,  and  Elias 
killing  Baal's  priests  and  Jezabel's  false  prophets,  and 
Phineas  striking  Zimri  and  Cozbi,  in  the  very  act  of  filthy 
fornication,  were  allowable  practices  for  private  men  to 
imitate. 

A  standing  text  with  Knox,  and  indeed  with  all  the  imme- 
diate disciples  of  Calvin,  was  that  injunction  mentioned  in 
13th  Dent,  against  participating  in  the  idolatry  of  the  Gentile 
nations.  "  If  thy  brother,  the  son  of  thy  mother,  or  thy  son, 
or  thy  daughter,  or  the  wife  of  thy  bosom,  or  thy  friend,  which 
is  as  thine  own  soul,  entice  thee  secretly,  &c.  thou  shalt  not 
consent  unto  him,  nor  hearken  unto  him,  r_either  shall  thine 
eye  pity  him,  neither  shalt  thou  spare  him,  neither  shalt  thou 
conceal  him,  but  thou  shalt  surely  kill  him  ;  thine  hand  shall 
be  first  upon  him  to  put  him  to  death.  Thou  shalt  stone  him 
with  stones  that  he  die,"  &c.  "  Such,  therefore,"  says  Knox, 
"  as  solicit  to  idolatry  (popery),  ought  to  be  punished  with 
death,  without  favour  or  respect  of  persons.  The  punishment 
of  such  crimes  as  are  idolatry,  blasphemy,  and  others  that 
touch  the  majesty  of  God,  doth  not  pertain  to  kings  or  chief 
rulers  only,  but  to  the  whole  body  of  the  people,  and  to  every 
member  of  the  same,  according  to  the  vocation  of  every  man, 
and  according  to  that  possibility  and  occasion  which  God  doth 
minister  to  revenge  the  injury  done  against  his  glory."  "  To  the 
same  law,  I  say,  and  covenant,  are  the  Gentiles  no  less  bound 
than  were  the  Jews,  whensoever  God  doth  illuminate  the  eyes 
of  any  multitude  of  people,  and  putteth  the  sword  in  their  own 
hand  to  remove  such  enormities  from  amongst  them  as  before 
God  they  know  to  be  abominable  i.  These  doctrines  are  to  be 
found  and  are  maintained  in  the  notes  on  an  edition  of  the 
Romish  Testament,  published  in  Ireland  in  the  year  1816, 
under  the  sanction  and  patronage  of  the  Romish  bishops 
there,  and  their  principal  clergy. 

Knox  gave  utterance  to  prayers  which  did  not  savour  of  a 

'  Appen.  to  Keith's  Catalogue  of  Scottish  Bishops,  p.  486-7. 


240  HISTOKY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

christian  or  a  charitable  spirit.  In  his  "  Admonition  to  the 
Professors  of  the  Truth  in  England,"  after  descanting  on  the 
Marian  persecution,  he  has  this  prayer : — "  God  of  his  great 
mercy's  sake  stir  up  some  Phineas,  Elias,  or  Jehu,  that  the  blood 
of  abominable  idolaters  may  pacify  God's  wrath,  that  it  con- 
sume not  the  whole  multitude — amen  ;"  which  is  surely  a  direct 
incentive  to  murder.  And  again  he  prays — "  Repress  the  pride 
of  these  blood-thirsty  tyrants;  consume  them  in  thine  anger,  ac- 
cording to  the  reproach  which  they  have  brought  against  thy 
holy  name.  Pour  forth  thy  vengeance  upon  them,  and  let  our 
eyes  behold  the  blood  of  the  saints  required  at  their  hands. 
Delay  not  thy  vengeance,  O  Lord ;  but  let  death  devour  them 
in  haste  ;  let  the  earth  swallow  them  up,  and  let  them  go  down 
quick  (alive)  to  the  hells  ;  for  there  is  no  hope  of  their  amend- 
ment ;  the  fear  and  reverence  of  thy  holy  name  is  quite 
banished  from  their  hearts,  and  therefore  yet  again,  O  Lord, 
consume  them  ;  consume  them  in  thine  anger."  The  man  who 
could  utter  such  prayers  to  the  Father  of  Mercies  must  have 
been  actuated  by  another  spirit  than  that  which  ought  to  in- 
flame the  heart  with  divine  love,  and  subdue  the  wrathful 
disposition  to  meekness  and  fear.  In  short,  he  seems  to  have 
been  governed  by  that  implacable  thirst  of  revenge  which  was 
the  ruling  principle  of  the  fierce  and  lawless  spirits  of  the  age 
and  country  in  which  he  lived.  How  great  the  contrast,  how 
immeasurable  the  distance,  between  such  prayers  and  those 
of  the  Anglican  liturgy  compiled  by  his  contemporaries  the 
great  purifiers  of  the  English  church  ! 

John  Knox  certainly  did  not  institute  the  presbyterian  dis- 
cipline which  holds  equality  among  the  ministers  as  a  funda- 
mental principle  ;  he  introduced  an  episcopacy  on  the  ruins 
of  the  ancient  church,  in  which  superintendents,  which  is 
only  another  name  for  bishops,  enjoyed  that  pre-eminence  and 
jurisdiction  which  is  the  just  prerogative- of  lawful  bishops. 
In  another  place  ^,  thirty  marks,  both  in  their  institution  and 
subsequent  usage,  have  been  given,  which  prove  that  they 
both  possessed  and  exercised  episcopal  power  and  pre-emi- 
nence over  the  parish  ministers.  And  his  practice  was  every 
way  consistent  with  his  doctrine ;  for  he  presided  at  the  ad- 
mission, or  ordination,  of  John  Spottiswood  to  be  superinten- 
dent or  bishop  of  Lothian,  and  also  preached  the  sermon  on 
that  occasion  ;  he  inaugurated  ten  of  the  superintendents,  and  he 
assisted  the  titular  bishop  of  Orkney,  and  two  superintendents, 
to  crown  the  duke  of  Rothsay  as  king ;  and  also  preached  on 

'  Ante,  c.  V. 


1572.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  241 

that  occasion.  Had  he  been  so  thoroughly  imbued  with  anti- 
episcopal  principles  as  his  pretended  followers  v/ish  to  ascribe 
to  him,  he  would  not  have  joined  in  these  acts,  far  less  have 
suffered  a  titidar  bishop  to  have  taken  precedence  of  himself, 
and  crowned  the  infant  prince.  Farthei",  he  preached  at  the 
admission  of  archbishop  Douglas,  which  is  the  clearest  evi- 
dence that  he  approved  of  his  being  appointed  to  that  office. 
He  very  justly  protested  against  Douglas  continuing  to  possess 
so  many  offices,  but  never  once  against  the  office  of  a  bishop. 
He  sent  his  sons  to  the  episcopal  university  of  Cambridge,  to 
prosecute  their  studies,  and  of  course  to  become  members  oi 
that  church  in  which  he  himself  had  held  a  living,  and  in 
which  he  also  informs  us  that  he  was  offered  a  bishopric. 
His  latest  biographer,  the  late  Dr.  M'Crie,  who  would  have 
been  the  last  man  to  have  admitted  the  least  predilection  in 
his  hero  towards  episcopacy,  had  it  not  been  extorted  from  him 
by  facts,  honestly  states — "  Our  reformer  left  behind  him  a 
widow  and  five  children.     His  two  sons  were  borne  to  hira  by 

his  first  wife,  Margery  Bowes They  received  their 

education  at  St.  John's  College  in  the  University  of  Cambridge : 
their  names  being  enrolled  in  the  matriculation-book  only 
eight  days  after  the  death  of  their  father.  Nathan ael,  the 
eldest  of  them,  after  obtaining  the  degrees  of  bachelor  and 
master  of  arts,  and  being  admitted  fellow  of  the  college,  died 
in  1580.  Eleazer,the  youngest  son,  in  addition  to  the  honours 
attained  by  his  brother,  was  created  bachelor  of  divinity, 
ordained  one  of  the  preachers  of  the  University,  and  admitted 
to  the  vicarage  of  Clacton-Magna.  He  died  in  1591,  and  was 
buried  in  the  chapel  of  St.  John's  College  ^"  And  the  writer 
of  this  has  heard  the  late  venerable  primate  Walker  say  that 
he  must  have  walked  over  his  grave  daily  while  pursuing  his 
studies  at  the  same  college. 

Knox  recommended  to  king  Edward  VI.  to  increase  the 
number  of  bishops.  "  Let  no  man  be  charged,"  said  he,  "  in 
preaching  of  Christ  Jesus  above  that  a  man  may  do  :  I  mean, 
that  your  bishoprics  be  so  divided,  that  of  every  one  (as  they 
are  now  for  the  most  part)  may  be  made  ten  ;  and  so  in  every 
city  and  great  town  there  may  be  placed  a  godly  learned  man, 
mth  so  many  joined  with  him,  for  preaching  and  instruction, 
as  shall  be  thought  sufiicient  for  the  bounds  committed  to  their 
charge."  These  are  Knox's  own  words,  which,  connected 
with  his  constant  practice,  is  a  decided  and  incontrovertible 
testimony  that  he  was  in  principle  and  practice  an  episco- 

1  M'Crie's  Life  of  Knox,  p.  308. 
VOL.   I.  2  I 


242  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII, 

palian,  and  that  he  held  the  principles  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
it  is  well  known  that  he  had  the  principal  hand  in  compiling 
the  First  Book  of  Discipline,  w^here  episcopacy  is  most  de- 
cidedly established ;  the  names  only  of  offices  are  changed, 
lest,  as  the  act  of  Assembly  of  this  same  year  bears,  "  by  using 
the  same  names  they  might  seem  to  consent  to  any  papistry  or 
superstition."  He  was  the  writer  and  bearer  also  of  a  letter 
from  the  superintendents,  ministers,  and  commissioners  of  the 
church  within  the  realm  of  Scotland,  to  their  brethren,  the 
bishops  and  pastors  in  England,  in  the  year  1566  ;  and  in  the 
title  of  that  epistle  he  acknowledged  that  these  brethren,  the 
bishops  and  pastors  of  England,  had  renounced  the  Roman 
antichrist,  and  professed  the  Lord  Jesus  in  sincerity.  The 
letter  itself  unquestionably  allows  and  presupposes  the  epis- 
copal power  to  be  possessed  by  his  brethren,  the  English 
bishops.  His  "  Faithful  admonition  to  the  true  professors  of  the 
gospel  of  Christ  within  the  kingdom  of  England,"  anno  1554, 
was  written  for  the  purpose  of  enumerating  the  causes  which 
brought  the  Marian  persecution  on  that  church  and  nation ; 
but  among  all  the  causes  which  he  enumerates,  he  never  once 
names  episcopacy  as  one — an  omission  which  he  never  would 
have  made  had  he  entertained  the  opinion  "  that  prelacy,  and 
the  supeiiority  of  any  office  in  the  church,  above  presbyters, 
had  been  a  great  and  insupportable  grievance  and  trouble  to 
the  nation,"  as  the  claim  of  right  alleges,  or  a  "  crimson  ^M^//," 
as  the  General  Assembly  of  1690  asserts,  or  "the  establishment 
of  iniquity  by  law,"  as  the  Assembly  of  1703  alleges.  In  that 
same  admonition,  he  says,  "  God  gave  such  strength  to  that 
reverend  father  in  God,  Thomas  Cranmer,  to  cut  the  knots  of 
devilish  sophistry,  &c."  If  he  had  held  the  opinion  that 
parity  among  ministers  was  the  true  and  only  principle  of 
church  government,  it  is  not  likely  that  he  would  have  called 
an  archbishop  a  reverend  father  in  God,  wliich  is  the  peculiar 
title  of  a  bishop.  No  one  has  been  bold  enough  to  dispute 
the  fact,  that  superintendents  w^ere  placed  in  the  government 
of  the  reformed  communion  by  John  Knox ;  and  that  this 
government  of  siapeiintendents  was  in  operation  in  the  year 
1566,  is  undeniable.  We  are  informed  that  he  wrote  the  fourth 
book  of  his  history  that  year ;  and  in  the  introduction  to  it,  he 
says,  "  We  can  speak  the  truth,  whomsoever  we  ofiend — there 
is  no  realm  that  hath  the  sacraments  in  like  purity ;  for  all 
others,  how  sincere  that  ever  the  doctrine  be,  that  by  some  is 
taught, — retain  in  their  churches,  and  in  the  ministers  thereof, 
some  footsteps  of  antichrist  and  dregs  of  popery.  But  we  (all 
praise  to  God  alone)  have  nothing  within  our  church  that  ever 


1572.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  243 

iiowedfrom  that  man  of  sin."'     Now,  his  titular  episcopacy  cer- 
tainly "  was  within  his  church;"  which,  had  he  either  esteemed 
it  unlawful,  "  a  footstep  of  antichrist,  or  a  dreg  of  popery,"  he 
could  not  have  made  the  bold  assertion  above  quoted  ;  or  else 
he  surely  would  have  excepted  superintendency,  as  savouring 
of  the  beast,  or,  as  he  says,  "  flowing  from  that  man  of  sin." 
But,  so  far  from  that,  he  asserts  the  purity  and  anti-popish 
establishment  of   his    superintendents.      He  was  himself  a 
"  commissioner  for  visitation,"  as  they  were  then  called — that 
is,  a  temporary  superintendent  or  bishop,  for  Calderwood  as- 
serts that  a  superintendent  and  a  commissioner  is  the  same 
office  ;  and,  in  consequence,  he  acted  in  a  degree  of  superiority 
over  his  brethren,  the  ministers  within  the  bounds  of  his  com- 
mission ;  and  he  sat,  voted,  and  concurred  with  many  General 
Assemblies,  when  they  framed  acts  which  enforced  the  canoni- 
cal obedience  of  ministers  to  their  superintendents  ^     In  sum- 
ming up  his  character,  Spottiswood  says,  "  he  was  certainly 
a  man  endowed  with  rare  gifts,  and  a  chief  instrument  that 
God  used  for  the  work  of  those  times.     Many  good  men  have 
disliked  some  of  his  opinions  as  touching  sovereign  princes, 
and  the  form  of  government  which  he  laboured  to  have  esta- 
blished in  the  church.      Yet  was  he  far  from  those  dotages 
wherein  some  that  would  have  been  thought  his  followers  did 
afterwards  fall ;  for  never  was  any  man  more   observant  of 
church  authority  than  he,  always  urging  the  obedience  of  minis- 
ters to  their  superintendents,  for  which  he  caused  divers  acts 
to  be  made  in  the  Assemblies  of  the  church,  and  showed  him- 
self severe  to  the  transgressors.   In  these  things,  howsoever  it 
may  be  he  was  miscamed,  we  must  remember  that  the  best 
men  have  their  errors,  and  never  esteem  of  any  man  above 
that  which  is  fitting.     As  to  the  history  of  the  church  ascribed 
commonly  unto  him,  the  same  was  not  his  work,  but  his  name 
was  supposed  to  gain  it  credit :  for,  besides  the  scurril  dis- 
courses we  find  in  it,  more  befitting  a  comedian  on  a  stage  than 
a  divine  or  minister,  such  as  Mr.  Knox  was,  and  the  spiteful 
malice  that  author  expresseth  against  the  queen  regent,  speak- 
ing of  one  of  our  martyrs,  he  remitted  the  reader  for  a  farther 
declaration  of  his  sufferings  to  the  acts  and  monuments  of  mar- 
tyrs set  forth  by  Mr.  Fox,  an  Englishman,  which  came  not  to 
light  some  ten  or  twelve  years  after  Mr.  Knox  his  death.     A 
greater  injury  could  not  be  done  to  the  fame  of  that  vjorthy 
man,  than  to  father  upon  him  the  ridiculous  toys  and  malicious 
detractions  contained  in  that  book.     But  this  shall  serve  for 

^  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery,  p.  28 — 37. 


244  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

his  clearing  in  that  particular.  He  died  the  27th  November, 
in  the  67th  year  of  his  age,  and  his  body  was  interred  in 
the  church-yard  of  St.  Giles's^." 

I  should  not  have  occupied  so  much  time  with  Knox's 
opinions,  were  it  not  that  so  great  pains  have  been  taken  to 
make  it  appear  that,  in  sentiments  and  practice,  he  was  a  rigid 
presbyterian,  the  determined  opponent  of  episcopacy  and  of 
all  liturgical  forms  of  public  worship  ;  whereas,  in  reality,  he 
was  the  author  of  an  unconsecraled  episcopacy,  or  superinten- 
dency ;  he  was  also  the  chief  agent  in  introducing  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer  of  Edward  VI.,  and  afterwards  the  old 
Scottish  or  Knox's  liturgy,  into  the  public  worship  of  the 
(titular)  Church  of  Scotland.  But,  after  all,  why  should  so 
much  deference  be  paid  to  the  opinions  of  an  uninspired  and 
not  too  scrupulously  moral  man  ?  We  have  Moses  and  the  pro- 
phets, and  Christ  with  the  apostles,  to  be  lamps  unto  our  feet  and 
lights  unto  our  paths  ;  and  no  "  devout  imagination"  of  Knox 
or  of  any  other  man  ought  to  divert  us  in  thought  or  deed  from 
the  doctrine  and  fellowship  of  the  apostles.  But  the  presby- 
terians,  who  unhappily  have  gone  in  the  way  of  Cain,  and  have 
run  greedily  after  the  error  of  Balaam,  and  have  run  the  risk 
of  perishing  in  the  gainsaying  of  Korah,  hold  Knox's  person  in 
admiration,  despise  dominion,  and  speak  evil  of  dignities. 
Christ  gave  a  commission  to  his  apostles,  with  whom  he  pro- 
mised to  be  to  the  end  of  the  world,  which  implies  an  aposto- 
lical succession  ;  but  Knox  cut  q^that  succession,  and  tvithout 
any  neiv  divine  commission  he  established  a  new  succession, 
which  hadnoother  authority  but  his  own  "devout  imagination." 
From  a  natural  mistake  arising  out  of  the  circumstance  that 
four  of  the  Roman  bishops  embraced  the  reformation,  Mr. 
Palmer  has  taken  the  most  charitable  view  of  the  Knoxian 
church,  and  says,  that  after  the  Concordat  of  Leith, "  thence- 
forv.ard  the  dioceses  of  Scotland  were  filled  by  bishops  who 
were  consecrated  by  other  prelates,  and  sat  in  parliament 2." 
Now  this  is  a  judgment  in  charity,  but  not  in  truth ;  for  in  point 
of  fact,  of  these  four  bishops,  only  one  of  them,  Galloway, 
might  really  have  been  consecrated ;  the  other  three  were  mere 
laymen,  and  the  bishop  of  Galloway  never  officiated  at  the  in- 
auguration of  the  other  titular  bishops ;  nay,  he  himself  was 
of  new  inaugurated  by  Knox,  that  is,  ordained  to  be  superinten- 
dent of  his  own  diocese  of  Galloway.  And  Mr.  Palmer  adds, 
still  in  the  spirit  of  charity, "  such  being  in  general  the  posi- 

'   Spottiswood's  Hist.  b.  v.  p.  266-7. 

^  Treatise  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  v.  ii.  p.  572-3. 


1573.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  245 

tion  of  the  church  of  Scotland  up  to  the  accession  of  James 
VI.  to  the  throne  of  England,  there  seemed  no  reason  to  dispute 
its  character  as  a  church  of  Christ."  But  with  respectful  de- 
ference for  Mr.  Palmer  s  judgment  in  this  case,  we  must  beg 
leave  to  dispute  the  title  of  the  Knoxian  kirk  to  the  character 
of  a  church  of  Christ ;  because  most  of  those  who  were  made 
bishops,  and  three  of  the  papal  prelates  that  conformed,  had 
no  orders  at  all.  Their  receiving  a  public  and  legislative  sanc- 
tion, sitting  in  parliament,  and  being  called  bishops,  could 
never  constitute  them  successors  of  the  apostles,  nor  remove 
the  reproach  of  their  having  run  unsent — of  their  having 
climbed  up  some  other  way,  and  of  their  not  having  entered 
into  the  sheepfold  by  the  door — in  short,  of  their  not  having 
been  called,  "  as  was  Aaron,"  to  the  apostolic  office. 

About  the  end  of  this  year  the  regent  summoned  a  parlia- 
ment to  meet  at  Edinburgh,  when  several  acts  were  made  for 
the  preservation  of  the  king's  authority  and  the  established 
religion,  in  one  of  which  it  was  enacted,  that "  none  should  be 
reputed  loyal  and  faithful  subjects  to  the  king  or  his  authority, 
but  be  punished  as  rebels,  who  made  not  profession  of  true 
religion.  And  that  all  such  as  made  profession  thereof  and  yet 
withstood  the  king's  authority,  should  be  admonished  by  their 
teachers  to  acknowledge  their  offence,  and  return  to  his  ma- 
jesty's obedience  ;  and  if  they  refused  that  they  should  be  ex- 
communicated, and  cut  off"  from  the  society  of  the  church  as 
putrid  and  corrupted  members  ^" 

1573. — Morton,  by  command  of  Elizabeth,  whom  she  sup- 
plied with  a  body  of  troops,  vigorously  attacked  Kirkaldy  in 
the  castle,  and  soon  reduced  him  to  terms  ;  and  on  the  solemn 
assurance  of  the  English  ambassador,  that  his  queen  would 
interfere  to  preserve  his  life,  he  surrendered  to  Morton's  sum- 
mons. Elizabeth,  however,  ordered  the  regent  to  sacrifice 
Kirkaldy  for  their  mutual  safety  ;  he  was  hanged  accord- 
ingly, and  his  head  was  placed  on  the  castle  wall  ^.  Sir  William 
Earkaldy  of  Grange  was  equally  celebrated  for  his  courage  in 
the  field  and  his  wisdom  in  the  cabinet.  He  served  in  the 
French  army  with  great  honour,  as  a  cavalry  officer;  and  he 
conquered  the  earl  of  Rivers'  brother  in  single  combat,  in  pre- 
sence of  the  Scottish  and  English  armies.  It  was  commonly 
said  of  him,  that  he  had  all  the  tenderness  and  address  of  a 
lover  in  the  house,  and  the  fury  of  a  lion  m  the  field.  But  he 
was  one  of  Cardinal  Beaton's  murderers,  in  the  year  1545 ;  he 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  p.  268. 

-  Crawford's  Memoirs. — Balfour's  Annals,  i.  p.  361. 


246  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII, 

was  engaged  in  Moray's  rehellion,  in  1564,  on  account  of  the 
queen's  marriage  with  lord  Darnley ;  he  was  again  engaged 
in  the  rebellion  of  1567,  when  he  treaclierously  decoyed  his 
confiding  sovereign  into  the  hands  of  her  implacable  enemies, 
at  Carberry  Hill ;  in  1569  he  deserted  his  old  associate  and 
fellow  rebel,  the  earl  of  Moray,  who  had  entrusted  him  with 
the  government  of  the  castle  ;  and  in  1570  he  murdered  Henry 
Seaton,  and  lost  the  confidence  of  the  whole  party,  by  protect- 
ing the  assassin  whom  he  had  employed.  He  was  strongly  sus- 
pected of  having  procured  a  vile  assassin  to  attempt  the  murder 
of  John  Knox,  while  he  was  quietly  engaged  at  supper  in  his 
own  house.  The  mortal  enmity  that  subsisted  between  him  and 
Morton  was  the  only  motive  that  fixed  him  to  the  queen's  in- 
terest ;  so  that  the  honour  of  sufl'eriug  for  his  loyalty  cannot 
be  ascribed  to  him.  No  sooner  was  that  other  execrable  taitor, 
Maitland  of  Lethington,  informed  of  the  ignominious  fate  of 
Kirkaldy,  than  he  swallowed  poison,  to  escape  the  disgrace 
of  a  public  execution,  and  to  disappoint  Morton  of  that  re- 
venge for  which  he  thirsted.  Maitland  betrayed  his  queen, 
who  implicitly  trusted  to  him  ;  and  forged  her  handwriting, 
to  serve  the  rebels  by  whom  she  was  surrounded  during  the 
whole  of  her  actual  reign.  He  also  forged  the  whole  of  the 
sonnets  and  billets  to  Bothwell,  which  were  made  the  plea  for 
all  her  persecution  by  her  enemies ;  and  which  he  acknow- 
ledged to  Elizabeth's  commissioners  at  York. 

The  first  Assembly  for  this  year  was  held  in  Edinburgh,  the 
6  th  of  March,  when  David  Ferguson  was  chosen  moderator, 
and  Calderwood  is  delighted  to  find  that  that  occasional  digni- 
tary was  neither  bishop  nor  superintendent ;  and  also  that  the 
bishop  of  Galloway  was  superseded  by  the  Assembly,  till 
time  was  gained  to  inquire  into  some  alleged  malversation  in 
office  ^  On  this  occurrence,  bishop  Sage  makes  the  follow- 
ing caustic  remarks : — "  There  is  another  considerable  thrust 
made  at  it"  (the  titular  episcopacy)  "by  Calderwood,  which 
may  come  in  as  a  succedaneum  to  the  former  argument.  What 
is  it  ?  It  is  even  that  in  the  General  Assembly  at  Edinburgh, 
March  6,  1573,  David  Ferguson  was  chosen  moderator,  who 
Vi'as  neither  bishop  nor  superintendent.  And  so  down  falls 
prelacy !  But  so  was  honest  George  Buchanan  in  the 
Assembly  holden  in  July  1567,  who  was  neither  superinten- 
dent, bishop,  nor  presbyter,  and  so  down  falls  presbytery !  nay, 
down  falls  the  whole  ministry  !  Is  not  this  a  hard  lock  prelacy 
is  brought  to,  that  it  shall  not  be  itself  so  long  as  one  w^ong 

'  Calderwood,  p.  61. 


1573.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  247 

step  can  be  found  to  have  been  made  by  a  Scotch  General 
Assembly  ^?" 

"  The  regent  craved  some  learned  men  of  the  mmisters  to 
be  placed  senators  of  the  College  of  Justice  ;"  and  after  some 
discussion,  the  Assembly  decided,  "  that  none  was  able  to  bear 
the  said  two  charges  ;  and  therefore  inhibited  any  minister  to 
take  upon  him  to  be  a  senator  of  the  College  of  Justice,  Mr. 
Robert  Pont  only  excepted,  who  was  already  placed  with  ad- 
vice and  consent  of  the  kirk."  In  this  decision  of  the  General 
Assembly,  the  Leith  Assembly,  that  restored  the  name  of  the 
bishops,  is  clearly  asserted,  and  its  validity  placed  beyond 
doubt  or  dispute,  for  it  was  "  by  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
kirk"  collected  in  the  Leith  Assembly, that  Pont  was  appointed 
a  judge,  and  whose  functions  he  continued  to  exercise  even 
after  presbytery  was  introduced.  The  reader  of  Dairy  was 
censured  by  the  General  Assembly,  on  the  complaint  of  David 
Lindsay,  commissioner  for  Kyle  and  Cunningham,  "  for  that 
being  discharged  of  all  ministration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  he, 
notwithstanding,  ministered  the  same,  after  his  manner,  last 
Easter'^.''''  This  is  another  manifestation  that  the  festivals  of 
the  church  were  duly  celebrated  ;  and  in  conformity  with  the 
pious  custom  of  the  universal  church,  the  Lord's  Supper  was 
administered  at  the  festivals. 

In  the  Assembly  held  6th  of  August  this  year,  Alexander 
Arbuthnot  moderator,  "  the  visitation  books  of  the  bishops  were 
produced,  and  certain  ministers  were  appointed  to  examine 
their  diligence  in  visitation."  Paton,  bishop  of  Dunkeld,  was 
accused  of  having  assumed  the  name,  without  having  exercised 
the  office  of  a  bishop,  and  for  not  having  proceeded  with  rigour 
against  the  Roman  Catholics  within  his  diocese.  Herein  we 
have  a  clear  acknowledgment  of  episcopacy ;  for  the  accusation 
rested  on  his  having  asumed  the  name  without  having  per^ 
formed  the  duties  of  a  bishop.  This  Assembly  established  seve- 
ral  branches  of  true  episcopal  power,  in  the  persons  of  these  titu- 
lar  bishops,  which  has  been  entirely  omitted  by  Calderwood,  as 
inconsistent  with  his  presbyterian  prepossessions,butPetriehas 
given  the  substance  of  the  acts.  "  Touching  them  that  receive 
excommunicates,  the  whole  kirk  presently  assembled,  ordains 
all  bishops,  &c.  to  proceed  to  excommunication  against  all 
receivers  of  excommunicated  persons,"  &c.  "  The  kirk  ordains 
all  bishops,  &c.  in  their  synodal  conventions,  to  take  a  list  of 
the  names  of  the  excommunicates  within  their  jurisdiction,  and 
bring  them  to  the  General  Assemblies,  to  be  published  to  other 

'  Fundamental  Charter,  p.  200.  -  Calderwood,  p.    4, 


248  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

bishops  and  superintendents,  &c.  that  they  by  their  ministers  in 
their  provinces  may  devulgate  the  same  in  the  whole  countries 
where  excommunicates  haunt."  "  The  kirk  presently  assem- 
bled, ordains  all  bishops  and  superintendents,  &c.  to  convene 
before  them  all  such  persons  as  shall  be  found  suspected  of 
consulting  with  witches,  and  finding  them  guilty,  to  cause 
them  to  make  public  repentance,"  &c.  "  That  uniformity  may- 
be observed  in  processes  of  excommunication,  it  is  ordained, 
that  bishops  and  superintendents  shall  direct  their  letters  to 
ministers,  where  the  persons  that  are  to  be  excommunicated 
dwell,  commanding  the  said  ministers  to  admonish  accord- 
ingly ;  and  in  case  of  disobedience  to  proceed  to  excommu- 
nication, and  pronounce  the  sentence  thereof;  and  thereafter 
the  ministers  to  indorse  the  said  letters,  making  mention  of 
the  days  of  their  admonitions  and  excommunications  for  dis- 
obedience aforesaid,  and  to  report  to  the  said  bishops,  &c. 
according  to  the  direction  contained  in  the  said  letters  ^"  In 
the  above  acts  of  this  Assembly,  we  have  thus  the  clearest 
demonstration  that  the  titular  bishops  exercised  episcopal 
powers,  and  were  cheerfully  acknowledged  by  the  whole  kirk. 
In  proof  of  this,  the  Assembly  passed  acts  confirming  their 
ordinary  powers,  and  enjoining  due  submission  to  their  autho- 
rity by  the  parish  ministers. 

In  this  Assembly  complaints  were  made  against  Pont, 
superintendent  of  Moray,  for  non-residence  in  his  diocese,  and 
neglect  of  his  episcopal  duties.  He  pleaded  want  of  leisure 
on  account  of  his  more  pressing  duties  as  a  judge  of  the  court 
of  session.  Gordon,  bishop  or  superintendent  of  Galloway, 
was  accused  of  having  exhorted  the  people  to  rebel  against 
the  king,  and  of  refusing  to  pray  for  him  during  the  time  that 
the  queen's  friends  held  possession  of  the  capital ;  of  having 
violated  his  oath  of  allegiance,  especially  by  sitting  in  the 
queen's  parliament ;  that,  being  one  of  the  queen's  pretended 
privy  council,  he  publicly  in  the  pulpit  gave  thanks  to  God  for 
the  murder  of  the  regent  Lennox,  exhorted  the  people  to  do  the 
same,  and  threatened  a  similar  fate  to  others."  Sundry  other 
enormities  were  laid  to  his  charge  ;  but  he  pleaded  the  benefit 
of  the  Act  of  Pacification  at  the  conclusion  of  the  civil  war, 
to  which  Act  the  reformed  bishops,  abbots,  and  priors,  agreed 
in  parliament  in  name  of  the  kirk,  and  therefore  he  maintained 
he  could  not  now  be  challenged  by  another  authority.  The 
Assembly  sent  a  messenger  to  ascertain  the  regent  and 
council's  will,  and  to  ask  their  advice ;  who  replied,  that  his 

*  MS.  and  Petrie,  cited  in  Fuudamental  Charter  of  Presbytery. 


1574.]  CHUHCfi  OF  SCOTLAND.  249 

grace  would  observe  the  heads  of  the  pacification,  but  without 
prejudice  to  the  discipline  of  the  kirk,  and  the  satisfaction  re- 
quired for  all  notorious  and  open  slanders.  The  Assembly  acted 
upon  the  regent's  hint,  and  again  summoned  the"  bishop  to 
appear,  but  which  he  again  declined  to  do,  having  sent  the 
above  defence  by  a  servant.  The  bishop's  offences  having  been 
notorious,  and,  indeed,  not  denied  by  himself,  the  Assembly 
adjudged  him  to  make  public  repentance  in  sackcloth  on  three 
successive  Sundays — the  first  in  St-  Giles'  Church,  the  second  in 
the  Chapel  Royal,  and  the  third  in  the  Queen's  College.  Two 
of  the  brethren  were  appointed  to  admonish  him  in  the  Assem- 
bly's name,  and  to  require  him  to  perform  his  penance  under 
pain  of  excommunication  ^. 

1574. — The  convocation  of  two  Assemblies  annually  must 
have  been  very  detrimental  to  the  morality  and  spiritual  interests 
of  the  different  parishes,  from  the  frequent  absence  of  the  minis- 
ters, and  the  great  length  of  time  they  occupied  in  travelling  to 
the  place  of  meeting.  The  spring  Assembly  of  this  year  com- 
menced its  sittings  on  the  6th  of  March,  when,  among  other 
things,  James  Boyd,  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  the  superinten- 
dents of  Angus  and  Strathearn,  with  several  inferior  ministers, 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  draw  up  some  heads  and  articles 
concerning  the  jurisdiction  of  the  kirk ;  and  the  same  indi- 
viduals afterwards  received  full  powers  fi'om  the  Assembly  to 
negociate  the  same  with  the  regent  and  privy  council,  "  tend- 
ing to  the  setting  forward  of  the  glory  of  God,  maintaining  the 
preaching  of  his  word,  the  king's  authority,  and  common 
weal  of  the  realm,  firm  and  stable."  The  Assembly  enacted, 
"  touching  the  jurisdiction  of  bishops  in  their  ecclesiastical 
function,  that  it  should  not  exceed  the  jurisdiction  of  superin- 
tendents, which  heretofore  they  have  had,  and  at  present  pos- 
sess; and  that  they  should  be  subject  to  the  General  Assembly 
as  members  thereof,  as  superintendents  had  been  heretofore, 
in  all  sorts."  And  ordained,  "  that  no  bishop  give  collation 
of  any  benefice  within  the  bounds  of  superintendents,  without 
their  consent  and  testimonials  under  their  hand  ;  and  that 
bishops  within  their  dioceses  visit  by  themselves,  where  no 
superintendent  is,  and  give  no  collation  of  benefices  without 
the  consent  of  three  well  qualified  ministers  2." 

In  these  regulations  there  were  no  other  limitations  to  the 
powers  of  the  bishops  than  there  are  in  every  church ;  that  is, 
that  the  bishops  were  bound  by  the  canons  made  in  a  lawful  as- 
sembly of  the  national  church  ;  but  the  true  motive  for  these 

J  Calderwood's  True  History,  p.  63.  2  ibij. 

VOL.  I  2  K 


250  •  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  VII. 

acts  was  the  insatiable  covetousness  of  Morton  the  regent,  who 
having  secured  a  profound  peace  at  home,  employed  every  art 
to  amass  wealth.  "  He  fleeced  the  nation,"  says  Crawford, 
"  of  more  money  than  any  seven  kings  had  ever  done  before 
him,  which  he  entirely  appropriated  to  his  own  private  use, 
having  reduced  the  prince's  establishment  to  a  very  small  nuEi- 
ber,  and  to  a  smaller  allowance."  He  flattered  and  cajoled  the 
ministers  out  of  the  possession  of  their  thirds  of  the  benefices — 
the  only  provision  that  had  been  made  for  them  by  law  since  the 
reforaiation  ;  promising  them  instead,  that  he  would  settle  sti- 1 
pends,  to  be  regularly  paid  out  of  the  Exchequer.  But  no  sooner 
had  he  secured  possession  of  the  thirds  than  he  united  three 
or  four  parishes  under  one  incumbent,  whom  he  compelled  to 
preach  in  each  alternately  ;  and  in  each  parish  he  placed  a 
reader,  whose  duty  was  to  read  the  prayers  on  those  Sundays 
when  the  minister  was  absent,  whom  he  compelled  to  allow 
about  thirty  pounds  Scots,  or  three  pounds  sterling,  per  annum, 
out  of  his  own  miserable  pittance ;  and  the  whole  revenues 
of  the  parishes  thus  united,  he  sacrilegiously  seized  on  as  his 
own  property.  Had  a  lawful  sovereign  been  guilty  of  such 
hypocritical  villainy  and  spoliation,  his  name  would  have  been 
handed  down  to  posterity  with  the  execration  it  deserved ;  but,  as 
Morton  rendered  good  service  a  short  time  after  this  to  the  new 
system  which  commenced  its  existence  in  the  following  year, 
his  infamous  treachery  and  idolatrical  covetousness  have  been 
duly  concealed  by  the  successful  party.  The  misery  of  the 
harassed,  oppressed,  and  starved  ministers  was  greatly  increased 
by  their  being  compelled  to  dance  attendance  on  the  regent's 
court,  "  begging  assignations  and  precepts  for  payments,  as 
their  necessities  grew;  seeking  for  augmentation,  which  they 
seldom  obtained,  or  if  any  petty  thing  was  granted,  the  same 
was  dearly  bought,  with  the  loss  both  of  tlie^ir  time  and  means." 
Besides,  the  superintendents,  who  were,  as  Dr.  Cook  calls 
them,  "  the  fatliers  of  the  reformation,"  and  were  men  of  the 
highest  reputation,  who  had  spent  their  own  jnivate  estates 
liberally  in  the  service  of  the  church,  were  treated  by  Morton 
with  scorn  and  contempt ;  for  on  application  for  their  usual 
allowance,  which  had  been  fixed  at  five  times  that  of  the  parish 
ministers,  they  were  sneeringly  informed,  that  there  was  no 
further  occasion  for  their  services,  since  the  bishops  had  been 
restored.  It  was  natural  for  the  superintendents  to  resent 
such  insults  ;  and,  accordingly,  at  the  autumn  Assembly,  which 
met  in  Edinburgh  on  the  7th  of  August,  the  three  remaining 
superintendents,  Spottiswood,  AVinram,  and  Erskine,  offered 
to    resign    their  charges,    bat     the   Assembly    unanimously 


1574.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  251 

refused  to  accept  their  resignation,  well  knowing  the  cause.  The 
members  had  an  association  of  feeling  with  these  venerable 
fathers,  not  knowing  how  soon  the  next  Mortonian  experiment 
might  be  tried  on  themselves.  The  Assembly,  therefore,  re- 
newed that  article  of  the  Leith  concordat,  "  That  bishops  and 
superintendents  stood  on  the  same  level,  had  the  same  power,  the 
same  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  and  were  to  be  regulated  by  the 
same  canons."  And  farther,  they  drew  up  a  petition,  consisting 
of  nine  articles,  to  the  regent,  some  of  which  severely  reflected 
on  his  sacrilegious  covetousness : — "  That  stipends  be  granted 
to  superintendents  in  all  time  coming^  in  all  countries  destitute 
thereof,  whether  it  be  where  there  is  no  bishop,  or  where  there 
are  bishops  who  cannot  discharge  their  office,  as  the  bishops  of 
St.  Andrews  and  Glasgow,"  whose  dioceses  were  much  too 
large.  It  is  evident  from  this  act,  that  episcopacy  was  not 
esteemed  any  burden ;  for  the  Assembly  not  only  protected 
those  superintendents  who  had  survived  and  had  borne  the 
heat  and  burden  of  the  reformation,  but  they  petitioned  for 
additions  to  their  numbers,  and  for  provision  for  them  "  in  all 
time  coming.^''  They  evidently  supposed  that  episcopacy  was 
to  continue  "  in  all  time  coming,"  and  not  to  be  esteemed  a 
"  devout  imagination  merely,"  to  serve  a  temporary  purpose. 
The  second  article  is,  "  That  in  all  burghs  where  the  minis- 
ters are  displaced  and  serve  at  other  kirks,  these  ministers  be 
restored  to  wait  on  their  cures,  and  be  not  obliged  to  serve  at 
other  churches,  &c."  This  article  struck  directly  at  the  re- 
gent's insidious  policy  of  uniting  three  or  four  churches  under 
the  care  of  one  minister.  The  fourth  article  is,  "  That  in  all 
churches  destitute  of  ministers,  such  persons  may  be  planted 
as  the  bishops,  superintendents,  and  commissioners  shall 
name,  and  that  stipends  be  assigned  to  them."  The  fifth, 
"  That  Doctors  may  be  placed  in  universities,  and  stipends 
granted  them ;  whereby  not  only  they  who  are  presently  placed 
may  have  occasion  to  be  diligent  in  their  cures,  but  other 
learned  men  may  have  occasion  to  seek  places  in  colleges." 
The  sixth,  "  That  his  grace  would  take  a  general  order  with  > 
the  poor,  especially  in  the  abbeys,  such  as  Aberbrothick,  &c. 
conform  to  the  agreement  at  Leith."  The  ninth,  "  That  his 
grace  would  cause  the  books  of  the  assignation  of  the  kirk  to 
be  delivered  to  the  clerk  of  the  Assembly."  These  were  the 
books  wherein  the  names  of  the  ministers  and  their  several 
proportions  of  the  thirds  were  recorded,  which  shews  their 
eagerness  to  be  re-possessed  of  the  thirds  because  the  regent 
had  not  kept  faith  with  them. 


•252  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  VII 

"  But,"  says  bishop  Sage,  "  the  eighth  article,  which  (by  a 
pardonable  inversion,  I  hope,)  I  have  reserved  to  the  last 
place,  is,  of  all,  the  most  considerable.  It  is,  '  That  his  grace 
ivould  provide  qualified  persons  for  vacant  bishoprics.^  Let 
the  candid  reader  judge  now  if  episcopacy  by  the  Leith  articles 
wdiS  forced  upon  the  church  against  her  inclination  ?  If  it  was 
never  approven  (when  bishops  were  thus  petitioned  for)  by  a 
General  Assembly  ?  If  it  be  likely  that  the  Assembly  in 
August,  1572,  protested  against  it  as  a  corruption  ?  If  the  acts 
of  the  last  Assembly  declaring  bishops  to  have  no  more  power 
than  superintendents  had,  and  making  them  accountable  to  the 
General  Assembly,  pi*oceeded  from  any  dislike  of  episcopacy  ? 
If  this  Assembly,  petitioning  thus  for  bishops,  believed  the 
divine  and  indispensable  institution  of  parity  ?  If  both 
Calderwood  and  Petrie  acted  not  as  became  cautious  presby- 
terian  historians ;  the  one  by  giving  us  none,  the  other  by 
giving  us  only  a  minced  account  of  this  petition  ?  ^" 

The  ministers  began  now  to  see  their  error  in  having  allowed 
Morton  to  circumvent  them,  by  taking  away  their  trifling  sti- 
pends ;  and  therefore  they  petitioned  him  to  restore  them ;  but 
it  was  not  so  easy  to  recover  their  lost  treasure.  Morton,  in 
turn,  began  to  question  the  legality  of  their  meeting  in  assem- 
blies, without  having  been  first  summoned  by  the  king's  writ ; 
and  he  also  demanded  of  the  deputation,  "  who  gave  them 
power  to  convocate  the  king's  lieges  without  his  advice  who 
was  in  authority  ?"  After  some  intentional  delays,  the  regent 
replied  to  their  petition,  "  That  seeing  the  surplus  of  the  thirds 
belonged  to  the  king,  it  was  fitter  the  regent  and  council 
should  modify  the  stipends  of  ministers,  than  that  the  church 
should  have  the  appointment  or  designation  of  a  surplus." 
Being  unable  to  contend  effectually  with  the  regent,  it  was  de- 
termined that  the  ministers  whom  he  had  appointed  to  plura- 
lities should  take  charge  of  the  church-only  where  they  re- 
sided, and  send  readers  to  preach  at  the  others.  To  counter- 
act Morton's  insidious  policy,  it  was  also  found  necessary  to 
prohibit  the  bishops  from  trespassing  on  the  authority  and 
jurisdiction  of  the  superintendents  2. 

It  appears  clearly  from  the  foregoing  acts,  since  the  Leith 
Assembly,  which  restored  the  name  of  bishops,  that  the  Con- 
cordat then  entered  into  was  fully,  fairly,  and  repeatedly  ac- 
knowledged, ajjproved  of,  and  insisted  on,  by  the  solemn  acts 

'  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery  examinee],  p.  212-216. 
-  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  273. — Caldei-wood,  p.  06. 


1574.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  253 

of  several  grand  national  councils  of  the  church.  "  And  after 
the  most  impartial,  narrow,  and  attentive  search,"  says  Sage, 
"  that  I  could  make,  I  have  not  found  all  this  while,  viz.  fiom 
the  first  public  establishment  of  the  refoimed  religion  in  Scot- 
land, anno  1560,  so  much  as  one  indication  of  either  public  or 
private  dislike  to  prelacy  ;  but  that  it  constantly  and  uninter- 
ruptedly prevailed,  and  all  persons  cheerfully,  as  well  as 
quietly,  submitted  to  it,  till  the  year  1575,  when  it  was  first 
called  in  question."  Whatever  were  the  views  or  sentiments 
of  our  early  reformers,  it  is  incontrovertible  that  they  were  sin- 
cerely attached  to  episcopacy,  as  the  divinely  instituted 
government  of  the  church  ;  and  that  they  were  firmly  opposed 
to  the  scheme  of  "  equality  among  ministers,"  which,  as  Cal- 
vin very  justly  observed,  "  breedeth  strifes^''  as  the  future  his- 
tory of  that  church  will  abundantly  testify.  No  such  principle 
as  the  "  unlawfulness  of  any  superiority  of  any  office  in  the 
church  above  presbyters,"  was  either  professed  or  insisted  on, 
or  proposed  to  be  reduced  to  practice,  before,  at,  or  for  full 
fifteen  years  after  the  public  establishment  of  the  refor- 
mation ^ 

We  have  now  arrived  at  an  epoch  in  the  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory of  Scotland,  when  a  new  system  and  a  still  more  devout 
imagination  was  introduced,  which  maintained  a  fierce  hosti- 
lity to  that  "  modified  and  excellent  form  of  episcopacy,"  as 
Dr.  Cook  calls  it,  "  which  had  been  founded  by  John  Knox." 
Episcopacy  was  recognised  by  the  agreement  at  Leith,  as  the 
lawful  government  of  the  establishment ;  and  in  the  following 
Assembly,  in  March  of  the  same  year,  Douglas,  the  new  arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews,  was  appointed  one  of  a  committee  for 
revising  the  articles  of  the  Leith  agreement.  The  following 
Assembly  at  Perth,  still  recognising  the  Leith  concordat,  only 
stipulated  for  a  change  of  the  names  of  the  offices,  lest  the  names 
should  indicate  an  inclination  to  popery.  Presbyterian  au- 
thors object,  that  the  agreement  at  Leith  was  only  received  as 
an  INTERIM ;  butitsbeing  so  received  was  not  out  of  any  dislike 
or  opposition  to  episcopacy  ;  for  if  they  had  believed  and 
maintained  the  divine  right  of  presbytery,  they  would  surely 
never  have  admitted  of  prelacy  even  as  an  interim,  nor  would  they 
have  petitioned,  as  they  did,  for  more  bishops.  The  acts  of 
almost  every  Assembly  recognised  the  episcopacy  of  the  super- 
intendents, and  the  Leith  agreement  approved  of  their  con 
tinuance  under  the  ancient  titles  of  bishops  and  archbishops ; 

1  Fund.  Ch.  of  Presb.  203,  &c.— Crawford.— Spottiswood.—Calderwood. 


254  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VII. 

but  it  neither  revived  nor  introduced  it.  Up  to  the  period  of 
Knox's  death,  the  presbyterian  controversy  had  not  been  heard 
of  in  the  kingdom,  and  he  left  all  the  bishoprics  in  the  king- 
dom filled,  although,  unfortunately,  they  had  no  canonical  or- 
ders or  consecration  to  the  apostolic  office,  but  were  mere  lay- 
men. This  arose  from  his  having  despised  and  set  aside  the 
ancient  and  scriptural  rite  of  the  laying  on  of  hands,  out  of 
hatred  to  popery,  and  of  his  stern  rejection  of  such  of  the 
bishops  of  the  papal  church  as  really  had  been  canonically 
consecrated  to  the  episcopal  office,  and  therefore  could  have 
continued  it  in  the  reformed  church.  It  was  an  unusual  and 
presumptuous  feature,  too,  in  the  Knoxian  communion,  that 
the  parochial  ministers,  when  they  met  in  assembly,  made 
themselves  judges  of  their  governors  the  superintendents  ;  a 
circumstance  entirely  in  opposition  to  St.  Paul's  instructions 
to  a  bishop,  that  he  should  "  command  and  teach  ;" — the  elders 
"  that  sin,  rebuke  before  all ;" — "  rebuke  them  sharply,  that 
they  may  be  sound  in  the  faith."  In  pursuance  of  this  sys- 
tem of  inverting  the  order  of  government,  we  find  that  the  su- 
perintendents were  put  upon  their  trial  in  almost  every  Assem- 
bly, rebuked  and  censured,  and  some  even  were  compelled  to  do 
penance,  by  the  collective  body  of  theinferior  ministers. 

At  the  death  of  Knox,  ecclesiastical  affairs  were  in  a  fair 
way  of  producing  that  state  of  tranquillity  which  would  have 
been  most  beneficial  to  the  nation  and  to  religion.  But  no 
sooner  was  Knox  removed  from  the  scene,  than  another  system 
was  introduced,  not  without  the  manifest  interference  of  queen 
Elizabeth  and  the  connivance  of  the  regent  Morton,  which 
produced  contentions,  and  brought  calamities  upon  the  church 
and  nation  such  as  no  other  kingdom  in  Christendom  has  ever 
experienced.  This  is  even  admitted  by  Dr.  Cook,  a  presby- 
terian, who,  in  speaking  of  Morton,  says,  "  He  had  promoted 
the  introduction  into  the  church  of  a  motiijied  and  excellent 
form  of  episcopacy  ;  he  had  done  so  from  the  persuasion  that 
he  would  thereby  secure  the  tranquillity  of  the  nation,  by  di- 
recting to  the  support  of  government  the  strong  influence 
which  the  ministers  had  over  the  minds  and  principles  of  the 
people.  He  had  it  now  in  his  power  to  accomplish  an  object 
of  such  evident  and  such  vast  importance.  Had  he  availed 
himself  of  this  favourable  situation  to  endow  the  bishoprics 
with  suitable  revenues,  and  to  extricate  the  inferior  clergy 
from  their  pecuniary  difficulties,  he  would  have  completely 
gained  the  affections  of  the  reformed  teachers ;  he  would  have 
satisfied  them  that  the  government,  with  spotless  honour,  had 


1574.]  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND.  255 

evinced  its  attachment  to  the  reformation  ;  he  would  have  de- 
stroyed every  motive  for  agitating  new  plans  of  ecclesiastical 
polity ;  the  principles  upon  which  the  episcopal  jurisdiction 
rested  would  have  been  rendered  daily  more  acceptable  to  the 
community  ;  and  there  would,  in  all  human  probability,  have 
resulted  such  union  and  harmony  among  the  different  orders 
of  the  state,  as  would  have  prevented  those  dreadful  politi- 
cal convulsions,  which,  though  ultimately  most  beneficial, 
long  inflicted  the  heaviest  evils  upon  the  inhabitants  of 
Scotland.'''' 


256 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  TITULAR  PRIMACY  OF  JOHN  DOUGLAS  AND  PATRICK  ADAMSON. 

FROM  THE  FIRST  PROPOSAL  OF  PRESBYTERY   TO  THE  ERECTION 
OF  THE  FIRST  COURT  OF  PRESBYTERY. 

1575. — First  appearance  of  Andrew  Melville — his  character  by  Sage — not  in  holy 
orders. — Assembly. — Commissioners  appointed  to  visit  the  diocese  of  Glasgow. 
— Graham  bishop  elect  of  Dunblane. — Another  Assembly. — The  bishop  of  Dun- 
keld  suspended. — Bishop  of  Galloway  obliged  to  do  penance. — Melville  calls 
the  office  of  a  bishop  in  question,  and  forms  a  party. — John  Dury's  motion 
in  the  Assembly — seconded  by  Melville. — A  conference  appointed. — The  con- 
clusions of  the  collocutors. — The  presbyterian  party  failed  of  success. — Culpa- 
ble indifference  of  the  titular  bishops. — A  divine  institution  cannot  be  changed. 
— Many  apostles  mentioned  in  Scripture  besides  the  twelve. — The  proposal  of 

presbytery  coldly  received. — Petition  to  the  regent. 1576. — Assembly. — 

MelviUe  renews  his  assault  —  again  defeated  —  but  gained  some  advantages. 
— Message  from  Morton — his  reasons  for  it. — Queen  Elizabeth  concerned  in 
the  presbyterian  plan. — A  misunderstanding  between  Morton  and  the  Assem- 
bly.— Patrick  Adamson  advanced  to  the  see  of  St.  Andrews — contest  about  his 
inauguration. — Second  Book  of  Discipline — commission  appointed  to  draw  it 
up — their  fitness  for  it. — Boyd  archbishop  of  Glasgow's  spirited  conduct — his 

speech — meetings  for  exercise. 1577. — An  Assembly. — Fast  appointed. — 

Preface  to  the  Second  Book,  and  regent's  answer. — Festivals  of  the  church  de- 
bated.— An  Assembly. — Morton's  resignation  of  the  regency. — A  fast  ap- 
pointed— the  causes. 1578. — An  Assembly. — Second   Book  presented  to 

parliament — its  preamble — extracts  from  the  Book — remarks. — Beza's  Tract. 
— Parliament  reject  some  of  the  articles. — Act  of  Assembly. — A  fast. — A 
second  General  Assembly. — A  third  Assembly. — Boyd  archbishop  of  Glasgow 
attacked  —  his  answer  —  he  is  persecuted.  —  Corruptions  in  the  estate  of 
bishops  —  their  specification.  —  Attempt  to  destroy  Glasgow  cathedral.  — 
Death  of  archbishop    Boyd. — The   articles    specifying  the  corruptions  in  the 

episcopal  estate. 1579. — The  queen's  messenger  refused  admittance  to  her 

son. — An  Assembly. — James's  letter  to  the  Assembly. — Archbishop  Adamson 
summoned  before  the  Assembly. — First  mention  of  a  presbytery. — Arrival  of 
Esme  Stewart,  and  his  preferment — consequent  alarm  of  the  ministers. — De- 
fections to  popery. — Duke  of  Lennox  openly  renounces  popery. — Confession 

of  faith — a  parhament — acts   for   the   kirk. 1580. — Assembly. — Act    for 

abolishing  titular  episcopacy — reflections  on  it. — Opinions  of  Chillingworth. — 
A  reformation  of  Knox's  polity — and  violent  changes. — An  Assembly. — No 
presbyterian  government  as  yet  instituted. — Commission  to  form  a  presbytery. 
— The  nature,  constitution,  and  powers  of  a  presbylery — inconsistencies  in 
presbyterian  courts — reflections — propositions  said  to  have  been    signed    by 


1575.]  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  257 

archbishop  AJamson. '1581. — Negative  confession  renewed — papal  hierar- 
chy condemned — but  protestant  episcopacy  was  not  condemned  by  it. — An 
Assembly — their  explanation  of  the  Dundee  act. — Montgomery  made  arch- 
bishop of  Glasgow — disposes  of  the  revenues  to  the  duke  of  Lennox. — Mont- 
gomery condemned  by  the  Assembly. — James  interferes. — The  first  presbytery 
erected — uniting  of  parishes. — Morton  beheaded — his  character. — Assembly — 
private  baptism  prohibited— disputes  with  Montgomery. — Dury  banished  the 
city. — Balcanquhal  attacks  the  duke. — Act  for  the  erection  of  presbyteries. 

1582. — Montgomery  suspended. — An  Assembly. — Montgomery  preaches 

at  Glasgow. — A  fast. — Montgomery  excommunicated. — The  Raid  of  Ruthven — 
countenanced  by  the  kirk. — An  Assembly — more  presbyteries  erected. — Death 

of  George   Buchanan — his  character — his    death-bed  confession. 1583. — 

Arrival  of  ambassadors  from  France — invited  to  a  grand  civic  banquet — a  fast 
proclaimed — witch  burnt. — James  effects  his  deliverance. 1584. — Oppo- 
sition of  the  ministers. — Melville's  intrigues. — Parliament. — Earl  of  Gowry 
beheaded. — The  king's  supremacy  ratified. — Act  made  for  calling  in  Bucha- 
nan's works. — Alarm  of  the  ministers — their  desertion — their  letter,  and  town- 
council's  answer  to  it. 1585.  —  Some  ministers  in  their  sermons  insult  the 

king — he  justifies  his  public  conduct, — the  clamour  of  the  ministers. — Arch- 
bishop Adamson  sent  ambassador  to  England. — Measures  of  self-defence  taken 
by  queen  Elizabeth. — James  summonses  a  parliament. — Act  binding  the  go- 
vernment to  assist  Elizabeth. — Death  of  superintendent  Spottiswood — his  cha- 
racter.  1586. — A  synod  at  St    Andrews. — Archbishop  Adamson  accused 

by  Melville — his  defence — appeals  to  James — he  is  excommunicated. — Presby- 
terian tactics. — A  proposal  to  excommunicate  all  the  episcopal  ministers. — 
James  rebukes  a  minister  in  the  church — his  perplexities. — Other  transactions. 

— Advantages  gained   by  James. 1587. — Queen  Mary's  death. — The  king 

reconciles  his  nobility. — An  Assembly. — Disputes  between  the  king  and  the 
Assembly. — Montgomery  resigns  his  archbishopric. — Reappointment  of  arch- 
bishop Beaton. — The  Assembly  petition  for  the  removal  of  the  prelates  from 
parUament. — Defence  by  the  abbot  of  Kinloss. — Temporalities  of  the  bishop- 
rics annexed  to  the  crown. — A  scheme  to  extirpate  the  prelates. — Increase  of 
Jesuits  and  seminary  priests. — Spanish  armada. — James's  measures. — Inso- 
lence of  one  of  the  brethren. 1588. — Extraordinary    Assembly. — Bruce 

the  moderator. — Resolutions  adopted. — Their  rude  intrusion  on  the  king — 
their  demands.  —  Parliament  enact  the  punishment  of  death  against  the 
Jesuits. — The  Band. — Another  Assembly. — A  fast. — Marriage  of  the  earl    of 

Huntly. — Dispute  with  Adamson. 1589. — Petition  of  some  ministers. — 

National  covenant  subscribed — the  king's  opinion  of  it — the  effects  of  it. — An 
Assembly.  —  Articles  proposed  by  the  king  for  subscription  —  but  re- 
fused. —  Practices  of  the   popish   peers.  —  Dispute   betwLxt    the    Assembly 

and  Adamson. 1590. — The  king's   marriage — his   letter   to   the   council 

— voyage  to  Denmark  and  return.  —  Coronation  of  the  queen.  —  Gibson 
still  allowed  to  preach. — An  Assembly.  —  James  Melville's  sermon  — 
chiefly  directed  against  archbishop  Adamson — the  king  present  in  it — his 
speech — shown     to    be     apocryphal — toleration     not     then     understood. — 

The    church    the    pillar    and   ground  of  the  truth. 1591.  —  Death    of 

VOL.  I.  -2  L 


258  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

superintendent  Erskine. — Treasons  of  the  earl  of  Bothwell — his  character  and 
practices. — Troubles  caused  by  Melville— his  feud  with  the  court  of  session. — 
Death  of  archbishop  Adamson. — A  schism,— Melville  cited  by  the  synod  of 

Lothian. 1592. — An  Assembly — petition  parliament  for  a  ratification   of 

the  presbyterian  discipline — for  the  prelates  to  be  removed  from  parliament. — 
The  establishment  of  presbytery,  and  permission  for  holding  annual  assem- 
blies,— Familiar  address  of  the  brethren  to  the  king. — Titular  bishops  not 
removed. 

1575. — This  year  ushers  in  a  new  era  in  the  ecclesiastical 
history  of  the  kingdom.     It  is  from  the  period  of  the  autumn  As- 
sembly of  thisyear  that  the  presbyterian  model  of  church  govern- 
ment in  Scotland  dates  its  existence.   It  has  continued  ever  since 
more  or  less  to  agitate  the  kingdom  to  the  present  day,  and  is  the 
prolific  parent  of  all  the  schisms  which  have  divided  and  afflict- 
ed the  church  in  the  three  kingdoms  ever  since  its  introduction. 
Its  rise  and  progi-ess,  the  divisions,  contentions,  seditions,  re- 
bellions, and  revolutions,  which  its  restless  and  ungovernable 
spirit  has  produced  in  these  kingdoms,  shall  be  faithfully 
traced.     Hitherto  we  have  seen  a  decidedly  episcopal  govern- 
ment, exercised  by  the  superintendents,  and  quietly,  cheerfully, 
and  universally  acquiesced  in  by  the  whole  body  of  the  minis- 
ters and  the  people  committed  to  their  charge.     The  General 
Assembly  never  in  any  one  instance  challenged  or  disputed  the 
episcopal  powers  of  the  superintendents,  but  enacted  laws  and 
canons  for  their  just  power,  and  for  preventing  them  from  abus- 
ing the  powers   committed  to  them.     The  superintendents 
were  frequently  censured  for  neglecting  the   duties  of  their 
office  ;  but  there  is  not  one  single  instance  on  record  of  the 
episcopal  office  itself  having  been  challenged  by  any  member 
of  any  General  Assembly  for  fiiteen  years ;  that  is,  from  the 
establishment  of  the  Superintendent  or  Knoxian  Church  to 
the  entrance  on  the  stage  of  the  fierce  and-  turbulent  Andrew 
Melville,  the  father  of  Scottish  presbytery.     C alder- 
wood  informs  us,  "  that  Master  Andrew  Melville  returned  to 
Scotland,  in  July  (1574),  after  he  had  been  ten  years  absent, 
and  had  regented  in  Poictiers  and  Geneva  many  years.  Beza," 
(the  true  parent  of  presbytery,)  "  in  his  letter  to  the  General 
Assembly,  wrote,  that  the  greatest  token  the  kirk  of  Geneva 
could  shew  to   Scotland  was,  that  they  had  suffered  them- 
selves to  be  spoiled  of  Master  Andrew  Melville,  that  thereby 
the  kirk  of  Scotland  may  be  enriched  ^"     "  He  was  a  man," 
says  Sage,  "  by  nature  fierce  and  fiery,  confident  and  peremp- 
tory, peevish  and  ungovernable.     Education  in  him  had  not 

'  Calderwood,  ]).  C6. 


1575.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  259 

sweetened  nature,  but  nature  had  soured  education,  and  both 
conspiring  together,  had  tricked  him  up  into  a  true  original ; 
a  piece  compounded  of  pride  and  petulance,  of  jeer  and  jan- 
gle, of  satire  and  sarcasm,  of  venom  and  vehemence.  He 
hated  the  crown  as  much  as  the  miti'e,  the  sceptre  as  much  as 
the  crosier,  and  could  have  made  as  bold  with  the  purple  as 
with  the  rochet.  His  prime  talent  was  lampooning  and  writ- 
ing anti-tarai-cami-categorias.  In  a  word,  he  was  the  very 
archetipal  bitter  beard  of  the  party  ^"  The  regent  directed 
George  Buchanan  and  Alexander  Hay,  clerk  of  council,  to 
offer  him  the  place  of  his  domestic  chaplain,  with  the  promise 
of  advancement  on  the  first  vacancy.  His  intention,  says 
Calderwood,  "  was  to  have  him  and  his  gifts  framed  to  his 
purpose — that  is,  to  restrain  the  freedom  of  application  in 
preaching,  and  the  authority  of  General  Assemblies,  and  to 
bring  in  conformity  with  England  in  the  church  government  ; 
without  which  he  thought  he  could  not  govern  the  country  to 
his  fantasy,  or  that  agreement  could  stand  long  between  the 
two  countries.  First  he  tried  men  of  the  best  gifts  at  court ; 
and  if  he  found  they  would  serve  his  purpose,  his  intention 
was  to  advance  them  to  bishoprics.  Howbeit  Master  Andrew 
was  not  acquainted  with  his  intentions  ;  yet  was  he  not 
willing  to  serve  at  court,  but  rather  to  be  a  professor  in  some 
university^."  There  is  no  reason  whatever  to  suppose  that  this 
man  was  ever  ordained  to  any  holy  function  in  the  church  ; 
nor  so  much  as  admitted  according  to  the  new  protestant  forms 
that  had  been  introduced  by  Knox.  He  was  a  mere  layman,  but 
in  that  respect  he  was  not  in  a  worse  condition  than  the  greatest 
number  of  the  Knoxian  ministers,  who  were  men  that  judged 
themselves  qualified  to  exercise  the  sacred  duties  of  the  chris- 
tian ministry,  to  act  as  mediators  between  God  and  the  peo- 
ple, and  to  enter  into  covenant  on  His  part  for  the  performance 
of  the  divine  promises  in  the  holy  sacraments  ;  which  was  a 
horrid  cheat  upon  the  people,  a  "  keeping  the  word  of  promise 
to  their  ears,  but  breaking  it  to  their  hope^ 

The  spring  Assembly  of  this  memorable  year  met  in  March, 
when  a  committee  was  formed  to  receive  the  defence  of  the 
bishop  of  Moray,  for  some  slander  which  he  had  occasioned. 
And  the  archbishop  of  Glasgow  complaining  that  his  diocese 
was  too  large,  and  of  his  inability,  in  consequence,  to  visit  all 
the  churches  within  it,  the  Assembly  appointed  Patrick  Adam- 
son  and  Andrew  Hay,  as  commissioners,  superintendents,  or 
archdeacons,  to  visit  certain  parts  of  his  diocese.    These  com- 

1  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery.  ■  Calderwood,  p.  66. 


260  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

missioners  were  similar  in  power  and  authority  to  archdeacons, 
who  have  not  the  power  which  belongs  peculiarly  to  the  pro- 
vince of  a  bishop  of  either  ordination  or  confirmation.  The 
regent  presented  Andrew  Grahame,  bishop  elect  of  Dunblane, 
to  the  Assembly,  who  appointed  a  commission  to  examine  his 
fitness  and  abilities  for  that  office.  And  at  the  same  time  the 
Assembly  enacted,  that  from  henceforward  "  no  chapter  pro- 
ceed to  the  election  of  a  bishop  to  any  bishopric  before  he 
give  proof  of  his  doctrine,  life,  and  conversation,  before  them- 
selves, and  that  thereafter  he  report  the  testimonial  of  the 
Assembly  to  the  chapter,  that  they  then  may  proceed  to  the 
election^"  This  solicitude  of  the  Assembly  "  to  try  the  spirits," 
shows  a  laudable  desire  to  preserve  the  episcopal  office  pure 
from  the  intrusion  of  ignorant  or  improper  men,  and  was  far 
from  indicating  that  they  thought  that  office  either  a  burden- 
some tyranny,  or  an  anti-scriptural  usurpation.  Such  canons 
also  showed  that  the  Assembly  contemplated  the  perpetuity 
of  the  episcopacy  which  was  then  established. 

On  the  6th  of  August,  the  autumn  Assembly  again  met  at 
Edinburgh,  and  Robert  Pont,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Court 
of  Session,  was  chosen  moderator.  The  Assembly  suspended 
the  bishop  of  Dunkeld  from  his  episcopal  functions,  for  having 
neglected  to  excommunicate  the  earl  of  Athole.  After  a  long 
debate  they  restored  the  bishop  of  Galloway  to  his  func- 
tions, partly  in  consideration  of  his  own  submission,  and 
partly  at  the  request  of  the  regent,  on  condition  that  he  should 
confess  his  offence  in  the  presence  of  the  congregation  of  the 
abbey  church  on  the  following  Sunday ;  but  the  sackcloth  was 
dispensed  with^  And  as  a  proof  that  the  festivals  of  the 
church  were  celebrated,  in  conformity  with  the  pious  custom 
of  the  whole  church  since  the  days  of  the  apostles,  a  petition 
was  pi-esented  by  this  Assembly  to  the  regent,  pi-aying, "  that 
all  days  which  heretofore  have  been  kept  holy,  besides  the 
Sabbath-day,  such  as  Yule  or  Christmas -day,  saints'  days,  and 
such  other,  may  be  abolished,  and  a  civil  penalty  be  appointed 
against  the  keepers  thereof,  by  ceremonies,  banquetings,  play- 
ings,  fastings,  and  other  like  vanities  2." 

In  this  Assembly,  Andrew  Melville,  a  man  of  learning, 
"  but  hot  and  eager  upon  any  thing  he  went  about,  labouring 
with  a  burning  desire  to  bring  into  this  church  the  presbyterial 
discipline  of  Geneva,"  first  called  the  office  and  authority  of 
a  bishop  in  question,  as  then  exercised  in  Scotland,  and  com- 
menced those  contentions  and  disputes  which  have  divided  the 

*  C'alderwooJ,  p.  67'  "  Ibid.  p.  68. 


1575.]  CHUKCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  261 

church  ever  since.      From  the  period  of  his  return  he  had 
been  secretly  disseminating  his  sentiments  of  equality  among 
ministers,  and  making  a  faction  to  oppose  episcopacy.     "  The 
man,"  says  Sage,  "  thus  accoutred,  was  scarcelj^  warm  at  home, 
when  he  began  to  disseminate  his  sentiments,  insinuate  them 
into  others,  and  make  a  party   against  prelacy  and  for  the 
Geneva  model.     For  this  I  need  not  depend  on  Spottiswood's 
authority,  though  he  asserts  it  plainly  ;  I  have  a  more  authen- 
tic author  for  it,  if  more  authentic  can  be ;  I  have  Melville 
himself  for  it,  in  a  letter  to  Beza,  dated  November  13,  1579 
(to  be  found  both  in  Petrie,  p.  401,  and  in  the  pamphlet  ca'lled 
Vindicise  Philadelphi,  from  which  Petrie  had  it) ;  of  which 
letter  the  very  first  words  are, '  we  have  not  ceased  these  five 
years  to  fight  against  pseudo-episcopacy,'  &c.     Now,  reckon 
five  years  backward  from  November  1579,  and  you  stand  at 
November  1574,  whereby  we  find  that  within  three  or  four 
months  after  his  arrival,  the  plot  Avas  begun,  though  it  was 
near  to  a  year  afterwards  before  it  came  above  board.    Having 
thus  projected  his  work  and  formed  his  party,  his  next  care 
was  to  get  one  to  table  it  fairly.     He  himself  was  but  lately 
come  home  ;  he  was  much  a  stranger  in  the  country,  having 
been  ten  years  abroad  ;  he  had  been  at  but  very  few  General 
Assemblies,  if  at  any ;  his  influence  was  but  green  and  budding, 
his  authority  but  young  and  tender :  it  was  not  fit  for  him 
amongst  his  first  appearances  to  propose  so  great  an  innova- 
tion.    And  it  seems  the  thinking  men  of  his  party,  however 
resolutely  they  might  promise  to  back  the  motion  when  once 
fairly  tabled,  were  yet  a  little  shy  to  be  the  first  proposers ;  so 
it  fell  to  the  share  of  one  who  at  that  time  was  uone  of  the 
greatest  statesmen  i." 

Having  insinuated  himself  into  favour  with  several  of  the 
influential  ministers,  he  persuaded  John  Dury,  one  of  the 
ministers  of  Edinburgh,  to  make  the  first  open  attack.  "  He 
was  a  sound-hearted  man,  far  fi'om  all  dissimulation,  open, 
professing  what  he  thought,  earnest  and  zealous  in  his  cause, 
whatever  it  was ;  but  too,  too  credulous,  and  easily  to  be  im- 
posed upon  2."  He  lived,  however,  to  repent,  when  it  was  too 
late,  of  his  credulity  on  this  occasion,  and  earnestly  to  entreat 
on  his  death-bed,  that  the  episcopacy,  which  he  had  the  first 
hand  in  overthrowing,  might  be  restored.  On  the  6th  of 
August,  while  the  doctrine,  diligence,  and  lives  of  the  titular 
bishops  were  under  examination,  Dury  protested  "  that  the  trial 
of  a  bishop  prejudges  notthe  reasons  which  he  and  other  bre- 

*  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery,  p.  218-19.  -  Spottiswood, 


262  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

thren  of  his  mind  had  to  propone  against  the  name  and  office 
of  a  bishop^ ."  Spottiswood  says,  he  "proponnded  a  question 
touching  the  lawfulness  of  the  episcopal  function,  and  the 
authority  of  chapters  in  their  election."  Melville,  as  if  he  had 
been  previously  unacquainted  with  Dury's  intentions,  seconded 
his  motion,  and  after  a  long  harangue  on  the  flourishing  state 
of  the  church  of  Geneva,  and  the  opinions  of  Calvin  and  Beza, 
as  if  their  opinions  were  both  law  and  gospel,  concluded  with 
affirming,  "  that  none  ought  to  be  office-bearers  in  the  church, 
whose  titles  were  not  found  in  the  Book  of  God.  And  for  the 
title  of  bishops,  albeit  the  same  was  found  in  Scripture,  yet 
was  it  not  to  be  taken  in  the  sense  that  the  common  sort  did 
conceive,  there  being  no  superiority  allowed  by  Christ  amongst 
ministers;  he  being  the  only  Lord  of  his  church, and  all  (being) 
the  same  servants  in  the  same  degree,  and  having  the  like  power. 
That  the  corruptions  crept  into  the  estate  of  bishops  were  so 
great,  it  could  not  go  well  with  the  church,  nor  could  religion 
be  long  preserved  in  purity  '^." 

The  fatal  controversy  thus  begun,  six  collocutors  were  se- 
lected to  confer  and  reason  on  the  question  at  issue.  David 
Lindsay,  George  Hay,  and  John  Row,  were  appointed  on  the 
side  of  the  episcopalians.  Andrew  Melville,  James  Lawson, 
and  John  Craig,  three  who  espoused  the  presbyterian  side  of  the 
argument,  were  appointed  to  meet  the  episcopalian  deputies, 
"  anent  the  question  proponed  by  certain  brethren  whether 
the  bishops,  as  they  are  now  in  Scotland,  have  their  function 
from  the  word  of  God  or  not  ?"  "  After  divers  meetings,  and 
long  deliberation  among  themselves,"  they  presented  their 
opinions  to  the  Assembly,  in  writing,  as  follows : — 

1 .  That  they  did  not  hold  it  expedient  to  answer  the  ques- 
tions proposed  for  the  present ;  but  if  any  bishop  was  chosen, 
that  had  not  the  qualities  required  by  the  word  of  God,  he 
should  be  tried  by  the  General  Assembly,  de  novo^  and  so 
deposed,  if  there  be  cause. 

2.  That  they  judged  the  name  of  a  bishop  to  be  common 
to  all  ministers  that  had  the  charge  of  a  particular  flock,  and 
that  by  the  word  of  God  his  chief  function  consisted  in 
the  preaching  the  word,  the  ministration  of  the  sacraments, 
and  the  exercise  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  with  consent  of 
his  elders. 

3.  That  from  among  the  ministers  some  one  might  be  chosen 
to  oversee  and  visit  such  i-easonable  bounds,  besides  his  own 
flock,  as  the  General  Assembly  should  appoint. 

Calderwood,  p.  68.  ^  Spottiswood,  b.  v.  p.  275. 


1575.]  CHITECH  OF  SCOTLAND.  263 

4.  That  the  ministers  so  elected  might  in  those  bounds  ap- 
point preachers,  with  the  advice  of  the  ministers  of  the  pro- 
\'ince,  and  the  consent  of  the  flock  to  which  they  should  be 
admitted.  And  also  to  appoint  elders  and  deacons  in  every 
particular  congregation  where  there  are  none,  with  consent 
of  the  people  thereof. 

5.  That  he  might  suspend  ministers  from  the  exercise  of  their 
office  on  reasonable  causes,  with  the  consent  of  the  ministers 
of  the  bounds^. 

It  is  evident  from  these  conclusions,  but  especially  from  the 
third  article,  that  the  arguments  of  the  deputies  on  the  epis- 
copalian side  prevailed,  and  which  is  acknowledged  by  Calder- 
wood ;  for,  says  he,  "  it  seemeth  that  by  reason  of  the  regent's 
authority,  who  was  bent  upon  the  course"  (that  is,  bent  upon 
episcopacy),  "  whereof  he  was  the  chief  instrument,  that  they 
answered  not  directly  to  the  question  at  this  time."  The  same 
author  says,  they  struck  directly,  not  only  at  the  name,  but  at 
the  office  of  a  bishop,  and  also  of  superintendents,  "for  the  great 
affinity  that  is  betwixt  them  2."  The  presbyterian  party  gained 
no  ground  on  this  first  attempt  to  break  down  the  titular  ejiisco- 
pacy,  as  the  conclusions  of  the  six  collocutors  were  agreeable 
to  the  existing  form ;  and  in  their  answer  they  tacitly  allow 
the  divine  right  of  episcopacy,  by  their  answering  that  it  was 
not  expedient  to  answer  the  question  of  the  lawfulness  of 
episcopacy  at  that  time.  The  titular  bishops  were  most  cul- 
pably remiss  in  making  no  opposition  to  the  tide  of  opposition 
which  had  now  commenced  to  flow.  There  were  present  in 
this  remarkable  Assembly,  six  bishops,  the  archbishop  of 
Glasgow,  the  bishops  of  Dunkeld,  Galloway,  Brichen,  Dun- 
blane and  the  Isles,  and  the  three  oldest  superintendents 
of  Lothian,  Fife,  and  Angus ;  yet  although  they  were  so 
deeply  interested  in  the  question  at  issue,  they  neither  were 
present  at  the  conference,  nor  does  it  appear  that  they  used  any 
effort  whatever  to  defend  their  office  and  calling.  It  is  sup- 
posed they  depended  on  the  regent's  power  to  quash  any  designs 
of  their  adversaries  ;  but  if  they  did,  they  fatally  leant  on  a 
broken  reed.  The  titular  rulers  of  the  church  unfortunately 
thought  themselves  secure,  that  no  such  revolution  as  Melville 
and  his  associates  contemplated  could  ever  be  accomplished, 
and,  in  pursuance  of  this  fatal  security,  made  no  defence. 

To  make  the  government  of  the  church  thus  alterable  at  the 
pleasure  of  fallible  men,  is  in  direct  opposition  to  its  original 
institution;  for,  like  all  other  divine  institutions,  it  must  re- 

*  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  pp.  275-6. — Calderwood,  p.  69.       ^  Calderwood,  p.  69. 


264  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

main  in  the  same  state  in  which  it  was  instituted,  till  it  shall 
please  God  to  change  or  lay  it  aside  ;  the  same  authority  being 
required  to  change  any  institution  Xhdl  first  made  it.  And,  if 
man  will  presume  to  declare  the  functions  of  church  officers  to  be 
mutable  and  temporary,  without  producing  the  least  intimation 
of  God's  will  that  he  has  so  designed  them,  they  may,  with  the 
same  reason,  abolish  all  other  christian  institutions  ;  and  even 
the  sacraments  of  the  church  will  lie  as  much  at  their  mercy  as 
its  ministers.  The  episcopal  form  of  church  government  is 
of  pei-petual  and  universal  obligation,  and  all  christians,  with- 
out exception,  ai'e  bound  to  obey  their  spiritual  rulers,  the 
bishops,  for  without  them  there  is  no  church.  The  offices  of 
the  christian  church  are  as  much  of  divine  appointment  as  were 
those  of  the  Jewish.  It  is  the  bishops  alone  that  can  convey 
the  succession,  which  is  the  divine  charter  of  the  church  ;  for 
to  them  alone  was  the  commission  given,  and  the  immutable 
promise  made, — "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even  to  the  end 
of  the  world ;"  that  is,  with  their  office,  as  conveyed  "  from  hand 
to  hand  from  the  apostles."  It  was  by  a  divine  commission, 
that  our  Saviour,  the  great  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  souls, 
ordained  or  sent  his  apostles,  whom  he  then  raised  up  from 
being  the  middle  order,  to  occupy  the  same  place  as  governors, 
which  he  himself  had  done  while  on  earth.  By  virtue  of  this 
commission  these  apostles  were  empowered  to  ordain  or  send 
others ;  and  likewise  this  commission  was  to  continue  in  the 
church,  intrusted  to  that  order  to  whom  the  apostles  should 
convey  it,  as  their  successors,  "  even  to  the  end  of  the  world." 
The  first  public  apostolic  act  was  to  raise  up  one  of  the  formerly 
lowest,  but  now,  by  the  elevation  of  the  apostles,  the  middle 
order,  into  "  the  bishopric,"  which  Judas  by  transgression  had 
made  vacant,  and  their  next  was  to  lay  hands  on  "  the  seven 
men  of  honest  report,"  whom  the  middle  order,  the  seventy 
disciples,  presented  to  them.  Here  may  be  seen  three  distinct 
orders  in  the  ministry,  the  highest  of  which  only  assumed  the 
right  of  the  laying  on  of  hands:  and  it  is  equally  plain  to  any 
one  readhig  the  Holy  Scriptures  with  shigleness  of  heart,  and 
free  from  prejudice,  that  tliere  were  three  distinct  orders  in  the 
christian  church  in  the  apostles'  days,  and  which  were  de- 
signed to  continue  "  always,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world." 
For,  besides  those  two  which  Andrew  Melville  "  and  those  of 
his  mind"  allow, — deacons,  and  those  called  presbyters, elders, 
and  sometimes  bishops, — there  was  certainly  another  order, 
superior  to  both  these,  that  had  authority  over  the  others.  Such 
were  Timothy  and  Titus,  and  many  others  who  are  called 
apostles  in  the  Scriptures,  besides  the  twelve  apostles;  for  it  is 


1575. J  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  205 

evident  from  St.  Paul's  epistles  to  them,  that  they  presided  over 
many  presbyters,  had  power  to  compel  them  to  the  performance 
of  their  duty,  to  receive  accusations  against  them,  and  judi- 
cially to  pass  sentence  on  them,  which  are  sufficient  marks  of 
superiority.  But  these  are  not  the  only  names  clothed  with 
apostolic  authority  by  the  apostles,  of  which  we  read  ;  all  an- 
tiquity allow  that  St.  James,  surnamed  the  Just,  the  first  bishop 
of  Jerusalem,  and  Epaphroditus,  whom  St.  Paul  calls  an  apostle, 
or  as  in  our  translation  a  messenger, — were  apostles  or  bishops. 
He  designates  the  latter  his  "  brother  and  companion  in 
labour ;  but  your  apostle ;"  and  charges  the  Philippians  "  to 
receive  him  in  the  Lord  with  all  gladness,  and  to  hold  such  in 
reputation  ^."  St.  Paul  also  mentions  the  apostles,  or,  as  it  is 
in  our  translation,  the  messengers  of  the  churches,  in  another 
place  :  "  Whether  any  do  inquire  of  Titus,  he  is  my  partner 
and  fellow-helper  concerning  you  ;  or  our  brethren  be  inquired 
of,  they  are  the  messengers  ( Gr.  apostles)  of  the  churches,  and  the 
glory  of  Christ  2."  The  angels  of  the  seven  churches  of  Asia 
also  were  their  apostles,  messengers,  or  bishops.  Barnabas, 
Sylvanus,and  Timothy,  are  called  apostles^  ;  and  the  two  epis- 
tles to  the  Thessalonians  were  written  in  the  joint  names  of 
the  apostles  Paul,  Sylvanus,  and  Timothy.  St.  Paul,  "  and 
Sosthenes  our  brother ^^^  or  fellow  apostle,  jointly  vvTote  the 
first  epistle  to  the  Corinthians  ;  and  he  luiited  his  brother 
apostle  Timothy  in  the  second  epistle  ;  and  whom  he  after- 
wards sent  from  Athens  to  establish  that  church.  St.  Peter 
calls  Sylvan  us  "  a  faithful  brother;"  and  it  is  very  well  known 
that  the  apostle  Sylvanus  was  the  first  resident  bishop  of 
Corinth.  St.  Paul  calls  Ajidronicus  and  Junia  apostles* ;  and 
he  places  Apollos  on  an  equality  of  office  with  himself  and  St. 
Peter.  It  is  a  mere  logomachy,  or  play  upon  words,  to  say  that 
the  names  of  bishops  and  presbyters  are  used  in  Scripture  for 
the  same  office,  for  it  is  certain  that  they  are  not  so  used.  But 
in  the  apostolic  times  the  office  of  bishop,  as  we  now  call  it,  was 
named  apostle;  and  this  illustrious  title  was  afterwards  con- 
fined to  those  apostles  only  who  had  been  immediately  consti- 
tuted by  our  Lord.  Theodoret,  an  ecclesiastical  historian  who 
wrote  about  the  year  440,  says,  "  formerly  the  sam£  persons 
were.  cd\\e(\.ho\hj)resbytersdL\\di  bishops,  ajndi  those  wow  called 
bishops  were  then  called  apostles ;  but  in  process  of  time  the 
name  of  apostle  was  left  to  those  apostles  strictly  so  called,  and 
the  name  of  bishop  asct^ibed  to  all  the  rest."" 

>  Phil.  ii.  25.  29.        "  2  Cor.  viii.  23.        ^  Acts,  xiv.  4.  14.— 1  Thess.  ii.  6. 

*  Rom.  ivi.  7.— 1  Cor.  iii.  5,  G,  22. 
VOL.  I.  2  M 


266  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

Presbytery,  or  equality  among  ministers,  which  "  breedeth 
strifes,"  met  with  but  a  cold  reception  from  this  General  As- 
sembly, which  was  dctenmined  to  maintain  the  titular  episco- 
pacy then  established.  The  Assembly  ordered  a  petition  to 
be  presented  to  "  my  lord  regent's  grace,"  containing  nine  ar- 
ticles, whereof  the  first  was — ^'  Imprimis,  For  planting  and 
preaching  the  word  through  the  whole  realm,  it  is  desired  that 
so  many  ministers  as  may  be  had,  who  are  yet  unplaced,  may 
be  received,  as  well  in  the  country  to  relieve  the  charge  of  them 
who  have  many  kirks,  as  otherwise  through  the  whole  realm, 
with  superintendents  or  commissioners  within  these  bounds 
where  bishops  are  not,  and  to  help  such  bishops  as  have  too 
great  charges  ;  and  that  livings  be  appointed  to  the  aforesaid 
persons  ;  and  also  payment  to  them  who  have  travelled  before 
as  commissioners  in  the  years  of  God  1573  and  1574,  and  so 
forth  in  time  coming,  without  which  the  travels  of  such  men 
will  cease  ^."  From  this  petition,  the  Assembly  appears  to 
have  maintained  its  usual  principles  as  heretofore,  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  imiting  of  churches, — a  scheme  of  Morton's, — and  to 
increase  the  number  of  those  clothed  with  episcopal  power,  to 
continue  that  power  in  the  church,  and  to  provide  competent 
livings  for  the  prelates  "  in  time  coming^'  which  words  surely 
imply  perpetuity,  if  they  mean  any  thing. 

1576. — The  spring  Assembly  of  this  year  met  at  Edin- 
burgh, the  24th  of  April ;  and  John  Row,  minister  of  Perth, 
was  chosen  moderator. 

The  total  failure  of  Melville's  first  attack  had  convinced 
him,  "  and  those  of  his  mind,"  that  they  had  been  too  pre- 
cipitate in  stating  their  objections  against  the  lawfulness  of 
the  episcopal  office.  They  had  taken  the  Assembly  by  sur- 
prise, by  thus  abruptly  calling  in  question  the  lawfulness  of  an 
office  which  had  been  so  early,  so  universally,  so  usefully,  so 
incontestibly  received  by  the  Catholic  Church,  and  which  had 
existed  in  their  own  church  from  the  commencement  of  the 
reformation  vWthout  any  challenge.  This  was  a  point  of  gi-eat 
importance ;  for,  to  declare  that  office  unlawful,  was  in  effect 
to  condemn  the  primitive  churches,  which  had  owned  and 
flourished  under  it :  it  was  to  condemn  the  Scottish  reformation 
and  reformers,  who  had  never  questioned,  but  cheerfully  obeyed 
it,  and  had  proceeded  all  along  on  principles  which  clearly  ac- 
knowledged, not  only  its  lawfulness,  but  necessity ;  and  it  was 
also  to  condemn  all  those  General  Assemblies,which,  immediate- 
ly before,  had  so  much  authorised  and<;onfirmed  it.  Besides,  to 

1  Pet.  and  MS.   cited  ia  Fund.  Ch. 


1576.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  267 

declare  episcopacy  to  be  unlawful,  and,  consequently,  to  abo- 
lish the  office  of  a  bishop,  was  the  surest  way  to  alienate 
entirely  what  little  remained  of  the  church's  property,  and  to 
expose  it  to  the  merciless  grasp  of  the  sacrilegious  laity,  from 
whom  the  different  Assemblies  had  never  ceased  endeavouring 
to  recover  it.  The  agreement  at  Leith  was  the  only  security  the 
church  then  had  for  preserving  what  little  of  her  property  had 
been  left,  and  therefore,  to  turn  out  the  bishops,  was  to  give  it 
up  entirely.  In  this  Assembly,  Melville  and  his  friends,  sen- 
sible of  their  error  in  the  last  Assembly,  yet  deteraiined  in 
their  course  for  subverting  the  titular  episcopacy,  altered  the 
state  of  the  question  to,  "  Whether  bishops,  as  they  were  then 
in  Scotland,\ia.d  their  function  warranted  by  the  word  of  God  ?"^ 
But  even  in  this  new  face  which  they  assumed  they  met  with 
as  little  success  as  before, — so  stubborn  a  thing  is  episcopacy, 
and  so  difficult  to  overcome ;  for  "  the  whole  Assembly  for  the 
most  part,  after  reasoning  and  long  disputation  on  every  article 
of  the  brethren's  (viz.  the  six  collocutors)  opinion  and  advice, 
resolutely  approved  and  affirmed  the  same,  and  every  article 
thereof,  as  the  same  was  given  in  b}'  them  2.  Spottiswood  says 
that  the  Assembly  did  not  give  a  direct  answer  ;  but,  after  long 
reasoning,  approved  the  opinions  presented  in  the  last  meeting, 
with  this  addition  :  "  that  the  bishops  should  take  themselves 
to  the  service  of  some  one  church  within  their  diocese,  and  con- 
descend upon  the  particular  flock  whereof  they  would  accept 
the  charge^." 

In  this  resolution,  three  things  are  worthy  of  notice : — 
1 .  that  whatever  the  Melvillian  party  might  be,  they  were  the 
smaller  party.  2.  That  the  whole  Assembly  for  the  most  part 
were  satisfied  that  they  were  in  the  right,  for  they  approved 
and  affirmed  the  articles  deliberately,  after  reasoning  and  long 
disputation  ;  and,  besides,  they  did  it  resolutely.  3.  The 
Melvillians  were  out-voted,  even  in  this  second  position  :  the 
whole  Assembly  for  the  most  part  stood  resolutely  for  episco- 
pacy, as  it  was  then  established,  and  would  not  affirm  it  to  be 
unlawful.  From  all  which  it  is  manifest,  that  the  presbyterian 
scheme  met  with  the  most  decided  opposition,  on  its  first  ap- 
pearance in  Scotland'^ ;  and  the  church  and  people  of  Scot- 
land did  not  think  at  that  time  that  episcopacy  was  an  anti- 
christian  usurpation,  or  "  that  prelacy  and  the  superiority  of 
any  office  in  the  church  above  presbyters,  is,  and  hath  been,  a 
great  and  insupportable  grievance  to  this  nation,  and  contrary  to 

»  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  276.— Fund.  Chai-ter,  220,  228.  2  Calderwood,  72. 

3  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  276.  ''  Fund.  Chart.  Presb.  229. 


268  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIFI 

the  inclinations  of  the  generality  of  the  people,  ever  since  the 
reformation  ^ 

As  this  Assembly  stood  firm  for  the  titular  episcopacy  then 
established,  so  they  continued  to  maintain  the  same  sentiments 
and  views  with  all  preceding  Assemblies.  For  the  recovery 
and  preservation  of  the  property  of  the  church,  they  enacted, 
"  that  they  might  proceed  against  unjust  possessors  of  the 
church's  patrimony,  in  respect  of  the  notorious  scandal,  not 
only  by  doctrine  and  admonition,  but  with  the  censures  of  the 
church  ;  and  that  the  patrimony  of  the  church,  whereupon  the 
church,  the  poor,  and  the  schools  should  be  maintained,  was 
€x  jure  divino  2." 

Although  the  foxmder  of  Scottish  presbyterianism  was  com» 
pletely  foiled  in  these  two  Assemblies,  in  his  attempts  to 
introduce  his  system  of  equality,  yet  he  gained  two  points, 
which  were  exceedingly  useful  to  the  new   cause  :  the  first 
was,  "  that  the  bishops  should  take  themselves  to  the  service 
of  some  one  particular  church  within  their  diocese,  and  con- 
descend on  the  particular  flocks  whereof  they  would  accept  the 
charge."  This  arrangement,  although  it  was  intended  to  humble 
and  confine  the  bishops  in  the  exercise  of  their  jurisdiction,  yet 
did  not  in  the  least  militate  against  the  essentials  of  episco- 
pacy, nor  bring  the  established  system  any  nearer  that  equa- 
lity among  ministers  "  that  breedeth  strifes,"  to  which  Mel- 
ville and  his  small  party    so  pertinaciously  adhered.     The 
second  and  most  decided  advantage  which  the  presbyterians 
gained,  was,  a  preconcerted  message  from  Morton,  who,  being 
displeased  with  the  deposition   of  James  Paton,  bishop    of 
Dunkeld,  that  had  been,  in  a  former  Assembly,  suspended  for 
dilapidating  his  benefice,  sent  to  inquire  of  them  "  Whether 
they  would  stand  to  the  policy  agreed  to  at  Leith  ?  and  if  not, 
to  desire  them  to  settle  on  some  form  of  government  at  which 
they  would  abide.^^     It  is  not  possible  to  conceive  that  this 
fatal  message  was  the  effect  of  chance ;  there  cannot  be  a 
doubt  but  that  Morton  had  a  deep  design  in  thus  throwing  a 
bone  of  contention  among  the  ministers.    As  before  mentioned, 
if  the  order  of  bishops,  and  by  consequence  the  benefices  al- 
lotted for  their  maintenance,  were  removed  and  abolished,  there 
must  be  a  new  division  of  the  spoil.     None  were  more  deeply 
implicated  in  the  guilty  sacrilege  of  the  times  than  the  earl  of 
Morton  was  ;  and  the  lands  which  had  fallen  to  his  share  had 
no  doubt  shaqDcncd  his  appetite  for  more.     There  was  nothing 
more  easy  to  him  than  to  have  crushed  Melville  and  his  project, 

1  Claim  of  Right,   1688.         ^  Petiie,  and  MS,,  cited  Fund.  Chfti-ter,  230. 


1576.]  CHUliCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  269 

if  he  had  been  so  disposed,  especially  as  he  had  the  majority 
of  the  Assembly  on  his  side ;  but  his  notorious  avarice 
prompted  him,  contrary  to  his  duty  as  a  regent,  to  embroil  the 
ministers  with  the  newly  introduced  controversy,  and  thus  to 
open  a  door  for  the  further  spoliation  of  the  church's  patrimony. 
Nothing  could  possibly  have  been  more  opportune  tlian  this 
fatal  message  for  the  advancement  of  the  presby  terian  plot ; 
for  it  gave  them  a  colourable  pretext  to  proceed  in  their  level- 
ling career  with  some  pretence  of  authority.  Accordingly, 
they  eagerly  seized  the  critical  moment,  and  promptly  replied 
to  his  grace's  message,  "  that  they  were  to  think  of  that  busi- 
ness, and  should  with  all  diligence  set  down  a  constant  form 
of  church  policy,  and  present  the  same  to  be  allowed  by  the 
council  ^" 

It  would  have  been  an  easy  matter  for  Morton  to  have 
crushed  the  Melvillian  party  on  their  first  appearance ;  for  they 
were  decidedly  the  minority,  and,  besides,  Melville  himself 
says  the  whole  peerage  was  against  him.  If  Morton  had  no 
interest  in  the  advancement  of  the  presbyterian  scheme,  it  was 
very  imfortunate  that  he  threw  such  an  apple  of  discord  into 
the  Assembly  ;  "  but,"  says  bishop  Sage,  "  considering  all 
things,  it  looks  so  very  like  a  plot,  that  it  cannot  but  be  very 
hard  to  persuade  a  thinking  man  that  there  was  none."  Mor- 
ton was  wretchedly  covetous,  aiid  would  commit  any  wick- 
edness which  he  thought  would  be  subservient  to  his  own  in- 
terest. His  share  of  the  church's  spoils  had  made  him 
desirous  of  acquiring  more  of  her  property.  He  began  to 
feel  by  experience  that  the  assemblies  were  more  tenacious  of 
what  was  left  than  they  had  hitherto  been,  and  they  shewed  a 
disposition  to  resist  farther  dilapidation.  But  "  he  found  that 
now  contention  was  arising  within  her  own  bowels,  and  a  party 
was  appearing  zealous  for  innovations,  and  that  her  peace  and 
unanimity  were  likely  to  be  broken  and  divided ;  and  what 
more  proper  for  him,  in  these  circumstances,  than  to  lay  the 
reins  on  their  necks,  and  cast  a  further  bone  of  contention 
among  them  ?  He  knew  full  well  what  it  was  '  to  fish  in 
troubled  waters,'  and  so  it  is  more  than  probable  he  would  not 
neglect  such  an  opportunity  2," 

It  was  the  general  policy  of  queen  Elizabeth  to  foment 
confusions  in  Scotland,  and  it  is  certain  that  she  encouraged 
the  presbyterian  scheme  on  its  first  appearance  ;  and  Morton 
was  so  dependent  on  her  support,  that  he  entered  into  her 
views,  notwithstanding  his  former  favour  to  episcopacy.    Her 

Spottiswoodj  f  .r.  J).  -76.  ^  Fundamental  Charter,  234,  235. 


270  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VIII. 

influence  was  supreme  in  Scotland,  and  the  presbyterian  con- 
troversy was  just  the  sort  of  "  troubled  waters"  in  which  she 
delighted  to  fish  ;  "  and  can  it  be  imagined  she  would  not  en- 
courage it  when  once  it  got  footing  ?  Certainly  she  mider- 
stood  it  better  than  so :  the  sect  had  set  up  a  presbytery  at 
Wandsworth,  in  Surrey,  in  the  year  1572  ;  before  Morton  made 
his  proposition,  and  seven  years  6e/b?'e  a  presbytery  was  so  much 
as  heard  of  in  Scotland.  No  doubt  she  knew  the  spirit  well 
enough,  and  how  apt  and  well  suited  it  was  for  keeping  a  state 

in  disorder  and  trouble Let  all  these  things  be  laid 

together,  and  then  let  the  judicious  reader  consider  if  it  is  not 
more  than  probable  that,  as  England  had  a  main  hand  in  the 
advancement  of  our  reformation,  so  it  was  not  wanting  to  con- 
tribute for  the  advancement  of  presbytery  also  j  and  that  Mor- 
ton playing  England's  game,  which  was  so  much  interwoven 
with  his  own,  made  this  ill-favoured  proposition  to  this  Gene- 
ral Assembly.  But  however  this  was,  whether  he  had  such  a 
plot  or  not,  it  is  clear  that  his  making  this  proposition  had  all 
the  effects  he  could  have  projected  by  bringing  on  such  a 
plotV 

But  the  presbyterian  scheme  might  have  advanced  more  ra- 
pidly had  not  a  misunderstanding  fallen  out  betwixt  the  regent 
and  the  Assembly,  John  Douglas  had  recently  died,  and  the 
regent  recommended  Patrick  Adamson,  his  own  chaplain,  to  be 
elected  as  his  successor ;  but  the  dean  and  chapter,  or,  as  they 
were  now  called,  the  moderator  and  diocesan  assembly,  pur- 
posely delayed  the  election  till  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly. 
This  being  brought  officially  before  the  Assembly,  Adamson, 
who  was  then  present,  was  interrogated  whether  he  would  sub- 
mit himself  to  trial,  and  accept  the  see  on  such  conditions  as 
tire  Assembly  would  prescribe.  To  which  he  answered,  that  he 
was  prohibited  by  the  regent  from  accepting  the  bishopric  uj)on 
any  other  tenns  than  those  which  had  been  agreed  upon  be- 
tween the  commissioners  of  the  kirk  and  the  lords  of  the  coun- 
cil. In  consequence,  the  Assembly  inhibited  the  chapter  from 
electing  Adamson ;  but  on  Morton  issuing  a  peremptory  man- 
date, the  chapter  elected  him  to  be  archbishop.  This  so  irri- 
tated the  meek  and  lowly  ministers  that  in  the  next  Assembly 
they  cited  him  before  a  commission,  and  inhibited  him  from 
exercising  any  part  of  hisjurisdictiontill  he  should  be  autho- 
rized by  a  General  Assembly,  This  prohibition,  on  the  other 
hand,  so  exasperated  the  regent,  that  he  prevented  their  making 
any  immediate  innovation  on  the  established  government  of  the 

'  Fund.  Charter,  210,  241. 


1576.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  271 

kirk^  Adamson,  says  Keith,  "did not  receive,  for  what  we 
know,  any  ecclesiastical  consecration.  He  was  a  pei'son  of 
good  literature,  and  had  many  contests  about  episcopacy  and 
the  order  of  bishops,  with  the  presby  tcrian  brethren  and  their 
assemblies.  He  was  a  person  well  learned,  and  an  excellent 
preacher." 

The  agreement  at  Leith  had  been  received  by  the  succeed- 
ing Assembly  as  an  interim  only ;  but  as  a  revision  of  that 
concordat  might  put  an  end  to  some  controversies,  and  as  the 
regent  had  made  this  proposition,  and  might  ratify  what  they 
should  agree  to,  probably  induced  this  Assembly  to  entertain 
his  dangerous  proposition.  A  commission  was  forthwith  issued 
to  about  twenty  members,  including  the  two  prime  instruments 
of  presbytery,  Andrew  Melville  and  James  Lawson,  to  compose 
a  Second  Book  of  Discipline,  which  gave  the  presbyterian 
party  a  wonderful  advantage  over  their  conservative  brethren. 
They  had  their  parts  well  digested  beforehand,  having  been  in 
regular  correspondence  with  Theodore  Beza,  the  founder  of  the 
presbyterian  system  ;  and  they  were  therefore  more  than  a 
match  for  the  other  ministers,  whose  controversial  learning  had 
been  more  exercised  in  disputing  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  than  in  composing  Books  of  Discipline. 
"  They  had  taken,"  says  Sage,  "  the  ancient  government,  so 
far  at  least  as  it  subsisted  by  imparity,  upon  trust,  as  they 
found  it  had  been  practised  in  all  ages  of  the  church  ; — per- 
ceiving in  it  a  great  deal  of  order  and  beauty,  and  nothing  that 
naturally  tended  to  have  a  bad  influence  on  either  the  princi- 
ples or  the  life  of  serious  Christianity ;  and  with  that  they 
were  satisfied.  Indeed,  even  the  best  of  them  seem  to  have 
had  very  little  skill  in  the  true  fountains  whence  the  solid  sub- 
sistence of  the  episcopal  order  was  to  be  derived, — the  Scrip- 
tures, I  mean, — not  as  glossed  by  the  private  spirit  of  every 
modern  novelist,  but  as  interpreted  and  understood  by  the 
first  ages, — as  sensed  by  the  constant  and  universal  practice  of 
genuine,  primitive,  and  Catholic  antiquity  2." 

Boyd,  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  behaved  with  great  spirit  in 
this  Assembly.  When  they  urged  him  to  take  charge  of  a  parti- 
cular flock,  he  refused,  alleging  "  that  he  had  entered  to  his 
office  according  to  the  order  taken  by  the  church  and  estates,  and 
could  do  nothing  contrary  thereto,  lest  he  should  be  thought 
to  have  transgressed  his  oath,  and  be  challenged  for  altering  a 
member  of  the  estate.     Yet  that  it  might  appear  how  willing 

»  Spottiswooil,  b.  X.  276. — Heylin's  Hist,  of  Presbytery,  184. 
2  Fund.  Ch.  of  Presb.  242. 


272  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII 

he  was  to  bestow  the  gifts  wherewith  God  had  endued  him  to 
the  good  of  the  cliurch,  he  should  teach  ordinarily  at  Glasgow 
when  he  had  his  residence  in  that  city,  and  when  he  remained 
in  the  sheriffdom  of  Ayr,  he  should  do  the  like  in  any  church 
they  should  appoint ;  but  without  restricting  himself  unto  the 
same,  and  prejudging  in  any  sort  the  jurisdiction  he  had  re- 
ceived at  his  admission."     It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the 
other  titular  bishops  had  not  spoken  with  the  same  spirit  and 
decision,  instead  of  silently  allowing  Melville  to  proceed  in 
his  innovations.     Spottiswood  innocently  remarks,  "  This  his 
declaration  made,  he  was  no  more  troubled  with  that  employ- 
ment ^"    The  Assembly  were  for  the  present  satisfied  with  this 
prelate's  answer,  but  referred  the  matter  to  the  next  General 
Assembly,  which  is  a  fair  evidence  that  the  presbyterian  party 
was  still  the  weakest ;  but  they  made  up  for  their  weakness  and 
the  paucity  of  their  numbers  by  the  most  pertinacious  perse- 
verance and  foresight.  They  contrived  to  procure  an  enactment, 
"  that  all  ministers  within  eight  miles,  &c.  should  resort  to  the 
place  of  exercise,  &c.  2"     This  enactment  was  most  useful 
for  their  ultimate  designs ;  for  as  yet  there  were  no  such  things 
as  presbyterial  meetings,  and  when  they  came  to  be  established, 
some   years   afterwards,    these    meetings  for   exercise   were 
adroitly  turned  into  presbyteries,  although  originally  they  were 
only  intended  by  Knox  "  to  exercise  themselves  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  Scripture,  in  imitation  of  the  practice  in   use 
among  the  Corinthians  3." 

1577. — The  General  Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh  the  first 
of  April,  and  chose  Alexander  Arbuthnot,  principal  of  Aber- 
deen College,  moderator.  In  this  Assembly,  the  presbyterians 
gained  an  advantage,  by  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  being 
cited  to  answer  before  some  commissioners  that  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  try  and  examine  him  ;  and,  in4^he  interim,  that  he 
should  be  discharged  from  exercising  his  episcopal  functions 
"  till  he  should  be  admitted  by  the  church ■*•  The  presbyte- 
rians advanced  another  step,  by  the  appointment  of  a  na- 
tional fast.  The  causes  of  this  fast  are  stated  to  have  been 
"  iniquity  overflowing  the  whole  face  of  the  country  ;  perilous 
storms  and  persecution  daily  invading  the  kirk  in  France, 
and  elsewhere :  and  for  the  work  of  establishing  perfect 
order  and  policy  ivithin  this  kirk,  which  is  presently  in 
hands,  that  it  may  have  a  good  success^  .  This  fast  was 
to   commence    on,  and    continue    for,    two    successive   Sun- 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  V.  p.  27G. — Calderwood,  p.  74. 

-  MSS.  Petrie,  cited  in  Fund.  Charter  of  Presb.      -'  First  Book  of  Discipline. 

*  Calderwood,  p.  7G.  ^  Ujjd.  78. 


1577.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  273 

daySjWliich  was  contrary  to  all  rule,  as  Sunday,  in  memory  of  our 
Lord's  resurrection  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  has  ever  been 
held  as  a  festival  in  the  christian  church.  "  It  has  been  one 
of  the  politics  of  the  sect  to  be  mighty  for  fasts,"  says  Sage, 
"  when  they  had  extraordinary  projects  in  their  heads ;  and 
then  if  these  projects  (however  wicked,  nay,  the  very  wicked- 
ness which  the  Scripture  makes  as  bad  as  withcraft)  succeed, 
to  entitle  them  to  God's  grace,  and  make  the  success  the 
comfortable  return  of  their  pious  humiliations  and  sincere 
devotions." 

A  form  of  church  policy  was  drawn  up  by  the  presbyterian 
party,  differing  materially  from  the  First  Book  of  Discipline, 
and  commissioners  were  appointed  to  wait  on  the  regent,  to  in- 
form him  that  they  were  busy  about  the  matter  and  argument  ot 
the  polity,  and  that  his  grace  should  receive  advertisement  oi 
their  further  proceedings.     In  the  preface  to  the  Second  Book, 
they  protested  "  to  wish  nothing  more  than,  as  God  had  made 
him  a  notable  instrument  in  purging  the  realm  of  popery,  and 
settling  the  same  in  a  perfect  peace,  that  He  would  also  honour 
him  with  the  establishment  of  a  godly  and  spiritual  policy  in 
the  church ;  entreating  his  grace  to  receive  the  articles  pre 
sented  ;  and  if  any  of  them  did  not  seem  agreeable  to  reason, 
to  vouchsafe  audience  to  the  brethren,  whom  they  had  named 
to  attend  ; — not  that  they  did  account  it  a  work  complete,  to 
which  nothing  might  be  added,  or  from  which  nothing  might 
be  diminished, /or,  as  God  should  reveal  further  unto  theniy 
they  should  be  willing  to  help  and  renew  the  same^"     The 
commissioners  reported  to  the  Assembly,  "  that  his  grace  liked 
well  of  their  travels  and  labours  taken  in  that  matter,  and  re- 
quired expedition  and  hasty  outred.     As  for  the  particulars, 
(said  he)  let  them  be  given  in,  and  they  shall  receive  a  gooa 
answer'^r     The  last  clause  of  this  answer  bears  a  strong  con- 
firmation of  the  regent's    collusion  with  the    presbyterian 
scheme  of  revolution.      And   farther,  he  appointed   a  con- 
ference between  some  ministers  and   members  of  the  privy 
council,  for  agreeing  on  the  recent  devout  revelation  of  the  new 
reformers ;  but  the  conference  was  broken  up  on  account  of  the 
feuds  and  seditions  which  occuned  at  that  time,  and  also  by  the 
approaching  ruin  of  their  avaricious  patron.     Leslie  says  that 
"  Erastianism  ran  down  like  a  torrent  from  the  Reforma- 
tion ;"  and  in  this  preamble  by  the  founder  of  the  presbyterian 
communion,  Erastianism  is  boldly  and  unblushingly  avowed, 
conjoined  with  the  rationalism  of  the  present  day,  wherein 

'  Spottiswood   b.  V.  277.         ^  Calderwood,  p.  77. 
V    L.  I.  2   N 


274  iiusiuivi  ui'  ixxb  [chap.  viii. 

they  made  the  regent  the  judge  of  the  fitness  or  unfitness  of 
what  they  broadly  asserted  was  revealed  to  them  from  heaven ! 
If  it  was  a  matter  of  revelation,  as  they  do  not  scruple  to  assert, 
^t  would  have  been  perfect  at  once,  and  their  declaration  that 
11  might  be  added  to  or  diminished,  with  their  submitting  it  to 
the  decision  of  the  regent's  judgment,  were  surely  insults  offered 
to  the  Spirit  of  Graced 

In  this  Assembly  it  was  asked.  What  shall  be  done  to 
ministers  and  readers,  that  in  Lent,  or  on  Saints'-day s,  or  Pasch 
and  Yule  (Easter  and  Christmas),  read,  preach,  or  minister  the  j 
communion  ?  It  was  answered,  that  the  visitor,  with  advice 
of  the  synodal  Assemblies,  ought  to  admonish  such  ministers 
or  readers  to  desist  and  abstain,  under  the  pain  of  deprivation ; 
and  if  they  disobey,  to  deprive  them  ^."  This  is  a  clear  proof 
that  the  festivals  of  the  whole  church  were  celebrated  by  the 
titular  episcopal  church  of  Scotland,  and  that  they  were  not 
discontinued  till  the  genius  of  presbytery  began  to  preside  in 
the  General  Assemblies. 

The  autumn  Assembly  met  on  the  25th  of  October,  but  in 
it  the  presbyterian  party  still  appear  to  have  been  the  weaker, 
for  there  was  nothing  done  for  their  advancement,  or  the  hum- 
bling of  the  episcopacy.  About  this  time,  Beza's  discourse  ot 
divine,  human,  and  satanical  bishops,  made  its  appearance, 
which  greatly  assisted  Melville  in  his  new  design ;  but  the 
resignation  of  the  regency  by  the  earl  of  Morton,  at  this  time, 
was  of  infinitely  more  importance  to  the  presbyterians.  Al- 
though he  had  rendered  them  essential  service,  yet  he  was  so 
crafty  and  avaricious  that  they  could  not  trust  him,  and  they 
lived  in  continual  apprehension  of  his  overreaching  them. 
They  had  the  advantage,  however,  of  his  precept  to  draw  a 
new  plan  of  government ;  and  they  had  a  young  prince  only 
twelve  years  of  age  to  deal  with,  and  consequently  were  likely 
enough  to  have  a  divided  court  and  a  factious  nobility.  They 
very  sagaciously  calculated,  therefore,  that  one  or  other  of  these 
factions  would  be  sure  to  court  them,  and  undertake  to  promote 
their  interests. 

In  the  third  session  of  this  Assembly,  it  was  ordained,  that 
all  bishops  and  others  bearing  ecclesiastical  function  be  called 
by  their  own  names,  or  brethren,  in  time  coming  ;  Caldervvood 
always  denominates  the  most  fierce,  fiery,  and  intractable  ot 
them,  as  "  godly  brethren." 

The  Assembly  appointed  a  national  fast  to  be  observed 
throughout  the  whole  kingdom,  as  the  affections  of  the  people 

'  Revelations,  xxii.   18,  19.  "  Calderwood,  p.  78. 


1577.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  275 

were  not  j^et  sufRciently  disposed  for  presbytery,  to  continue 
for  a  whole  week,  in  consequence  of  "  corruptions  in  all  estates, 
coldness  in  great  part  of  the  professors,  increase  of  fearful  sins 
and  enormities,  domestic  seditions  and  dissensions, — the  bloody 
conclusions  of  that  Roman  beast ;  and  also  to  establish  such  u 
policy  and  discipline  in  the  kirk  as  is  craved  in  the  word  of  God, 
and  is  conceived  and  penned  already,  to  be  presented  to  his 
highness  and  council^."  It  must  be  acknowledged,  that  the 
above  black  catalogue  of  sins  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  political 
preaching  which  had  been  so  long  in  fashion,  and  to  the  deep 
rebellion  of  the  queen's  enemies,  who,  having  set  aside  the 
lawful  possessor  of  the  throne,  and,  by  treason  and  bloodshed, 
secured  for  a  faction  the  whole  dominion,  placing  an  uncon- 
scious infant  on  his  mother's  throne,  they  were  compelled  to 
support  their  usurpation  by  the  same  bloody  means.  The  major 
part  of  the  nobility  were  loyal  to  their  imprisoned  queen,  but 
whom  the  regents  harassed  and  persecuted  with  unrelenting 
barbarity.  Dr.  Cook  candidly  owns,  "  that  the  ecclesiastical 
polity  introduced  by  Melville  exerted  in  Scotland  the  malig- 
nant influence  that  might  have  been  anticipated  from  it;  which 
extinguished  the  feelings  and  hardened  the  hearts  of  those 
who  gloried  in  supporting  it,  which  spread  all  the  rancour  oi 
exasperated  bigotry  throughout  the  community,  and  gave  rise 
to  scenes  of  intolerance  and  persecution,  from  which  every 
humane  and  christian  spirit  must  shrink  with  the  strongest 
disapprobation  2." 

On  the  15th  September,  Morton  resigned  the  regency,  hav- 
ing sufficient  sagacity  to  foresee  the  storm  that  was  gathering, 
and  wisely  resolved  to  shelter  himself  from  its  fury.  Avarice 
was  his  ruling  passion.  Robert  Reid,  the  last  Roman  bishop 
of  Orkney, "  left  a  great  sum  of  money  for  building  the  College 
of  Edinburgh,  which  the  earl  of  Morton  converted  to  his  own 
use  and  profit,  by  banishing  the  executors  of  bishop  Reid  for 
supposed  crimes 3."  He  was  thoroughly  and  abjectly  the 
creature  of  Elizabeth,  and  her  willing  instrument  in  embroiling 
the  nation  in  all  its  ecclesiastical  feuds  and  animosities.  He 
cheated  the  ministers  out  of  their  revenues,  and,  in  consequence, 
he  excited  among  them  a  host  of  enemies.  He  coined  and 
issued  base  money,  but  which  he  refused  to  accept  in  payment 
of  his  exactions;  and  he  most  cruelly  oppressed  the  common 
people.  He  betrayed  and  sold  the  duke  of  Northumberland  to 
Elizabeth,  who  had  sought  shelter  in  Scotland ;  and  besides  he 

'  Calderwood.  2  Cook's  Hist.  Church  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.  250. 

^  Keith's  Catalogue  of  Scottish  Bishops,  p.  225. 


276  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

was  guilty  of  repeated  breaches  of  faith,  and  acts  of  despotic 
tyranny,  so  that  the  whole  kingdom  groaned  under  the  most 
cruel  oppression,  and  was  disgusted  and  united  against  him 
as  one  man.  His  temporary  resignation,  however,  was  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  the  presbyterian  party,  for  the  reasons 
already  named. 

To  James's  youth  and  inexperience  must  be  added,  in  favour 
of  the  presbyterians,  the  unaccountable  neglect  of  the  titular 
bishops,  their  dastardly  supineness  and  guilty  lukewarmness. 
They  made  no  effort  to  protect  their  flocks,  nor  defend  their 
office,  against  the  innovations  of  the  presbyterian  party,  which 
was  now  gaining  strength  daily,  from  sheer  impudence  and 
agitation.  But  these  new  refonners  so  harassed  and  insulted 
the  bishops  with  insolent  scurrilities  and  personal  incivilities, 
as  detened  them  from  speaking  in  their  own  defence,  lest 
from  words  they  should  proceed  to  blows,  which  in  that 
rude  age,  and  in  their  hostile  temper,  would  have  been  no  way 
surprising. 

15780 — The  General  Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh,  on  the 
24th  of  April,  when  the  chief  presbyterian  and  its  founder  in 
Scotland,  Andrew  Melville,  was  chosen  moderator. 

During  the  rude  contentions  of  political  parties,  by  which 
the  earl  of  Morton  had  been  supplanted  in  the  regency,  and 
the  young  prince  had  assumed  the  reigns  of  government,  the 
presbyterians  presented  the  "  Second  Book  of  Discipline," 
which  had  only  just  been  completed,  to  the  parliament,  which 
met  at  Stirling.  Being  occupied  with  other  subjects,  some  of 
its  members  were  appointed  to  meet  and  confer  with  the  com- 
missioners of  the  Assembly  ;  that  if  they  agreed,  the  book 
might  be  inserted  in  the  journals  of  parliament.  Some  of  the 
articles  were  agreed  to,  and  others  were  peremptorily  rejected  ; 
for  it  was  a  strange  compound  of  democracy  and  inconsistency. 
They  ushered  in  their  new  constitution  with  the  following 
preamble ;  and  that  discipline  must  indeed  have  been  most 
admirable,  which  could  have  removed  such  extensive  and 
abominable  iniquity,  as  every  Assembly  lamented,  and  which 
showed  that  sacrilege  had  produced  the  fruits  of  the  flesh, 
and  that  the  kingdom  was  given  up  to  a  reprobate  mind.  We 
shall  not  find,  however,  that  the  new  model  propitiated  the 
Spirit  of  grace,  or  that  His  fruits  of  holiness  were  the  conse- 
quence of  this  deraocratical  amendment. 

"  The  General  Assembly  of  the  kirk,  finding  universal  cor- 
ruption of  the  whole  estates  of  the  body  of  this  realm,  the 
grviii  coldness  and  slackness  in  religion  in  the  greatest  part 
of  the  professors  of  the  same,  with  the  daihj  increase  of  all 


1578.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  277 

kinds  of  fearfiU  sins  and  enormities ;  as  incest,  adultery,  murder, 
cursed  sacrilege,  ungodly  sedition  and  division  within  the 
bowels  of  the  realm,  with  all  manner  of  disordered  and  un- 
godly living;  which  justly  has  provoked  our  God,  although 
long  suffering  and  patient,  to  stretch  out  his  arm  in  his  anger 
to  con-ect  and  visit  the  iniquity  of  the  land  ;  and  namely,  by 
the  present  penury,  famine,  and  hunger,  joined  with  the  civil 
and  intestine  seditions :  whei-eunto  doubtless  greater  judg- 
ments must  succeed,  if  these  His  corruptions  work  no  refor- 
mation and  amendment  in  men's  hearts.  Seeing  also  the 
bloody  conclusions  of  the  cruel  councils  of  that  Roman  beast, 
tending  to  exterminate  and  rase  from  the  face  of  all  Europe 
the  true  light  of  the  blessed  word  of  salvation  :  For  these 
causes,  and  that  God  of  his  mercy  would  bless  the  king's  high- 
ness, and  his  regiment,  and  make  him  to  have  a  happy  and 
prosperous  government,  as  also  to  put  in  his  highness's  heart, 
and  in  the  hearts  of  his  noble  estates  of  parliament,  not  only 
to  make  and  establish  good  politic  laws  for  the  weal  and  good 
government  of  the  realm,  but  also  to  set  and  establish  such  a 
polity  and  discipline  in  the  kirk  as  is  craved  in  the  word  of 
God,  and  is  contained  and  penned  already  to  be  presented  to 
his  highness  and  council ;  that  in  the  one  and  in  the  other  God 
may  have  His  due  praise,  and  the  age  to  come  an  example  of 
upright  and  godly  dealing." 

It  appears  from  what  follows  that  the  new  discipline  differed 
entirely  fi-om  the  primitive  and  apostolic  government  of  the 
church  of  Christ,  and  from  the  discipline  which  Knox  and  his 
coadjutors  introduced,  and  to  which  cheerful  obedience  had 
been  given  for  eighteen  years.  In  chap.  ii.  sec.  9,  it  is  decidedly 
stated,  "  That  there  axe.  four  ordinary  offices  or  functions  in  the 
church  of  God, — the  pastor,  minister,  or  bishop;  the  doctor;  the 
presbyter,  or  elder;  and  the  deacon.  Sec.  10.  These  offices 
are  ordinary,  and  ought  to  continue  perpetually  in  the  church, 
as  necessary  for  the  government  and  policy  of  the  same ;  and 
no  more  offices  ought  to  be  received,  or  suffered  in  the  true 
church  of  God,  established  by  his  word.  Sec.  11.  Therefore 
all  the  ambitious  titles  invented  in  the  kingdom  of  antichrist, 
and  his  usurped  hierarchy,  which  are  not  of  tliose  sorts,  toge- 
ther with  the  offices  depending  thereon,  ought  in  one  word  to 
be  rejected."  Chap,  v..  Of  doctors,  and  their  offices.  "  One 
of  the  two  ordinary  and  perpetual  functions  that  labour  in  the 
word,  is  the  office  of  doctor,  who  may  also  be  called  prophet, 
bishop,  elder,  and  catechiser, — that  is,  the  teacher  of  the  cate- 
chism and  the  rudiments  of  religion.  Sect.  2.  His  office  is,  to 
open  up  the  mind  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  scrijDtures  simply, 


278  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

without  Bucli  application  as  the  minister  uses,  to  the  end  that 
the  faithful  may  be  instructed  in  sound  doctrine,  the  purity  of 
the  gospel  taught,  and  not  corrupted  through  ignorant  and  evil 
opinions.  Sec.  3.  He  is  different  from  the  pastor,  not  only  in 
name,  but  in  diversity  of  gifts ;  for  to  the  doctor  is  given  the 
gift  of  knowledge,  to  open  up  by  simple  teaching  the  mysteries 
of  faith :  to  the  pastor  the  gift  of  wisdom,  to  apply  the  same 
by  exhortation  to  the  manners  of  the  flock,  as  occasion  craves. 
Sec.  4.  Under  the  name  and  office  of  doctor,  we  comprehend 
also  the  order  in  schools,  colleges,  and  luiiversities,  which  have 
from  time  to  time  been  carefully  maintained,  as  well  among 
Jews  and  Christians  as  among  profane  nations.  Sec.  5.  The 
doctor  being  an  elder,  should  assist  the  pastor  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  church,  and  concur  with  the  elders  his  brethren  in 
all  Assemblies,  by  reason  the  interpretation  of  the  word,  which 
is  only  judged  in  matters  ecclesiastical,  is  committed  to  his 
charge.  Sec.  6.  But  to  preach  unto  the  people,  to  minister 
the  sacraments,  and  celebrate  marriages,  pertains  not  to  the 
doctor,  unless  he  be  otherwise  called  ordinarily  ;  yet  may  the 
pastors  teach  in  schools,  as  he  who  hath  the  gift  of  knowledge 
oftentimes,  which  the  example  of  Polycarpus  and  others 
testify  ^" 

It  is  not  possible  to  conceive  a  greater  confusion  than  is  con- 
tained in  this  chapter.  The  compilers  say,  there  are  four 
orders  in  the  church  ;  but  their  offices  and  functions  are  so 
jumbled  together,  that  it  is  impossible  to  define  exactly  their 
duties.  How  different  such  a  system  of  man's  devising  this  is 
from  the  beautiful  order  and  simplicity  of  the  apostolic  church ! 
It  is  impossible  for  the  maintainers  of  this  system  to  produce 
corresponding  orders  in  Scripture  for  their  doctors  and  lay- 
elders  ;  and,  therefore,  according  to  their  own  assertion,  when 
episcopacy  was  first  called  in  question,  "  none  ought  to  be 
office-bearers  in  the  church,  whose  titles  were  not  found  in  the 
book  of  God."  And,  as  these  titles  canndt  be  found  there, 
this  "  corruption"  ought  to  be  removed,  "  as,  unless  the  same 
was  removed,  it  could  not  go  well  with  the  church,  nor  could 
religion  be  long  preserved  in  purity  2."  "  There  cannot  be," 
says  Sage,  "  a  greater  evidence  of  the  unskilfulness  of  the 
clergy  in  these  times,  in  the  ancient  records  of  the  church,  than 
their  suffering  Melville  and  his  party  to  obtrude  upon  them 
tlie  Second  Book  of  Discipline  ;  a  split-new  democratical  sys- 
tem, a  very  farce  of  novelties,  never  heard  of  before  iu  the 

'  Spottiswood,   189 — 302. — Second  Book  of  Discipline,  contained  in  Con- 
fession of  faith.  •  Melville's  Speech  in  Assembly,  1975. 


1578.]  CHuncH  of  scoiland.  279 

tlnistian  church.     For  instance,  what  else  is  the  confounding 
the  offices  of  bishops  and  presbyters,  the  making  doctors  or 
professors  of  divinity  in  colleges  and  universities,  a  distinct 
office,  and  of  divine  institution  ?  the  setting  up  of  lay-elders 
as  governors  of  the  chnxch,  jure  divinoy  making  them  judges 
of  men's  qualifications  to  be   admitted   to  the    sacrament? 
visitors  of  the  sick,  &c.  ?  making  the  colleges  of  presbyters  in 
cities  in  the  primitive  times  lay-elderships  ?  prohibi  ting  appeals 
from  Scottish  General  Assemblies  to  any  judge,  civil  or  eccle- 
siastical ;  and  by  consequence,  to  oecumenical  councils?     Are 
these  ancient  and  catholic  assertions  ?    What  footsteps  of  these 
in  true  antiquity  ?     How  easy  had  it  been  for  men  skilled  in 
the  constitution,  government,  and  discipline  of  the  primitive 
church,  to  have  laid  open  to  the  conviction  of  all  sober  men, 
the  novelty,  the  vanity,  the  inexpediency,  the  impoliticalness, 
the   uncatholicalness  of  most,  if  not  all,  of  these  proposi- 
tions 1." 

But  many  points  of  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline  were 
taken  word  for  word  from  Beza's  answers  to  the  lord  chancellor 
Glammis'  questions.  His  tract  de  Triplici  Episcopatu  was 
purposely  written  for  the  advancement  of  presbyterianism  in 
Scotland,  and  his  answers  to  lord  Glammis'  six  questions 
contained  the  new  scheme  which  was  now  produced  by  Melville 
and  laid  before  parliament.  It  is  a  fair  evidence  of  the  igno- 
rance of  the  ministers  of  catholic  doctrines,  and  of  the  history 
and  polity  of  the  church,  when  they  could  passively  permit 
such  an  uncatholic  system  to  be  forced  upon  them  by  the 
assurance  of  a  single  individual,  and  he  almost  a  stranger, 
whose  chief  aim  it  was  to  be  the  founder  of  a  sect,  and  to  be 
called  a  master  in  Israel.  "  Now,"  says  Sage,  "  let  us  taste 
a  little  of  his  skill  in  the  constitution  and  government  of  the 
ancient  church,  or,  if  you  please,  of  his  accounts  of  her  policy. 
I  take  his  book  as  I  find  it  amongst  Saravia's  works.  He  is 
positive  for  the  divine  right  of  ruling  elders.  He  affirms  that 
'  bishops  arrogated  to  themselves  the  power  of  ordination  with- 
out God's  allowance  ;  that  the  chief  foundation  of  all  eccle- 
siastical functions  is  popular  election  ;  that  this  election,  and 
not  ordination  or  imposition  of  hands,  makes  pastors  or  bishops ; 
that  imposition  of  hands  does  no  more  than  put  them  in  pos- 
session (that  is,  the  exercise,)  of  their  ministry,  the  power 
whereof  they  have  from  that  election ;  that,  by  consequence, 
it  is  more  proper  to  say  that  the  fathers  of  the  church  are 

*  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery,  p.  246. 


280  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

created  by  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  suffrages  of  their  children 
than  by  the  bishops  ;  that  St.  Paul,  in  his  First  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians,  in  which  he  expressly  writes  against  and  con- 
demns the  schism  which  then  prevailed  there,  as  foreseeing  that 
episcopacy  might  readily  be  deemed  a  remedy  against  so  great 
an  evil,  joined  Sosthenes  with  himself  in  the  inscription  of  the 
Epistle,  that  by  his  own  example  he  might  teach  how  much 
that  princeliness  was  to  be  avoided  in  ecclesiastical  conven- 
tions, seeing  the  apostles  themselves,  who  are  owned  to  have 
been  next  to  Christ,  first  in  order  and  supreme  in  degree,  did 
yet  exercise  their  power  by  the  rules  of  parity.'  Who  will  not 
at  first  sight  think  this  a  pretty  odd  fetch  ?  But  to  go  on,  he 
further  affirms,  that  episcopacy  is  so  far  from  being  a  proper 
remedy  against  schism,  that  it  has  produced  many  grievous 
schisms  which  had  never  been  but  for  that  human  invention. 
That  the  papacy  was  the  fruit  of  episcopacy.  That  the 
council  of  Nice,  by  making  that  canon,  that  the  ancient 
customs  should  continue,  &c.  cleared  the  w^ay  for  the  Roman 
papacy  which  was  then  advancing  a  pace;  and  founded  a 
throne  for  that  whore  that  sits  upon  the  seven  mountains. 
That  the  primitive  churches  were  in  a  flourishing  condition 
so  long  as  their  governors  continued  to  act  in  parity :  and  yet 
he  had  granted  before,  that  human  episcopacy,  as  he  calls  it, 
was  in  vogue  in  Ignatius'  time.  So  that  I  think  they  could 
not  flourish  much,  having  so  short  a  time  to  flourish  in." 

The  parliamentary  commissioners  agreed,  for  the  time  being, 
to  such  articles  in  the  Second  Book  of  Discipline  as  did  not 
interfere  with  the  authority  and  prerogative  of  the  crown. 
Many  of  them,  however,  did,  and  of  course  they  were  either 
rejected  or  deferred  till  a  future  period,  which  the  privy  council 
postponed  indefinitely,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  the  presby- 
terian  leaders.  These  worthy  reformers,  however,  took  the  law 
into  their  own  hand,  and,  without  waiting  for  the  legal  ratifi- 
cation of  their  polity,  they  passed  an  act  of  Assembly  of  con- 
siderable importance  for  the  new  cause : — viz.  "  Forasmuch 
as  there  is  great  corruption  in  the  estate  of  bishops,  as  they  are 
at  present  set  up  in  this  realm,  whereunto  the  Assembly  would 
provide  some  stay  in  time  coming,  so  far  as  they  may,  to  the 
effect  that  farther  corruption  may  be  bridled ;  the  Assembly 
hath  concluded,  that  no  bishop  shall  be  elected  or  admitted 
before  the  next  General  Assembly,  discharging  all  ministers 
and  chapters  to  proceed  anyways  to  the  election  of  the  said 
bishops,  in  the  meantime,  under  the  pain  of  perpetual  depriva- 
tion ;    and  that  this  matter  be  proponed  first  in  the   next 


1578.]  CHUKCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  281 

Assembly,  to  be  consulted  what  farther  order  should  be  taken 
therein  ^"  According  to  tlieir  usual  custom,  when  any  extra- 
ordinary innovation  was  contemplated,  the  Assembly  in  its 
seventh  session  appointed  z.fast  to  be  observed  throughout  the 
whole  kingdom,  without  consulting  the  civil  authorities,  who, 
in  this  matter,  were  put  in  subjection  to  the  ecclesiastical 
estate :  and  with  their  usual  opposition  to  all  antiquity,  reli- 
gious principle,  and  common  sense,  the  fast  was  to  commence 
on  the  first  Sunday  in  June,  to  continue  the  whole  week,  and  to 
be  concluded  on  the  following  Sunday, hoih.  Sundays  included. 
The  next  General  Assembly  this  year  met  at  Stirling,  the  11th 
of  June,  only  six  weeks  after  the  spring  meeting ;  but  parlia- 
ment meeting  there,  it  w^as  requisite  for  the  good  new  cause 
that  the  Assembly  should  convocate  for  its  own  interest. 
Presbytery  seems  to  have  become  more  powerful  as  time  ad- 
vanced, for  here  the  Assembly,  all  in  one  voice,  concluded, 
"  that  the  act  of  the  last  Assembly,  discharging  the  election 
of  bishops,  &c.  should  be  extended  to  all  time  coming,  aye, 
and  until  the  corruptions  in  the  estate  of  bishops  be  utterly 
taken  away  2."  The  levellers  had  not  yet  given  any  indication 
of  what  these  corruptions  consisted.  Another  application  was 
made  to  parliament  to  ratify  the  new  book,  although  they  had 
not  finished  it  themselves,  but  which  v^•as  still  evaded. 

A  third  Assembly  met  this  year  at  Edinburgh,  on  the 
24tli  of  October,  and  D.  Fergnsson,  minister  of  Dunfermline, 
was  chosen  moderator.  No  less  than  three  General  Assemblies 
in  one  year  to  usher  in  the  birth  of  presbytery,  and  the  era  ot 
a  new  and  a  more  radical  reformation !  And  now  the  corrup- 
tions so  long  complained  of  in  the  estate  of  bishops  were 
at  last  enumerated,  and  the  presbyterians  commenced  their 
hostilities  on  the  mitre,  by  an  attack  on  Boyd,  archbishop  oi 
Glasgow,  whom  they  expected  to  have  been  more  tractable, 
and  they  desired  him  to  submit  himself  to  the  Assembly,  and 
suffer  the  corruptions  of  the  episcopal  estate  to  be  reformed  in 
his  person.  Careless,  indifferent,  and  lukewarm,  as  the  titular 
bishops  had  heretofore  shewn  themselves,  in  their  opposition 
to  Melville,  Boyd  answered  their  summons  with  becoming 
spirit  and  dignity,  in  writing  as  follows,  an  answer  which 
Heylin  says,  "  for  the  modesty  or  piety  thereof  deserves  to  be 
continued  to  perpetual  memory:" — "  I  understand  the  name, 
office,  and  reverence  given  to  a  bishop  to  be  lawful  and  allowable 
by  the  Scriptures  of  God,  and  having  been  elected  by  the  church 
and  king  to  be  bishop  of  Glasgow,  I  esteem  my  office  and 

'  Fundamental  Charter  of  Presbytery,  p.  246.  "  Calderwood,  81,  82. 

VOL.  I.  2  o 


'282  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  V  11. 

calling  lawful,  and  will  endeavour  with  all  my  power  to  perfonn 
the  duties  required,  submitting  myself  to  the  judgment  of  the 
church,  if  I  shall  be  tried  to  offend,  so  as  nothing  be  required  of 
me  but  the  performance  of  those  duties  which  the  apostle  pre- 
scribeth.  As  to  the  rent,  living,  and  privileges  granted  to  me 
and  my  successors,  I  tliink  I  may  lawfully  and  with  a  good  con- 
science enjoy  the  same.  And  for  assisting  the  king  with  my 
best  service  in  council  and  parliament,  as  my  subjection  ties 
me  thereto,  so  I  esteem  it  no  hurt,  but  a  benefit  to  the  church, 
that  some  of  their  number  should  be  always  present  at  the 
making  of  laws  and  statutes,  wherein,  for  myself,  I  neither  in- 
tend, nor,  by  the  grace  of  God,  shall  ever  do  anything,  but  that 
which  I  believe  may  stand  with  the  purity  of  the  word  of  God, 
and  the  good  of  the  church  and  country^." 

The  archbishop's  letter  was  read  in  open  court,  and  gave 
great  offence  to  the  brethren ;  and  they  commanded  his  gi'ace 
to  bethink  himself,  and  return  an  answer  more  suitable  to 
the  presbyterian  system ;  but  Boyd  refused  any  farther  conces- 
sion. A  commission  was  therefore  forthwith  issued  to  Melville 
and  some  brethren  of  the  west,  to  urge  his  subscription  to  the 
act  made  at  Stirling  for  reformation  of  the  episcopal  estate, — 
that  is,  its  extirpation ;  and,  if  the  archbishop  should  prove 
refractory,  which,  from  his  courage  and  noble  bearing  in  the 
Assembly,  they  expected  he  would  be,  they  were  empowered  to 
jDroceed  against  him  with  the  censures  of  the  church,  and,  as 
far  as  they  were  able,  to  excommunicate  and  deliver  him  to 
the  devil  and  his  angels.  This  persecution  was  the  more 
intolerable  to  the  archbishop,  who  was  a  good  man,  and 
worthy  of  better  times,  on  account  of  the  base  ingratitude  and 
rude  incivility  of  Melville,  who  had  received  many  favours 
from  Boyd.  The  archbishop  had  promoted  him  to  be  principal 
of  Glasgow  University ;  and  he  had  been-a  frequent  and  wel- 
come guest  at  his  grace's  table,  where,  it  is  remarkable,  he 
always  gave  the  archbishop  his  proper  titles  of  dignity  and 
honour ;  but  in  public,  especially  in  public  meetings,  he  would 
call  him  by  his  proper  name,  and  use  him  with  great  familiarity 
and  rudeness.  "  Nothing,"  says  Spottiswood,  "  did  more 
grieve  him  than  the  ingratitude  of  Mr.  Andrew  Melville,  and 
his  uncourteous  forms.  He  had  brought  the  man  to  Glasgow, 
placed  him  principal  in  the  college,  bestowed  otherwise 
liberally  upon  him,  and  was  paid  for  his  kindness  with  the  most 
disgraceful  contempt."  These  commissioners  exercised  their 
delegated  authority  with  the  utmost  rigour,  and  by  working  on 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  303. — Calderwood,  pp.  84,  85. 


1578.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  283 

the  good  man's  fears,  and  threatening  him  with  the  thunders  of 
the  Assembly,  they  induced  him  to  sign  "  certain  articles," 
which  gave  him  great  uneasiness  on  his  death-bed.  He  was, 
says  Spottiswood,  "  a  wise,  learned,  and  religious  prelate,  and 
worthy  to  have  lived  in  better  times  than  he  fell  into.  His 
corpse  was  solemnly  buried  in  the  quire  of  the  cathedral,  and 
laid  in  the  sepulchre  of  Mr.  Gavin  Dunbar,  one  of  his  pre- 
decessors." His  death  was  hastened  by  the  public  persecution 
and  private  insolence  of  the  founder  of  Scottish  presbytery, 
whose  humility  consisted  not  in  his  own  lowliness  of  mind,  but 
iu  the  humbling  of  his  superiors.  The  bishops  were  so  perse- 
cuted by  this  system  of  personal  incivility  and  rudeness,  that 
they  began  to  absent  themselves  from  the  meetings  of  Assembly, 
where  their  persons  were  now  exposed  to  the  coarsest  insults, 
and  their  office  to  the  most  scurrilous  insolence  and  abused 

For  the  preceding  three  years,  the  corruptions  in  the  estate 
of  bishops  had  been  the  constant  subject  of  declamation  for 
our  new  reformers,  but  which  had  never  yet  been  specified. 
However,  in  this  Assembly  the  alleged  coniiptions,  seven  in 
number,  were  produced  ;  and  commissioners  were  appointed 
to  summon  Adamson,  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  before  them, 
who  had  refrained  fi-om  attending  the  Assembly,  and  charge 
him  to  remove  the  said  "  coiTuptions "  in  the  estate  of  bishops, 
in  his  own  person  ;  ordaining  him,  with  the  other  bishops  that 
should  submit  themselves  to  correction,  to  subscribe  the  follow- 
ing eight  articles,  which,  according  to  their  logic,were  sufficient 
to  warrant  the  abolition  of  God's  holy  ordinance,  for  which  the 
evidence  is  as  strong  as  for  the  canon  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
or  the  articles  of  the  creed  : — 

I.  That  the  bishops  should  be  content  to  be  ministers  and 
pastors  of  a  flock.  II.  That  they  should  not  usurp  any  crimi- 
nal jurisdiction.  III.  That  they  should  not  vote  in  parlia- 
ment in  name  of  the  church,  unless  they  had  a  commission 
from  the  General  Assembly.  IV.  That  they  should  not  take 
up,  for  maintaining  their  ambition,  the  rents  which  might 
maintain  many  pastors,  schools,  and  poor,  but  content  them- 
selves with  a  reasonable  portion  for  discharging  their  office. 
V.  That  they  should  not  claim  the  title  of  temporal  lords, 
nor  usurp  any  civil  jurisdiction,  whereby  they  may  be  with- 
drawn from  their  charges.  VL  That  they  should  not  empire 
it  over  elderships,  but  be  subject  to  the  same.  VII.  That  they 
should  not  usm-p  the  power  of  elderships,  nor  take  upon  them 


'  "  The  small  respect  carried  to  bishops  in  these  assemblies  of  the  churcli, 
made  them  dishaunt,  and  come  no  more  iiato  the  same." — Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  303. 


284  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

to  visit  any  bounds  that  were  not  committed  to  them  by  the 
church.  VIII.  Lastly,  it  was  provided,  that  if  any  more  cor- 
ruptions should  afterwards  be  tried,  the  bishops  should  submit 
to  have  them  reformed  ^ 

These  articles,  or  corruptions,  as  they  called  them,  were  evi- 
dently intended  for  the  total  extirpation  of  the  episcopal  order. 
What  could  be  more  decisive  than  the  sixth  article,  which  or- 
dains that  the  superior  shall  be  subject  to  the  inferior?  Adam- 
son's  reply  is  not  recorded,  but  as  Boyd  behaved  with  so 
much  spirit,  and  refused  subscription,  it  may  be  infen'ed  that 
Adamson  also  declined  to  subscribe  to  these  "  corruptions,"  as 
he  was  repeatedly  afterwards  charged  to  submit,  without  effect. 
Calderwood  pathetically  laments,  "  that  it  was  hard  to  get 
them  (the  bishops)  reduced  to  the  common  order  of  simple 
ministers  ;"  and  if  those  of  that  order  had  all  been  endowed 
with  the  spirit  and  courage  of  archbishop  Boyd,  they  ne  er 
could  have  elevated  this  novelty  over  the  ancient  order,  which 
extends  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  29th  canon  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Chalcedon,  which  was  the  fourth  general  council,  de- 
clares, "  that  to  reduce  a  bishop  to  the  degree  or  order  of  a 
presbyter,  is  sacrilege."  "  What  troubles,"  says  Spottiswood, 
"  hereupon  arose,  both  in  the  church  and  country,  we  shall 
hereafter  hear." 

In  the  fury  of  his  barbarous  zeal  for  the  extirpation  of  epis- 
copacy, Andrew  Melville  persuaded  the  magistrates  of 
Glasgow  to  pull  down  their  beautiful  cathedral,  which  had 
miraculously  escaped  the  desolating  march  of  destruction 
during  the  first  reformation.  But  the  Glasgow  tradesmen 
covered  themselves  with  immortal  honour,  for  they  collected 
for  the  defence  of  their  bishop's  cathedral ;  and  when  the 
workmen  were  about  to  commence  the  work  of  demolition,  they 
swore  that  the  man  who  should  cast  down  the  first  stone  of  it 
should  be  buried  under  it.  This  being  reported  to  the  young 
prince,  not  then  fourteen  years  of  age,  he  highly  applauded  the 
tradesmen's  spirit  and  resolution,  adding,  "  that  too  many 
churches  had  been  already  destroyed  ;  he  would  therefore 
tolerate  no  more  abuses  of  that  kind  2."  Strange  to  say,  the 
ministers  were  the  promoters  of  this  barbarous  sacrilege,  and 
were  the  plaintiffs  in  the  action  brought  against  the  tradesmen, 
whom  the  prince  protected,  and  inhibited  the  ministers  from 
further  proceedings. 

1579. — In  the  month  of  June,  queen  Mary  sent  her  private 
secretary,  Mons.  Noe,  with  a  letter  and  a  tender  message  to 

*  Spottisw^ood. — Calderwood.  "  Spottiswood,  b.  vi*  304. 


lo79J  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  285 

lier  son,  with  some  valuable  jewels,  and  a  vest  embroidered 
with  her  own  hand.  The  letter  being  addressed — "  To  our  lov- 
ing son  James,  prince  of  Scotland,"  Morton,  who  still  retained 
considerable  influence,  though  no  longer  regent,  refused  to  ad- 
mit the  secretary  to  see  the  prince,  or  to  deliver  his  letter  and 
I)resents,  because  the  queen  had  not  honoured  her  son  with  the 
style  and  title  of  king,  to  which,  during  her  life,  he  had  no 
right ;  and  Noe  was  dismissed  in  disgrace,  to  add  one  pang 
more  to  the  accumulated  afflictions  of  his  mistress  ^ 

The  General  Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh  on  the  7th  of 
July  ;  Thomas  Smeaton  was  chosen  moderator.  The  piince 
sent  a  letter  to  the  Assembly  by  Duncanson  his  chaplain, 
wherein  he  signified  his  dislike  of  their  foi-mer  proceedings,  and 
advised  them  to  "  abstain  from  making  any  novation  in  the 
church's  policy,  and  to  suffer  things  to  continue  in  the  present 
state  till  the  meeting  of  parliament,  and  without  prejudging 
the  decision  of  the  estates  by  their  conclusions ;"  hinting  also 
at  the  propriety  of  shewing  more  temper  in  their  deliberations  2, 
The  Assembly  voted  this  letter  "  harsh,"  and  therefore  it  was 
thrown  aside  with  contempt,  and  no  attention  was  paid  to  its  re- 
commendation. The  kirk  was  then  too  much  occupied  in  seat- 
ing "  King  Jesus  on  his  throne,"  to  heed  what  the  kings  of 
this  world  should  command,  in  preservation  of  their  own  just 
prerogatives.  So  far  were  they  from  proceeding  with  caution 
and  temper,  that  they  summoned  archbishop  Adamson  to  an- 
swer to  three  several  charges,  viz. — for  voting  in  parliament, — 
for  giving  collation  of  the  vicarage  of  Bolton, — and  for  oppos- 
ing the  Second  Book  of  Discipline,  in  his  place  in  parliament. 
The  presbyterian  principles,  which  were  now  triumphant  in 
the  Assemblies,  induced  that  body  to  assume  to  themselves  the 
privilege  of  altering  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  kingdom,  by 
prohibiting  the  bishops  from  sitting  in  parliament,  whereas 
they  were,  and  ever  had  been  from  the  first  parliament,  the 
first  of  its  estates — the  lords  temporal  and  the  commons 
being  the  other  two  estates.  Thus,  in  imitation  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  to  which  it  cannot  be  denied  that  presbytery  bears 
the  strong  resemblance  of  a  child  to  a  parent,  they  exercised 
a  supremacy  over  both  the  crown  and  the  parliament.  This 
early  exhibition  of  the  natural  insubordination  of  the  disciples 
of  Melville  gave  great  offence  at  court,  and,  in  consequence, 
the  privy  council  reversed  several  of  the  Assembly's  censures 
and  excommunications ;  for  the  spiritual  thunders  of  the  Assem- 

'  Crawford's  Memoirs. — Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  307. 
-  Spottiswood. — Calderwood, 


286  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  VIII. 

bly  had  been  as  actively  employed  as  those  of  the  Vatican,  and 
were  certainly  much  more  vexatious,  because  they  were  exer- 
cised on  the  most  frivolous  pretexts. 

It  must  not  be  omitted  here,  that  the  first  time  a  court  of 
presbytery  was  heard  of,  which  is  the  most  specific,  essential, 
and  indispensable  part  of  the  presbyterian  constitution,  was  in 
this  Assembly.  "  Among  the  questions  or  articles  proponed  by 
the  synod  of  Lothian,  it  was  proponed  that  a  general  order  be 
taken  for  erecting  of  presbyteries,  in  places  where  public  exer- 
cise is  used,  until  the  time  the  policy  of  the  kirk  be  established 
by  law.  It  was  answered,  the  exercise  may  be  judged  a  pres- 
bytery ^"  This  was  to  give  a  nimble  turn  to  an  occasional 
meeting  of  the  ministers  for  friendly  intercourse  and  mutual 
instruction,  and  which  was  called  an  exercise.  But  it  was 
not  a  court,  and  had  none  of  the  requisites  of  one  ;  for  it  had 
neither  authority  nor  jurisdiction.  It  could  neither  enjoin 
penance  on  offenders,  nor  absolve  them  from  it.  It  had  not  so 
much  power  as  the  meanest  kirk-session,  and  had  not  the 
smallest  resemblance  to  a  presbytery.  And  the  Assembly  de- 
claring it  to  be  a  court  of  presbytery,  could  not,  with  all  their 
omnipotence,  make  it  one  retrospectively. 

On  the  8th  September,  lord  Esme  Stewart,  lord  D'Aubigne, 
arrived  at  Leith,  from  France,  to  visit  his  cousin  James.  He  was 
the  son  of  John  Stewart,  brother  of  Matthew  earl  of  Lennox 
James's  grandfather,  and  so  his  first  cousin.  Charles  VII. 
of  France  had  conferred  on  his  father  the  town  and  title  of 
Aubigne,  a  town  included  in  the  province  of  Beny,  but  now  in 
the  department  of  Cher,  seated  in  a  fine  plain  on  the  river 
Nene,  and  twenty -four  miles  from  Bourges.  This  had  always 
been  an  inheritance  of  the  younger  sons  of  the  house  of 
Lennox,  since  John  Stewart  defeated  the  English  at  the  battle 
of  Bauge,  when  he  was  made  constable  of  France.  James  re- 
ceived his  cousin  with  all  the  kindness  which  his  affectionate 
temper  prompted,  and  immediately  made  him  a  privy  coun- 
cillor, great  chamberlain  of  Scotland,  and  duke  of  Lennox.  The 
royal  favour  shewn  to  this  interesting  stranger  immediately 
moved  the  envy  of  the  nobility,  and  the  jealousy  of  the  minis- 
ters, who,  with  the  uncharitableness  of  the  age, loudly  exclaimed 
that  he  had  been  sent  by  the  French  court  to  insinuate  himself 
into  James's  confidence,  which  his  rank  and  relationship  would 
enable  him  easily  to  effect,  and  then  to  induce  him  to  aposta- 
tise to  popery,  and  to  overthrow  the  protestant  establishment  ^. 
The  usurpation  of  the  ministers  incensed  James,  and  was  pro- 

'  Cal'i-'-'wood,  J).  88.  -  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  3G8-9. 


1579.J  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  287 

ductive  of  much  dissention  between  them,  and  many  evils  to 
both.  Immediately  that  it  was  known  that  they  were  mutually 
struggling  for  power,  multitudes  of  Jesuits  and  seminary  priests 
came  into  the  kingdom  ;  and  the  depressed  papists  now  be- 
came more  courageous,  and  many  of  them  made  open  confes- 
sion of  their  faith.  Mr.  Nichol  Burns,  professor  of  philosophy 
in  St.  Leonard's  college  St.  Andrews,  and  Messrs,  Archibald 
and  John  Hamilton,  regents  of  the  New  College,  made  open 
apostacy  to  popery.  Many  influential  persons  likewise  made 
profession  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion ;  and  a  number 
of  that  communion  assembled  in  Paisley,  and  sang  a  souVs 
mass  in  derision,  for  the  eternal  repose  of  the  protestant 
church,  which  they  now  considered  as  nearly  defunct.  This 
alarmed  and  roused  the  ministers,  who  denounced  from  their 
pulpits  the  most  dreadful  anatheiuas  on  that  "  Roman  anti- 
christ," and  even  accused  the  prince  of  being  a  secret  favourer 
of  that  church.  James  protested  against  this  false  accusation, 
and  assured  the  furious  ministers,  that  his  cousin,  the  duke  of 
Lennox,  had  renounced  popeiy,  on  his  earnest  solicitation, 
and  he  commanded  the  Assembly  to  appoint  any  one  of  their 
number  his  chaplain.  Accordingly,  David  Lindsay,  minister 
of  Leith,  was,  with  the  prince's  approbation,  placed  in  the 
duke's  family,  who  brought  him  in  a  short  time  to  make  an 
open  renunciation  of  the  Roman  tenets,  in  St.  Giles's  cathe- 
dral. Still  this  public  confession  did  not  remove  the  popular 
apprehensions,  which  were  confirmed  by  an  inundation  of  se- 
minary priests  and  Jesuits  from  the  continent,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  dispensations  from  the  pope  were  intercepted,  "  whereby 
the  papists  were  permitted  to  promise,  sivear,  subscribe,  and 
do  what  else  should  be  required  of  them,  so  as  in  mind  they 
continued  firm,  and  did  use  their  diligence  to  advance  in  secret 
the  Roman  faith.''''  It  is  certain  that  James  was  a  finn  protes- 
tant, notwithstanding  the  many  assertions  to  the  contrary  by 
the  zealots  of  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  and  the  unjust  ca- 
lumnies which  have  since  been  heaped  upon  his  memory.  On 
being  shown  these  dispensations,  he  immediately  commanded 
John  Craig,  his  chaplain,  to  draw  up  a  short  confession  of 
faith,  wherein  all  the  errors  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  both  in 
doctrine  and  rites,  should  be  specially  abjured ;  and  in  re- 
ference to  these  diabolical  dispensations,  a  clause  was  inserted, 
whereby  the  subscribers  called  "  God  to  witness,  that  in  their 
mind  and  hearts  they  did  fully  agree  to  the  said  confession, 
and  did  not  feign  or  dissemble  in  any  sort."  So  desirous  was 
the  prince  "  to  satisfy  the  kirk,"  that  he  subscribed  and  swore 


288  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

to  this  confession  in  public,  and  liis  example  was  followed  by 
his  whole  court,  Lennox  included  i. 

On  the  29th  of  October,  James  held  a  parliament  at  Edin- 
burgh, wherein  many  good  laws  were  enacted  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  gospel,  the  liberty  of  the  kirk,  and  the  pros- 
perity of  the  kingdom ;  among  which  he  gave  his  assent  to 
an  act  of  parliament,  entituled  "  Wherein  consists  the  juris- 
diction of  the  kirk  ?" — "  Our  sovereign  lord,  with  advice  of  his 
three  estates  of  this  present  parliament,  has  declared  and 
granted  jurisdiction  to  the  kirk,  which  consists  and  stands  in 
the  preaching  of  the  word  of  Jesus  Christ,  correction  of  man- 
ners, and  administration  of  the  holy  sacraments  ;  and  declares 
that  there  is  no  other  face  of  a  kirk,  nor  other  face  of  religion, 
than  is  at  present  by  the  grace  of  God  established  within  this 
realm,  and  that  there  is  no  other  jurisdiction  ecclesiastical 
acknowledged  within  this  realm,  other  than  that  which  is,  and 
shall  be,  within  the  same  kirk,  or  that  which  flows  therefrom 
concerning  the  premises  2." 

The  "  face  of  a  kirk"  indicated  in  this  act,  was  that  titular 
episcopal  church  which  was  still  the  establishment  of  the 
kingdom,  and  had  been  so  from  the  year  1560,  and  which  this 
act  shows  that  James  and  his  parliament  were  determined  to 
support  and  maintain.  It  was  now  rather  more  than  five  years, 
since  Melville,  the  founder  of  presbytery  in  Scotland,  first  made 
his  attack  on  episcopacy.  It  had  kept  its  ground  in  spite  of 
his  utmost  efforts,  although  he  had  pertinaciously  continued 
to  undermine  it  through  ten  successive  Assemblies,  without 
being  able  to  remove  it.  Melville  himself  confesses,  that  the 
majority  of  the  people,  and  the  whole  of  the  nobility,  were 
vehemently  opposed  to  his  new  scheme  of  presbytery  ;  and  in 
a  letter  to  Beza  he  says, — "  For  five  years  we  have  now  main- 
tained a  warfare  against  pseudo-episcopacy,  many  of  the  no- 
bility resisting  us,  and  we  have  not  ceased  to  urge  the  adoption 
of  a  strict  discipline.  We  have  many  of  the  peers  against 
us  ;  for  they  allege,  if  pseudo-episcopacy  be  taken  away,  one 
of  the  estates  (of  parliament)  is  pulled  down."  Calderwood, 
too,  feelingly  laments  the  impossibility  of  "reducing  the  titular 
bishops  to  the  common  order  of  ministers."  Melville's  ad- 
mission to  Beza  of  his  underhand  practices,  shows  that  at  the 
time  when  he  was  acting  as  principal  of  Glasgow  University, 
and  enjoying  the  hospitality  of  archbishop  Boyd,  he  was  se- 

^  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  308-9. 

-  Stevenson's  Coll.  Acts  Par,  p.  IC— Balfour's  Annals,  i.  p.  dG9. 


1580.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  289 

cretly  plotting  the  overthrow  of  that  establishment  in  which 
he  accepted  office  for  its  support.  This  concealment  of  his 
views  shows  that  hypocrisy  and  partizanship  had  overmastered, 
for  the  time,  the  violence  of  his  other  passions  and  the  un- 
governable vehemence  of  his  temper. 

1580. — On  the  12th  day  of  July,  the  General  Assembly  met 
at  Dundee,  James  Lavvson  moderator.  Titular  episcopacy 
had  now  subsisted  full  twenty  years  as  the  government  of  the 
kirk  planted  by  Knox,  and  established  by  the  parliament  in 
1560.  But  in  this  Assembly,  the  unremitting  efforts  of  the 
father  of  Scottish  presbytery  were  crowned  with  temporary 
success ;  and  after  so  long  struggling,  and  so  many  shifts  and 
subterfuges,  he  at  last  procured  an  act  of  this  Assembly  to 
put  down  the  episcopacy  then  subsisting,  as  an  unscriptural 
and  an  antichristian  corruption.  In  the  fourth  session  the 
following  act  was  passed  : — 

"  Forasmuch  as  the  office  of  a  bishop,  as  it  is  now  used,  and 
commonly  taken  within  this  realm,  hath  no  sure  warrant,  au- 
thority, nor  good  groimd  out  of  the  book  and  scriptures  of  God, 
but  is  brought  in  by  the  folly  and  corruption  of  men's  inven- 
tion, to  the  great  overthrow  of  the  true  kirk  of  God  ;  the  whole 
Assembly  in  one  voice,  after  liberty  given  to  all  men  to  reason 
in  the  matter — none  opposing  themselves  in  defence  of  the 
said  pretended  office, — findeth  and  declareth  the  said  pre- 
tended office,  used  and  termed  as  is  above  said,  unlawful  in 
itself,  as  having  neither  foundation,  ground,  nor  warrant,  in  the 
word  of  God  ;  and  ordaineth,  that  all  such  persons  as  bruik, 
or  hereafter  shall  bruik  the  said  office,  be  charged  simpliciter 
to  dimit,  quit,  and  leave  off  the  same,  as  an  office  whereunto 
they  are  not  called  by  God  :  sicklike  to  desist  and  cease  from 
preaching,  ministration  of  the  sacraments,  or  using  any  way 
the  office  of  pastors,  while  they  receive,  de  novo,  admission 
from  the  General  Assembly,  under  the  pain  of  excommunica- 
tion to  be  used  against  them  ;  wherein  if  they  be  found  dis- 
obedient, or  contravene  this  act  in  any  point,  the  sentence  of 
excommunication,  after  due  admonition,  to  be  used  against 
themi." 

By  this  sweeping  act,  the  "  godly  brethren"  designed  to  over 
turn,  not  only  that  titular  church  which  was  then  established, 
but  also  to  strike  at  the  root  of  episcopacy  itself,  as  antichristian 
and  unlawful.  "  In  that  they  condemned  the  office  of  a  bishop,'' 
says  Calderwood,  "  as  it  was  then  used  and  commonly  taken 
within  this  realm,  they  must  not  allow  any  other  sort  of  bishop, 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  311. — Calderwood,  p.  90. 
VOL.    I.  2  P 


290  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.   VIII. 

either  Anglican  or  Roman,  but  only  the  divine  or  apostolical 
bishop,  who  is  only  a  pastor  of  a  particular  flock  or  congrega- 
tion." The  presbyterian  party  abrogated  the  established  kirk 
on  their  own  authority,  and  substituted  their  own  polity  in  its 
place,  without  ever  consulting  the  government;  thus  assuming 
the  power  of  making  laws  for  the  kingdom,  and  constituting 
themselves  a  power  superior  to  the  sovereign  and  parliament. 
But  this  act  carried  both  folly  and  iniquity  on  its  face  ;  for 
they  peremptorily  judged  the  office  of  a  bishop  to  be  unlaw- 
ful, and  required  that  those  possessing  office  should  be  com-  ; 
pletely  degraded,  and  admitted  de  novo  to  the  ministry,  as  if 
they  had  not  been  ministers.  This  was  done,  too,  by  men  who 
had  no  more  pretensions  to  canonical  orders  themselves,  than 
had  the  titular  bishops  whom  they  so  unceremoniously  dis- 
missed from  their  offices.  "  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,"  says 
the  venerable  Mr.  Skinner,  "  what  was  that  Assembly  which  so 
peremptorily  and  magisterially  exauctorated  and  condemned 
this  pretended  episcopacy  ?  Some  assemblies  might  have 
done  so  upon  good  grounds,  and  by  sufficient  authority ;  but 
what  gave  this  convention  that  authority,  or  what  warrant 
from  the  word  of  God  could  they  produce  for  their  own  office 
and  titles,  any  more  than  the  pretended  titular  bishops  could 
produce  for  theirs  ?  Or  did  they  think  it  more  unlawful  and 
without  w'arrant  to  assume  the  name  and  office  of  bishops, 
than  of  presbyters  or  ministers  ?  However,  with  or  without 
authority,  the  act  passed,  and  that  building  which  our  re- 
formers had  with  much  labour  been  rearing  for  twenty  years, 
was  now  thrown  down  by  one  bold  stroke,  and  in  its  place 
was  set  up  the  equally  unwarrantable  idol  of  Genevan  parity, 
which,  under  the  name  of  the  presbyterian  kirk,  has  made  a 
figure  among  us  ever  since." 

Till  this  year,  the  presbyterian  form  of  "church  government 
had  no  imaginable  place  in  the  Scottish  reformation ;  for 
Knox  was  not  a  presbyterian.  He  settled  the  goveinment  in 
superintendents,  ministers,  and  readers ;  and  this  order  con- 
tinued to  be  the  fixed  and  established  constitution  for  fifteen 
years,  without  ever  having  been  called  in  question, — "  its  very 
form,"  as  Spottiswood  says,  "  purchasing  it  respect,"  till  An- 
drew Melville, — the  father  and  founder  of  Scottish  presbyte- 
rianism,  and  a  layman  without  any  oi'dination,  commenced 
his  attack  in  1575,  and  now  in  this  year,  and  through  ten  suc- 
cessive Assemblies,  accomplished  the  introduction  of  the  pres- 
byterian form  of  government  by  this  memorable  act;  which, 
according  to  the  declaration  of  the  council  of  Chalccdon,  was  ^, 

sacrilege.     This  Assembly  assumed  the  whole  powers  of  sove-  <| 


1580.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  291 

reignty.  It  cnanged  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  without 
consulting  either  the  king  or  the  parliament,  and  erected  in  its 
place  a  system  of  parity  among  the  ministers,  which  effectu- 
ally removed  one  of  the  estates  of  parliament.  But  even  this 
equality  among  ministers,  which  is  a  system  entirely  of  human 
invention,  and  is  such  an  idol  with  all  denominations  of 
presbyterians  does  not  entirely  subsist,  and  is  in  practice 
altogether  impracticable ;  for  in  every  court,  even  in  a  parish 
kirk-session,  there  is  a  moderator  or  president,  who  is  superior 
to  his  brethren  present  for  the  time  being.  A  distinction  of 
rank  and  office  also  is  made  between  what  is  called  a  preach- 
ing and  a  ruling  elder ;  and  some  of  the  church  courts  are 
superior  to  others.  If  it  was  such  a  very  difficult  matter  as 
the  first  fathers  of  the  presbyterian  system  found  it,  to  subvert 
even  the  powerless  titular  prelacy  that  subsisted  in  the  little 
kingdom  of  Scotland,  and  which  held  no  canonical  orders  or 
apostolical  succession,  how  much  more  difficult  must  it  have 
been  for  the  episcopal  order  to  have  usurped  (if  they  did  usurp), 
authority  and  jurisdiction  over  the  order  of  presbyters  through- 
out the  whole  world;  and  to  do  it  so  universally  and  imper- 
ceptibly, too,  that  no  presbyter  ever  protested  against  it,  and 
no  historian  whatever  has  ever  recorded  the  event,  or  the  mea- 
sures resorted  to,  to  secure  their  dominion  ?  That  episcopacy, 
therefore,  should  be  the  only  ecclesiastical  government,  wherever 
the  gospel  was  preached,  and  that  the  church  should  univer- 
sally submit  to  this  government  without  the  least  recorded 
opposition,  cannot  be  accounted  for  in  any  other  way  than  that 
the  gospel  and  the  episcopate  are  coeval  and  of  the  same 
divine  institution,  and  that  episcopacy  is  the  government  to 
which  Christ's  gracious  promise  of  perpetuity  was  made; 
but  although  very  powerful  enemies  have  endeavoured  to 
extirpate  it,  yet  it  has  subsisted  from  the  beginning  of  Chris- 
tianity to  this  day  without  diminution. 

We  may  here  cite  the  opinion  of  Chillingworth,  who  is 
esteemed  an  authority  by  presbyterians  of  the  present  day. 
He  sets  out  with  asserting,  "  That  seeing  episcopal  govern- 
ment is  confessedly  so  ancient-and  so  catholic,  it  cannot  with 
reason  be  denied  to  be  apostolic.  For  so  great  a  change  as  be- 
tween presbyterial  government  and  episcopal  could  not  pos- 
sibly have  prevailed  all  the  world  over  in  a  little  time.  Had 
episcopal  government  been  an  aberration  from,  or  a  corruption 
of,  the  government  left  in  the  churches  by  the  apostles,  it  had 
been  very  strange  that  it  should  have  been  received  in  any  one 
church  so  suddenly,  or  that  it  should  have  prevailed  in  all  for 
many  ages  after.     Had  the  churches  erred,  they  would  have 


292 


HISTORY  OF  THE 


[chap.  VIU. 


varied;  what,  therefore,  is  the  one  and  the  same  amongst  all, 
came  not  sure  by  error,  but  by  tradition.  Thus  Tertullian 
argues,  from  the  consent  of  the  churches  of  his  time,  not  long 
after  the  apostles,  and  that  in  a  matter  of  opinion  much  more 
subject  to  unobserved  alteration.  But  that  in  the  fi'ame  and 
substance  of  the  necessary  government  of  the  church,  a  thing 
always  in  use  and  practice,  there  should  be  so  sudden  a  change 
as  presently  after  the  apostles'  times,  and  so  universal  as  to  be 
received  in  all  the  churches,  this  is  clearly  impossible.  For 
what  universal  cause  can  be  assigned  or  feigned  of  this  universal 
apostacy  ?  You  will  not  imagine  that  the  apostles  all,  or  any 
of  them,  made  any  decree  for  this  change  when  they  were 
living,  or  left  any  order  for  it  in  any  will  or  testament  when  they 
were  dying.  This  were  to  grant  the  question,  to  wit,  that  the 
apostles  being  to  leave  the  government  of  the  churches  them- 
selves, and,  either  seeing  by  experience,  or  foreseeing  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  the  distractions  and  disorders  which  would  arise 
from  a  multitude  of  equals,  substituted  episcopal  government 
instead  of  their  own.  General  councils  to  make  a  law  for  a 
general  change,  for  many  ages  there  were  none.  There  was  no 
christian  emperor,  no  coercive  power  over  the  church  to  enforce 
it ;  or  if  there  had  been  any,  we  know  no  force  was  equal  to  the 
courage  of  the  christians  of  those  times.  Their  lives  were  then 
at  command  (for  they  had  not  then  learned  io  fight  for  Christ); 
but  their  obedience  to  any  thing  against  his  law  was  not  to  be 
commanded  (for  they  had  perfectly  learned  to  die  for  him) ; 
therefore  there  was  no  power  then  to  command  this  change,  or, 

if  there  had  been  any,  it  had  been  in  vain When  I 

shall  see,  therefore,  all  the  fables  in  the  metamorphosis  acted, 
and  prove  true  stories;  when  I  shall  see  all  the  democracies  and 
aristocracies  in  the  world  lie  down  and  sleep,  and  awake  into 
monarchies,  then  I  will  begin  to  believe -that  presbyterial 
government,  having  continued  in  the  church  during  the  apostles' 
times,  shoidd  presently  after,  against  the  apostles'  doctrine  and 
the  will  of  Christ,  be  whirled  about  like  a  scene  in  a  mask,  and 
transformed  into  episcopacy.  In  the  meantime,  while  these 
things  remain  thus  incredible,  and  in  human  reason  impossible, 
I  hope  I  shall  have  reason  to  conclude  thus: — Episcopal 
government  is  acknowledged  to  have  been  universally  received 
in  the  church  presently  after  the  apostles'  times.  Between 
the  apostles'  times  and  this  presently  after,  there  was  not  time 
enough,  nor  possibility  of  so  great  an  alteration.  And  there- 
fore EPISCOPACY,  being  confessed  to  be  so  ancient  and  catholic, 
may  be  granted  also  to  be  apostolical." 

The  confusions,  troubles,  and  strifes  which  the  Melvillian 


1580.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  29.*^ 

principles  brought  into  the  church,  and  the  seditions  and  rebel- 
lions which  they  produced  in  the  state,  were  unceasing.  James, 
who  was  a  man  of  unquestionable  talents  and  abilities,  was 
so  disgusted  with  the  intractable,  pragmatical  spirit  of  a  mul- 
titude of  petty  infallable  popes,  that  he  was  obliged  to  restore 
the  old  titular  episcopacy  that  had  been  set  up  by  Knox  in 
the  commencement  of  the  reformation.  He  had  never,  how- 
ever, consented  to  the  Assembly's  abrogation  of  it,  and  he  soon 
became  convinced,  after  a  few  years'  trial  of  presbytery,  of  the 
truth  of  his  own  maxim,  "no  bishop  no  king."  This  great  and 
wise  prince,  who  lived  in  the  times  when  presbytery  was  first 
introduced,  and  who,  it  will  readily  be  acknowledged,  was  a 
sufficient  judge  of  passing  events,  affirms  in  his  Basilican 
Doron,  "  that  the  learned,  grave,  and  honest  men  of  the  minis- 
try were  ever  ashamed  of,  and  offended  with,  the  temerity  and 
presumption  of  the  democratical  and  presbyterian  party." 

From  the  first  dawn  of  the  reformation,  a  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  had  been  in  constant  use  ;  at  first  that  of  Edward  VI., 
afterwards  one  compiled,  or  at  least  sanctioned,  by  John  Knox, 
and  which  had  been  in  daily  use  up  to  the  period  of  this  As- 
sembly. In  Knox's  Prayer  Book  there  were  not  only  set  forms 
for  the  administration  of  the  sacraments  and  holy  offices,  but 
also  distinct  and  several  forms  for  the  ordination  of  superin- 
tendents, presbyters,  and  deacons,  or  readers,  as  he  chose  to 
call  the  last  named  office,  with  questions  and  responses,  similar 
to  the  English  Book  of  Ordination.  This  is  one  more  of  the 
many  incidental  evidences  that  were  constantly  occurring 
throughout  the  public  transactions  of  those  times,  that  Knox 
intended  superintendents  to  be  a  distinct  and  superior  order 
to  presbyters,  from  the  fact  of  his  appointing  a  distinct  form 
for  their  ordination.  Mr.  Gumming,  in  his  recent  republica- 
tion of  Knox's  Prayer  Book,  has  given  only  the  form  of  the  order 
for  superintendents,  having  suppressed  the  others  ;  and  has 
added  a  note,  to  mislead  his  readers,  stating  that  the  superin- 
tendents were  responsible  to  the  presbyteries ;  whereas  we  have 
seen  that  there  were  no  presbyteries  in  existence  in  Knox's 
time  ;  and  that  the  superintendents  had  both  episcopal  power 
and  jurisdiction.  Readers  answered  to  the  order  of  deacons, 
and  were  appointed  by  Knox  to  read  the  prayers  in  those  situa- 
tions where  "  gifted  brethren"  had  not  been  placed,  and  who 
might  "  purchase  for  themselves  a  good  degree,"  by  being  ad- 
vanced to  a  higher  office.  This  humble  appendage  of  superin- 
tendency  was  now,  however,  to  be  visited  with  the  besom  of 
reforming  zeal,  "  as  being,"  says  Calderwood,  "  no  ordinary 


294  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

office  within  the  kirk  of  God  ^"  The  Common  Prayers  were 
henceforth  to  be  discontinued,  and  extemporary  worship  to  be 
adopted.  The  credulous  people  were  now  made  to  believe  that 
the  minister's  extempore  prayers  were  immediately  dictated  by 
the  Holy  Spirit ;  but  in  that  case  there  would  at  least  have  been 
unanimity  in  them,  and  they  should  have  been  recorded  for  the 
use  of  the  church.  And  truly,  if  the  Holy  Spirit  could  dic- 
tate heresies,  treasons,  rebellions,  and  contempt  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal authority,  the  ministers  of  those  days  had  a  most  abundant 
out-pouring  of  the  spirit ;  indeed,  they  may  be  said  to  have 
had  it  without  measure,  and  the  unhappy  fruits  con-esponded. 
But  it  is  much  more  probable  that  the  Holy  Spirit  had  been 
grieved,  and  had  withdrawn  from  them  ;  for  the  works  of  the 
flesh  were  by  far  the  most  predominant :  "  idolatry,  witchcraft  2, 
hatred,  variance,  emulations,  wraths,  strifes,  seditions,  heresies, 
envyings,  murders,  drunkenness,  revellings,  and  such  like^-" 
Our  Lord's  Prayer,  which  is  the  rule  of  our  desires,  was  dis- 
continued, and  condemned  "  as  a  papistical  charm."  The  use 
of  the  hymn  of  praise  called  the  Doxology,  or  "  Glory  be  to 
the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost,"  was  also 
abolished.  This  hymn,  which  is  the  divine  song  sung  by  the 
whole  company  of  heaven  ^,  had  always  since  the  reformation 
been  used  after  the  psalms  ;  and  a  story  is  told  of  a  congrega- 
tion in  the  county  of  Angus,  who,  not  knowing  of  its  discon- 
tinuance, began  singing  the  doxology  as  usual,  when  they  were 
interrupted  by  their  minister,  who  exclaimed  to  the  astonished 
people,  "  No  more  glory  to  the  Father."  They  struck  even  at 
the  root  of  Christianity  itself,  by  denying  the  scriptural  authority 
of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and,  indeed,  that  idea  has  been  since 
so  far  improved  upon,  that  the  Creed  is  not  in  the  Westminster 
Confession  of  Faith,  but  is  only  inserted  as  a  postscript  at  the 
end  of  the  Shorter  Catechism,  with  an  apology  for  placing  it 
even  there ;  because,  say  the  compilers,  "  there  is  no  necessity 
for  inserting  the  Creed ^." 

On  the  20th  of  October,  the  General  Assembly  met  again 
this  year  at  Edinburgh,  wherein  the  bishops  were  subjected  to 
the  persecutions  of  the  presbyterian  party,  which  was  now 


^  Calderwood,  p.  91. 

2  Many  poor  old  women  were  burnt  alive  for  witchcraft ;  formerly  at  one  of  these 
auto-da-fes,  Knox  presided  and  ecclesiastically  condemned  the  so-called  witch. 

3  Gal.  V.  20.  ^  Isaiah  vi.  1—5— Revel,  iv.  8. 

*  West.  Conf.  of  Faith,  and  Shorter  Catechism.  Yet  it  was  repeated  in  the 
morning  and  evening  prayers,  and  in  the  baptismal  office  of  Knox's  liturgy.  Vide 
Cumming's  Edition,  pp.  15  and  63. 


1580.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  295 

dominant.  Thomas  Cranstoun,  minister  of  Inverleithen,  was 
publicly  rebated  for  having  administered  the  communion  on 
Easter-day,  and  for  having  baptized  privately.  Acts  of  Assem- 
bly were  passed  for  subjecting  the  bishops  to  the  capricious 
despotism  of  those  ministers  over  whom  they  had  formerly 
exercised  episcopal  jurisdiction.  The  march  of  reformation 
was  rapidly  proceeding ;  and  the  presbyterian  party  had  suc- 
ceeded in  casting  themselves  loose  from  all  authority.  As  yet, 
however,  they  had  not  substituted  any  other  form  of  government 
in  place  of  the  titular  episcopacy,  which  still  subsisted  by  law ; 
for  it  was  abolished  only  by  the  self-assumed  authority  of  the 
Assembly,  without  consulting  the  sovereign  and  estates  of 
parliament.  Duringthe  last  six  years  that  thenewpolicy  of  the 
kirk  had  been  under  discussion,  not  a  word  was  said  respecting 
that  fundamental  and  indispensable  part  of  the  presbyterian 
system ;  and  from  which,  indeed,  it  takes  its  name — the  court 
OF  PRESBYTERY.  But  as  episcopacy  was  now  voted  tyranny 
and  an  antichristian  corruption,  it  became  necessary  to  produce 
a  substitute  for  it,  and  this  Assembly  accordingly  gave  a  com- 
mission to  the  laird  of  Dun  (that  is,  the  superintendent  of 
Angus),  Messrs.  Pont,  Lawson,  Lindsay,  Craig,  and  Dun- 
canson,  to  be  assisted  by  the  Clerk  of  Register,  by  which 
they  still  showed  their  predilection  for  erastianism,  or 
any  three  or  four  of  them,  to  devise  a  plot  of  the  PEEfi- 
BYTERiES  and  CONSTITUTION  of  the  same;  as  seemeth  best 
in  their  judgments,  to  be  reported  again  to  the  next  General 
Assembly'^.'" 

A  PRESBYTERY  is  One  of  the  most  specific,  essential,  and  in- 
dispensable parts  of  the  presbyterian  constitution.  Provincial 
synods  can  only  meet  twice,  and  the  General  Assembly  now 
only  meets  once,  in  the  year.  The  Commission  of  the  Assem- 
bly is  but  an  accidental  thing,  so  recently  erected  as  1642  ;  and 
it  is  not  known  to  the  law.  The  sudden  dissolution  of  an  As- 
sembly may  prevent  its  very  existence  ;  as  it  happened  when  the 
Assenibly  was  dissolved  by  royal  authority,  in  the  year  1 692,  and 
did  not  again  meet  for  several  years.  But  a  Presbytery  is  a  con- 
stant current  court :  the  members  meet  when  they  will,  sit  while 
they  will ;  adjourn  whither,  how  long,  how  short  time  soever, 
they  will ;  and  they  have  all  the  substantial  power  of  government 
and  discipline.  They  have  really  a  legislative  power,  for  they 
can  make  acts  to  bind  themselves  and  all  those  who  live  within 
their  jurisdiction ;  and  they  have  a  very  large  share  of  executive 
power.  They  can  examine,  ordain,  admit,  suspend,  and  depose 

'  Calderwood,  p.  !)3- 


296  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP,  VIII. 

ministers  ;  they  can  cite,  judge,  absolve,  condemn,  and  excom- 
municate whatsoever  criminals.  The  supreme  power  of  the 
kirk  is  radically  and  originally  in  them.  General  Assemblies 
possess  power  only  derivatively^  and  as  they  represent  all  the 
presbyteries  in  the  nation  ;  and  if  a  General  Assembly  should 
enact  any  law  which  the  majority  of  the  presbyteries  should 
reprobate,  it  would  not  be  obligatory.  Nevertheless,  how  neces- 
sary, how  useful,  how  powerful  soever  these  courts  are, — 
though  they  are  essential  parts  of  the  constitution, — though 
they  may  be  really  said  to  be  that  which  specifies  presbyterian 
government, — a  presbytery  was  never  in  existence,  was  never 
heard  of,  till  the  year  1580,  twenty  years  after  the  reforma- 
tion was  settled  by  Knox,  and  established  by  act  of  parliament 
in  the  year  1560  ^,  when  a  committee  of  this  Assembly  was  ap- 
pointed to  "  devise  a  plot  of  the  presbyteries  /"  Without  any 
such  intention,  the  First  Book  of  Discipline  undesignedly  gave 
a  plausible  excuse  for  presbyteries,  by  appointing,  while  so 
luany  men  of  inferior  talents  and  no  education  had  thrust  them- 
selves into  the  ministry,  that  "  the  country  ministers  and 
rea<lers  should  meet  upon  a  certain  day  of  the  week  in  such 
towns,  within  six  miles,  as  had  schools,  and  to  which  there  was 
repair  of  learned  men,  to  exercise  themselves  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  ScriptureP  This  was  a  very  necessary  and  use- 
ful meeting  for  the  times,  and  for  the  purpose  expressed ;  but 
this  meeting  was  not  a  presbytery,  in  the  Melvillian  sense  of 
the  term.  It  had  no  authority  or  jurisdiction,  nor  any  power 
of  coercion,  over  even  its  own  members;  it  could  neither  en- 
act nor  execute  laws ;  in  short,  it  was  simply  a  debating 
society,  rendered  necessary  by  the  ignorance  and  inexperience 
of  the  new  ministry.  It  served,  however,  for  a  nucleus  for  the 
new  presbyteries,  and  advantage  of  its  existence  was  adroitly 
taken  by  the  Melvillians,  to  declare,  in  the  Assembly  of  1579, 
that  "  the  exercise  was  a  presbytery.''' 

Notwithstanding  the  omnipotence  of  a  modern  presbytery, 
its  members, — that  is,  the  ministers  within  its  jurisdiction  or 
bounds,  obey  its  decisions  only  when  it  suits  their  own  con- 
venience, which  is  the  natural  consequence  of  breaking  loose 
from  the  ancient  order  and  discipline.  If  the  presbytery  cite 
a  minister  to  their  bar,  and  he  is  condemned,  he  probably  dis- 
dains to  submit,  and  appeals  to  the  synod,  which  is  a  supe- 
rior court  of  review,  which  meets  twice  a  year ;  and  it  may 
happen,  as  it  does  veiy  often,  to  reverse  the  judgment  of  the 
presbytery.     In  that  case  the  otlcnder  gains  a  triumuh  over  the 

1  Fund.  Ch.  of  Presbytery,  265. 


1580.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  297 

pi'esbytery,  of  which  he  is  himself  a  member;  but,  if  he  should 
be  condemned  there  also,  then  he  sets  the  sentence  of  both 
courts  at  defiance,  and  appeals  to  the  General  Assembly,  the 
court  of  last  resort,  which  is  now  convocated  only  once  a 
year.  A  great  portion  of  its  members  are  lay-elders,  who  are 
generally  lawyers,  men  well  versed  in  the  art  of  special  plead- 
ing,— and  who  are  now,  in  point  of  fact,  the  governors  of  the 
presbyterian  church.  From  this  court  the  case  is  often  re- 
mitted back  to  the  presbytery  for  reconsideration,  which  hangs 
it  up  for  another  year  ;  and  in  the  end  it  is  perhaps  dismissed 
without  any  final  judgment,  both  parties  tiring  of  litigation, 
and  the  whole  affair  ending  just  where  it  began. 

God  the  Holy  Spirit  had  then  evidently  withdrawn  from  the 
kirk  and  the  nation  of  Scotland,  and  given  them  both  over  to 
a  reprobate  mind.      The  factious  ministers  had  decreed  that 
episcopacy  which  is  of  divine  institution,  and  without  which 
there  is  no  church,  was  an  antichiistian  corruption,  and  thus, 
in  fact,  they  excommunicated  themselves  by  their  own  act  from 
the  whole  visible  church.     St.  Basil  says,  that  it  was  the  opinion 
of  the  universal  church  of  his  age,  and  a  known  and  uncontested 
principle,  "  that  the  communication  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ceases 
where  the  succession  (of  the  bishops)  is  broken."     One  error 
naturally  produced  others.     The  "  godly  brethren"  abolished 
all  set  forms  of  prayer,  but  above  all  that  most  perfect  form 
which  our  blessed  Lord  gave  as  a  sacred  legacy  to  his  church, 
and   to  be  the  rule    of  our  desirss,  without  which,  it  is-  to 
be  feared,  our  prayers  will  not  be  acceptable.    They  resolved 
also  "  that  no  more  glory  should  be  given  to  the  Father;" 
and  set  aside  the  Apostles'  Creed,  which  is  the  rule  of  our 
faith.     They  next  condemned  private  baptism,  and  the  cele- 
bration of  the  holy  communion  on  festival  days,  as  supersti- 
tious and  idolatrous,  although  such  had  been  the  practice  in 
the   Knoxian  church.     The  presbyterians  now  utterly  con- 
demned the  religious   and   grateful    commemoration  of  our 
Saviour's  nativity  and  circumcision,   baptism,    fasting,   and 
temptation;  his  agony  and  bloody  sweat,  his  precious  death 
and  burial,  his  mighty  resurrection  and  glorious  ascension, 
and  the  sending  down  of  the  Holy  Ghost  at  Pentecost,  or,  as 
it  is   now  called,  Whitsunday.     The  very  Jews  religiously 
observe  the  types  and  shadows  of  all  the  christian  festivals  ; 
and  their  reverence  for  the  priesthood  is  so  great,  that  they 
have  now  no  animal  sacrifices,  because  they  have  lost  the  suc- 
cession of  their  high  priesthood,  which  was  hereditary  in  the 
family  of  Aaron,  and  they  will  not  incur  the  guilt  of  Korah  by 

VOL.  I.  2  Q 


298  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

assuming  it.  They  discharged  the  repetition  of  the  com- 
mandments, which  are  the  rule  of  our  obedience,  from  the 
public  worship, — an  omission  which,  among  other  things,  no 
doubt  tended  to  increase  the  public  and  private  wickedness 
into  which  the  nation  fell.  There  can,  however,  be  no  farther 
occasion  for  commandments,  since  the  promulgation  of  that 
presumptuous  delusion,  the  doctrine  of  "  the  eternal  decree  ;" 
for  if  a  man  has  been  predestinated,  millions  of  years  previous 
to  his  existence,  to  be  either  "  elect"  or  "  reprobate,"  with- 
out any  effort  on  his  part,  to  keep  the  commandments  can  be  of 
no  use.  They  must  be  a  solemn  mockery;  and  to  discharge 
them  from  public  worship  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the  doc- 
trine of  predestination.  But  these  changes  had  a  most  inju- 
rious effect  on  the  people,  for  it  set  them  loose  from  all  belief, 
since  so  many  points  which  they  had  formerly  believed  were 
now  condemned  as  antichristian  and  unlawful ;  and  being  now 
tossed  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine,  and  led,  or  rather 
driven,  by  the  cunning  craftiness  of  such  blind  guides,  they 
fell  into  the  slough  of  heresy  and  schism,  and  esteemed  sub- 
mission to  the  powers  that  be,  which  God  has  commanded, 
to  be  sinful  and  unlawful. 

The  year  1580  will  ever  be  memorable  in  Scottish  annals, 
for  the  ecclesiastical  revolution  which  produced  the  following 
important  changes : — 

1st,  The  titular  episcopacy,  under  the  name  of  superin- 
tendents, which  Knox  introduced,  and  the  convention  of 
estates  established,  in  the  year  1560,  and  again  confirmed  by 
the  urgent  desire  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1572, 
was  this  year  abrogated  and  condemned  by  the  General 
Assembly  as  an  antichristian  corruption. — 2d,  The  presby- 
terian  form  of  government  was,  for  the  first  time,  introduced 
by  the  Assembly,  but  vigorously  opposed  by  the  prince,  and 
many  of  the  bishops  and  ministers. — 3d,  The  office  of  reader, 
and  the  use  of  set  forms  of  prayer,  were  discontinued ;  the 
first,  "  as  no  ordinary  office  within  the  kirk  of  God,"  and  the 
latter,  as  "  a  papistical  charm.^" — 4th,  "  A  plot  of  the  presby- 
teries^^ was  first  devised,  there  having  been  no  such  court  in 
existence  in  this  kingdom  till  Melville,  and  the  reformers  ot 
his  mind,  "  devised  a  plot,"  in  this  year,  1580. 

Calderwood  has  recorded  a  set  of  propositions  to  which  he 
has  appended  archbishop  Adamson's  signature,  countersigned 
by  A.  Melville ;  and  perhaps  it  is  the  paper  which  his  perse- 

*  Calderwood. 


J 580.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  299 

cutors  declare  that  he  signed  on  his  death-bed.  But  upon 
that  solemn  occasion,  when  it  was  shown  to  him,  he  utterly 
denied,  on  the  faith  of  a  dying  man,  that  ever  he  had  signed  or 
countenanced  such  a  document.  The  party  were  quite  capable 
of  such  an  imposition ;  but  as  Adamson  was  a  vigorous  and 
uncompromising  opponent,  and  a  strenuous  defender  of  his 
titular  episcopacy,  it  appears  highly  improbable  that  he 
would  ever,  in  his  sound  senses,  have  signed  a  document 
which  exhibits  such  a  profound  ignorance  of  true  anti- 
quity. But  even  granting  that  he  had  signed  these  proposi- 
tions, the  lawfulness  and  divine  origin  of  episcopacy  does 
not  rest  upon  his  opinions. 

"  I  have  thought  good,"  says  Calderwood,  "  to  set  down 
here  some  propositions  subscribed  and  agreed  unto  by 
Mr.  Patrick  Adamson,  when  the  Book  of  Policy  was  in 
framing." 

"  Unto  the  presbytery  appertaineth  all  the  ordinary  power 
of  judgment  in  matters  ecclesiastical ;  to  wit — 

1st,  In  removing  of  slanders,  as  well  in  doctrine  as  in 
manners. 

2nd,  In  electing  worthy  persons,  and  deposing  the  un- 
worthy. 

3rd,  In  expounding  the  constitutions  of  the  kirk,  which 
are  taken  out  of  God's  word ;  and  concerning  these  constitu- 
tions, which,  in  respect  of  the  variety  of  circumstances,  may 
be  changed,  it  hath  power  in  appointing  or  abrogating 
them. 

Unto  the  presbytery  properly  appertaineth  the  extirpation 
or  rooting  out  of  heresies,  the  interpretation  of  the  word,  the 
censure  of  manners,  monition,  exhortations;  yea,  the  judg- 
ment of  excommunication  appertaineth  to  the  presbytery; 
siclike  the  election,  deposing,  con-ection,  discharging,  sus- 
pending, or  interdicting  of  ministers ;  the  explication  of  all 
ecclesiastical  ordinances  or  constitutions,  substantial  or  acci- 
dental, permanent  or  changeable,  mutable  or  immutable,  per- 
taineth  to  the  presbytery. 

Under  the  name  of  presbytery  we  understand  pastors,  doc- 
tors, and  those  who  are  properly  called  elders,  guiders,  leaders, 
whose  office  is  to  rule  the  kirk  of  God. 

The  power  and  authority  of  all  pastors  are  equal  and  alike 
great  among  themselves. 

The  name  of  bishop  is  relative  to  the  flock,  and  not  to 
the  eldership,  for  he  is  bishop  of  his  flock,  and  not  of  other 
pastors  or  fellow-elders :    as  for  the  pre-eminence  that  one 


300  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIH 

beareth  over  the  rest,  it  is  the  invention  of  man,  and  not  the 
institution  of  holy  writ. 

(Signed)  P.  Adamson. 

A.  Melvinus." 

1581. — On  the  28th  January,  James  renewed  the  negative 
confession,  under  the  name  of  a  national  covenant;  and  it 
was  subscribed  by  the  nobility  and  the  great  bulk  of  the 
nation.  "  In  this  confession,"  says  Calderwood,  "  under  the 
name  of  hierarchy,  is  condemned  episcopal  government.  The 
Council  of  Trent  thundered  anathema  against  those  who 
would  not  acknowledge  that  there  is  in  the  catholic  kirk  an 
hierarchy  instituted  by  divine  ordinance,  consisting  of  bishops, 
presbyters,  and  deacons.  This  is  that  hierarchy  of  the  Roman 
antichrist  which  is  here  condemned.  When  in  the  Confession 
of  Faith  we  profess  that  we  abhor  and  detest  all  particular 
heads,  as  they  are  now  damned  by  the  word  of  God  and  kirk 
of  Scotland,  do  we  not  protest  that  we  detest  and  abhor  epis- 
copal government,  which  was  damned,  not  only  by  doctrine 
in  pulpits,  but  also  by  acts  of  the  Assemblies  and  articles  of 
the  Book  of  Policy  ?  The  discipline  to  be  maintained  by  this 
confession  is  not  the  episcopal  government,  but  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  kirk-sessions,  presbyteries,  synodal  assemblies  and 
general,  agreed  upon  before,  when  the  Book  of  Policy  was 
approved  in  the  Assembly."  ^ 

The  author  above  cited  is  manifestly  mistaken  when  he 
alleges  that  episcopacy  was  "  damned  by  the  word  of  God  and 
kirk  of  Scotland,"  in  this  Confession.  James  and  his  council 
condemned  "  the  pope's  wicked  hierarchy," — that  is,  the 
hierarchy  depending  on  the  pope  as  its  head  ;  but  James  cer- 
tainly did  not  mean  protestant  episcopacy,  for  he  and  his 
council  that  same  year  ratified  and  confirmed  the  agreement 
or  concordat  of  Leith  of  the  year  1572,  which  agreement  was, 
without  any  doubt,  in  favour  of  the  titular  episcopacy  then 
existing.  Now,  if  the  prince  who  imposed  this  confession 
had  meant  to  condemn  episcopacy  generally,  it  is  not  probable 
that  he  would  have  ratified  the  Leith  agreement  in  support  oi 
episcopacy,  within  the  same  year  in  which  he  is  supposed  to 
have  condemned  it,  or,  if  he  meant  episcopacy  generally  by 
"  the  pope's  wicked  hierarchy,"  he  must  also  have  condemned 
ministers  and  deacons  as  well,  because  the  Council  of  Trent 
has  determined  that  presbyters  and  deacons  are  parts  of  their 
hierarchy  as  well  as  bishops ;  and  therefore,  by  this  confes- 

*  Calderwood,  96. 


1581.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND  301 

sion,  he  condenined  the  presbyterian  discipline  a'so,  which  I 
suppose,  no  true  presbyterian  will  allow.  The  discipline 
alluded  to  in  the  negative  confession  cannot  mean  the  presby- 
terian government,  for  when  James  first  commanded  his  chap- 
lain to  draw  it  up,  the  "  plot  of  the  presbyteries"  had  not  been 
settled,  or  even  projected.  The  titular  episcopacy  was  then 
still  in  existence  ;  and,  as  a  decided  proof  that  the  episcopal 
discipline  was  intended  by  the  prince,  he  ratified  and  con- 
firmed the  Leith  agreement,  which  was,  that  "  those  who  were 
to  have  the  office  and  power  should  also  have  the  names  and 
titles  of  archbishops  and  bishops." 

In  April  a  General  Assembly  met  at  Glasgow,  when  an  ob- 
jection was  taken  to  the  Dundee  act,  especially  to  the  asser- 
tion that  the  office  of  a  bishop  had  no  warrant  in  the  word  of 
God;  on  which  the  Assemby  declared  that  the  meaning  of  that 
act  was,  to  condemn  the  estate  of  bishops,  only  as  they  were 
then  in  Scotland.  This  may  have  been  the  construction  which 
the  majority  of  the  Assembly  put  on  the  act  of  the  former 
Assembly  ;  but  it  certainly  was  not  the  meaning  in  which  Mel- 
ville had  procured  the  act  to  be  passed.  The  office  of  bishop, 
as  it  was  then  exercised,  was  a  perfect  anomaly,  as  the  bishops 
had  no  apostolical  descent  or  canonical  consecration,  being  en- 
tirely the  Erastian  creation  of  the  state.  Nevertheless,  as 
James  came  to  better  information,  these  lay-bishops  would 
have  acquired  the  true  character  of  christian  bishops,  as  their 
successors  did  on  his  auspicious  accession  to  the  throne  of 
England,  Melville  undoubtedly  intended  to  condemn  the 
whole  episcopal  regimen  of  the  christian  church  ;  and  Calder- 
wood  says  of  this  very  case,  "  do  we  not  protest  that  we  de- 
test and  ABHOR  EPISCOPAL  GOVERNMENT,  which  was  damned 
not  only  by  doctrine  in  pulpits,  but  also  by  acts  of  Assemblies, 
and  articles  of  the  Book  of  Policy  }'^  Much  opposition  was 
made  by  "  the  more  wise  and  moderate,"  that  this  condemna- 
tion might  be  for  some  time  at  least  deferred,  "  but  they  were 
cried  down  by  the  multitude  ^  ;"  amongst  whom  the  most  voci- 
ferous was  Mr.  Robert  Montgomery,  minister  of  Stirhng,  who 
urged  the  Assembly  to  censure  those  who  had  spoken  in  favour 
of  that  corrupted  estate.  Yet,  before  the  end  of  that  same 
year,  this  zealous  presbyterian  "  did  suffer  himself  to  be  more 
pitifully  corrupted,"  by  accepting  the  see  of  Glasgow,  upon 
condition  of  making  an  assignation  of  its  lands  and  revenues  to 
the  duke  of  Lennox.     On  his  agreeing  to  this  disgraceful  con- 

'  Calderwood,  96.  -  Spottiswood,  b.vi,  31G. 


I 


302  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VIII. 

dition,  he  was  appointed  to  the  archbishopric,  and  gave  a  bond 
"  that  ho\A'  soon  he  was  admitted  bishop,  he  should  dispone  the 
lands,  lordships,  and  whatsoever  belonged  to  that  prelacy,  to 
the  duke  and  his  heirs,  for  the  yearly  payment  of  one  thousand 
pounds  Scots,  with  some  horse-corn,  and  poultry."     This  vile 
Simoniacal  bargain  very  justly  excited  against  him  universal 
indignation ;   but  the  Assembly  overlooked  this  transaction, 
and  charged  him    simply  with  the  crime  of  accepting  the 
bishopric.     James,  however,  would  not  acknowledge  this  as  a 
sufficient  objection.     "  If  they  would  charge  him,"  said  he, 
"  with  any  fault  in  doctrine  or  life,  he  was  content  they  should 
keep  their  order ;  but  to  challenge  him  for  accepting  the  bishop- 
ric, he  would  not  permit  the  same,  having  lately  ratified  the 
act  agreed  upon  at  Leith,  anno  1572,  touching  the  admission  of 
bishops,  and  ordained  the  same  to  stand  in  force  till  his  perfect 
age,  or  till  a  change  thereof  was  made  in  parliament  ^"    The 
prince's  answer  being  reported  to  the  Assembly,  they  cited 
Montgomery,  that  if  it  were  possible,  by  severely  cross  ques- 
tioning him,  they  might  discover  any  thing  in  his  life  and  doc- 
trine on  which  to  found  an  accusation.     Andrew  Melville  be- 
came his  public  accuser,  when  fourteen  articles  were  exhibited 
against  him.    Under  such  a  prosecutor,  condemnation  followed 
as  a  matter  of  course,  and  he  was  commanded  to  continue  in 
his  ministry  at  Stirling,  and  meddle  no  more  with  the  bishop- 
ric, on  pain  of  excommunication  ;  and  in  the  meantime  they 
suspended  him  from  his  ministry.     He  declined  to  submit  to 
either  of  these  sentences,  and  sheltered  himself  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  king  and  the  duke  ;  they  therefore  cited  him  to 
appear  at  the  bar  of  the  synod  of  Lothian,  to  hear  the  sentence 
of  excommunication  pronounced    against  him.      This  step 
moved  the  king  to  interpose  the  royal  authority ;  and  he  com- 
manded the  synod  to  appear  before  him  at  Stirling,  and  to  desist 
from  all  further  process.      Pont  and  some  'others  presented 
themselves  before  James,  but  not  without  the  following  pro- 
test : — "  That  though  they  had  appeared  to  testify  their  obe- 
dience to  his  majesty's  warrant,  yet  they  did  not  ackno'-vledge 
the  king  and  council  to  be  competent  judges  in  this  matter  ; 
and  therefore  that  nothing  done  at  that  time  should  either  pre- 
'udge  the  liberties  of  the  church  or  the  laws  of  the  realm." 
Notwithstanding  this  protest,  the  king  peremptorily  prohibited 
them  from  all  further  proceedings. 

Theirs/  presbytery  that  ever  was  in  existence  in  Scotland 

'  S])ottis;wood,  b.  vi.  316-17. 


1581.]  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND.  .303 

was  erected  in  Edinburgh  on  the  30th  of  May  this  year.  It 
consisted  of  sixteen  members  of  the  city  and  adjacent  pa- 
rishes, and  of  some  barons  and  gentlemen  out  of  each,  as  lay 
elders.  And,  "  because  presbyteries  were  not  j^et  established 
every  where,  the  Assembly  nominated  some  brethren  to  travel 
to  that  effect,  between  and  next  Assembly  ^"  Nevertheless, 
the  "  plots"  for  presbyteries  were  not  agreed  to  till  1586,  five 
years  after  this,  nor  ratified  by  parliament  till  the  year  1592  ; 
so  that  it  amounts  to  a  demonstration  that  our  first  reformers 
were  not  presbyterians.  "  Could  they  be  presbyterians  who 
never  understood,  never  thouglit  of,  never  dreamt  of,  that 
which  is  so  essential  to  the  constitution  of  the  presbyterian 
church,  by  divine  institution  ?"  At  this  period  there  were 
nine  hundred  and  twenty -four  parishes  in  the  kingdom,  which 
the  Assembly  thought  proper  to  reduce  to  six  hundred,  and 
ordained  each  of  these  reduced  parishes  to  have  a  minister, 
whose  stipends  were  to  be  modified  according  to  circum- 
stances. These  parishes  were  divided  into  fifty  presbyteries, 
of  twelve  parishes  in  each  2,  It  is  supposed  that  before 
the  reformation  there  were  fully  2000  parishes  in  the 
kingdom,  each  of  which  was  duly  supplied  with  a  resi- 
dent priest.  The  avaricious  designs  of  Morton,  however,  re- 
duced them  to  924  ;  and  the  "  desolating  revolt"  of  presbytery 
again  reduced  them  to  six  hundred.  Hence  one  of  the  causes 
of  the  immorality  and  irreverence  for  sacred  things,  of  the  Scot- 
tish church  and  nation,  after  the  reformation. 

On  the  1st  June,  the  late  regent,  the  earl  of  Morton,  received 
the  just  reward  of  his  many  treasons,  murders,  robberies,  sacri- 
leges, and  inhuman  cruelties.  He  was  accused  before  the 
privy  council  of  having  concealed  the  murder  of  the  late  king  ; 
he  was  tried,  found  guilty  by  a  jury  of  his  peers,  and  executed 
the  following  day  on  the  High  Street ;  but  he  asserted  the  queen's 
innocence  in  that  horrid  tragedy.  So  detested  was  he  by  those 
over  whom  he  had  formerly  tyrannised,  that  his  body  lay  from 
noon  to  sunset  on  the  scaffold,  covered  with  a  beggarly  cloak, 
till  some  low  fellows  interred  it  in  the  common  buxial  ground, 
without  any  funeral  ceremony .  His  head  was  afterwards  fixed 
on  the  jail 3.  Morton's  character  was  very  bad,  and  his  prac- 
tices on  the  church  were  of  the  most  injurious  and  lasting  mis- 
chief.   ButSpottiswood,whoinvariably  inclines  to  the  side  of 

'  Calderwood,  116. 
'  Calderwood,  117. 
^  Calderwood. — Spottiswood. — Balfour's  Annals,  i.  373. 


304  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

charity,  says  of  him,  "  Never  was  seen  a  more  notable  example 
of  fortune's  mutability  :  he  who  a  few  years  before  had  been 
reverenced  of  all  men,  and  feared  as  a  king,  abounding  in 
•\vealth,  honour,  and  number  of  friends  and  followers,  was  now 
at  his  end  forsaken  of  all,  and  made  the  very  scorn  of  fortune  ; 
to  teach  men  how  little  stability  there  is  in  honour,  wealth, 
friendship,  and  the  rest  of  these  worldly  things  which  men  so 
much  admire.  He  was  of  a  personage  comely,  of  middle 
stature,  and  a  graceful  countenance,  whereof,  in  the  civil 
troubles,  he  gave  many  proofs  ;  wise  and  able  for  government, 
a  lover  of  justice,  order,  and  policy  ;  but  inclined  to  covetous- 
ness,  which  the  wants  and  necessities  he  endured  in  his 
younger  years  was  thought  to  have  caused,  and  given  too  much 
to  the  pleasures  of  the  flesh,  as  at  his  dying  he  acknowledged 
with  a  great  remorse.  In  this,  lastly,  most  happy,  that  though 
his  death  in  the  world's  eye  was  shameful  and  violent,  yet  did 
he  take  it  most  patiently,  quitting  this  life  with  the  assurance 
of  a  better  ^^ 

In  the  Assembly  which  met  at  Edinburgh  on  the  17th 
October,  it  was  enacted,  that  no  marriage  be  celebrated,  nor 
sacraments  ministered,  in  private  houses ;  but  solemnly,  ac- 
cording to  good  order  hitherto  observed,  under  pain  of  depo- 
sition from  the  ministry.  This  ordinance  was  occasioned  by 
the  minister  of  Tranent  having  baptized  an  infant  in  a 
private  house,  and  whom  the  Assembly  suspended  from  his 
ministry^. 

After  several  angry  messages  betwixt  the  king  and  the  As- 
sembly, respecting  Montgomery,  and  in  opposition  to  the  royal 
wishes,  the  Assembly  ordained  the  synod  of  Lothian  to  pro- 
ceed against  him,  and  charged  him  to  continue  in  his  ministry 
at  Stirling,  and  desist  from  all  aspirations  for  the  see  of  Glasgow, 
under  pain  of  excommunication.  John  Dury  had  accused  the 
duke  of  Lennox,  from  the  pulpit,  with  unsoundness  in  re- 
ligion, of  secret  attachment  to  popery,  and  of  corrupting  and 
misleading  the  king.  This  he  repeated  several  times,  which 
so  incensed  the  king  that  he  ordered  the  provost  to  banish  him 
from  the  city  ;  who  accordingly  advised  him  to  depart.  But 
Dury  fled  to  the  sanctuary  of  the  church,  and  refused  to  go 
unless  with  the  Assembly's  permission  ;  this  was  of  course  re- 
fused, and  the  civil  power  forced  him  to  remove  from  the  city ; 
but  he  was  afterwards  brought  back  in  triumph  by  the  brethren. 
The  king's  favourite  was  the  butt  for  puljoit  eloquence  and 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  314-15-17.  "  Calderwood. 


1581.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  305 

slander ;  and  he  was  next  assaulted  by  Mr. Walter  Balcanqual, 
who  asserted,  in  one  of  his  sermons,  "  that  popery  had  entered 
into  the  court  and  country,  and  was  maintained  in  the  king's 
hall  by  the  tyranny  of  a  great  champion  who  was  called 
Grace ;  but  that  if  his  grace  continued  to  oppose  himself  to 
God  and  his  word,  he  should  come  to  little  grace  in  the  end." 
The  king  ordered  the  Assembly  to  take  cognizance  of  this ; 
but  that  body  informed  the  king  that  they  could  not  warrant- 
ably  proceed  against  Balcanquhal,  unless  at  the  instance  of 
some  accuser  supported  by  credible  witnesses.  The  king 
dropped  the  matter ;  but  13alcanquhal  was  not  disposed  to 
rest  satisfied  simply  with  victory;  he  desired  a  triumph.  He 
ajipealed  to  the  Assembly,  who  voted  his  doctrine  to  be  ortho- 
dox, and  the  accusation  of  the  duke  to  be  j  ust  ^.  Before  the  ris- 
ing of  this  Assembly  it  was  enacted  that,"  Because  presbyteries 
were  not  as  yet  established  everywhere,  the  Assembly  nominated 
some  brethren  to  travel  to  that  effect  between  this  and  the  next 
Assembly."  This  Assembly  recognised  erastianism,  by  ac- 
knowledging that  the  Confession  of  Faith  which  was  set  forth 
by  his  majesty,  with  the  advice  of  his  council,  was  a  godly  and 
christian  confession,  and  charged  all  ministers  to  compel  their 
parishioners  to  sign  it,  under  pain  of  their  own  deprivation  in 
case  of  their  neglect,  and  of  the  people's  excommunication  in 
the  event  of  their  refusal  2. 

1582. — On  the  8th  March,  Montgomery,  the  new  arch- 
bishop, went  to  Glasgow,  accompanied  by  a  guard,  to  take 
possession  of  his  see.  It  being  Sunday,  and  the  minister  en- 
gaged in  the  pulpit,  Montgomery  pulled  him  by  the  sleeve, 
saying,  "  Come  down,  sirrah  !" — "  I  am  placed  here  by  the 
Kirk,"  replied  the  minister, "  and  will  give  place  to  none  in- 
truding himself  without  order."  The  people  prevented  farther 
altercation;  and  after  this  disgraceful  scene,  the  presbytery  of 
Stirling  suspended  Montgomery  :  nevertheless  he  preached  as 
formerly  3.  The  prince  warned  the  synod  to  meet  at  Stirling 
in  April ;  and,  in  the  meantime,  he  discharged  all  proceedings 
against  Montgomery.  Robert  Pont  protested  that  they  did 
not  acknowledge  his  majesty  and  council  as  judges  in  this 
cause,  and  that  they  had  only  appeared  in  order  to  testify  their 
obedience.     The  council,  however,  rejected  this  protest. 

The  General  Assembly  met  on  the  Sith  April  at  St.  Andrews^ 
when  they  confirmed  the  suspension  of  Montgomery,  and  were 
proceeding  to  excommunicate  him,  when  they  were  interrupted 

1  Heyliu,  lib.  v.   193.— Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  317.         -  Calderwood,   120. 
^  Calderwood,  p.  121. 
VOL.  I.  2  H 


306  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

by  Mark  Kerr,  the  master  of  the  requests,  who  presented  James's 
letter,  inhibiting  the  Assembly  from  troubling  the  bishop, 
as  he  would  have  the  cause  heard  and  handled  in  his  own 
presence.  The  Assembly  would  not  yield  to  the  prerogative  ; 
and  Andrew  Melville,  the  champion  of  Presbytery,  who  pre- 
sided, replied,  "  That  they  did  not  meddle  with  things  belong- 
ing to  the  civil  power ;  and,  for  matters  ecclesiastic,  they  were 
warranted  to  pi'oceed  in  them,  especially  with  one  of  their  own 
numl)er."  And  so  determined  were  they,  that  the  master  of 
the  requests  was  obliged  to  instruct  a  messenger-at-arms  to 
charge  them  to  desist  under  pain  of  rebellion^.  The  thunders 
of  the  Assembly,  and  the  vexatious  opposition  he  met  with, 
subdued  Montgomery's  courage,  and  induced  him  to  suiTender 
the  bishopric ;  nevertheless  the  duke  retained  the  tempo- 
ralities 2.  By  this  resignation  he  incurred  James's  displeasure; 
whereupon  he  renewed  his  attempt  to  take  possession  of  his 
see,  and  had  letters  from  James  to  the  noblemen  in  that  neigh- 
bourhood to  give  him  all  assistance.  His  intention  was  to 
preach  ;  but  the  students  of  the  university  took  possession  of 
the  cathedral  on  Saturday  night,  and  placed  Smeton,  their 
principal,  in  the  pulpit.  Montgomery  appeared  at  the  ordinary 
hour,  accompanied  by  a  numerous  retinue  of  the  neighbouring 
gentry,  when  he  forcibly  displaced  the  preacher,  and  delivered 
a  sermon  himself.  The  ministers  of  Glasgow  intended  to  have 
])rosecuted  the  archbishop  "  for  molestation  of  the  church,  and 
usurping  the  place  of  the  ordinary  preacher ;"  but  the  provost 
presented  the  king's  warrant  to  stay  all  proceedings  against 
the  archbishop,  and  commanded  them  to  desist.  Mr.  Howison, 
minister  of  Cambuslang,  rudely  refused,  and  uttered  some  con- 
temptuous words ;  on  which  the  provost  pulled  him  out  of  his 
chair,  and  committed  him  to  the  common  jail. 

The  last  Assembly  ordered  a  fast  to  be  observed  throughout 
the  kingdom,  "  for  abundance  of  sin,  the  oppression  of  the 
church,  the  dilapidation  of  the  rents,  and  the  danger  wherein 
the  king  stood  by  the  company  of  wicked  persons,  who  did 
seek  to  corrupt  him  in  manners  and  religion."  To  these  public 
calamities  was  now  added,  "  the  insolency  committed  at  Glas- 
gow," which  furnished  the  zealous  ministers  with  a  most  ex- 
cellent topic  for  declamation.  John  Davidson,  minister  of 
Libberton,  pretending  a  warrant  from  the  Assembly,  took  uj^on 
him  to  excommunicate  Montgomery ;  which,  though  contrary 
to  law,  was  allowed  by  the  other  ministers,  and  intimated  in  all 
the  ])arishes  of  the  kingdom.    The  Duke  of  Lennox  disregarded 

»  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  318.— Calderwood,  123.         -  Keith's  Catalogue,  261. 


1582.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  307 

this  illegal  excommunication,  and  entertained  Montgomery'  as 
usual ;  whereupon  two  of  the  brethren  were  sent  to  warn  the 
duke  of  the  danger  of  entertaining  an  excommunicated  per- 
son. The  duke  indignantly  inquired  of  the  brethren,  "  whe- 
ther the  king  or  the  church  were  supreme  ?  adding,  that  he  was 
commanded  by  the  king  and  council  to  entertain  him,  and  which 
he  would  not  forbear  to  do  for  any  fear  of  their  censures." 
Frustrated  in  their  malicious  design,  the  brethren  de- 
termined on  appealing  to  James,  who  then  kept  his  court  at 
Perth,  and  who  proved  a  better  casuist  than  they  were  ;  "  for," 
said  he,  "  the  excommunication  was  null,  and  declared  such 
by  the  council,  as  being  pronounced  against  equity  and  all 
lawful  fonn,  no  citation  being  used,  nor  any  admonition  pre- 
ceding, which  all  laws,  and  even  their  own  discipline,  appointed 
to  be  observed  1."  Thus  disappointed  of  wreaking  their  ven- 
geance against  Montgomery,  Andrew  Melville  inveighed 
against  the  "  bloudie  guillie"  of  absolute  authority,  whereby 
many,  he  said,  "  intended  to  pull  the  crown  off  Christ's  head, 
and  to  wring  the  sceptre  out  of  his  hand  2." 

On  the  12th  of  August,  James  was  made  a  state-prisoner  in 
Ruthven  Castle  by  his  rebellious  nobles.  He  then  held  his 
court  at  Falkland  ;  and,  being  engaged  in  field  sports,  he  was 
enticed,  on  the  23d  of  August,  to  Ruthven  Castle,  where  he  was 
at  first  respectfully  entertained,  but  when  he  wished  to  depart 
he  found  himself  a  prisoner.  The  conspirators  had,  for  their 
own  safety,  previously  sent  the  Duke  of  Lennox  to  Edinburgh 
under  a  frivolous  pretext.  His  imprisonment,  and  the  appre- 
hensions that  such  a  step  taken  by  such  unscrupulous  men 
might  bring  him  to  the  same  violent  end  as  his  father  had  ex- 
perienced, made  the  young  king  shed  tears.  His  natural  fears, 
and  consequent  tears,  drew  no  more  pity  nor  respect  from  his 
ferocious  though  noble  jailors  than  their  contemptuous  excla- 
mation, that  it  was  filter  for  boys  to  shed  tears  than  for  bearded 
men.  As  soon  as  the  Duke  of  Lennox  heard  of  this  audacious 
act  of  high  treason,  he  despatched  some  noblemen  to  ascertain 
whether  or  not  the  king  was  either  free  or  captive.  James  as- 
sured them  he  was  captive,  and  commanded  the  duke  to  raise 
forces  to  redeem  him  ;  but  on  the  other  hand,  the  conspirators 
declared  it  was  their  intention  to  emancipate  the  king  from  the 
evil  councils  of  the  Duke  of  Lennox.  They  immediately  after- 
wards compelled  the  king  to  issue  a  proclamation,  as  if  he  had 
been  unconstrained,  in  which  he  is  made  to  declare,  "  that  he 
remained  in  thatplace  of  hisovvn  free  will ;  that  the  nobility  then 

1  Caldenvood. — Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  319.  ^  Calderwood,  p.  129. 


SOS  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VIII 

present  had  done  nothing  which  they  were  not  in  duty  obliged 
to  do ;  that  he  took  their  repairing  unto  him  for  a  service  ac- 
ceptable to  himself,  and  profitable  to  tlic  commonwealth ;  that, 
therefore,  all  manner  of  persons  whatsoever  who  had  levied 
any  forces,  under  colour  of  his  present  restraint,  should  disband 
them  within  six  hours,  under  pain  of  treason."     Besides  this 
proclamation,  they  compelled  the  royal  captive  to  command 
the  duke,  who  had  collected  some  forces  for  the  king's  rescue, 
to  dejDart  the  kingdom  before  the  20th  of  September.     On  re- 
ceipt of  the  king's  letter,  the  duke  sought  shelter  within  the 
impregnable  battlements  of  Dumbarton  Castle,  to  wait  the  issue 
of  events.     From  Dumbarton,  the  duke  passed  through  Eng- 
land, and  went  to  France,  "  where,  it  was  thought,  he  had  got 
poison,  by  the  lingering  working  of  it,  which  procured  his 
death  in  the  month  of  May  in  the  following  year,  1583.    After 
he  came  to  France,  neither  the  king  of  France,  nor  yet  the  no- 
bility there,  nay,  nor  his  own  lady,  gave  him  any  respect,  in 
that  he  had  joined  the  Protestant  religion,  and  communicated 
ivith  them^.''' 

This  cons]nracy  is  commonly  called  the  "Raid  of  Ruthven," 
and  was  contrived  and  executed  with  the  foreknowledge  and 
secret  encouragement  of  the  zealous  Andrew  Melville,  and 
the  Presbyterian  ministers.  Queen  Elizabeth,  also,  had  sent 
Sir  George  Gary  and  Robert  Bowes  as  her  ambassadors,  under 
pretext  of  solicitude  for  James's  personal  safety,  but  in  reality 
to  countenance  and  support  the  traitors.  The  conspirators 
removed  James  to  Holyrood  House.  The  General  Assembly, 
sympathising  cordially  with  this  conspiracy,  which  the  mi- 
nisters' sermons  and  factious  conduct  had  tended  so  materially 
to  foster,  approved  most  heartily  of  this  act  of  treason.  And 
in  one  of  their  acts,  they  "  exhorted  all  good  subjects,  as  they 
tender  the  glory  of  God,  and  love  the  preservation  of  the  king 
and  country,  faithfully  to  concur  and  join  with  the  said  noble- 
men ;  and  if  any  should  be  found  either  by  word  maliciousl}^, 
or  violently  1)y  way  of  deed,  to  oppose  that  good  cause,  they 
shall  be  called  before  the  particular  elderships,  and  order  put 
unto  them  by  the  censures  of  the  church.  And  in  case  of  their 
wilful  and  obstinate  continuing  therein,  be  delated  to  the  king 
and  council  to  be  punished  for  their  offence  civilly  2." 

The  Assembly  met  in  Edinburgh  on  the  9th  of  October,  and 
after  framing  and  publishing  the  act,  of  which  the  foregoing  is 
an  excerpt,  and  which  leaves  an  indelible  memorial  of  the 
seditious  spirit  of  resistance  to  government  which  actuated  the 

'  Balfour's  A.nn.  i.  371.  "  Caldcrwood.— Spottiswood,  b.  vj.  p.  323, 


J 582.]  ciirTRcii  OF  Scotland,  309 

presbyterian  teachers  of  that  time,  they  next  proceeded  to  frame 
more  "  plots  for  presbyteries."  These  courts  were  now  erected 
for  the  Jir'st  time  m  Caithness,  Sutherland,  Ross,  Moray,  Aber- 
deen, and  Banff.  At  the  same  time,  commissions  were  issued  to 
several  presbyteries  to  summon  the  bishops  before  them,  and 
to  accuse  them  summarily  of  the  following  offences : — viz.  of 
not  preaching  and  administering  the  sacraments,  of  negligence 
of  doctrine  and  discipline,  haunting  and  frequenting  the  com- 
pany of  excommunicate  persons,  for  giving  scandal  any  way  in 
life  or  conversation ;  with  a  long  list  of  other  equally  frivolous 
offences,  which  were  got  up  without  auy  regard  to  truth  or 
justice,  for  the  purpose  of  persecuting  and  vexing  the  titular 
bishops,  and  compelling  them  to  resign  their  offices  ^ 

On  Friday,  the  28th  of  September,  George  Buchanan,  the 
king's  preceptor,  and  his  mother's  libeller,  died,  aged  seventy- 
six,  and  was  buried,  at  the  expense  of  the  city  of  Edinburgh, 
in  the  Greyfriars'  churchyard  :  "  There,"  says  Mr.  Lawson, 
"  to  the  disgrace  of  his  country  be  it  recorded,  lies  the  most 
illustrious  scholar  Scotland  ever  produced,  without  a  monument 
to  mark  the  spot  where  his  ashes  repose."  Buchanan  was  a 
great  scholar  ;  but  he  was  tinctured  with  the  worst  republican 
principles,  and  was  of  a  morose,  spiteful,  and  vindictive  dispo- 
sition. He  early  attached  himself  to  the  party  of  the  carl  of 
Moray,  whose  ambition  aimed  at  wearing  the  ci-own,  and  to 
whom  Buchanan's  literary  superiority  was  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance. He  was  an  abject  sycophant  to  queen  Mary  whilst 
she  possessed  power;  but,  on  her  fall  from  the  royal  estate,  he 
turned  against  her  with  fiendish  violence,  and  leagued  himself 
with  Moray  and  her  enemies,  and  conducted  her  imjjeachment 
in  the  courts  of  an  alien  sovereign.  He  composed  his  false 
"  Detection,"  which  fortunately  was  written  and  published  in 
Latin,  so  as  to  be  beyond  the  vulgar  reach ;  and  he  forged,  and 
afterwards  swore  to  the  veracity  of,  a  number  of  letters  and 
sonnets,  purporting  to  be  in  the  queen's  name,  containing  the 
most  impure  and  indelicate  allusions,  and  the  most  atrocious 
incentives  to  the  murder  of  her  unfortunate  husband.  To  the 
son  of  this  unhappy  and  ill-used  queen  he  was  appointed  tutor, 
whom  he  treated  neither  with  respect  nor  kindness,  the  remem- 
brance of  which,  together  with  the  pernicious  maxims  on 
government  which  he  used  every  effort  to  disseminate,  caused 
in  his  royal  pupil  a  dislike  which  James  ever  manifested  to 
Buchanan's  memory.  In  his  BasiJicon  Boron  James  gives 
his  opinion  freely  on  his  'tutor's  writings  and  sentiments:  "  I 

»  Calderwoou,  p.  133,— Spottiswocl,  b.  vi.  p   322. 


310 


niSTORY  OF  THE 


[CIIAP.  VJII. 


would  have  you,"  favs  he,  "  to  be  well  versed  in  authentic  his- 
tories, and  in  the  chronicles  of  all  nations,  but  especially  in  our 
own  histories,  the  example  whereof  most  nearly  concerns  you. 
I  mean  not  of  such  infamous  invectives  as  Buchanan's  or  Knox's 
Chronicles ;  and  if  any  of  those  infamous  invectives  remain 
until  your  days,  use  the  law  upon  the  keepers  thereof;  for  in 
that  point  I  would  make  you  a  pythagorist,  to  think  that  the 
very  spirits  of  these  archibellowes  of  rebellion  have  made  transi- 
tion in  them  that  hoard  their  books,  or  maintain  their  opinions," 
In  his  book  De  Jure  Regni  apud  Scotos,  which  was  afterwards 
burnt  by  the  hands  of  the  common  hangman  at  the  market  cross, 
Buchanan  was  the  first  who  openly  reduced  rebellion  and 
resistance  to  government  to  a  system.  Few  men  have  ever 
indulged  in  such  morose  and  vindictive  passions  as  the 
royal  tutor.  A  specimen  of  his  keen  hatred  and  round  abuse 
is  conspicuous  in  an  epigram  on  the  infamous  murder  of  arch- 
bishop Hamilton,  in  which  he  says,  "  that  our  parent  earth 
now  breathes  lighter  since  delivered  from  the  burden  of  such 
an  abominable  monster;  that  all  the  angels  of  darkness  have 
been  fatigued  in  preparing  for  his  reception  ;  and  that  every 
department  of  perdition  now  stands  still,  the  whole  of  Tartarus 
being  devoted  io  a  single  victim;  and  concludes  with  expressing 
his  regret  that  the  primate's  carcase  had  not  been  cast  to  the 
dogs."  He  was,  however,  an  elegant  Latin  scholar,  into  which 
language  he  translated  the  Holy  Psalms  in  verse  unsurpassed 
for  beauty  or  classical  accuracy.  He  also  published  in  Latin 
a  history  of  his  native  country,  which  is  pervaded  by  the  same 
sentiments  as  his  work  De  Jure  Regni,  and  which  he  intended 
should  serve  the  purposes  of  the  faction  to  which  he  had 
attached  himself.  It  is,  however,  but  justice  to  the  memory 
of  this  extraordinary  man  to  say,  it  is  positively  asserted  that 
on  his  death-bed  he  acknowledged  the  wrong  he  had  done 
to  his  sovereign.  It  is  contained  in  a  letter  from  bishop 
Sage : — 


"  Sir, — About  twenty-eight  years  ago  I  had  occasion,  at 
Mrs.  Drummond's,  of  Invermay  house,  in  Strathearn,  to  be  in 
conversation  with  an  ancient  lady  (the  lady  Rasyth,  in  Fife),  a 
woman  of  very  bright  parts,  and  of  very  good  principles.  She 
was  a  daughter  of  the  house  of  Buchanan.  In  the  progress  oi 
our  discourse  we  came  to  talk  of  the  famous  Mr.  George 
Buchanan.  I  toldher  Iliad  nollongbcfore  read  over  Famianu.s 
Strada's  book  De  Bella  Bellico,  and  had  found  in  it  (I  think  ad 
annum  158(3)  an  account  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  confession  when 
on  his  death-bed,  '  that  he  had  been  most  injurious  in  papers 


1583.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  311 

published  by  him,  to  queen  Mary  of  Scots ;  wishing  earnestly 
that  God  would  allow  him  time  and  strength  before  he  died  to 
do  her  justice.'  I  added  that  the  account  was  new  to  me  (for 
I  had  not  then  seen  Camden's  Elizabeth),  and  that  I  was  afraid 
Strada  was  partial,  having  many  other  things  in  his  book  too 
like  romance,  and  that,  therefore,  I  was  not  forward  to  believe 
him  in  that  matter.  The  lady  forthwith  desired  me  to  take  her 
word  for  it,  that  it  was  certain  truth ;  for  she  remembered 
nothing  better  than  that,  in  her  younger  years,  she  had  oftener 
than  once  heard  a  very  aged  man  called  David  Buchanan,  who 
was  maintained  in  her  father's  family,  affirm, '  that  he  ivas  pre- 
sent in  Mr.  Buchanan's  bedchamber,  and  an  ear  witness  to  that 
confession  ivhen  he  made  it.''  This,  so  far  as  my  memory  serves 
me,  is  the  substance  of  what  I  learned  of  that  lady  at  that  time. 
It  made  the  deeper  impression  on  me  when  I  reflected  on  the 
time  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  death,  which  was  in  September  1582 ; 
at  which  time  David  Buchanan  might  have  been  very  capable 
to  consider  what  Mr.  George  said,  though  he  had  afterwards 
lived  after  the  year  1630  or  1636  :  and  about  that  time  the 
lady  was  capable  of  receiving  it  from  him, 

(Signed)  John  Sage^." 
1583. — A  report  of  the  raid  of  Ruthven  having  reached  the 
court  of  France,  the  king  sent  Monsieurs  De  la  Motte  Fenelon, 
and  Meneval  (or  Maningveil)  as  ambassadors,  to  endeavour  to 
procure  James's  freedom,  and  to  negociate  with  the  captive 
queen  for  his  recognition  as  king,  as  none  of  the  foreign 
princes  had  ever  yet  recognized  James's  title  to  the  throne  of 
Scotland.  The  presbyterian  teachers  declaimed  bitterly 
against  the  ambassadors,  but  more  especially  against  De  la 
Motte,  who  being  a  knight  of  the  order  of  St.  Esprit,  wore  a 
white  cross  on  his  shoulder.  The  ministers  denounced  this  as 
the  badge  of  antichrist;  and  the  people,  instigated  by  the 
preachers,  openly  insulted  them  in  the  streets,  and  called  him 
the  ambassador  of  the  bloody  murderer.  In  this  state  of 
things  the  ambassadors  were  desirous  of  returning  to  France, 
as  they  saw  that  the  prince  was  quite  unable  either  to  protect 
them  from  insult,  or  torestrain  the  violent  declamation  of  the 
ministers,  "  who  howled,^''  says  Robertson,  a  presbyterian  wri- 
ter, "  with  a  vehemence  which  no  regular  government  would 

'  Gillan's  life  of  bishop  Sage,  which  was  printed  in  London  in  1711.  The 
letter  is  dated  the  17th  of  October,  1709,  and  which  his  biographer  importuned 
him  to  write,  because  he  had  frequently  heeird  him  relate  the  above,  and  also  an 
anecdote  respecting  Alexander  Henderson,  which  shall  be  given  in  its  own  place. 
"  Sage,"  says  bishop  Gillein,  "  is  of  such  integrity  and  veracity,  that  his  accounts 
of  facts  as  related  to  him  were  always  to  be  depended  upon." 


312  HISTORY  OF   THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

now  tolerate,  but  which  was  then  exceedingly  common.''''  The 
prince,  desirous  of  preserving  a  friendly  intercoui'se  with 
France,  and  of  showing  respect  to  the  ambassadors  of  that 
power,  ordered  the  magistrates  of  Edinburgh  to  entertain 
them  at  a  grand  banquet.  The  king's  commands,  however, 
could  not  be  obeyed  without  first  consulting  the  city  minis- 
ters; and  they  decidedly  countermanded  the  king's  order. 
The  town  council,  however,  thought  it  more  prudent  to  com- 
ply, and  a  public  dinner  was  accordingly  prepared,  and  which, 
at  that  time,  usually  was  given  soon  after  mid-day.  To  in- 
terrupt and  prevent  this  civic  festival,  the  loyal  and  peace- 
making ministers  ordained  a  fast  to  be  strictly  observed  that 
same  day  on  which  the  feast  was  appointed ;  and  to  detain 
the  people  at  church,  they  commenced  the  service  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning;  and  three  preachers,  in  quick  succes- 
sion, mounted  the  pul])it,  and  thundered  out  censures  the  whole 
day,  without  intermission,  against  the  magistrates  and  those 
noblemen  who,  in  obedience  to  James's  commands,  waited  on 
the  ambassadors.  Neither  did  their  malicious  insubordination 
stop  there,  for  they  excommunicated  the  magistrates  for  not 
observing  the  fast,  which  they  had  so  vexatiously  and  illegally 
appointed. 1  It  cannot,  therefore,  excite  any  surprise,  that, 
under  such  seditious  and  malignant  teachers,  the  people  were 
preached  into  the  grand  rebellion  in  the  following  reign. 
Since  James's  inthralment  at  Ruthven,  the  preachers  knew 
no  bounds  to  their  licentiousness,  for  the  conspirators  courted 
their  assistance;  and  Calderwood  says  that,  after  this,  "li- 
berty was  renewed  to  the  ministers  to  preach  the  word  freely, 
to  exercise  discipline,  and  to  hold  ecclesiastical  assemblies. 
Papists,  Jesuits,  excommunicate  persons,  licentious  libertines, 
old  enemies  to  this  crown  and  the  friendship  standing  between 
the  two  realms,  either  left  the  country  and  the  cjourt,  or  stooped 
in  silence  with  external  reverence  to  the  wordr  This  licence 
the  author  of  the  "  State  and  Sufferings  of  the  Church  of  Scot* 
land,"  calls — "  having  a  little  sunshine." 

In  this  sunshine  of  the  presbyterian  supremacy,  the  crime  of 
witchcraft  was  visited  with  condign  punishment :  a  woman, 
named  Alison  Pearson,  suspected  of  this  crime,  was  tried  and 
condemned  by  the  presbytery  of  St.  Andrews,  and  was  after- 
wards delivered  over  to  the  secular  arm,  and  bimit  alive. 

James  efiected  his  deliverance  from  the  conspirators  with 
considerable  tact ;  and  only  admitted  colonel  Stewart,  the  com- 
mander of  his  guard,  into  his  confidence.     The  king  had  been 

*  Calderwood,  p.  138. — Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  324. 


1584. J  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  313 

permitted  to  reside  a  short  time  at  Falkland,  to  enjoy  the 
pleasure  of  the  chase,  when  he  expressed  a  desire  to  visit  his 
uncle,  the  earl  of  March,  who  then  resided  in  the  abbey  of 
St.  Andrews,  which  favour  the  conspirators  also  granted. 
After  dinner  he  went  to  view  the  castle,  into  which  he  had 
no  sooner  entered,  than  Stewart,  as  previously  arranged,  shut 
and  barricaded  the  gate,  and  entirely  excluded  the  faction, 
who  were  following.  As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  the  king 
had  effected  his  deliverance  from  the  conspirators,  all  the 
loyal  nobility  repaired  to  St.  Andrews  to  congratulate  his 
majesty,  who  soon  found  himself  in  sufficient  strength  to 
return  in  freedom  to  his  capital,  and  thence  to  Perth.  He 
there  issued  a  proclamation,  declaring  the  late  restraint  of 
his  person  to  be  a  treasonable  act ;  but  he  gave  at  the  same 
time  a  free  and  general  pardon  to  all  the  traitors  who  would 
acknowledge  their  guilt,  and  sue  for  it.  In  December  fol- 
lowing there  was  a  convention  of  estates,  in  which  the  king's 
proclamation  was  approved  and  ratified,  and  the  late  conspi- 
racy was  declared  to  be  crimen  lasee.  majestatis,  or  treason  in 
the  highest  degree. 

The  General  Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh  in  October,  and 
presented  a  long  list  of  imaginary  grievances  to  the  prince,  to 
which  he  returned  a  dignified  answer,  gently  rebuking  their 
meddling  with  affairs  of  state,  and  fostering  needless  jea- 
lousies. The  king's  answer  might  have  satisfied  reasonable 
men ;  but  "  the  discontent  which  the  ministers  had  received 
for  the  late  change  in  the  court,  made  every  thing  distasteful 
unto  them,  and  still  the  displeasure  betwixt  the  king  and 
church  did  grow,  as  we  shall  hear."  At  this  period  the 
kingdom  seems  to  have  been  in  a  fearful  state  of  crime  and 
irreligion,  and  the  laws  were  neither  obeyed  nor  executed. 
The  newly-erected  presbyteries  signalised  their  entrance  into 
life  by  persecuting  the  titular  bishops,  but  especially  Adamson, 
on  the  most  vexatious  and  frivolous  pretexts.  The  prosecu- 
tion of  old  women  for  alleged  witchcraft  also  occuj)ied  the 
attention  of  these  new-made  courts.^ 

1584. — The  court  was  continually  embroiled  with  the  fac- 
tious ministers,  for  seditious  and  treasonable  passages  in  their 
sermons.  They  appear  to  have  set  themselves  in  opposition  to 
the  whole  civil  government,  and  to  the  most  reasonable  demands 
of  the  prince.  They  justified,  and  called  the  nation  to  approve 
of  the  treasonable  raid  of  Ruthven  as  good  service,  and  in 
their  sermons  they  applauded  the  traitors  as  patriots.     Many 

'  Calderwood,  141-43. — Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  327. 
VOL.  I.  2  S 


314  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  Vlir. 

of  the  ministers  who  had  manifested  their  approbation  of  the 
Ruthven  conspiracy  now  pretended  that  they  were  suffering 
persecution  for  conscience  sake,  left  their  charges,  and  took 
shelter  in  England ;  and  the  other  actors  in  that  treason  pre- 
ferred  seditious   agitation  rather  than  a  peaceable  life,  not- 
withstanding the  king's  remarkable  clemency.     John  Dury, 
in  a  sermon,  publicly  justified  the  Ruthven  conspiracy;   and 
being  cited  by  the  privy  council,  he  there  defended  his  sedi- 
tious language ;  but  the  fear  of  consequences  induced  him  to 
acknowledge  his  error.    Andrew  Melville,  however,  gave  more 
trouble  on  the  same  score :  he  compared  the  present  state  of 
the  nation  with  that  under  James  III.,  and  intimated  that 
their  supposititious  grievances   should  be  redressed  in  the 
same  way ;  that  is,  by  rebellion  and  the  murder  of  the  king. 
He  declined  the  judgment  of  the  king  and  council,  and  as- 
sumed one  of  the  worst  principles  of   the  Romish  church, 
"  that  what  was  spoken  in  the  pulpit  ought  first  to  be  tried 
and  judged  by  the  presbytery,  and  that  neither  the  king  nor 
council  might,  in  prima  instantia,  meddle  therewith,  thougli 
the  speeches  were  treasonable."  Finding  the  man  so  obstinate 
and  contumacious,  and  that  no  persuasion  could  induce  him 
to  yield,  James  proceeded  to  examine  witnesses,  when  master 
Andrew  brought    "  a  railing  accusation"  against  him,    and 
conducted  himself  in  an  outrageously  insolent  manner.     He 
told  the  king,  with  great  assurance,  that  his  majesty  "  per- 
verted the  laws  both  of  God  and  man."   This  unchristian  con- 
duct gave  great  offence  to  the  council,  who  forthwith  charged 
him  to  enter  his  person  a  prisoner  in  Blackness  Castle ;  but 
instead  of  obeying,  he  fled  that  night  to  Berwick,  where  he 
was  protected  by  Elizabeth,  who  encouraged  and  fomented 
all  the  conspiracies  and  seditions  in  the  kingdom.     He  was 
followed  by  some  others  of  the  seditious  ministers,  who,  being 
ineffectually  warned  to  render  themselves  up  to  the  king  and 
council,  were  denounced  rebels.     The  pulpits  resounded  with 
declamatory  accusations  of  the  cruelty  and  tyranny  of  the 
court,  and  "  that  the  light  of  the  country  for  learning,  and  he 
who  was  only  most  fit  to  resist  the  adversaries  of  religion,  was 
exiled,  and  compelled,  for  safety  of  his  life,  to  quit  the  king- 
dom, i"     Such  factious  conduct  cannot,  by  any  well-regulated 
mind,  be  esteemed  religious  ;  for  "  if  any  man  seem  to  be  reli- 
gious, and  bridleth  not  his  tongue,  but  deceiveth  his  own 
heart,  this  man's  religion  is  vain."     James  condescended  to 
clear  himself  of  the  false  accusations  of  the  godly  brethren  by 

1  Calderwood,  p.  144. — Spottiswood,  b.  vi,  p.  330, 


1584.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  315 

proclamation;  but  as  the  subject  was  one  likely  to  rouse  the 
vile  passions  of  the  mob,  the  brethren  made  no  alteration  in 
their  inflammatory  harangues,  and  Spottisvvood  feelingly  re- 
marks— "  Pity  it  is  to  think  how  the  king  was  then  used." 
Having  been  promised  support  from  Elizabeth's  government, 
and  also  relying  on  the  factious  agitation  of  the  ministers,  the 
Ruthven  conspirators  still  gave  James's  government  consider- 
able trouble.  New  commotions  were  beginning  to  disturb 
the  king's  peace,  and  the  ministers  sounded  out  sedition,  as 
usual,  from  their  pulpits.  Some  were  imprisoned,  and  others 
were  compelled  to  quit  the  kingdom.  The  earl  of  Gowrie 
remained  behind,  at  large;  but  from  some  equivocal  steps, 
suspicion  falling  on  him,  he  was  arrested  at  Dundee,  brought 
to  Edinbm-gh,  tried  and  condemned  for  high  treason,  and  be- 
headed in  the  month  of  April. 

Parliament  met  for  the  despatch  of  business  on  the  22d  of 
May.  Adamson  and  Montgomery  sat  in  it  as  the  representa- 
tives of  the  first  or  spiritual  estate  in  the  name  of  the  kirk. 
In  it  the  prince's  declaration  of  the  Ruthven  conspiracy  was 
ratified ;  the  king's  authority  over  all  persons,  and  in  oJl  causes, 
confinned;  the  declining  his  majesty's  judgment  and  the  coun- 
cil's, in  whatsoever  matter,  declared  to  be  treason ;  the  im- 
pugning the  authority  of  the  three  estates,  or  procuring  the 
innovation  or  diminution  of  the  power  of  any  of  them,  inhibited 
under  the  same  pain.  All  jurisdictions  and  judicatures,  spiritual 
or  temporal,not  approved  of  by  his  highness  and  the  three  estates, 
were  discharged,  and  an  ordinance  made,  "  that  none,  of  what- 
soever function,  quality,  or  degree,  should  presume,  privately 
or  publicly,  m  sermows,  declamations,  or  familiar  conferences,  to 
utter  any  false,  untrue,  or  slanderous  speeches  to  the  reproach 
of  his  majesty,  his  council  and  proceedings,  or  to  the  dis- 
honour, hurt,  ox  prejudice  of  his  highness,  his  parents,  or  pro- 
genitors, or  to  meddle  with  the  afi'airs  of  his  highness  and 
estate,  under  the  pains  contained  in  the  acts  of  parliament 
made  against  the  makers  and  reporters  of  lies  ^."  The  framing 
of  such  an  act  of  parliament  to  curb  the  licentious  insubor- 
dination of  the  first  presbyterian  ministers,  is  perhaps  the 
strongestproof  that  can  possibly  be  adduced  of  the  incompati- 
bility of  their  principles  with  civil  government,  and  of  their  dis- 
obedience to  that  "evangel"  which  they  so  fervently  preached. 
The  Scripture  says,  "  Submit  yourselves  to  every  ordinance  of 
man,  for  the  Lord's  sake;  whedier  it  be  to  the  king  as  supreme, 
or  unto  governors,  as  unto  them  that  are  sent  by  Him  for  the 

1  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  333. 


316  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

punishment  of  evil  doers,  and  for  the  praise  of  them  that  do 
well."  Now,  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  when  these  words 
of  inspiration  were  written,  Nero,  a  monster  of  cruelty  and 
wickedness,  and  a  heathen  persecutor  of  the  church,  was  the 
king  as  supreme.  Lastly,  an  act  was  passed  for  calling  in 
Buchanan's  history,  his  master-piece  of  sedition,  De  Jure 
Regni,  and  his  most  infamous  libel  on  the  queen,  called  the 
Detection. 

It  was  not  likely  that  a  factious  body  of  intemperate  ministers, 
who  had  been  accustomed  to  censure  and  oppose  all  authority 
with  the  most  unbounded  licentiousness,  would  quietly  submit 
to  have  their  public  importance  thus  circumscribed  by  an  act 
of  parliament,  and  a  check  to  be  placed  on  their  inflammatory 
harangues.  They  were  most  especially  unwilling  to  yield 
obedience  to  the  prince's  supremacy,  to  which  they  had  all 
along  maintained  a  constant  and  most  factious  opposition,  and 
in  man}^  recent  instances  they  had  actually  set  it  at  defiance. 
Their  alarm  was  proportionably  great,  and  their  complaints 
of  what  they  called  tyranny,  but  which  was  the  effect  of  their 
own  seditious  conduct,  were  loud  and  clamorous.  All  the 
Edinburgh  ministers,  who  were  called  the  watch-tower  of  the 
nation,  deserted  their  flocks  with  precipitation,  and  fled  to 
England,  and  many  of  the  country  ministers  followed  their 
unchristian  example.  But  the  most  daring  opposition  was 
offered  by  Robert  Pont,  minister  of  St.  Cuthberts,  who  was  at 
the  same  time  a  lord  of  session.  When  the  heralds,  according 
to  custom,  were  proclaiming  the  new  acts  of  parliament  at 
the  market-cross  of  Edinburgh,  Pont  solemnly  protested  against 
them  in  the  name  of  the  brethren,  because  they  had  been  passed 
without  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  church  !  To  such 
a  height  did  these  zealous  ministers  carry  the  true  spirit  of 
popery  in  encroaching  on  the  power  and  -prerogatives  of  the 
crown  ;  and  thus,  in  fact,  the  General  Assembly  assumed  the 
usurped  powers  of  the  Roman  pontiff.  But  considering  the 
close  affinity  of  popery  and  presbytery,  it  is  not  surprising  to 
find  so  many  of  their  seemingly  discordant  principles  corre- 
sponding so  exactly.  Although  they  had  annihilated  its  spi- 
ritual estate,  yet  the  ministers  even  went  so  far  in  their  opposi- 
tion as  to  declare  acts  of  parliament  passed  without  their  con- 
sent to  be  illegal.  Those  ministers  who  had  so  lately  deserted 
their  duty,  and  fled  into  England,  leaving  their  congregations, 
"  without  supply  of  sermon,"  wrote  a  letter  to  the  kirk-session 
and  town-council  of  Edinburgh,  wherein  they  complained  in 
the  most  bitter  terms  of  the  king  and  his  counsellors,  and 
charitablv  ascribed  to  them  the  whole  of  the  miseries  which 


1585-]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  317 

tlie  unhappy  kingdom  suffered.  The  complicated  miseries  of 
the  kingdom,  in  truth,  were  entirely  owing  to  the  spirit  of  re- 
sistance and  rebellion  which  they  themselves  had  preached 
and  infused  into  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  which  is  the 
very  opposite  of  religion ;  for  the  fruit  of  true  religion  and 
"of  the  Spirit,  is  love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  gentleness, 
goodness,  faith,  meekness,  temperance  ;  against  such  there  is 
no  law^"  When  the  prince  heard  of  this  letter,  he  directed 
the  magistrates  to  return  a  sarcastic  answer  to  the  ministers, 
upbraiding  them  with  their  seditious  conduct  and  cowardly 
desertion  of  their  flocks.  The  letter  called  them  "  fugitives, 
rebels,  and  wolves,"  and  recommended  to  them  to  study  the 
thirteenth  chapter  of  the  Romans,  which,  says  the  letter,  "  you 
did  seldom  exhort  us  to  apply.'''  These  "  fugitives"  took  the 
taunts  contained  in  this  letter  so  much  to  heart,  that  one  of 
them,  Lawson,  sickened  and  died  at  London  2. 

James  laboured  incessantly  to  induce  the  ministers  to  sub- 
scribe "certain  articles"  which  required  obedience  to  the 
bishops,  and  submission  to  the  late  acts  of  parliament.  All 
who  held  the  presbyterian  principles  refused  subscription,  and 
their  stipends  were,  in  consequence,  sequestrated,  which  imme- 
diately produced  a  popular  discontent,  and  favour  for  the  rebel 
ministers :  when  the  prince  perceived  this,  he  called  the  prin- 
cipal of  them  before  him,  and  explained  to  them,  that  his  whole 
desire  was  to  have  the  church  peaceably  governed,  and  a  decent 
polity  established.  He  desired  them  to  state  their  reasons  in 
writing  for  their  refusing  subscription,  that  he  might  satisfy 
their  scruples  ;  but  they  preferred  answering  him  verbally, 
when  he  prevailed  on  them  to  sign,  after  adding  a  clause  to 
satisfy  their  scruples, — "  agreeing  with  the  word  of  God." 

1585. — The  whole  of  this  year  was  occupied  in  disputes 
between  "  the  sincerer  sort"  of  the  ministers  and  the  prince's 
government ;  the  "  godly  brethren"  preached  seditious  sermons, 
justified  and  applauded  the  "  raid  of  Ruthven,"  as  "  good 
service,"  but  which  the  laws,  when  left  to  their  own  course, 
called  treason,  and  for  which  the  principal  actor  most  justly 
lost  his  head.  The  prince  used  every  effort  to  remove  from  the 
minds  of  his  people  a  most  unjust  suspicion  which  the  "  sin- 
cerer sort"  had  excited,  and  of  which  they  made  a  stalking- 
horse  for  factious  puposes, — of  his  inclination  to  popery, — to 
which  no  man  was  less  inclined ;  for  they  had  themselves 
given  him  a  surfeit  of  popery.     But  the  flight  of  so  many  of 

»  Gal.  V.  22,  23.       2  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  333-4,— Calderwood,  151—159. 


318  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

the  ministers,  and  the  enormous  clamour  which  they  excited 
in  England  against  him,  had  encouraged  a  belief  of  his  real 
disposition  to  that  heresy.  James,  therefore,  found  himself 
obliged  to  issue  a  public  manifesto  in  order  to  set  himself  right 
with  both  nations  ;  in  which  he  justified  the  passing  of  the  acts 
of  parliament,  which  had  created  so  much  clamour,  on  account 
of  the  Assembly  having  approved  of  the  treason  at  Ruthven ; 
Melville  having  declined  the  civil  judicature;  the  insolent 
proclamation  of  a.  fast,  at  the  moment  when  he  had  ordered  a 
feast  to  the  French  ambassadors ;  the  factious  and  seditious 
imposition  of  fasts  by  their  own  authority,  and  in  defiance  of 
the  civil  power  ;  the  usurpation  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction ; 
the  abrogation  of  the  laws  of  the  realm,  and  the  enacting  new 
ones  at  their  own  pleasure,  without  the  consent  or  formality  of 
parliament;  and  the  drawing  all  causes  to  themselves,  although 
purely  of  a  civil  or  secular  nature.  On  which  account,  he  said, 
they  compelled,  by  church  censures,  all  men  to  submit  to  them 
who  had  been  accused,  acquitted  by  the  court,  or  pardoned  by 
the  king,  for  murder,  theft,  or  any  other  atrocious  crimes.  But 
all  this,  says  Heylin,  "  could  not  stop  the  mouths,  much  less 
the  pens,  of  that  waspish  sect;  some  flying  out  against  the  king 
in  their  scurrilous  libels,  bold  pamphlets,  and  defamatory 
rhymes  ;  others  with  no  less  violence  inveighing  against  him 
in  their  pulpits,  but  most  especially  in  England,  where  they 
were  out  of  the  king's  reach,  and  consequently  might  rail  on 
without  fear  of  punishment.  By  them  it  was  given  out,  to 
render  the  king  odious  both  at  home  and  abroad,  that  the  king 
endeavoured  to  extinguish  the  light  of  the  gospel,  and  to  that 
end  had  caused  those  acts  to  pass  against  it :  that  he  had  left 
nothing  of  the  whole  form  of  justice  and  piety  in  the  spiritual 
estate  but  a  naked  shadow :  that  popery  was  immediately  to 
be  established,  if  God  and  all  good  men  came  not  in  to  help 
them  :  that  for  opposing  these  impieties  they  had  been  forced 
to  flee  their  country,  and  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a  strange 
landi." 

In  addition  to  this  proclamation,  James  found  it  necessary, 
or  political,  to  send  an  ambassador  to  the  court  of  Elizabeth 
to  remove  the  evil  impression  which  the  clamour  of  the  fugi- 
tive ministers  had  made  on  her  mind.  He  accordingly  selected 
Adamson,  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  for  this  delicate  mission, 
who  assured  the  queen  that  the  king  his  master  was  sincerely 
attached  to  the  reformed  church.     Elizabeth  expressed  her- 

1  Heyliu,  1.  v.  201,  202. 


1585.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  319 

self  highly  gratified  with  this  information,  and  recommended 
him  to  beep  constant  to  the  same  profession,  which  w^ould 
secm-e  and  preserve  her  friendship  ^ 

The  ministers  had  fled  to  Newcastle,  where  they  joined  the 
banished  lords,  with  whom  they  made  common  cause,  and  united 
with  them  hi  invading  the  kingdom  with  an  army  which  they 
collected  on  the  borders,  and  advanced  to  Stirling.  The  king 
lay  there  with  some  forces  which  he  had  hastily  collected  and 
placed  under  the  command  of  Sir  James  Haliburton  of  Pitt- 
curr ;  but  bloodshed  was  avoided  by  James's  wisdom  and 
merciful  disposition,  which  stood  in  bright  contrast  to  the  war- 
like and  pugnacious  conduct  of  the  presby  terian  ministers  who 
accompanied  the  rebels.  James  entered  into  treaty  with  the 
rebel  lords,  and  even  consented  to  restore  them  to  his  favour ; 
but  this  pacification  prepared  the  way  for  the  establishment 
of  presbytery,  which  has  always  succeeded  by  rebellion  and 
the  sword  in  the  face  of  Christ's  solemn  assurance,  that  His 
kingdom  is  not  of  this  world.  He  affected  no  human  glory  or 
temporal  power, but  renounced  them  all,  and  allowed  no  swords 
or  staves  to  be  used  in  the  hour  of  his  humiliation  and  suffer- 
ing :  hence  the  church's  place  is  to  suffer,  and  not  io  fight  for 
Christ,  as  the  disciple  is  not  above  his  master,  nor  the  servant 
above  his  lord.  But  presbytery  and  the  holy  discipline  have 
always  made  their  way  by  means  of  the  sword  and  of  resis- 
tance to  all  the  powers  that  be, — a  mark  which  no  time  or 
circumstances  seem  capable  of  effacing. 

Some  of  the  sincerer  sort  incited  one  Watson,  a  young 
preacher,  w^hom  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  had  placed 
in  Edinburgh  after  the  desertion  of  the  city  ministers,  to  in- 
sult the  prince  in  his  sermon,  for  which  he  was  committed  to 
Blackness.  James  Gibson,  minister  of  Pencaithland,  on  this, 
usurped  the  pulpit  lately  occupied  by  Watson,  and  declaimed 
with  extreme  violence  against  the  prince  and  some  courtiers, 
alleging  the  prince  was  a  persecutor,  "  on  whom  he  denounced 
the  curse  that  fell  on  Jeroboam,  that  he  should  die  childless, 
and  be  the  last  of  his  race."  This  presbyterian  worthy  was 
arraigned  before  the  privy  council,  where  he  not  merely  con- 
fessed his  denunciations,  but  gloried  in  them.  He  was  com- 
mitted also;  but  Watson  expressing  contrition,  was  dis- 
charged. 

When  bad  men  combine  and  conspire,  it  becomes  necessary 
for  good  men  to  unite  for  self-defence.  Elizabeth  very  justly 
conceived  that  she  was  theprincipalparty  aimedatby  the  holy 

I  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  338. 


320  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

LEAGUE  in  France,  entered  into  by  the  continental  princes  at 
the  instigation  of  the  pope.  She  therefore  despatched  Sir 
Thomas  Bodly  to  treat  with  the  king  of  Denmark  and  the 
protestant  princes  of  Germany ;  and  Sir  Edward  Wotton  to 
Scotland,  to  contract  a  league,  offensive  and  defensive,  against 
the  popish  members  of  the  holy  league.  James  entered  so 
heartily  into  her  views,  that  he  summoned  a  parliament  to 
meet  at  St.  Andrews,  to  whom,  "  in  a  long  and  pithy  speech," 
he  explained  the  danger  to  be  apprehended,  and  the  necessity 
for  union.  He  procured  an  act  to  be  passed,  pretty  unani- 
mously : — ^"  We,  &c.  understanding  that  divers  princes  who 
term  themselves  catholics,  have  joined,  under  the  pope's  au- 
thority, in  a  most  unchristian  confederacy  against  the  true 

religion with  full  intention  to  prosecute  their  wicked 

resolution,  not  only  within  their  own  estates  and  dominions, 
but  likewise  in  other  kingdoms and  in  divers  parts  be- 
gun to  be  executed  with  hard  and  cruel  effects  ;  and  consider- 
ing withal  how  it  hath  pleased  God  to  bless  this  realm  with 

the  sincerity  of  the  gospel we  have  thought  it  requisite 

not  only  to  unite  ourselves  ....  but  also,  for  withstanding  the 
dangerous  course  intended  against  all  the  professors  of  the 
truth,  we  have  judged  it  needful  that  a  general  league  and 
christian  confederacy  of  princes  and  states,  professing  the  true 
religion,  should  be  opposed  to  the  imgodly  confederacy  of  the 
enemies  thereof;  especially  that  the  two  crovs^is  of  Scotland 
and  England,  which  nature,  blood,  habitation,  and  the  profes- 
sion of  one  religion,  hath  joined,  may  be  inseparably  united  by 
a  firmer  and  stricter  league  than  hath  been  betwixt  any  princes 
their  progenitors  in  times  past."  The  act  goes  on  to  bind  the 
king  and  his  nobles,  by  their  most  solemn  oath,  to  assist  Eliza- 
beth with  all  the  military  resources  of  the  kingdom,  in  the 
event  of  her  being  attacked  by  any  of  the  princes  of  the  holy- 
league  ^ 

John  Spottiswood,  of  Spottiswood,  or  more  familiarly  of 
that  Ilk,  died  this  year,  on  the  5th  December,  in  the  76th  year 
of  his  age.  He  was  the  father  of  the  archbishop  and  histo- 
rian. His  father  was  killed  at  Flodden  Field,  standing  shoul- 
der to  shoulder  with  his  unfortunate  sovereign  James  IV.,  and 
he  was  left  an  orphan  at  the  early  age  of  four  years  old.  He 
took  the  degree  of  M.A.  at  Glasgow,  but  was  diverted  from 
his  intention  of  taking  holy  orders  by  the  persecution  which 
raged  so  violentl}'^  in  the  commencement  of  the  reformation. 
He  fled  to  England,  and  was  introduced  to  archbishop  Cran- 

'  Spottiswoood,  b.vi.  339-40. 


1585.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  321 

mer,  "  and  was  by  his  means  brought  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
truth,"  and  by  whom  he  was  ordained  priest.     After  some 
time,  he  was  presented  to  the  parsonage  of  Calder,  about 
twelve  miles  west  from  Edinburgh,  by  Sir  James  Sandilands. 
He  went  to  France,  in  company  with  the  lord  James,  at  the 
time  of  the  queen's  marriage  ;  and  when  the  reformation  be- 
gan to  assume  a  regular  form,  he  was  chosen  superintendent  or 
bishop  of  Lothian,  which  he  governed  wisely  for  twenty  years. 
"  His  care  in  teaching,  planting  of  churches,  reducing  people 
and  persons  of  all  sorts  into  the  right  way,  was  great,  and  so 
successful  as,  within  the  bounds  of  his  charge,  none  was  found 
refractory  from  the  religion  professed.     In  his  last  days,  after 
the  plots  for  presbyteries  were  formed,  and  when  he  saw  the 
ministers  take  such  liberty  as  they  did,  and  heard  of  the  dis- 
orders raised  in  the    church,  through   that   confused  parity 
which  men  laboured  to  introduce,  as  well  as  the  irritations  the 
king  received  by  a  sort  of  foolish  preachers,  he  lamented  ex- 
tremely the  case  of  the  church  to  those  that  came  to  visit  him. 
He  continually  foretold  that  the  ministers,  by  their  follies, 
would  bring  religion  in  hazard,  and,  as  he  feared,  provoke  the 
king  to  forsake  the  truth  ;  therefore  wished  some  to  be  placed 
in  authority  over  them,  to  keep  them  in  awe ;  for  the  doctrine, 
he  said,  we  profess  is  good,  but  the  old  policy  was  undoubt- 
edly the  belter;  God  is  my  witness,  I  lie  not^."     He  took, 
however,  a  most  decided  part  against  his  unfortunate  sove- 
reign Mary,  after  her  escape  from  Lochleven,  and  entered 
heartily  into  the  disloyal  views  of  the  kirk,  which  appointed 
a  fast  and  prayer  that  her  enterprise  might  come  to  nought. 
He  wrote  an  admonition  to  his  diocese,  in  which  he  joined  the 
general  hue  and  cry  against  her,  and  denounced  her  as  guilty 
of  all  the  enormous  crimes  of  which  her  enemies,  without  the 
slightest  proof,  laid  to  her  charge.     "  We  see,"  says  he,  "  a 
wicked  woman,  whose  iniquity  known,  and  lawfully  convict, 

deserved  more  than  ten  deaths,  escaped  from  prison : 

for  if  she  had  suffered  according  as  God's  law  commands  to 
murderers  and  adulterers  to  die  the  death,  the  wickedness 
taken  from  Israel,  the  plague  should  have  ceased ;  which  can- 
not but  remain  so  long  as  that  innocent  blood  traitorously  shed 
is  not  punished  ;  .  .  .  .  and  so  I  fear  not  to  affirm  that  the  re- 
servation of  that  wicked  woman,  against  God  and  the  voices 
of  his  servants,  is  the  first  and  principal  cause  external  which 
man  can  see  of  the  plague  and  murder  lately  begun."  These 
were  not  fit  sentiments  for  a  christian  bishop,  even  if  she  had 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  344. 
VOL.  I.  2  T 


322  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP,  VI IT. 

been  as  M'icked  as  her  enemies  falsely  said  she  was  ;  and  he 
concluded  his  letter  with  denouncing  the  pains  of  excommu- 
nication against  any  one  who  would  support  her  cause. 
"  The  tenor  of  the  letter  is,  indeed,  very  pithy  ;  but,  however, 
we  may  most  justly  observe,  that  whether  the  queen  was  guilty 
or  not  guilty  of  the  crime  laid  against  her,  yet  there  neither 
was  then  (so  far  as  we  can  see),  nor  has  been  to  this  day,  any 
proper  foundation  to  say  that  her  majesty  was  lawfully  con- 
victed thereof.  By  the  history  of  the  time,  and  the  acknow- 
ledgment of  this  letter,  it  would  seem  the  gi-eatest  number  of 
the  kingdom  thought  the  magistracy  not  lawful^" 

1586. — Actuated  by  a  spirit  of  revenge,  Andrew  Melville, 
on  his  own  authority,  called  a  number  of  barons,  gentlemen, 
and  ministers  together,  as  a  synod,  at  St.  Andrews,  and  ac- 
cused archbishop  Adamson  of  various  acts  subversive  of  the 
presbyterian  discipline  ;  but  especially  of  having  devised  and 
procured  the  passing  of  the  late  acts  of  parliament  in  1584, 
and  of  traducing  the  brethren  who  had  fled  to  England. 
James  Melville  attacked  the  archbishop  on  the  corruptions  of 
the  human  and  satanical  bishops,  saying,  "  that  Adamson  be- 
ing a  minister  in  the  kirk,  the  dragon  had  so  stung  him  with 
the  venom  of  avarice  and  ambition,  that,  swelling  exorbi- 
tantly, he  threatened  the  destruction  of  the  whole  body,  were 
he  not  immediately  and  courageously  cut  off",  and  exhorted  the 
synod  to  play  the  chirurgeon  boldly."'  Adamson  made  a 
powerful  defence,  and  said  that  the  statutes  were  not  of  his  de- 
vising ;  but  when  proposed  in  parliament,  he  gave  his  opinion 
that  they  were  good  and  lawful  acts.  They  alleged  that  the 
second  act  was  a  ratification  of  the  episcopal  jurisdiction, 
inasmuch  as  it  ordained  the  dignity  and  authority  of  the 
three  estates  to  stand  unaltered,  according  to  the  ancient  cus- 
tom of  the  realm.  Adamson  replied  to  this,  "  That  the 
bishops  were  not  by  themselves  an  estate,  but  they  represented 
in  a  part  the  estate  of  the  church,  which  was  ever  reputed  the 
first  estate  of  the  realm  since  the  kingdom  became  christian  ; 
and  that  in  the  act  alleged  no  jurisdiction  was  established'; 
howbeit,  for  the  episcopal  power  there  was  enough  to  be  said, 
if  the  time  and  place  were  fitting."  He  reminded  them  that 
they  were  not  his  judges;  but  perceiving  their  determination 
to  proceed,  he  very  properly  declined  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
court,  and  appealed  to  the  prince  against  any  sentence  they 
might  pass  on  him.  Nevertheless,  the  synod  immediately, 
and  without  any  other  form  of  trial,  passed  sentence  of  ex- 

'  Keith's  History,  pp.  491,  492. 


1586.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  323 

communication  on  the  archbishop,  in  his  absence.  But,  in 
denouncing  this  sentence,  which  ought  never  to  be  lightly 
passed,  and  certainly  never  in  order  to  gratify  the  passions  of 
malice  and  revenge,  by  which  the  synod  was  evidently  actu- 
ated, their  courage  failed  them,  and  no  one  had  the  hardihood 
to  pronounce  the  words.  The  synod  were  about  to  separate  in 
dismay,  when  a  young  fellow  (Andrew  Hunter),  a  student,  and 
one  ©f  the  spectators,  starting  up,  asserted,  that  he  was  moved 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  io  denounce  the  anathema  of  the  synod 
against  the  archbishop,  and  which  he  did  accordingly.  James 
was  obliged  to  temporise  with  these  factious  demagogues; 
and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  archbishop  himself,  for  the 
sake  of  peace,  submitted  to  the  synod.  Yet  this  gross  dere- 
liction of  his  duty  did  not  assuage  the  rage  and  malice  of  his 
presbyterian  enemies,  who  peremptorily  urged  the  justice  of 
their  sentence,  which  handed  over  their  spiritual  father  to  the 
dominion  of  Satan  and  the  pains  of  hell.  This  indecent  and 
micharitable  transaction  was  the  next  day  retorted  by  one  of 
the  archbishop's  relations,  Mr.  Samuel  Cunningham,  who  en- 
tered the  reader's  desk,  and  read  the  same  form  of  excommu- 
nication against  the  two  Melvilles  and  Hunter  i. 

These  transactions  forcibly  exhibit  the  uncharitable  feelings 
of  the  age,  and  how  little  the  ministers  were  influenced  by  the 
spirit  of  the  gospel,  when  excommunications  were  more  fre- 
quently and  vexatiously  employed,  by  men  of  all  parties,  against 
each  other,  than  ever  the  Roman  pontiff  in  the  plenitude  of  his 
power  had  exercised.  Neither  the  prince's  temporising,  nor 
the  archbishop's  submission,  satisfied  the  presbyterian  party. 
They  protested  against  any  relaxation  of  the  sentence  pro- 
nounced on  the  archbishop,  and  contended  that  he  ought 
still  to  be  esteemed  as  one  justly  delivered  to  Satan,  till  his 
conversion  was  seen  to  be  true  and  effectual,  or,  in  other  words, 
till  he  should  denude  himself  of  his  episcojDal  office,  and  ac- 
knowledge his  inferiors  to  be  his  superiors,  which  was  in  truth 
their  object, — to  vex  and  weary  out  the  titular  bishops,  and  in 
the  end  to  exclude  them  entirely  from  the  church.  The  whole 
of  t"heir  new  system  was  to  reverse  the  order  of  God's  institu- 
tion. The  party  carried  their  malignity  so  far  as  to  propose  to 
excommunicate  all  the  old  loyal  episcopal  ministers,  who  had 
dutifully  subscribed  and  obeyed  the  late  acts  of  parliament, 
for  curbing  the  licentiousness  of  the  presbyterian  ministers ; 
but  the  number  of  the  episcopalians  was  discovered  to  be  so 
great,  that  they  were  obliged  to  withdraw  the  motion,  lest  it 

'  Calderwood,  199. — Spottiswood,   b.  vi.  345. 


324  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VllI, 

should  have  caused  an  irreconcilable  schism,  and  have  shewn 
the  smallness  of  their  own  number.  Nevertheless,  the  proposal 
was  a  powerful  evidence  of  the  malignancy  of  their  disposition, 
and  of  their  having  succeeded  in  overturning  the  established 
titular  episcopacy  by  unfair  means  and  by  unceasing  agitation. 
So  intolerably  pragmatic  had  "  the  sincerer  sort"  become 
(by  which  term  Calderwood  always  designates  the  most  fiery 
and  intractable  of  the  ministers),  that  James  was  com- 
pelled, on  Sunday,  the  2d  of  January,  "  to  rebuke  Walter 
Balcanquhal  publicly,  after  sermon  in  the  great  kirk,  and  said 
he  would  prove  that  there  should  be  bishops  and  spiritual 
magistrates  endued  with  authority  over  ministers  ;  and  that  he 
(Balcanquhal)  had  not  done  his  duty  in  condemning  that 
which  he  had  done  in  parliament.  Mr.  Walter  undertook  to 
prove  the  contrary  ^"  Their  refiractory  and  turbulent  conduct, 
not  only  collectively  in  their  courts,  but  individually  in  their 
capacities  of  parish  ministers,  so  perplexed  the  prince,  and 
impeded  the  government,  that  the  lord  chancellor  advised  him 
to  leave  them  to  their  own  devices,  "  for,"  said  he,  "  in  a 
short  time  they  would  become  so  intolerable,  that  the  people 
would  chase  them  forth  of  the  country."  The  prince  replied, 
"  True  ;  if  I  were  purposed  to  undo  the  church  and  religion, 
I  should  esteem  your  counsel  good,  but  my  mind  is  to  main- 
tain both ;  therefore  can  I  not  suffer  them  to  run  into  these 
disorders  that  will  make  religion  to  be  despised  2."  Here  is  a 
wise  and  prudent  resolution  in  a  young  man  not  yet  twenty 
years  of  age;  and  marks,  in  strong  contrast,  the  paternal  feel- 
ings of  the  royal  breast,  with  that  diabolical  spirit  in  the  pres- 
byterian  party,  which  impeded  his  whole  government,  and 
which  a  respectable  presbyterian  author  of  the  present  day 
says,  "  exerted  in  Scotland  the  malignant  influence  that  might 
have  been  anticipated  fi-om  it— which  extinguished  the  feel- 
ings and  hardened  the  hearts  of  those  who  gloried  in  support- 
ing it, — which  spread  all  the  rancour  of  exasperated  bigotry 
throughout  the  community,  and  gave  rise  to  scenes  of  intole- 
rance and  persecution, irom  which  every  humane  and  christian 
spirit  must  shrink  with  the  strongest  disapprobation  3." 

In  the  Assembly,  which  had  met  in  May,  more  "  plots  for 
presbyteries"  were  made,  and  alterations  made  in  those  already 
planned.  Calderwood,  who  is  a  champion  in  that  cause,  says, 
"  The  reader  is  here  to  be  advertised,  that  presbyteries  were 
erected  before  the  breach  made  in  the  kirk,  anno  1584  ;  and 

»  Calderwood,  197.  ^  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  347. 

3  Cook's  Hist,  of  Ch.  of  Scotland. 


1587.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  325 

that  now  they  are  restored,  and  a  new  plot  of  kirks  to  be 
united  in  presbyteries,  somewhat  different  from  the  former^ 
is  devised^."  It  would  therefore  appear  that  the  presbyterian 
discipline  was  not  reduced  to  shape  all  at  once,  but  various  plans 
had  been  tried  and  rejected  before  the  system  of  the  present 
day  was  adopted.  James  gained  an  advantage  in  this  Assem- 
bly, by  getting  them  to  submit  quietly  to  his  prerogative  of 
calling  all  the  subsequent  General  Assemblies  ;  and  he  deter- 
mined that  in  future  they  should  meet  only  once  a  year.  He 
likewise  managed  to  extort  from  them  their  acceptance  of 
bishops  under  certain  limitations,  and  whose  power  was  to  be 
in  ordinis  causa,  non  jurisdictionis.  Archbishop  Adamson's  ap- 
peal to  the  king  was  so  far  successful,  that  James  compelled  the 
Assembly  to  remove  the  sentence  of  excommunication ;  but 
not  without  a  vigorous  protest  from  Hunter,  the  adventurous 
youth  who  pronounced  it,  and  his  supporter,  Andrew  Mel- 
ville 2. 

1587.  —  Ecclesiastical  aflfairs  were  proceeding  in  their 
usual  disorderly  and  turbulent  manner  when  the  news  of  his 
mother's  intended  murder  suddenly  reached  James,  and  which 
is  elsewhere  narrated  3,  by  which  he  was  placed  in  a  most 
diflBcult  position.  To  have  attempted  her  rescue  by  military 
operations  would  have  been  madness ;  and  all  his  negotiations 
were  foiled  by  the  treachery  and  corruption  of  his  ambassadors, 
who  yielded  to  the  influence  of  Elizabetli's  gold.  With  a 
heroism  worthy  of  all  praise,  Mary  never  would  sell  her 
birthright  (which  the  apostle  calls  "  profaneness"),  by  abdi- 
cating the  throne  of  Scotland,  or  sinking  her  claim  of  suc- 
cession to  that  of  England ;  for  although,  by  violence  and 
usurpation,  she  had  been  unjustly  deprived  of  it,  yet  her 
right  remained  undiminished.  James  was  now,  therefore, 
by  his  mother's  martyrdom,  and  by  just  and  lineal  right  ol 
succession,  the  undoubted  sovereign.  He  had  just  completed 
his  twenty -first  year,  and  he  summoned  what,  in  reality,  was  his 
first  parliament.  He  signalized  his  majority  by  entertaining 
his  whole  nobility  at  Holyrood  House,  and  reconciling  them  to 
each  other,  in  order  to  remove  those  deadly  feuds  which  dis- 
tracted the  kingdom  with  intestine  wars  and  bloodshed. — "  On 
the  loth  day  of  May  this  year,  the  king,  being  at  Holyrood 
House,  convened  his  whole  nobility  that  had  any  quarrel  one 
at  another,  where  he  solemnly  composed  all  their  differences, 
and,  in  his  presence,  made  them  embrace  one  another,  and 
drink  together;  and  to  that  end,  that  the  whole  realm  might 

'  CalderwcK)d,  206.  =  Ibid.  206,  211.  =<  Pose  chap.  ix. 


326  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

take  the  better  notion  that  this  was  his  majesty's  own  proper 
work,  he  caused  them  to  walk  two  and  two,  in  each  other's 
hands,  from  Holyrood  palace  to  the  cross  of  Edinburgh,  and 
the  king  himself  with  them,  where  they  sat  themselves  down 
at  a  long  table  to  a  banquet  prepared  for  them  by  the  city  ;  at 
which  there  were  solemn  expressions  of  joy  and  reconciliation, 
with  mutual  embraces  of  one  another ;  and  his  majesty,  to 
crown  that  day's  work,  drank  to  them  all  peace  and  happiness. 
This  reconciliation  of  the  nobility  and  divers  of  the  gentry 
was  the  greatest  work  and  happiest  game  the  king  had  played 
in  all  his  reign  hitherto  i." 

The  king,  by  royal  proclamation,  called  an  Assembly  on 
the  20th  of  June, — Andrew  Melville  was  chosen  moderator. 
It  was  the  king's  intention  to  have  settled  all  disputes  with 
this  factious  body ;  but  he  found  it  was  an  easier  matter  to 
compose  the  feuds  of  his  nobility,  than  to  produce  a  christian 
feeling  among  the  ministers,  and  all  his  abilities  and  address 
failed  to  establish  any  sympathy  betwixt  himself  and  the  godly 
brethren.  They  maintained  a  constant  running  fight  against 
the  lawful  authority  of  the  king  and  of  the  titular  bishops ;  against 
the  latter  they  thundered  their  impotent  anathemas  and  excom- 
munications, with  greater  wantonness  and  injustice  than  the 
pope,  in  the  utmost  plenitude  of  his  power,  had  ever  attempted. 
The  chancellor  and  justice-clerk  were  sent  by  the  king  to  de- 
sire satisfaction  of  the  Assembly  for  the  insults  offered  to  him  by 
James  Gibson  and  John  Cooper ;  and,  also,  that  their  sentence 
of  excommunication  should  be  removed  fi'om  Montgomery, 
archbishop  of  Glasgow,  All  which  the  godly  brethren  re- 
fused, except  on  such  conditions  as  were  insulting  to  the 
royal  authority  to  grant,  viz. — an  unlimited  promise  to  grant 
whatever  petitions  they  should  prefer  to  the  ensuing  parliainent; 
to  which,  if  his  majesty  would  agree,  "  they  would  labour  to 
bring  matters  to  such  a  middest,  as  might  best  agree  with  the 
honour  of  the  ministry,  satisfy  the  offence  of  the  godly,  and  the 
consciences  of  their  brethren  2."  This  extraordinary  answer 
incensed  theking;  but  he  became  much  more  indignant  at  their 
refusal  to  elect  Robert  Pont  to  the  bishopric  of  Caithness,  to 
which  he  had  appointed  him  on  the  death  of  his  uncle,  the 
earl  of  March,  the  former  titular  bishop.  Tiiey  bluntly  told 
the  king,  "  that  divers  Assemblies  had  damned  the  estate  of 
bishops ;"  and,  therefore,  they  not  only  refused  to  elect  Pont, 
but  peremptorily  prohibited  him  from  accepting  the  bishopric. 
This  see  accordingly  remained  void  until  the  Assembly  of 

'  EalfourV.  Ann.  i.  384-85.  "  Spottis.  b.  vi.  361.— Caldsr.  215-16. 


1587.]  CHUKCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  327 

1600  agreed  tliat  a  certain  number  of  ministers  should  sit  and 
vote  in  parliament  ^ 

The  thunders  of  the  Assembly,  and  the  exactions  of  the  duke 
of  Lennox's  agents,  who  had  possessed  themselves  of  the 
temporalities  of  the  archbishopric,  reduced  Montgomery  to 
such  necessity,  that  he  resigned  the  see  of  Glasgow  in  favour 
of  William  Erskine,  a  mere  layman,  who  had  not  even  the  mock 
orders  which  could  be  given  by  the  godly  brethren  at  that  time. 
Erskine  had  been  for  some  time  the  settled  minister  of  Campsie, 
and  no  challenge  was  ever  made  to  his  being  a  layman.  This 
laic  contrived,  notwithstanding  the  opposition  made  by  the 
godly,  to  keep  possession  of  the  see,  till  the  king,  wearied  with 
their  continual  brails,  re-appointed  James  Beaton,  the  former 
Roman  Catholic  aixhbishop,  who  enjoyed  the  see  till  his  death 
in  1603.  He  had  been  the  late  queen's  ambassador  at  the 
court  of  France  2. 

To  maintain  their  determined  hostility  to  the  order  of 
bishops,  this  Assembly  appointed  David  Lindsay  and  Robert 
Pont,  in  name  of  the  kirk,  to  demand  of  the  parliament,  "  that 
the  prelates  should  be  removed,  as  having  no  authority  from 
the  church,  and  most  of  them  neither  function  nor  charge  in 
it  whatever."  The  abbot  of  Kinloss  entered  into  a  long  and 
spirited  defence  of  the  right  of  the  spiritual  estate  to  sit  in 
parliament;  and  complained  "  that  the  ministers  had,  in  a  most 
unjustifiable  manner,  shut  them  forth  of  their  places  in  the 
church,  and  now  attempted  to  exclude  them  from  their  lawful 
places  in  the  estate,  which  he  hoped  his  majesty  would  not 
suffer ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  would  punish  the  petitioners  for 
their  presumptuous  arrogance."  After  a  keen  encounter  of  their 
tongues,  the  petition  was  rejected.  Some  other  petitions,  how- 
ever, were  received,  viz.  for  the  ratification  of  all  the  laws 
made  during  the  king's  minority  in  favour  of  the  Church — for 
trying  and  censuring  the  adversaries  of  true  religion — and  for 
the  punishment  of  such  as  did  menace  or  invade  the  ministers 
of  the  church^. 

In  the  parliament,  which  met  this  year,  the  temporalities  of 
the  bishoprics  were  annexed  to  the  crown,  under  pretext  of 
bettering  its  revenues,  and  relieving  the  subjects  from  support- 
ing the  expenses  of  the  government.  These  hollow  pretexts, 
and  alleging  that  the  reservation  of  the  prelates'  houses  and 
precincts,  with  the  tithes  of  the  churches  annexed  to  their  be- 
nefices, would  be  amply  sufficient  to  maintain  their  place  and 

1  Keith's  Cat.  217.  ^  jbij,  262,  ^  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  365. 


C23  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

dignity,  imposed  on  the  king  ^ ;  but  the  real  motive  which  ac- 
tuated those  with  whom  this  spoUation  originated,  and  which 
they  explained  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  godly  part  of  the  mi- 
nistiy,  was,  "  that  this  was  the  only  way  to  undo  the  prelacy ; 
for  there  being  no  livings  to  maintain  them,  none  would  be 
found  to  accept  of  bishoprics  2 ;"  and  Calderwood  confesses 
"  that  by  this  means  they  thought  they  should  be  no  more 
troubled  with  bishops 3."  To  deceive  both  the  "  godly"  and 
the  simple  and  honest  ministers,  hopes  were  raised  that  the 
tithes  should  be  employed  at  their  pleasure.  But  both  the 
king  and  the  ministers  were  soon  undeceived,  for  parliament 
next  confirmed  the  grants  of  those  church  lands  that  had  for- 
merly been  bestowed  on,  or  which  had  been  seized  by,  the 
nobility.  The  priors  and  abbots,  at  the  Reformation,  secured 
the  lands  belonging  to  their  convents  by  procuring  temporal 
lordships,  and  that  which  was  now  annexed  had  been  begged 
from  the  crown;  so  that  the  church,  by  these  public  rob- 
beries, was  completely  plundered  and  impoverished.  The  godly 
brethren  themselves  began  to  see  the  horrible  wickedness  of 
this  act ;  and,  when  too  late,  they  raised  a  furious  clamour  when 
they  discovered  the  real  selfish  motive,  although  they  had  cor- 
dially assented  when  blinded  with  the  flattering  unction  of  the 
extirpation  of  the  bishops.  The  king  strongly  recommended, 
in  his  Basilicon  Doron,  to  his  son  and  successor  to  rescind  "  this 
vile  pernicious  act,"  as  he  called  it ;  and  the  attempt  was  one 
of  the  chief  causes  of  the  rebellion  in  King  Charles's  reign. 

A  multitude  of  seminary  priests  and  Jesuits  from  the  con- 
tinent stole  into  the  kingdom,  for  the  purpose  of  intriguing 
with  the  popish  lords  regarding  their  assisting  the  Spanish 
Armada,  which,  about  this  time,  threatened  England  with 
invasion.  "  The  rumour,"  says  Calderwood,  "  being  blazed 
abroad,  fervent  were  the  prayers  of  the  godly — powerful  and 
piercing  were  the  sermons  of  preachers,  especially  in  the  time 
of  fast."  These  emissaries  proposed  to  James  to  unite  his 
forces  with  the  Spaniards,  and,  by  invading  England  on  the 
Scottish  border,  to  make  a  diversion  in  their  favour,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  gratify  his  own  feelings  of  revenge  for  his  mother's 
murder ;  promising,  also,  to  bestow  on  him  the  kingdom  of 
England  as  a  reward  for  his  alliance.  James's  sagacity  led 
him  to  apprehend  danger  to  his  own  kingdom ;  and  he  had 
the  good  sense  to  see  the  improbability  of  the  Spaniards  con- 
quering a  kingdom  to  bestow  on  him,  which,  in  the  course  of 

>  Balfour's  Ann.  i.  355.  =  Spottis.b.  vi.  365.         ^  True  History,  p.  218. 


1588.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  329 

nature,  would  descend  to  him  in  right  of  succession.  He  there- 
fore issued  a  proclamation  against  all  priests,  Jesuits,  and  their 
abettors,  and  gave  authority  to  apprehend  and  imprison  their 
persons.  This  wise  precaution,  however,  was  far  from  giving 
satisfaction  to  the  godly,  who  generally  were  disposed  to  exe- 
cute more  summary  and  energetic  measures  of  punishment. 
As  usual,  they  most  uncharitably  represented  the  king's  pro- 
clamation as  a  sure  indication  of  his  attachment  to  popery. 
James  Gibson,  one  of  the  city  ministers,  even  denounced  the 
king,  from  the  pulpit,  as  a  papist  and  a  persecutor,  and  prophe- 
sied that  he  should  be  the  last  of  his  race.  This  intemperate 
language  attracted  the  notice  of  government;  and  the  preacher 
was  summoned  before  the  privy  council.  He  acknowledged 
his  offence,  and  was  sentenced  to  the  mild  punishment  of  pro- 
nouncing from  the  pulpit,  in  his  next  sermon,  that  he  had 
spoken  and  rashly  unadvisedly.  This  he  promised  to  do ;  but, 
at  the  proper  time,  he  entirely  omitted  the  apology  :  and  when 
ch  dlenged  by  the  lord  chancellor  for  contempt  of  the  sentence 
of  the  privy  council,  he  coolly  replied,  "  that  out  of  infirmity 
and  weakness  he  had  confessed  a  fault,  albeit  his  conscience 
did  tell  him  he  had  not  spoken  any  thing  that  might  give  just 
offence."  The  chancellor  perceiving  that  this  godly  fire- 
brand had  been  tampered  with,  comi)lained  to  the  Assembly, 
and  demanded  its  judgment.  That  loyalhody  at  first  declined 
to  interfere,  but,  being  urged,  they  cited  Gibson ;  who  refusing 
to  appear  at  their  bar,  the  Assembly  took  up  the  matter  on 
an  entirely  different  ground.  He  had  now  off'ended  the  godly, 
and  had  dared  to  be  contumacious ;  and,  there  fore,  for  contempt 
of  their  own  court,  but  without  any  reference  to  the  lord  chan- 
cellor's complaint,  they  suspended  him  during  pleasure.  The 
next  Assembly,  in  August,  removed  his  suspension,without  con- 
sulting the  king's  pleasure ;  which  so  exasperated  James,  that 
he  intended  to  lake  cognizance  of  Gibson  in  the  civil  court. 
That  worthy,  however,  retired  to  England,  where  he  was  en- 
tertained by  the  puritan  brethren,  "  who  were,  even  at  that 
time,  labouring  to  introduce  '  the  holy  discipline,'  as  it  was 
called,  into  the  Church  of  England  ^" 

1588. — The  alarm  created  in  the  kirk  by  the  resort  of  the 
iesuits  and  the  threatened  Spanish  invasion,  induced  the 
ministers  to  meet  in  an  extraordinary  Assembly  in  Edinburgh 
on  the  6th  of  February,  for  advising  the  government  in  the 
present  emergency,  "  touching  the  dangers  threatened  to  reli- 
gion and  the  readiest  means  for  quenching  the  fire  of  papistry." 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi    367. 
VOL.  I.  2  u 


330  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  VIII. 

They  chose  Robert  Bruce  to  be  moderator,  a  fiery,  pragmatical 
man,  who  had  begun  to  preach  about  a  year  before  witliout  any 
public  call  or  ordination  to  the  ministry,  which  shows  the  rapid 
downward  course  of  the  "  holy  discipline."  He  studied  his 
theology  under  Melville,  and  being  found  meet  for  his  pur- 
poses, was  by  him  urged  to  commence  preacher  in  this  irre- 
gular way,  "  and  was  from  that  time  forth  a  chief  actor  in  the 
affairs  of  the  kirk,  and  a  constant  maintainer  of  the  established 
discipline  ^"  This  Assembly,  which,  having  been  convocated 
without  the  king's  knowledge  or  consent,  was  illegal,  adopted 
the  following  resolutions: — 1.  That  the  laws  of  the  country 
should  be  prosecuted  against  Jesuits,  seminary  priests,  idolaters, 

and  the  maintainers  thereof 2.  That  in  regard  of  the 

danger  so  imminent,  his  majesty  and  council  to  proceed  in  ex- 
ecution of  the  laws  against  the  principal  Jesuits  and  their 
maintainers  without  delay.  3.  That  the  noblemen,  barons, 
ministers,  and  whole  Assembly,  should  go  together  to  his  ma- 
jesty and  regret  the  peril  whereunto  the  church  and  kingdom 
was  brought  by  the  practises  of  Jesuits,  making  offer  of  their 
lives,  lands,  goods,  and  gear,  to  be  employed  at  his  majesty's 
direction  for  preventing  their  wicked  devices 2."  They  ap- 
pointed two  o'clock  that  afternoon  to  go  in  a  body  to  Holyrood 
House  ;  but  James  hearing  of  their  intentions,  "  grew  into  a 
choler,  and  said '  they  meant  to  boast  (menace)  him  with  their 
power,  and  force  the  execution  of  their  demands :' "  and  he  there- 
fore refused  to  receive  so  great  a  multitude,  but  agreed  to  give 
audience  to  a  few  deputies  of  their  body.  The  king  was 
obliged  to  shut  his  eyes  to  this  insult,  and  also  to  the  illegality 
of  their  assembling  together,  to  acknowledge  the  justice  of  their 
complaints,  and  to  promise  redress  at  a  convenient  season.  A 
deputation  of  the  Assembly  went  to  Holyrood  House  the  fol- 
lowing day,  and  desired  that  Gordon  and  Crichton,  two  Jesuits, 
should  be  apprehended  ;  and  that  those  noblemen,  who  har- 
boured them,  should  be  punished  according  to  law.  The  king 
promised  to  arrest  the  Jesuits ;  but  he  intended  to  pursue  a 
calmer  and  more  respectful  course  with  the  noblemen.  This 
drew  the  king  into  collision  with  the  lords  Maxwell  and  Heries, 
who  had  set  up  the  mass  at  Dumfries,  and  had  driven  the 
minister  out  of  the  town^. 

James  took  measures  for  assisting  Elizabeth  against  the  in- 
vincible armada.  But  by  the  good  providence  of  God  it  was 
completely  destroyed,  and  the  cruel  designs  of  the  Romanists 

^  Calderwood,  p.  218.  ^   Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  366-7. 

**  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  367. — Hcylin,  lib.  viii.  p.  294. 


1588.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  331 

were  entirely  crushed^  Parliament  met  in  July,  and  enacted, 
"  That  professed  and  avowed  Jesuits  and  seminary  priests, 
found  in  any  part  of  the  realm,  should  be  taken,  apprehended, 
called,  pursued,  and  incur  the  pains  of  death,  and  confiscation 
of  their  moveable  property  ;  and  whosoever  should  wittingly 
and  willingly  receive  or  supply  them,  for  the  space  of  three 
days  and  nights,  should  forfeit  their  life-rents  ^"  A  band  was 
also  entered  into,  and  subscribed  by  the  king  and  his  parlia- 
ment, to  maintain  the  established  religion,  which  now  in  all  the 
three  kingdoms  was  threatened  and  in  the  most  imminent 
danger,  "  as  well  by  foreign  preparations  for  prosecution  of 
that  detestable  conspiracy  against  Christ  and  the  evangel,  called 
the  Holy  League." 

The  General  Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh  on  the  6th  of 
August,  and  enacted,  "  That,  in  time  coming,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  every  General  Assembly,  the  first  day  of  meeting 
shall  be  observed  as  a  fast ;"  and  the  following  Thursday  and 
Sunday  were  apjjointed  to  be  kept  as  fast-days.  The  king 
had  bestowed  his  cousin,  the  sister  of  the  late  duke  of  Lennox, 
on  the  earl  of  Huntly  ;  but  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh  re- 
fused to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony  unless  he  would  pre- 
viously sign  tlie  Confession  of  Faith.  They  inhibited  all 
others  from  officiating  also,  but  in  particular  archbishop  Adam- 
son;  who,  nevertheless,  manied  the  parties  on  the  21st  of  July, 
and  without  requiring  them  to  sign  the  Confession.  The  As- 
sembly then  cited  Adamson  to  appear  at  their  bar,  but  he  treated 
their  citation  with  contempt.  That  meeting,  therefore,  gave 
a  commission  to  the  presbytery  of  Edinburgh  to  proceed  against 
him  in  their  own  court,  "  and  to  give  sentence  as  the  Assembly 
itself  might  do,  according  to  good  order  and  the  discipline  of 
the  kirk."  The  presbytery  accordingly  deprived  him  of  all  office 
and  function  in  the  kirk,  and  the  following  Assembly  ratified 
and  confirmed  their  sentence,  which  they  directed  "to  be  pub- 
lished in  all  the  churches  of  the  kingdom,  only  to  make  the 
bishop  hateful  and  contemptible.''''  This  Assembly  also  silenced 
the  notorious  Gibson,  on  his  accusation  of  contumacy ;  but  took 
no  notice  of  the  charge  preferred  against  him  by  the  king, 
whom  he  had  basely  libelled  irom  the  pulpit ;  and  a  fast  was 
appointed  to  be  kept  in  October  on  three  successive  Sundays. 
This  custom  of  fasting  on  Sundays  is  borrowed  from  the 
Church  of  Rome,  and  was  improved  on  by  the  godly  ministers  ; 
for  most  of  their  fasts  were  appointed  on  that  weekly  festival. 
In  memory  of  our  Saviour's  resurrection,  the  first  day  of  the 

»  Calderwood,  p.  221. 


332  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CIIAP.  Vi:i. 

week  has  ever  been  esteemed  a  festival  by  the  universal  church ; 
and  to  appoint  a  fast  on  that  day  of  rejoicing  is  to  do  despite 
to  the  Lord  that  bought  them  ;  and,  in  fact,  it  is  a  virtual  de- 
nial of  his  resurrection  and  of  our  justification. 

1589. — The  influx  of  Jesuits  still  continued  to  alarm  the 
brethren,   after  all   danger  from    the   Spanish  invasion   had 
ceased,  notwithstanding  "  their  powerful  and  piercing"  appeals 
to  rouse  the  passions  of  the  mob  against  them.    The  most  vigi- 
lant of  the  ministers  assembled  in  Edinburgh,  and  petitioned 
the  king  and  council  for  "  preventing  the  dangers  threatened 
to  the  professors  of  the  true  religion  within  the  realm,  that 
commissioners  be  directed  to   some  special   persons  of  his 
highness's  council,  to  search,  seek,  apprehend,  and  present  to 
justice,  all  Jesuits  and  other  private  and  public  seducci's  of  his 
highness's  lieges, — and  seeing  the  special  occasions  of  the  sus- 
picions of  his  highness's  sincerity  to  the  truth,  under  whose 
wings  all  Jesuits  and  others  devoted  to  the  superstitious  reli- 
gion of  Rome  find  shelter,  they  required  that  proclamations 
might  immediately  be  issued,  to  the  confusion  of  the  papists 
and  their  patrons,  and  the  comfort  of  the  godly,  offended  in 
times  past  with  the  oversight  and  long  toleration  of  them."  The 
malicious  suspicions  of  the  brethren  were  so   strong  of  the 
king's   secret  inclinations  towards  popery,  to  the  contrary  of 
which  he  had  given  them  many  undeniable  proofs,  that  they 
never  ceased  to  importune  his  majesty  to  assure  his  subjects  by 
proclamation  of  his  zeal  and  care  to  root  it  out  of  the  king- 
dom ;  and,  now  that  he  had  arrived  at  mature  age,  "  that  he 
would  again  subscribe  to  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  renew 
the  charge  given  in  his  minority  to  all  his  subjects."     With 
all  this  the  good-natured  king  complied,  in  order,  if  it  were 
possible,  to  remove  the  unfounded  clamours  that  these  godly 
brethren,  with  a  most  mischievous  tendency  and  effect,  had 
raised  and  propagated,  of  his  secret  attachment  to  the  Church 
of  Rome.     Accordingly,  the  king,  with  his  whole  council  and 
household,  subscribed  the  band  or  national  covenant  ^.     These 
covenants  have  been  a  worse  evil  than  the  opening  of  Pandora's 
box  :  instead  of  a  bond  of  unity,  they  have  been  the  cause 
of  disunion  and  discord.     We  have  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
and  if  we  will  not  hear  them,  it  will  not  be  all  the  bands, 
covenants,  and  solemn  leagues  twice  told,  that  ever  were  signed, 
sworn  to,  or  ratified,  from  Dan  to  Beersheba,  that  will  keep 
men  to  their  duty.     The  woi-d  of  God  is  all-sufhcient,  and 
piercing  as  a  two-edged  sword,  and  it  is  sufficient  for  doctrine 

'   Calilerwootl. 


1589.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  333 

and  reproof;  and  to  put  faith  in  bands  and  covenants,  is  a 
departing  from  God's  holy  word,  decidedly  taking  man  for  a 
defence,  and  in  heart  going  from  the  Lord. 

It  cannot  be  denied,  says  Heylin,  that  James  most  heartily 
despised  this  covenant ;  for  he  alleged  at  the  Hampton  Court 
conference,  "  that  Mr.  Craig  (the  compiler),  with  his  renounc- 
ings  and  abhorrings,  his  detestations  and  ab renunciations, 
did  so  amaze  the  simple  people,  that  few  of  them  being  able 
to  remember  all  the  particulars,  some  took  occasion  thereby 
to  fall  back  to  popery,  and  others  to  remain  in  their  former 
ignorance ;  so  that  if  he  had  been  bound  to  that  form  of 
Craig's,  the  confession  of  his  faith  must  have  been  in  his 
table-book,  and  not  in  his  head !  ^"  The  Apostles'  Creed  has 
been  the  confession  of  the  faith  of  the  universal  church,  from 
the  days  of  the  apostles  to  the  present  time.  It  requires  no 
table-book  to  help  the  memory :  every  man  should  carry  it  both 
in  his  head,  and  in  his  heart.  But  the  Melvillian  kirk  and 
the  Westminster  brethren  laid  aside  this  ancient  confession  as 
a  papistical  charm,  and  the  latter  merely  inserted  it  as  a 
postscript  into  their  catechism :  it  had  become  "  an  old  al- 
manac," unworthy  of  the  modern  improvements  of  the  Geneva 
school.  At  their  first  entering  into  this  band,  the  godly  bre- 
thren, as  they  called  themselves,  grew  so  audaciously  insolent, 
that  the  king  could  by  no  means  bring  them  to  reason.  They 
interfered  in  all  the  affairs  of  his  government,  and  most  perti- 
naciously encroached  on  the  royal  prerogative,  defamed  the 
government,  and  insulted  his  person  with  the  most  virulent 
personal  abuse. 

The  Assembly  met  in  June,  and  was  honoured  with  the 
king's  presence.  He  desired  them  to  confirm  the  appoint- 
ment of  Patrick  Galloway,  the  minister  of  Perth,  to  be  one 
of  his  chaplains,  to  which  the  Assembly  unanimously  agreed, 
on  account  of  the  king's  zeal  in  suppressing  the  attempts  of 
the  Popish  lords,  and  his  vigilance  against  the  Jesuits.  Dur- 
ing this  short  harmony  which  existed  betwixt  James  and  the 
Assembly,  he  required  the  brethren  to  subscribe  the  following 
articles: — "  1.  That  the  preachers  should  yield  due  obedience 
to  the  king's  majesty.  2.  That  they  should  not  pretend  to  any 
jirivilege  in  their  allegiance.  3.  That  they  should  not  meddle 
in  matters  of  state.  4.  That  they  should  not  publicly  revile 
his  majesty.  5.  That  they  should  not  draw  the  people  from 
their  obedience  to  the  king.  6.  That  when  they  are  accused 
for  their  factious  speeches,  or  for  refusing  to  do  any  thing, 

-  Heylin's  History  of  the  Presbyterians. 


334  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CIIAP.  VIII. 

they  should  not  allege  the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit,  nor  feed 
themselves  with  colour  of  conscience,  but  confess  their  faults 
like  men,  and  crave  pardon  like  subjects."  But  the  godly 
brethren  were  wiser  in  their  generation  than  to  subscribe 
articles  so  much  at  variance  with  their  principles  and  prac- 
tices; they  thanked  him,  and  replied  they  were  well  enough; 
but  w^ere  resolved  to  hold  their  own  power, — let  him  look 
to  his^  If  resistance  to  the  king,  as  supreme,  was  thus  to 
be  made  a  fixed  principle  of  religion,  it  would  become  a  curse 
to  mankind  instead  of  a  blessing,  by  unsettling  the  whole 
frame  of  society.  And  had  not  the  faithful  page  of  history 
recorded  the  ungodly  conduct  of  these  brethren,  it  would  be 
almost  incredible,  that  men  calling  themselves  christians, 
assuming  the  character  of  ambassadors  for  Christ,  and  styling 
themselves,  ^j«r  excellence,  "  godly,"  should  have  compelled 
the  king  to  propose  such  articles  for  their  subscription.  It  is 
a  bitter  commentary  on  their  principles,  a  severe  rebuke  on 
their  practices,  and  a  sure  proof  that  "  t'hey  knew  not  what 
spirit  they  were  of." 

The  earls  of  Errol,  Huntly,  and  some  other  lords  attached 
to  the  church  of  Rome,  had  been  in  active  correspondence 
with  the  king  of  Spain,  and  by  his  emissaries  had  been  in- 
duced to  assume  arms,  with  the  intention  of  seizing  the  king's 
person,  and  of  re-establishing  the  papal  religion.  The  king 
went  against  them  at  the  head  of  a  well-appointed  army, 
when  the  rebels  dispersed  without  bloodshed  ;  and  the  king, 
with  his  usual  clemency,  took  the  revolted  lords  again  into 
favour,  being  solicitous  of  preserving  internal  peace  on  his 
marriage  with  a  princess  of  the  House  of  Denmark,  which 
was  at  that  time  under  negociation. 

The  cordiality  which  existed  at  the  commencement  of  the 
Assembly,  betwixt  that  body  and  the  king,  did  not  last  long. 
The  marriage  of  the  earl  of  Huntly  was  doomed  to  be  a  bone  of 
contention  betwixt  them  that  at  first  presented  rather  a  formida- 
ble ap]iearance.  Although  the  Assembly  had  prohibited  arch- 
bishop Adamson  from  performing  the  marriage  ceremony,  yet 
he  esteemed  the  king's  command  as  a  sufficient  warrant,  and 
set  the  authority  of  the  Assembly  at  defiance  :  and  depending 
on  the  king's  protection,  he  denied  the  jurisdiction  of  the  pres- 
bytery, and  their  competency  to  try  him,  even  though  armed 
w  ilh  the  plenary  authority  of  the  Assembly.  The  presbytery 
of  St.  Andrews  summoned  the  archbishop  to  their  bar;  when 
lie  not  only  rellised  to  aj)jie;ir,  but  denied  their  jurisdiction. 

'   Ileylin's  History  of  Presbyteiians. 


1590.]  CHURCH  OF  Scotland.  335 

They  proceeded  against  liiin  in  absence,  deprived  him  of  all 
office  and  function  in  the  kirlc,  and  threatened  him  with  excom- 
munication. The  Assembly  ratified  and  confirmed  the  sen- 
tence of  the  presbytery,  and  ordained  that  it  should  be  read 
from  every  pulpit  in  the  kingdom,  which  shews  the  shocking 
state  of  anarchy  and  insubordination  which  the  so-called  holy 
discijiline  had  introduced.  But  this  unjust,  petulant  persecu- 
tion was  in  accordance  with  tlie  system  which  was  now  acted 
on  for  the  purpose  of  extirpating  the  episcopal  order,  and  to 
bring  both  the  man  and  his  office  into  contempt.  The  king 
was  exceedingly  incensed  at  this  wanton  encroachment  on  the 
royal  prerogative,  but  was  obliged  to  dissemble  his  anger ; 
being  desirous  of  avoiding  any  open  feud  with  the  ferocious 
presbyterians  on  the  arrival  of  the  queen,  who  was  daily  ex- 
pected ^  But  unfortunately  forbearance  only  increased  the 
turbulence  of  the  party. 

1590. — Balfour,inhis  Annals,  states  that,  in  the  year  1585,  an 
ambassador  was  sent  from  Denmark  to  negociate  a  matrimonial 
alliance  between  king  James  and  the  princess  Anne,  of  Den- 
mark. The  proposal  was  not  entertained  at  that  time  ;  but  the 
earl  Marshal  this  year  was  sent  ambassador  to  demand  the  hand 
of  that  princess  in  the  year  1589,  In  September  the  marriage 
took  place  by  proxy,  and  immediately  after  the  queen  with  her 
train  embarked  for  Scotland  ;  but  contrary  winds  compelled 
the  fleet  to  seek  shelter  in  a  port  of  Norway,  where,  a  severe 
frost  setting  in,  their  farther  progress  was  delayed.  On  the 
arrival  of  messengers  at  the  Scottish  Court,  that  the  queen 
might  be  immediately  expected,  preparations  were  made  for 
her  reception  ;  but  in  a  short  time  another  messenger  amved 
to  announce  her  detention  by  the  inexorable  ice  of  the  Baltic, 
and  that  she  could  not  arrive  till  the  following  spring.  "  The 
king  taking  this  impatiently,  concludeth  within  himself  to  go 
thither  in  person."  He  took  this  resolution  privately  in  Craig- 
millar  Castle,  and  named  it  to  no  one,  as  he  knew  that  so  many 
impediments  would  be  thrown  in  the  way  by  the  chancellor,  the 
privy  council,  but  more  particularly  by  the  brethren  of  the  kirk, 
that  if  he  might  goat  all,  there  would  be  so  much  time  consumed 
as  would  render  his  voyage  minecessary.  He  therefore  gave 
out  that  he  intended  to  send  the  chancellor  to  Norway,  and 
thus  effected  the  preparation  of  some  ships  without  exciting  the 
slightest  suspicion,  not  even  in  tlie  miiad  of  the  chancellor  him- 
self When  the  ships  were  ready,  and  the  chancellor  only 
waited  for  his  commission,  the  king  went  quietly  on  board  and 

■  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  37G-7. 


336  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

set  sail,  leaving  the  following  letter,  and  some  instructions  for 
his  privy  council,  on  his  table,  written  entirely  with  his  own 
hand,  and  unknown  to  any  one : — 

"  In  respect  that  I  know  that  the  motive  of  my  voyage  will 
be  at  this  time  diversely  scanned,  and  misinterpreting  may  be 
made,  as  well  to  my  dishonour  as  to  the  blame  of  innocents,  I 
have  thought  fit  to  leave  this  declaration  for  resolving  all  good 
subjects,  first  of  the  causes  that  moved  me  to  undertake  this 
voyage,  then  in  the  fashion  in  which  I  resolved  to  make  the 
same.  As  to  the  causes,  I  have  been  generally  blamed  by  all 
men  for  deferring  my  marriage  so  long,  being  alone  without 
father,  mother,  brother,  or  sister;  and  yet  a  king  not  only  of 
this  realm,  but  the  heir  apparent  of  another.  Thismynakedness 
made  me  weak,  and  mine  enemies  strong  :  for  one  man  is  no 
man  as  they  speak ;  and  where  there  is  no  hope  of  succession, 
it  breeds  contempt  and  disdain  ;  yea,  the  delay  I  have  used 
hath  begot  in  many  a  suspicion  of  impotency  in  me,  as  if  I 
were  a  ban'en  stock.  These  and  other  reasons  moved  me  to 
hasten  my  mamage,  from  which  I  could  yet  have  longer  ab- 
stained if  the  weal  of  my  country  could  have  permitted.  I  am 
not  known  to  be  rash  in  my  weightiest  affairs,  neither  am  I  so 
carried  with  passion  as  not  to  give  place  to  reason;  but  the 
treaty  being  perfected,  and  the  queen  on  her  journey,  when  I 
was  advertised  of  her  stay  by  contrary  winds,  and  that  it  was 
not  likely  she  should  perfect  her  voyage  this  year,  I  resolved 
to  make  that  on  my  part  possible  which  was  impossible  on 
hers. 

"  The  place  where  I  first  took  this  resolution  was  in  Craig- 
millar,  none  of  my  council  being  present ;  and  as  I  took  it  by 
myself,  so  I  betliought  me  of  a  way  to  follow  the  same :  and 
first  I  advised  to  employ  the  earl  of  Bothwell  in  the  voyage,  in 
regard  he  is  admiral;  but  his  preparation  took  so  long  time, 

that  I  was  forced  to  call  the  council '.  when,  as  they 

met,  they  found  so  many  difficulties  in  sending  forth  a  number 
of  shi]3s  for  the  queen's  convoy  (for  so  I  gave  it  out),  and  who 
should  be  the  ambassadors,  that  I  was  compelled  to  avouch, 
if  none  should  be  found  to  go,  I  should  go  myself  alone  in  a 
ship  ;  adding,  that  if  men  had  been  as  willing  as  became  them 
I  would  not  have  needed  to  have  been  in  these  straits. 
This,  the  chancellor  taking  to  touch  himself,  (for  he  knew  he 
had  been  slandered  all  that  time  for  impeding  my  marriage), 
partly  out  of  zeal  to  my  service,  and  partly  fearing  that  I  should 
make  good  my  word  if  no  better  way  could  be  found,  made  offer 
to  go  himself  in  that  service.  This  I  embraced,  keeping  my 
intention  liom  all  men,  because  I  thought  it  enough  for  me  to 


1590.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  337 

put  my  foot  in  a  ship  when  all  things  were  ready,  and  from 
the  chancellor  himself  (from  whom  I  never  kept  any  of  my 
weightiest  businesses)  for  two  reasons ;  first,  because,  if  I  had 
made  him  of  my  council  in  that  purpose,  he  had  been  blamed 
for  putting  the  same  in  my  head  (which  had  not  been  his  duty), 
for  it  becomes  no  subject  to  give  his  prince  advice  in  such 
matters;  withal  considering  what  hatred  and  envy  he  sustained 
unjustly  for  leading  me  by  the  nose,  as  it  were,  to  all  his  appe- 
tites, as  though  I  were  an  unreasonable  creature,  or  a  child 
that  could  do  nothing  of  itself,  I  thought  it  pity  to  heap  more 
unjust  slanders  on  his  head.  The  other  reason  was,  that  I 
perceived  it  was  for  staying  my  journey  that  he  made  offer  to 
go ;  so  was  I  assured,  if  he  had  known  my  purpose,  he  would 
either  have  stayed  himself  at  home,  or,  thinking  it  too  heavy  a 
burthen  for  him  to  undertake  my  convoy,  he  would  have 
lingered  so  long  as  there  should  not  have  been  a  possibility  for 
making  the  voyage.  This  I  thought  meet  to  declare  (and  upon 
ray  honour  it  is  the  truth),  lest  I  shovild  be  esteemed  an  impru- 
dent ass,  that  can  do  nothing  of  myself,  and  to  save  the  inno- 
cency  of  that  man  from  unjust  reproaches.  For  my  part,  be- 
sides that  which  I  have  said,  the  shortness  of  the  way,  the 
surety  of  the  passage,  being  clear  of  all  sands,  forelands,  and  such 
other  perils,  safe  harbours  in  these  parts,  and  no  foreign  fleets 
resorting  in  these  seas,  it  is  my  pleasure  that  no  man  grudge  at 
this  my  proceeding,  but  that  all  conform  themselves  to  the 
directions  I  have  given  to  be  followed  unto  my  return,  which 
shall  be  within  twenty  days,  wind  and  weather  serving  ;  and  if 
any  shall  contravene  these,  I  will  take  it  as  a  sufficient  proof 
that  he  bears  me  no  good  will  at  his  heart ;  as  to  the  contrary, 
I  will  respect  all  that  reverence  my  commandments,  in  the  best 
sort  I  may.     Farewell  i." 

James  was  magnificently  entertained  at  the  court  of  Den- 
mark ;  and  some  idea  of  his  enjoyments  may  be  gathered  from 
an  expression  in  one  of  his  familiar  letters  to  the  lord  chancellor, 
in  which  he  says,  with  the  good  humour  which  marked  his 
character,  "  We  are  just  drinking  and  driving  owre  here  in  the 
auld  way  as  we  did  at  hame."  This  shews  that  James  felt 
himself  at  home  at  the  Danish  court,  and  that  the  manners 
of  the  country  pretty  much  resembled  those  of  his  own. 
After  spending  some  montlis  agreeably,  the  royal  couple 
returned  in  safety  to  their  own  kingdom.  They  landed  at 
Leith  on  the  20th  of  May,  and  were  received  with  every  de- 
monstration of  joy.     The  following  day  the  council  met  to  de- 

1  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  378. 
VOL.  I.  2  X 


338  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII, 

liberate  on  the  queen's  coronation,  which  the  king  determined 
should  be  celebrated  with  the  greatest  pomp.  But,  on  account 
of  the  absence  of  all  the  titular  bishops  in  their  dioceses,  the 
king  appointed  Robert  Bruce,  one  of  the  city  ministers,  to  anoint 
the  queen.  This  proposal  met  with  the  fiercest  opposition 
from  the  presbyterians,  but  especially  from  Andrew  Melville. 
They  even  threatened  to  excommunicate  Bruce  if  he  should  use 
the  unction,  as  smelling  rank,  in  their  nostrils,  of  popery  ;  and 
no  argument  could  induce  them  to  drop  their  opposition  to  a 
ceremony  for  which  there  is  Scripture  warrant,  till  the  king, 
impatient  and  initated  at  their  obstinacy,  threatened  to  post- 
pone the  coronation  till  the  arrival  of  some  of  the  bishops,  who, 
he  said,  would  entertain  no  such  scruples.  This  was  a  greater 
evil  than  the  other.  Melville  now  changed  sides,  and  argued 
for  the  anointing  as  pertinaciously  as  he  had  formerly  opposed 
it ;  and  Bruce  was  accordingly  licensed  to  use  this  "  popish 
charm,"  as  they  termed  it,  rather  than  suffer  the  persecuted 
bishops  to  gain  any  ascendancy  at  courts 

Disobedience  to  all  lawful  authority  was  one  of  the  most 
prominent  features  of  the  Melvillian  party.  Gibson,  who  had 
reviled  and  insulted  the  king  in  the  pulpit,  and  had  been  sus- 
pended by  the  Assembly  during  their  pleasure,  not  for  that 
gross  and  unfeeling  act,  but  for  having  neglected  to  answer 
their  citation,  was  still  permitted  to  preach,  not  only  at  his  own 
parish  of  Pencaithland,  but  to  officiate  for  other  ministers.  The 
contumacious  brethren  were  brought  before  the  council,  who 
excused  their  disobedience  by  saying  they  thought  his  silenc- 
ing was  only  to  last  till  the  meeting  of  the  next  Assembly.  On 
being  shewn  the  act,  however,  that  it  was  during  pleasure, 
Mdiich  the  Assembly  had  not  yet  had  an  opportunity  of  express- 
ing, they  confessed  their  disobedience,  and  promised  to  refuse 
him  their  pulpits  till  he  was  duly  restored. ,  Gibson  himself 
was  then  summoned  to  answer  for  his  conduct  before  the 
council ;  but  this  he  declined  to  do,  and  was  therefore  de- 
nounced a  rebel  2. 

The  General  Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh  in  June, — Patrick 
Galloway,  moderator.  James  Melville  preached  a  most  in- 
temperate sermon  against  "  the  belly-god  bishops  of  England, 
who,  he  said,  were  seeking  conformity  of  our  kirk  ^^'iththei^s. 
He  more  particularly  directed  his  invectives  against  Adanison, 
archbishop  of  St.  Andrews.  "  Because,"  said  he,  "  we  have 
lurking  within  our  own  bowels,  a  poisonous  and  venomous 

•  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  380. — Balfour's  Annals,  i.  388. 
-  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  318. — Calderwood,  p.  255. 


1590.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND,  339 

Psyllus,  so  empoisoned  with  the  venom  of  the  old  serpent,  and  so 
altered  in  his  familiar  food  and  nourishment,  to  wit,  lies,  false- 
hood, malice,  and  knavery,  who  hath  been  hu'king  a  long  time, 
hatching  a  cockatrice  egg ;  and  so  finely  instructed  to  handle 
the  whistle  of  that  old  enchanter,  that  no  Psyllus,  Circe,  or 
Medea,  could  have  done  better."  "  This  was  Mr.  Patrick 
Adamson,  who  was  to  set  forth  a  book  against  the  established 
discipline,  which  he  entitled  Psyllus.  In  his  epistle  dedica- 
tory to  the  king,  he  declareth  it  is  his  purpose  to  suck  out  the 
poison  of  the  discipline  of  the  kirk  of  Scotland,  as  the  Psilli, 
a  venomous  people  in  Africa,  suck  out  the  venom  of  the  wounds 

of  such  as  are  stung  with  serpents He  exhorted  his 

brethren  to  ratify  and  approve  the  sentence  of  excommunica- 
tion, justly  and  orderly  pronounced  against  him,  forewarning 
them  if  they  did  not,  they  would  find  and  feel  yet  more 
grievously  the  reserved  poison  of  that  Psyllus  for  their  undu- 
tiful  negligence,  if  God  of  his  mercy  stay  it  not^."  This  was 
the  system  on  which  the  Melvillian  party  persecuted  not  only 
Adamson,  but  all  the  titular  bishops,  who,  notwithstanding  the 
establishment  of  presbytery,  still  maintained  their  places  m 
the  kirk. 

The  king  in  great  state  and  parade  honoured  this  Assembly 
with  his  presence,  and  appears  in  some  degree  to  have  conci- 
liated the  ministers,  for  they  exhibited  more  courtesy  towards 
his  majesty  than  on  any  former  occasion.  The  moderator 
presented  three  petitions  in  the  name  of  the  church, — for 
establishing  her  jurisdiction,  and  abolishing  all  acts  made  to 
the  contrary;  for  purging  the  country  of  Jesuits,  seminary 
priests,  and  excommunicated  persons  ;  and  for  providing  a 
competent  maintenance  for  the  ministers  from  their  own 
parishes,  &c.  The  king  replied,  that  in  all  parliaments  the 
first  acts  concerned  the  liberty  of  the  church :  respecting 
Jesuits,  it  was  notorious  what  pains  he  had  taken  for  their  ex- 
pulsion, previous  to  his  voyage  to  Denmark,  and  still  he  should 
do  vvhat  he  lawfully  could,  to  remove  them  from  the  coun- 
try :  and  for  the  tithes,  he  desired  them  to  choose  some  sober 
members  to  meet  and  consult  with  his  privy  council  for  satis- 
fying their  desires.  Calderwood  alleges,  "  that  these  answers 
did  little  content  the  Assembly^."  The  king,  addressing  the 
Assembly,  seriously  recommended  them  to  remove  the  horrid 
barbarous  murders  and  violences  that  were  daily  committed, 
by  exhorting  the  people  in  their  sermons  to  live  peaceable 

»  Calderwood,  p.  256.  ^  jbid. 


340  HISTOR?  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

lives.^  "  In  the  end,"  says  Caldeiwood,  "  he  stood  up,  and 
uncovering  his  head,  said,  '  he  praised  God  that  he  was  bom 
in  such  a  time,  as  in  the  time  of  the  light  of  the  gospel,  to 
such  a  place,  as  to  be  king  of  such  a  kirk,  the  sincerest  kirk 
in  the  world.  The  kirk  of  Geneva  kept  Pasch  and  Yule: 
(Easter  and  Christmas)  what  have  they  for  them  ?  they  have 
no  institution.  As  for  our  neighbour  kirk  in  England,  their 
service  is  an  ill-mumbled  mass  in  English ;  they  want  no- 
thing 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  to  exhort  the  people  to 
do  the  same;  and  I,  forsooth,  so  long  as  I  bruik  my  life  and 
crown,  shall  maintain  the  same  against  all,  deadly.'  There 
was  nothing  heard  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  but  praising  God 
and  praying  for  the  king  I^" 

The  speech  here  attributed  to  the  king  bears  improbability 
at  least,  not  to  say  falsehood,  on  the  face  of  it.  Spottiswood 
does  not  record  it,  which,  with  his  usual  impartiality,  he 
would  certainly  have  done,  had  these  words  ever  been  uttered. 
But  James  was  too  politic  a  monarch  to  deliver  such  senti- 
ments, even  if  he  had  entertained  them,  which  were  certain 
to  have  given  deep  offence  to  the  people  of  England,  whose 
good  opinion  it  was  so  much  his  interest  at  that  time  to  culti- 
vate. Besides,  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  improbable  that  he 
would  have  thus  praised  the  principles  of  the  brethren,  with 
whom  he  had  lived  in  a  constant  state  of  contention  ever  since 
the  introduction  of  the  "holy  discipline."  They  had  never  ceased 
to  resist  his  lawful  authority,  to  revile  his  person  and  govern- 
ment from  their  pulpits,  and  to  teach  the  people  committed  to 
their  charge  to  do  the  same.  They  had  slandered  and  perse- 
cuted his  mother,  had  made,  and  were  still  making,  the  most 
desperate  attempts  to  erect  themselves  into  a  -clerical  republic, 
and  to  assume  a  dictatorial,  pragmatic  interference  in  all  the 
most  minute  movements  of  his  court  and  government.  Therefore 
it  is  not  unreasonable  to  conclude  that  this  was  a  pious  fraud 
of  the  historian,  a  doing  evil  that  good  may  come,  to  delude 
posterity  into  the  belief  that  "  the  holy  discipline"  was  pa- 
tronized and  esteemed  by  James.  The  contrary  of  which  is 
the  fact,  for  he  opposed  it  to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  and  at 
last  conquered  it. 

This  Asseiubly  passed  an  act  for  the  better  instruction  of 
the  brethren  in  the  nature  of  the  holy  discijDline ;  for  although 

'  SpottUwood,  b.  vi.  362.  -  Calderwootl,  i).  2.56. 


1589.]  CHHRCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  341 

the  Melvillian  party  had  gained  a  short-lived  ascendancy,  yet 
the  presbyterian  discipline  was  neither  understood  nor  much 
liked  by  the  greater  part  of  the  ministers.  There  was  then  no 
such  idea  entertained  that  the  church  of  Christ  could  subsist 
without  an  establishment ;  and  therefore  those  ministers  who 
adhered  to  episcopacy  never  dreamt  that  when  persecuted  in 
one  city  they  could  flee  unto  another.  But,  indeed,  it  is  not 
to  be  supposed  that  the  presbyterian  party  would,  at  that  time, 
have  tolerated  any  secession  from  their  "  holy  discipline." 
Toleration  forms  no  part  of  that  discipline.  Difference  of 
opinion  was  considered  a  damnable  sin,  and  difference  in  modes 
of  worship  was  idolatry,  punishable  with  death  at  the  hand 
of  the  civil  magistrate,  or  "  at  the  hand  of  any  multitude,'^ 
says  Knox,  "  when  God  doth  illuminate  their  eyes,  and  put  the 
sword  within  their  grasp.''''  It  cannot,  therefore,  be  surprising, 
that  in  all  the  ecclesiastical  changes  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  ministers  retained  their  benefices  without  disputing  the 
will  of  the  dominant  party  for  the  time  being.  All  the  pres- 
byteries that  had  as  yet  been  erected  were  commanded  to 
procure  copies  of  the  new  Book  of  Discipline,  under  special 
penalties ;  "  Forasmuch  as  it  is  certain  that  the  word  of 
God  cannot  be  kept  in  sincerity,  unless  the  holy  discipline 
is  observed  1^''''  This  is  an  unparalleled  piece  of  assurance, 
which  exceeds  even  the  effrontery  of  the  papal  claim  of  infal- 
libility. This  is  an  insult  to  the  Most  High,  to  say  that  his 
word  can  only  be  kept  by  a  discipline  which,  at  the  time 
these  words  were  uttered,  was  not  ten  years  old!  What  had 
become  of  the  Scriptures  heretofore,  which  had  been  com- 
mitted to  the  church  as  their  keeper,  and  which  is  the  pillar 
and  ground  of  the  truth,  and  had  been  preserved  and  handed 
down  by  the  church  from  the  days  of  Moses  and  the  apostles .'' 
The  church  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth,  not  only  as 
teaching  it,  but  also  as  supporting  and  preserving  it,  by  the 
authority  with  which  Christ  has  invested  her.  Therefore  the 
apostle  directs  the  bishops  to  speak,  exhort,  and  rebuke,  with 
all  authority,  and  to  sufifer  no  man  to  despise  them;  not  to 
prostitute  nor  give  it  up  to  any  unauthorized  hands,  which  is  a 
betrayal  of  their  trust,  and  an  incapacitating  themselves  to 
preserve  the  truth  which  had  been  committed  to  them. 
"  Wherever  the  power  of  Christ  has  been  lessened  or  trans- 
ferred, there  the  truth  has  suffered  proportionably.  Thus, 
when  the  Pope  would  transfer  to  himself  the  power  of  the 
whole  catholic  church,  and  reduce  all  bishops  luiderhimas 

*  CalderwooA,  p.  257. 


3  J-2  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

deputies  and  substitutes,  and  had  transferred  the  episcopate 
into  the  pontificate,  what  errors  in  doctrine  and  heresies  did 
ensue,  even  to  idolatry?  And  tluis  when  the  episcopate  was 
overtln-own  in  England,  in  the  late  times  (of  the  Common- 
wealth), and  transfeiTed  into  the  hands  of  the  people,  what 
swarms  of  heresies  arose,  like  locusts  out  of  the  pit,  and 
darkened  the  face  of  the  whole  land^  ?" 

1591. — John  Erskine,  of  Dunn,  superintendent  of  Mearns, 
died  this  year.  He  was  one  of  those  who  were  ordained  and 
originally  placed  as  bishops  by  Knox.  He  governed  the 
diocese  committed  to  his  charge  with  great  prudence  and  mo- 
deration, "  and  with  great  authority,  till  his  death,  giving  no 
way  to  the  novations  introduced,  nor  suffering  them  to  take 
place  within  the  bounds  of  his  charge,  whilst  he  lived.  A 
baron  he  was  of  good  rank,  wise,  learned,  liberal,  and  of  singu- 
lar courage ;  who,  for  diverse  resemblances,  may  well  be  said  to 
have  been  another  Ambrose.  He  died  the  12th  of  March,  in 
the  82d  year  of  his  age,  leaving  behind  him  a  numerous  pos- 
terity, and  of  himself  and  of  his  virtues  a  memory  that  shall 
never  be  forgotten  2." 

The  king's  liberty,  and  even  his  life,  were  in  continual  and 
imminent  danger,  from  the  treasonable  plots  and  conspiracies 
of  the  earl  of  Bothwell,  who  was  openly  supported  in  his 
rebellious  courses  by  the  godly  brethren.  Francis  Stewart, 
earl  of  Bothwell,  was  the  son  of  the  lord  John,  prior  of 
Coldingham,  one  of  James  the  Fifth's  illegitimate  sons ;  his 
mother  was  the  daughter  and  heiress  of  James  Hepburn,  the 
late  earl  of  Bothwell  and  duke  of  Orkney.  Francis  was  also 
illegitimate,  and  had  been  created  earl  of  Bothwell  by 
James  VI.  "  A  man  he  was,"  says  Heylin,  "  of  a  seditious 
and  turbulent  nature,  principled  in  the  doctrines  of  the  presby- 
terians,  and  thereby  fitted  and  disposed  to  run  their  courses." 
At  first  he  joined  the  banished  lords,  who  seized  the  king  at 
Stirling  in  1585,  in  order  to  ingratiate  himself  with  that  fac- 
tion, and  gain  the  applause  of  the  kirk.  But  his  profligacy 
and  immorality  were  so  great,  that  the  ministers  were  obliged 
to  disavow  him,  and  bring  him  to  do  penance  publicly  on  the 
cutty  stool.  He  made  due  submission  and  the  most  unbounded 
promises,  and  thereby  regained  the  favour  of  his  old  friends 
and  patrons ;  and  presuming  on  their  favour,  he  began  to  con- 
sult those  who  had  the  character  of  being  witches  respecting 
the  death  of  the  king,  with  a  view  to  seizing  on  the  crown. 
He  was  arrested,  and  committed  to  prison ;  but  making  his 

'  Rehearsals,  vol.  iv.  232-234.  -  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  3S3. 


lot'l.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  343 

escape,  his  property  was  confiscated,  himself  proclaimed  a 
traitor,  and  all  communication  with  him  interdicted.  He  then 
entered  into  a  conspiracy  with  some  in  the  court  itself,  which 
failed,  and  he  fled  into  England.  But  his  faction  in  the  court 
still  remaining,  he  was  privily  introduced  to  the  palace  of 
Holyrood  House:  after  securing  the  gates  and  guards,  he  vio- 
lently attempted  to  seize  the  king  in  his  bed-chamber.  The 
king  hearing  the  unusual  noise,  quickly  retreated  to  a  tower 
of  the  palace,  and  secured  the  doors  and  passages;  which  the 
traitor  not  being  able  to  force,  he  attempted  to  set  the  palace 
on  fire,  and  burn  the  king  within  it.  Before  he  could  accom- 
plish his  purpose  the  alarm  was  given,  and  the  citizens  has- 
tening down  to  the  rescue,  Bothwell  made  his  escape. 

Andrew  Melville  also  gave  James  perpetual  trouble,  by  his 
determined  encroachments  on  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown, 
and  by  his  overbearing  and  turbulent  contentions  with  such 
of  the  brethren  as  were  peaceably  inclined.  A  dispute  arose 
between  the  Assembly  this  year  and  the  College  of  Justice,  in 
which  the  brethren  attempted  to  constitute  themselves  judges 
in  a  purely  civil  cause;  and,  accordingly,  they  summoned 
John  Graham,  one  of  the  judges,  to  their  bar.  The  whole  of 
the  judges  opposed  this  encroachment  on  the  dignity  and  in- 
dependence of  the  Court  of  Session.  Judge  Graham  pro- 
tested against  them  for  remedy  at  law,  but  the  Assembly 
"  found  themselves  judges  in  the  cause  ;  therefore  willed  him 
to  say  what  he  could  say  in  his  own  defence,  otherwise  they 
would  give  process,  and  minister  justice^" 

Archbishop  Adamson,  who  had  suffered  so  many  persecu- 
tions from  the  brethren,  died  this  year.  He  fell  into  great 
poverty,  partly  owing  to  his  own  imprudence,  and  partly  by 
the  king  having  granted  the  revenues  of  his  see  to  the  duke  of 
Lennox,  and  he  was  left  destitute  of  all  support.  On  his 
death-bed  some  of  the  brethren  induced  him  to  subscribe  a 
paper,  without  knowing  its  contents, — condemnatory  of  epis- 
copacy, and  approving  of  the  "  plots  for  presbyteries."  This 
recantation  is  purely  fictitious,  and  got  up,  like  the  king's 
speech,  to  give  a  lustre  to  "  the  holy  discipline  of  Geneva," — 
for  his  steady  opposition  to  which,  Adamson  had  been  perse- 
cuted, excommunicated,  and  deposed,  while  living,  and,  after 
death,  his  memory  slandered  and  defamed.  When  informed 
of  the  trick  practised  on  him,  he  denied  having  recanted,  and 
complained  heavily  of  the  injustice  done  him,  "  and  com- 
mitiing  his  cause  to  God,  ended  his  days  in  the  end  of  this 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  381. 


344  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  VIII. 

year.  A  man  he  was  of  great  learning,  and  a  most  persuasive 
preacher,  but  an  ill  administrator  of  the  church  patrimony, 
whicli  brought  him  to  the  misery  that  is  pitiful  to  think  of. 
Divers  works  he  left,  of  which  some  are  extant,  that  shew 
his  learning;  but  his  prelections  upon  the  Epistles  to  Timothy, 
which  were  most  desired,  falling  into  the  hands  of  his  adver- 
saries, were  suppressed}.''''  It  is  not  a  good  symptom  of  the 
truth  of  a  cause  when  it  is  found  necessary  to  suppress  the 
works  of  an  antagonist  when  they  are  too  powerful  to  be 
overturned  by  arguments ;  nevertheless,  he  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  very  extensively  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the 
primitive  church;  of  which  we  had  an  instance  in  his  signing 
some  articles  favourable  to  presbytery  in  the  year  1580,  that 
is,  if  Calderwood's  authority  may  be  depended  on.  "  That 
nature  had  furnished  him  with  a  good  stock,  and  he  was  a 
smart  man,  and  cultivated  beyond  the  ordinary  size  by  many 
parts  of  good  literature,  is  not  denied  by  the  presbyterian  his- 
torians themselves  :  they  never  attempt  to  represent  him  as  a 
fool  or  a  dunce,  though  they  are  very  eager  to  have  him  a 
man  of  tricks  and  latitude'^." 

A  disgraceful  schism  broke  out  in  the  presbytery  of  St. 
Andrews,  on  occasion  of  the  election  of  a  preacher  for  the  pa- 
rish of  Leuchars.  The  rival  candidates  were  Patrick  Wymess 
and  Robert  Wallace.  Andrew  Melville,  with  six  followers, 
voted  for  Wallace,  whilst  Thomas  Buchanan, — another  fiery 
spirit,  with  twenty  others,  voted  for  Wymess.  The  contention 
between  these  brethren  became  at  last  so  fierce,  that  Melville 
adjourned  with  his  faction  to  his  college,  where,  constituting 
themselves  a  presbytery,  they  elected  Wallace  without  oppo- 
sition; whilst  Buchanan,  with  the  majority,  remained  and 
sustained  their  previous  election :  in  consequence  there  were 
two  rival  brethren  destined  for  the  same  charge.  The  pa- 
rishioners, as  a  matter  of  course,  followed  the  laudable  example 
of  their  ghostly  guides,  and  split  into  two  virulent  parties. 
The  synod  of  Lothian  cited  these  brethren,  and  directly  ac- 
cused Melville  of  having  caused  a  schism  and  secession. 
Melville  made  a  stout  resistance,  and  denied  having  made  any 
schism ;  "  for,"  said  he,  "  albeit  he  and  his  followers  had  left 
the  place,  yet  he  could  not  be  judged  to  have  made  secession, 
by  reason  the  others  had  given  the  cause,  and  conspired  to 
prefer  a  person  in  worth  not  comparable  with  him  they  had 
elected;  and  as  for  a  majority,  votes  ought  not  to  be  counted, 
but  to  be  weighed  and  pondered !"     It  was  found  impossible 

'  Spittiswood,  b.  vi.  385.  ^  Y\mA.  Charter,  244. 


1592.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  3^'> 

to  assuage  the  exasperated  passions  and  the  rancorous  heat  of 
contention  which  the  imperious  conduct  of  this  violent  man 
had  occasioned.  The  synod,  therefore,  set  aside  the  two  former 
candidates  altogether,  and  appointed  a  third  party  to  the  va- 
cant charge.  The  hatred  and  animosity  of  the  leaders  in  this 
schism  were  so  fierce  and  vindictive,  that  the  synod  was  com- 
pelled lo  divide  the  presbytery  into  two,  and  to  appoint  one  to 
meet  at  Cupar,  and  the  other  at  St.  Andrews.  "  Thus,"  says 
Spottiswood,  "  was  that  strife  pacified,  which  many  held  to 
be  ominous,  and  that  the  government  which  did  at  the  begin- 
ning break  forth  into  such  schisms,  could  not  long  continue. 
For  this  every  man  noted  that,  of  all  men,  none  could  worse 
endure  parity,  and  loved  more  to  command,  than  they  who 
had  introduced  it  into  the  church^" 

1592. — The  General  Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh  in  May, 
and  the  brethren  presented  a  petition  to  parliament,  which, 
after  several  prorogations,  had  sat  down,  requesting — I.  That  the 
act  of  parliament  made  in  the  year  1584,  against  the  discipline 
of  the  kirk,  and  liberty  thereof,  should  be  abrogated  and  annulled, 
and  a  ratification  granted  of  the  discipline  whereof  they  were 
then  in  practice.  II.  That  the  act  of  annexation  should  be 
repealed,  and  restitution  made  of  the  church's  patrimony. 
III.  That  the  abbots,  priors,  and  other  prelates  bearing  the 
titles  of  churchmen,  and  giving  voice  for  the  church,  without 
any  power  and  commission  from  the  church,  should  not  be  ad- 
mitted in  time  coming  to  give  voice  in  parliament,  or  to  convene 
in  their  name.  IV.  That  a  solid  order  might  be  taken  for  the 
purging  the  realm  of  idolatry  and  blood,  wherewith  it  was 
miserably  polluted. 

The  second  and  third  of  these  articles  were  rejected ;  the 
first,  and  most  important,  was  the  subject  of  long  debate. 
Although  presbytery  began  to  make  its  appearance  in  1575, 
yet,  up  to  this  date,  it  had  not  received  the  sanction  of  the  legis- 
lature. And,  in  point  of  fact,  titular  episcopacy  had  never 
ceased,  and  never  did  entirely  cease,  although  the  authority  of 
the  titular  bishops  was  not  obeyed,  and  they  themselves  were 
subjected  to  the  most  annoying  persecutions.  The  king  was 
very  unwilling,  either  to  repeal  the  acts  of  1584,  which  con- 
finned  his  supremacy,  or  to  sanction  the  holy  discipline.  The 
repeal  of  these  acts  would  have  destroyed  his  prerogative  and 
the  supremacy  of  the  crown,  and  licensed  the  ministers  "  to 
utter  false,  untrue,  and  slanderous  speeches,  to  the  reproach  of 
his  majesty,  and  to  meddle  witli  the  affairs  of  his  highness  and 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  386. 
VOL.  L  2  Y 


346  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  VIII. 

estates,"  with  impunity.  His  majesty,  therefore,  strenuously 
opposed  the  ratifieation  of  the  holy  discipline,  although  he 
was  at  last  obliged  to  yield,  owing  to  the  critical  state  of  his  af- 
fairs, which  were  embroiled  by  the  continual  seditions  and  trea- 
sonable attempts  made  against  his  life  by  the  traitor  Bothwell, 
w^ho  was  secretly  instigated  and  encouraged  by  the  brethren. 
He  was  induced  to  consent  to  their  repeal,  by  the  persuasion 
of  the  lord  chancellor  Maitland ;  "  for  which,"  says  Cahler- 
wood,  "  they  had  laboured  many  years,  and  which  he  did  to 
pleasure  the  ministers,  offended  at  him  for  hounding  out  the 
earl  of  Huntly  against  the  earl  of  Moray,"  whom  he  had  in- 
humanly murdered.  "  So  the  act  passed,"  says  Spottiswood, 
*'  but  in  the  most  wary  terms  that  could  be  devised."  It  was 
only  declared,  respecting  the  act  of  supremacy,  "  That  the 
said  statutes  should  be  no  way  prejudicial  nor  derogatory  to 
the  privilege  which  God  hath  given  to  the  spiritual  office- 
bearers in  the  church,  concerning  the  heads  of  religion,  mat- 
ters of  heresy,  excommunication,  collation  or  deprivation  of 
ministers,  or  any  such  essential  censures  grounded  and  having 
warrant  of  the  word  of  God^" 

It  was  also  determined  by  this  act  of  parliament,  "  that  it 
shall  be  lawful  to  the  kirk  and  ministers,  every  year  at  the  least, 
and  oflener  pro  re  nata,  as  occasion  and  necessity  shall  require, 
to  hold  and  keep  General  Assemblies,  providing  that  the  king's 
majesty,  or  his  commissioners  for  him  to  be  appointed  by 
his  highness,  be  present  at  each  General  Assembly,  before  the 
dissolution  thereof,  and  nominate  time  and  place  when  and 
where  the  next  General  Assembly  shall  be  holden." 

The  Assembly  appointed  some  brethren  to  w^ait  on  the  king, 
and  to  recapitulate  bluntly  the  sins  and  enormities  of  himself 
and  family,  and  to  admonish  him  gravely,  in  the  name  of  the 
eternal  God,  to  have  respect  in  time  to  the  state  of  the  true  re- 
ligion, to  the  many  murders  and  oppressions  daily  multiplied 
through  impunity  and  lack  of  justice, — and  to  discharge  the 
kingly  office  in  both,  as  he  shall  eschew  the  fearful  challenge 
of  God,  and  avert  his  wrath  from  himself  and  the  whole  land, 
and,  that  he  might  be  the  better  informed,  to  lay  down  the  par- 
ticulars unto  him,  and  to  crave  his  answer  2.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  king's  good  nature,  he  did  not  much  relish  their  arro- 
gant familiarity.  One  part  of  their  faithful  warning,  it  is  to  be 
lamented,  was  but  too  true, — that  the  kingdom  was  filled  with 
violence,  and  that  the  most  enormous  crimes  escaped  unpunish- 
ed, from  the  king's  uncommonly  merciful  disposition  ;   so  that,  in 

»  Spottiswood,  388.— Caldemood,  208—271.  *  Calderwood. 


1592.]  GHURCII  OF  SCOTLAND.  347 

effect,  the  king's  clemency  became  the  most  mtolerable  tyranny 
to  the  weaker  part  of  the  nation,  which  was  harassed  with  un- 
restrained spoliation  and  murder,  by  the  powerful  barons. 

At  last,  after  a  fierce  struggle  of  twelve  years,  computing 
from  the  year  1580,  when  the  Geneva  "  novation"  got  the  au- 
thority of  an  act  of  Assembly,  or  seventeen  years  from  the  first 
broaching  of  the  doctrine  of  parity  by  Dury,  at  the  instigation 
of  Andrew  Melville, — we  have  at  last  arrived  at  a  sort  of  equi- 
vocal, unwilling  establishment  of  the  presbyterian  government. 
And  Calderwood  admits  that  it  cost  many  years  of  labour  to 
accomplish  its  recognition  by  the  authority  of  parliament,  and 
which  the  king  seized  the  first  opportunity  to  set  aside,  and  to 
restore  the  old  ej)iscopal  government,  which  had  been  held  in 
such  reverend  estimation  by  the  whole  nation,  "  and  the  learn- 
ed, grave,  and  honest  men  of  the  ministers ;"  "  its  very  form 
purchasing  it  respect."  The  whole  current  of  our  history  de- 
cidedly shows  what  difficulty  the  presbyterian  party  encoun- 
tered in  their  reiterated  attempts  to  introduce  the  holy  disci- 
pline into  the  church,  and  which  at  first  cost  them  seventeen 
years  of  contention,  before  they  could  secure  a  legal  establish- 
ment. Nevertheless,  the  titular  bishops  still  continued  to  hold 
their  offices  in  the  church,  though  without  jurisdiction,  and 
their  places  in  the  state;  subject,  however,  to  the  unrelenting 
persecution,  hatred,  and  scurrilous  abuse  of  the  brethren. 

All  historians  have  hitherto,  as  if  by  a  sort  of  tacit  consent, 
written  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  as  if  it  had  been  originally, 
and  without  any  controversy,Presby  terian,  and  without  noticing 
the  violent  convulsions  which  agitated  the  kingdom  during  the 
jjrogress  of  Melville's  designs.  I  have  endeavoured  to  show, 
from  the  unimpeachable  testimony  of  contemporary  and  pres- 
byterian historians,  that  the  reverse  of  this  is  the  fact ;  and 
that  the  Church,  founded  by  Knox  in  1560,  was  undeniably 
prelatical,  and  continued  to  be  so  without  challenge,  till  Mel- 
ville and  Dury  began  their  attack  upon  it,  anno  1575,  when 
presbytery  was  first  mooted  ;  and  that  it  was  not  established 
for  fully  seventeen  years  of  contention  and  intrigue  afterwards. 


348 
CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  DEATH  OF  MARY  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 

The  queen's  rights — Character. — State  of  the  country. — The  queen's  liberality. 
— The  lord  James,  his  ambition. — Bishop  Leslie — His  account  of  Moray's 
intrigues — Who  opposes  the  queen's  marriage — Takes  up  arms — instigates  to 
murder  of  Rizzio.  —  Queen's  escape  from  danger. — Hatred  of  Moray  and 
Darnley. — Moray's  guilty  knowledge  of  Darnley's  murder — Accused  thereof 
by  several  parties. — Camden's  account. — Bothwell  the  actual  perpetrator  of 
Darnley's  murder. — BothweU  tried  and  acquitted. — Intrigues  of  the  nobles — 
Their  usage  of  the  queen. — Ehzabeth's  share  in  these  transactions — Forged 
letters,  &c. — Bothwell's  violent  abduction  of  the  queen — His  marriage  with 
the  queen — Her  flight  into  England. — Babington's  conspiracy. — The  queen's 
trial. — James's  exertions  to  save  his  mother. — The  ministers  refuse  to  pray  for 
the  queen. — the  king  insulted  from  the  pulpit. — public  worship  ceases. — The 
queen's  behaviour  —  Her  request  to  queen  Elizabeth.  —  Attempts  made  to 
poison  Mary. — ^Wingfield's  letter  to  Cecil. — Notice  given  to  prepare  for  death. 
— Description  of  her  person  and  dress — Her  message  to  the  king — Her  request 
to  the  English  peers  present. — The  earl  of  Kent's  answer. — Her  further  suit 
•  denied — but  afterwards  granted. — Description  of  the  room  and  apparatus  of 
death. — The  dean  of  Peterborough's  exhortation. — The  queen's  objections  to 
his  ministry. — Her  prayer — Her  conduct  previous  to  death. — The  execution. — 
Her  body  embalmed  and  interred — Inscription  on  her  tomb — Some  reflections 
on  her  state  and  circumstances. — The  fate  of  her  enemies — with  their  con- 
fessions.—  Earl  of  Moray  —  The  effects  of  his  ambition — His  murder. — 
Bothwell,  duke  of  Orkney — His  death,  character,  and  confession. — Kirkaldy  of 
Grange. — Morton — His  confession. 

While  James  was  tormented,  in  a  sort  of  living  purgatory, 
by  the  seditious  and  ungovernable  conduct  of  the  Presbyterian 
teachers,  he  was  suddenly  roused  by  the  bloody  catastrophe 
of  his  unfortunate  mother's  long  imprisonment — a  murder  that 
will  ever  reflect  indelible  disgrace  on  the  memory  of  Elizabeth. 

The  brief  and  turbulent  reign  of  the  unhappy  and  ill-used 
Mary  ceased  de  facto  at  Carberry  Hill ;  her  right  ^e^wre  con- 
tinued to  the  period  of  her  legal  murder.  The  infamous  lies 
and  forgeries  of  the  author  of  Knox's  history,  and  his  contem- 
porary George  Buchanan,  have  been  by  many  historians  fol- 
lowed, and  even  improved  on.  The  democratical  and  rebel- 
lious principles  inculcated  by  these  two  eminent  men  operated 
most  foully  and  fatally  not  only  during  her  whole  reign,  but 
has  worked  like  a  canker  ever  since.  The  malignant  poison 
infused  by  them  has  pursued  her  memory  with  a  satanical 


1592.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  349 

ferocity  worthy  only  of  the  great  father  of  lies.  Malignity, 
slander,  and  forgery,  seem  to  have  been  the  peculiar  charac- 
teristics of  the  Scottish  reformers  of  that  period;  and  who  have 
left  such  a  stain  of  infamy  on  the  national  character  as  no  time 
can  obliterate,  and  to  which  no  country  can  present  a  parallel. 
"  Rebellion  is  as  the  sin  of  witchcraft,  and  stubbornness  is  as 
iniquity  and  idolatry  ^" 

Mary  was  unquestionably  one  of  the  first  women  of  the  bar- 
barous age  in  which  she  lived.  While  young,  beautiful,  and  ac- 
complished, she  had  filled  and  adorned  the  throne  of  France. 
She  was  well  qualified  for  business,  and  capable  of  making 
extraordinary  bodily  exertion ;  she  was  actuated  by  a  frank  and 
generous  spirit ;  with  a  quick  vivacity,  both  of  mind  and  body, 
as  even  her  bitterest  enemies  acknowledged;  and  she  was  also 
endowed  with  a  ready  and  graceful  eloquence.  The  death  of  her 
husband,  the  French  king,  compelled  her  to  return  to  her  native 
kingdom,  which  was  distracted  by  religious  rancour;  and  the 
royal  authority  set  at  nought  by  a  barbarous  nobility,  who, 
from  so  many  and  recent  minorities  of  the  crown,  had  become 
nearly  independent  princes,  and  waged  with  each  other  the 
most  deadly  and  murderous  feuds.  The  Protestant  ministers 
of  the  period  were  most  bigotted  and  uncharitable ;  of  a  dicta- 
torial, censorious  habit,  in  their  speech  and  conversation  ;  and 
often  guilty  of  the  most  petulant  rudeness  and  familiarity  to 
their  sovereign.  Yet,  with  a  charity  and  moderation  unknown 
to  the  age,  and  certainly  never  practised  by  her  enemies,  and 
with  a  discretion  which  shows  the  superiority  of  her  under- 
standing, she  confirmed  the  Protestant  religion  by  proclama- 
tion, on  her  first  arrival  fi'om  France,  when  she  found  it  to  be 
the  established  profession  of  the  majority  of  her  subjects.  She 
only  claimed  for  herself  the  free  exercise  of  the  religion  of  that 
church  in  which  she  had  received  her  Christianity,  and  in 
which  she  firmly  believed  she  should  find  salvation.  She 
solemnly  protested,  in  her  reply  to  the  superintendents'  and 
ministers'  petition,  that  she  "  did  not  in  any  time  coming  in- 
tend to  force  the  conscience  of  any  person,  but  to  permit  every 
one  to  serve  God  in  such  a  manner  as  they  are  persuaded  to  be 
the  best  ^."  Nevertheless,  the  bigotted  ministers,  in  their  in- 
furiated zeal  against  popery,  would,  by  no  persuasions,  allow 
the  same  toleration  to  their  sovereign,  which  she,  unsolicited, 
and  out  of  the  native  goodness  of  her  heart,  freely  permitted  to 
the  meanest  peasant  in  her  kingdom. 

Mary  was  surrounded  by  traitors  from  the  first  moment  of 
her  treading  on  Scottish  ground,  the  principal  of  whom  was 

'  1  Sam.  XV.  23  *  Spottiswood. 


350  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IX. 

her  bastard  brother,  the  Lord  James,  whom  she  created  earl 
of  Moray.  He  was  a  man  of  considerable  ability,  cunning, 
and  hypocrisy.  By  the  most  horrid  crimes,  of  which  he  had 
the  address  to  make  others  the  instruments,  he  raised  himself 
superior  to  his  sovereign,  and  sealed  himself  on  her  throne. 
Dreading  his  ambition,  his  father  James  V.  placed  him  in  the 
church,  the  pope's  bull  dispensing  with  his  bastardy,  which 
disqualifies  for  church  endowments.  He  was,  first,  prior  of 
St.  Andrews,  and  sat  as  such  in  the  parliament  of  1560,  as  one 
of  the  spiritual  estate  ;  he  next  obtained  the  priory  of  Pitten- 
weem,  and  also  that  of  Mascon,  in  France.  Of  course,  he  took 
the  usual  oaths  to  the  pope  and  the  archbishop.  But  the 
church  was  not  the  object  of  the  lord  James's  ambition.  The 
stirring  times  of  the  Reformation,  in  the  turbulent  regency  of 
Mary  of  Lorraine,  drew  him  from  the  cloister,  and  he  ex- 
changed the  cowl  for  the  helmet.  At  the  early  age  of  seven- 
teen, he  entered  into  a  correspondence  with  the  court  of  Eng- 
land, and  engaged  in  a  traitorous  conspiracy  with  it  against 
his  country,  his  sovereign,  and  family  i.  Such  a  commence- 
ment in  treason  would  naturally  ripen  into  a  manhood  of  deter- 
mined rebellion ;  and,  accordingly,  we  find  him  engaged  in 
repeated  rebellions,  murders,  and  regicide,  and  making  a  cloak 
of  religion  to  cover  his  ambitious  designs  on  the  throne. 

Leslie,  the  learned  and  loyal  bishop  of  Ross,  has  long  since 
represented  the  lord  James  in  his  true  colours  ;  but  the  ample 
cloak  of  religious  hypocrisy,  for  obvious  reasons,  has  with  great 
care  and  caution  covered  over  the  unnatural  villany  of  the  good 
regent.  Leslie  was  Queen  Mary's  ambassador  at  the  court  of 
England,  and  one  of  her  commissioners  at  York,  Westminster, 
and  Hampton  Court,  and  continued  to  the  last  faithful  to  his 
imprisoned  queen.  He  says, — "  But  it  is  the  earl  of  Moray 
we  have,  above  all,  to  charge  and  burthen.  I  will  make  my  be- 
ginning with  the  great  and  unnatural  unkindness  and  ingrati- 
tude showed  by  him  to  his  dear  sister  and  most  bountiful  mis- 
tress and  sovereign. 

"  At  what  time  she  minded,  after  the  death  of  her  first  hus- 
band, the  French  king,  to  repair  unto  her  own  realm  of  Scot- 
land, she  sent  forthwith  for  him  into  France,  and  asked  his  ad- 
vice and  counsel  in  all  her  affairs,  even  as  she  did  also  after  her 
return  into  Scotland,  so  far  that  she  had  but,  as  it  were,  the 
name  and  calling,  he  bearing  the  very  sway  of  the  regiment,  and 
by  her  honoured  and  adorned  with  the  earldom  of  Moray  ;  and 
at  length,  by  one  means  or  other,  furnished  with  so  great  and 
ample  possessions,  that  besides  other  commodities  and  advan- 

1  Goodall. 


1592.1  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  351 

tao"es,  the  yearly  rent  thereof  passeth  and  surmounteth  the 
sura  of  twenty  and  six  thousand  pounds,  after  the  rate  of  their 
money. 

"  Behold  now  the  thankfulness  of  this  good  and  grateful 
nature  !  he  laboured  and  endeavoured  all  that  he  possibly 
could  to  withhold  the  queen's  mind,  and  stay  her  from  all  man- 
ner of  marriage,  and  to  entail  the  crown  of  the  realm  upon 
himself  (though  he  was  illegitimate,  and  incapable  thereof), 
and  to  the  name  and  the  blood  of  the  Stuarts ;  but  when  he 
saw  and  thoroughly  perceived,  and  well  knew,  that  the  queen 
was  fully  minded  and  earnestly  bent,  and  had  now  determined 
to  join  herself  in  marriage  with  the  lord  Darnley,  he  practised 
means,  by  his  assistance  and  procurement,  to  have  slain  him 
and  his  father,  and  to  have  imprisoned  her  at  Lochleven,  and 
to  have  usurped  the  government  himself,  as  he  now  doth. 

"  But  now  when  he  saw  this  his  intent  and  purpose  disclosed 
and  prevented,  and  that  the  solemnization  of  the  marriage  was 
already  past,  he  showed  himself  and  adherents  in  open  field 
and  in  arms  against  the  queen  his  mistress ;  whereupon  he 
was  driven  to  flee  into  England  ;  at  which  his  then  abode  he 
instantly  besought  and  solicited  for  aid  against  his  sovereign, 
which  was  worthily  denied  him. 

"  Then  began  he  to  practise  with  the  earl  of  Morton,  by  his 
letters  and  messengers,  about  the  detestable  slaughter  of  David, 
the  queen's  secretary,  who,  by  their  mischievous  sleight  and 
crafty  persuasion,  induced  the  lord  Darnley, — promising  him 
to  remove  the  queen  from  meddling  with  all  political  affairs, 
and  actually  to  put  him  in  possession  of  the  crown,  and  of  the 
rule  and  government  of  the  realm, — to  join  with  them  in 
traitorous  conspiracy  against  the  queen,  his  most  dear  and 
loving  wife,  and  most  dread  sovereign ;  whereupon  the  murder 
was  in  most  horrible  and  traitorous  ways  committed  in  the 
queen's  own  chamber  of  presence,  upon  him,  violently  plucked 
from  the  queen  ;  she  also  being  cruelly  menaced  and  sore 
threatened,  having  also  a  charged  pistolet  set  to  her  belly, 
being  then  great  with  child,  and  then  removed  from  her  privy 
chamber  into  another,  where  she  was  kept  a  prisoner. 

"  The  young,  inexpert,  and  rash  loi-d  Darnley,  who,  being 
blinded  with  outrageous  ambition,  could  not  foresee  the  devilish 
drift  of  these  most  crafty  merchants,  began  now,  but  almost 
too  late,  to  espy  it ;  and  seeing  himself  as  nigh  the  danger  as 
was  his  wife  the  queen,  repaired  to  her,  most  humbly  asking 
her  pardon  of  his  heinous  attempt,  and  pitifully  crying  out 
to  her  to  provide  and  find  out  some  present  way  to  preserve 
themselves  both ;  who,  by  the  queen's  politic  industry,  was 


352  HISTOR\  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IX. 

privily  with  herself  conveyed  away  out  of  the  rebel's  clanger, 
and  by  him  this  wicked  drift,  and  the  drivers  and  contrivers 
thereof,  were  discovered  to  the  queen. 

"  But  lo !  the  next  day  after  this  slaughter,  the  earl  of  Moray 
entered  Scotland,  and  repaired  to  the  queen  with  as  fair  a 
countenance  as  though  he  had  been  clear,  as  \Aell  for  that  fact 
as  for  all  other  treasons;  whereof  the  gentle  and  merciful  queen 
pardoned  him,  admitting  him  again  into  her  graces,  love,  and 
favour.  Whereat  the  lord  Darnley,  much  misliking,  and  vehe- 
mently repining,  feared  that  he  would  be,  as  he  was  indeed, 
when  he  saw  his  time,  revenged  upon  him,  because  he  was  of 
him  delated  to  the  queen  for  being  one  and  the  chief  of  the 
councellors,  aiders,  and  assertors  in  the  conspiracy  about  the 
murder  of  the  secretary  now  committed. 

"  These  and  the  like  imaginations  so  deeply  sunk  into,  and 
pierced  the  young  man  (lord  Darnley's)  heart,  that  he  finally 
resolved  with  himself,  by  one  means  or  other,  to  rid  the  earl  of 
Moray  out  of  his  way.  Whereat  he  went  so  far  forth,  that  he 
communicated  his  passion  to  the  queen,  who  did  most  highly 
mislike  therewith,  and  most  vehemently  deterred  him  from  the 
said  his  intent :  yet  did  he  break  the  matter  farther  as  to  certain 
other  noblemen,  by  whom  at  last  it  was  revealed  to  the  earl  of 
Moray.  Wherefore,  the  earl  did  for  ever  after  bear  him  a  deadly 
enmity  and  hatred.  Whereupon  at  length,  all  other  attempts 
failing  him,  this  execrable  murder  was  by  him,  the  said  earl 
Moray,  and  by  the  earl  Morton,  first  devised,  and  afterwards 
committed  in  such  strange  and  heinous  sort  as  the  world 
knoweth  and  detesteth. 

"  Is  it  unknown,  think  ye,  my  lord  of  Moray,  what  lord 
Herries  said  to  your  face  openly,  even  at  your  own  table,  a  few 
days  after  the  murder  was  committed  ?  did  he  not  charge  vou 
with  the  fore-knowledge  of  the  said  murder  ?  did  he  not,  nulla 
circuitione  usus,  flatly  and  plainly  burthen  you,  that  you,  riding 
in  Fife,  and  coming  with  one  of  your  most  assured  trusty  ser- 
vants, the  said  day  wherein  you  departed  from  Edinburgh,  said 
to  him,  among  other  talk — this  night,  ere  morning,  the  lord 
Darnley  shall  lose  his  life  ? 

"  Is  it  not  full  well  known,  that  ye  and  the  earls  Bothwell, 
Morton,  and  others,  assembled  at  the  Castle  of  Craigmillar,  at 
dinner-time,  to  consult  and  devise  on  this  mischief .  If  need 
were,  we  could  rehearse  and  recount  to  you  the  whole  sum  and 
effect  of  the  oration  made  by  the  most  eloquent  among  ye 
(Lethington),  to  stir  up,  exhort,  and  inflame  your  faction  then 
present,  to  determine  and  resolve  themselves  to  despatch  and 
make  a  hand  with  the  lord  Darnley. 


1586.]  CHURCH  OP  SCOTLAND.  353 

"  We  can  tell  you,  that  John  Hepburn,  Bothwell's  servant, 
being  executed  for  his  and  your  traitorous  fact,  did  openly  say 
and  testify,  as  he  should  answer  the  contrary  before  God,  that 
you  (Moray,  Morton,  and  Lethington)  were  principal  authors, 
counsellors,  and  assistants  with  his  master,  of  this  execrable 
murder,  and  that  his  said  master  so  told  him. 

"  We  can  tell  you,  that  John  Hay  of  Galloway,  that  Powry, 
that  Dalgleish,  and  last  of  all,  that  Paris,  all  being  put  to 
death  for  this  crime,  took  God  to  record,  at  the  time  of  their 
death,  that  this  murder  was  by  your  counsel,  invention,  and 
drift  committed ;  who  also  declared,  that  they  never  knew  the 
queen  to  be  participant  or  ware  thereof. 

"  We  can  further  tell  you  of  the  great  goodness  of  God,  and 
of  the  mighty  force  of  truth,  whereby  although  ye  have  won- 
derfully tormented  and  tossed,  though  ye  have  reached  and 
put  to  death  as  w'ell  innocents  as  guilty,  your  own  confederates, 
and  offered  many  of  them  their  pardons,  so  they  would  depose 
any  thing  against  the  queen,  God  hath  so  wrought,  that,  as 
for  neither  torments  nor  fair  promises  they  could  be  brought 
falsely  to  defame  their  mistress,  so  without  any  torments  at 
all,  they  have  voluntarily  purged  her,  and  so  laid  the  burden 
on  your  neck  and  shoulders,  that  ye  shall  never  be  able  to 
shake  it  off." 

The  above  testimony  of  the  bishop  of  Ross  is  most  amply 
corroborated  by  Camden,  an  English  contemporary  author,  who 
had  the  best  opportunities  of  gaining  inforaiation,  being  em- 
ployed by  secretary  Cecil,  and  intrusted  with  his  papers.  He 
repeats  the  same  facts  as  those  already  quoted  from  Lesslie, 
and  nearly  in  the  same  words.  I  commence  his  narrative  at 
the  place  where  the  bishop  concludes  : — 

"  These  two,  above  all  things  (meaning  Moray  and  Morton), 
thought  it  best  utterly  to  alienate  the  queen's  mind  from  tlie 
king,  their  love  not  being  yet  well  renewed,  and  to  draw  Both- 
well  into  their  society,  who  was  lately  reconciled  to  Moray, 
and  was  in  great  grace  with  the  queen,  putting  him  in  hope 
of  divorce  from  his  wife,  and  marriage  with  the  queen,  as  soon 
as  she  was  a  widow.  To  the  performance  hereof,  and  to  de- 
fend him  against  all  men,  they  bound  themselves  under  their 
hands  and  seals,  supposing  that  if  the  matter  succeeded,  they 
could,  with  one  and  the  same  labour,  make  away  with  the 
king,  weaken  the  queen's  reputation  among  the  nobility  and 
conunons,  tread  down  Bothwell,  and  draw  unto  themselves  the 
whole  management  of  the  state. 

"  Bothwell,  being  a  wicked-minded  mai^,  blinded  with  am- 

VOL.  I.  2z 


354  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IX. 

bitioii,  and  thereby  desperately  bold  to  attempt,  soon  laid  hold 
on  the  hope  propounded,  and  lewdly  connnitted  the  murder, 
while  Moray,  scarce  fifteen  hours  before,  had  withdrawn  him- 
self farther  off  to  his  own  house,  lest  he  should  come  within 
suspicion  ;  and  that  he  might  from  tlience,  if  need  were,  relieve 
the  conspirators,  and  the  whole  suspicion  might  light  on  the 
queen.  No  sooner  was  he  returned  to  the  coml,  but  he  and 
the  conspirators  commended  Bothwell  to  the  queen  for  a 
husband,  as  most  worthy  of  her  love,  fo;-  the  dignity  of  his 

house,  &c. 

"  Now  the  confederates'  whole  care  and  labour  was,  that 
Bothwell  might  be  acquitted  of  the  murder  of  the  king.  A 
parliament  is  therefore  forthwith  summoned  for  no  other  cause, 
and  proclamations  set  forth,  that  such  as  were  suspected  of 
the  murder  should  be  apprehended.  And  whereas  Lennox, 
the  murdered  king's  father,  accused  Bothwell  to  be  the  mur- 
derer of  the  king,  and  instantly  pressed  that  he  might  be 
brought  to  his  trial  before  the  Assembly  of  the  estates  began  ; 
this  also  was  granted,  and  Lennox  was  commanded  to  appear 
within  twenty  days,  to  prosecute  the  matter  against  him.  Upon 
which  day,  Bothwell  was  arraigned  and  acquitted  by  sentence 
of  the  judges, — Morton  managing  the  cause. 

"This  business  being  despatched,  the  conspirators  so 
wrought  the  matter,  that  very  many  of  the  nobility  assented 
to  the  marriage,  setting  their  hands  to  a  writing  to  that  purpose, 
lest  he,  being  excluded  from  his  promised  marriage,  should 
accuse  them  as  contrivers  of  the  whole  fact.  By  means  of  this 
marriage  with  Bothwell,  the  suspicion  grew  strong  amongst  all 
men,  that  the  queen  was  privy  to  the  murder  of  the  king,  which 
suspicion  the  conspirators  increased  by  sending  letters  all 
about ;  and  in  secret  meetings  at  Dalkeith,  they  presently  con- 
spired the  deposing  of  the  queen,  and  the  destruction  of  Both- 
well.  Yet  Moray,  that  he  might  seem  to  be  clear  of  the  whole 
conspiracy,  craved  leave  of  the  queen  to  go  into  France.  Scarce 
was  he  crossed  over  out  of  England,  when,  behold  '.  those  who 
had  acquitted  Bothwell  from  the  guilt  of  the  murder,  and  gave 
him  their  consent  under  their  hands  to  the  marriage,  took  up 
arms  against  him,  as  if  they  would  apprehend  him  ;  whereas 
indeed,  they  gave  him  secret  notice  to  provide  for  himself  by 
flight,  and  this  to  no  other  purpose  but  lest  he  being  appre- 
hended should  reveal  the  whole  plot,  and  that  they  might  allege 
his  flight  as  an  argument  to  accuse  the  queen  of  the  murder 
of  the  king.  Having  next  intercepted  her,  they  used  her  iii  a 
most  disgraceful  and  unworthy  manner,  and  clothing  her  in  a  vile 


1586.]  •  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  355 

weed,  thrust  her  into  prison  at  Lochleven,  under  the  custody 
of  Moray's  mother,  who  having  been  James's  V.  concubine, 
most  malapertly  aggravated  the  calamity  of  the  imprisoned 
queen,  boasting  that  she  was  the  lav^ful  wife  of  James  V.,  and 
that  her  son  Moray  was  her  lawful  issued" 

The  conspirators,  Moray,  Morton,  and  Lethington,  by  whom 
Mary  was  surrounded,  were  constantly  plotting  her  destruc- 
tion, and  these  again  were  mere  tools  in  the  hands  of  the 
queen  of  England,  who  was  the  instigator  of  all  the  deeds  of 
blood  and  treason  which  were  entered  into  by  these  remorseless 
traitors.  She  was  contimially  plotting  with  Mary's  subjects, 
and  kept  the  whole  kingdom  in  a  state  of  rebellion  and  resis- 
tance to  the  lawful  authority  of  its  natural  sovereign,  by  all  the 
arts  of  perfidy,  hypocrisy,  jealousy,  and  vindictiveness,  which 
could  incite  the  infuriated  heart  of  a  disapj^ointed  woman  and  a 
jealous  rival.  By  the  instructions  of  that  master  spirit,  the  carl 
of  Moray,  Lethington  forged  Mary's  name  to  documents  de- 
structive of  the  lives  of  her  best  friends ;  and  in  order  to  destroy 
her  reputation,  he  and  Buchanan  forged  letters  and  sonnets 
of  impassioned  love  for  Bothwell,  whom  she  detested.  He 
forged  her  name  to  public  documents,  to  answer  the  plans  of 
ambition  and  treason  of  his  villanous  employer ;  and  that  junto 
of  traitors  had  the  address  to  attach  the  whole  infamy  of  their 
unheard-of  treasons,  murders,  and  villanies,  on  the  guiltless 
head  of  their  too  easy  and  generous  sovereig  •.  With  the  as- 
sistance of  Buchanan  and  the  author  of  Knox's  history,  they 
have  handed  down  their  calumnies  to  posterity  as  historical 
facts,  but  which  have  been  triumphantly  confuted  by  the  lau- 
dable exertions  of  several  modem  authors.  That  Bothwell 
committed  the  double  crime  of  abduction  and  rape  on  her  per- 
son, cannot  admit  of  doubt ;  and  that  she  w^as  compelled  to 
marry  him  through  force  and  constraint,  will  admit  of  as  little 
doubt.  That  the  perjured  traitors  who  plighted  their  knightly 
honour  at  Carberry  hill  and  broke  it,  who  imprisoned  her  in 
Lochleven  Castle  and  deprived  her  of  the  sovereignty,  in- 
tended also  to  have  consummated  their  villany  by  murder,  is 
proved  by  the  debates  in  the  pretended  parliament,  and  the 
menacing  words  of  the  regent  Moray,  when  the  captive  queen 
entreated,  that  as  a  brother  he  would  spare  her  life  ;  nd  repu- 
tation. "  The  latter,"  said  he,  "  is  already  lost ;  Lut  as  to 
your  life,  the  parliament  must  look  to  that."  And  the  brutal 
Lindsay,  says  Lesslie,  "  most  grievously,  with  fearful  words, 
and  very  cruel   and  stern   countenance,  threatened  her,  that 

^  Camden's  History. 


356  HISTORY  OF  THE  •        [CHAF.  IX, 

unless  she  would  subscribe,"  (the  deed  of  abdication)  «  she 
should  lose  her  lifeP 

Mary,  however,  escaped  from  the  fangs  of  her  enemies  ;  but 
the  imprudent  rashness  of  her  friends  lost  the  decisive  battle 
of  Langside.  In  an  unhappy  moment  of  misplaced  confi- 
dence, she  took  refuge  in  England,  and  solicited  the  protection 
of  Elizabeth,  who  had  secretly  conspired  with  her  brother  and 
the  seditious  ministers,  and  who  was  at  that  very  moment  sup- 
porting Moray's  ambitious  views.  Mary  was  now  at  her 
mercy,  within  her  power,  and  presented  one  of  the  most  glo- 
rious opportunities  of  acting  towards  a  fallen  queen  with  gene- 
rosity and  honour.  But  Elizabeth  was  so  involved  in  the 
guilt  of  the  times  that  she  suppressed  every  sentiment  of  honour 
and  heroism,  and  seized  the  unsuspicious  queen  as  her  prey, 
imprisoned  her,  and  brought  her  to  trial  as  a  criminal. 

The  hopes  of  the  Roman  Catholics  were  naturally  fixed  on 
Mary,  and  as  that  body  of  christians  had  entered  into  several 
plots  against  Elizabeth,  with  the  avowed  intention  of  seating 
Mary  on  her  throne :  advantage  was  taken  of  one  of  these,  en- 
tered into  by  one  Babington,  which  served  as  a  plausible  ex- 
cuse for  consummating  the  long  list  of  crimes  against  that  un- 
fortunate queen.  Different  opinions  prevailed  in  the  English 
council ;  some  advised  to  despatch  her  by  poison,  but  others 
recommended  the  course  of  law  ;  which  opinion  prevailing, 
"  certain  noblemen,  councillors,  and  judges,  were  chosen  for 
the  business,"  who,  repairing  to  Fotheringay  Castle,  sum- 
moned her  majesty  before  them,  and  charged  her  with  being 
concerned  in  that  conspiracy.  With  heroic  fortitude  her  ma- 
jesty refused  to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  the  court,  de- 
clined to  answer,  or  to  be  tried  as  a  subject,  being  herself  the 
sovereign  of  an  independent  kingdom.  Her  doom,  however, 
was  fixed  before ;  the  court  had  merely  to  go  through  the 
necessary  forms  to  preserve  the  appearance  of  legality.  They 
found  her  guilty,  and  pronounced  sentence  of  death,  which  was 
shortly  afterwards  confirmed  by  Elizabeth  and  the  three 
estates  of  the  English  parliament. 

When  James  heard  of  the  horrid  tragedy,  he  made  every 
exertion  to  save  his  mother's  life.  He  sent  several  ambassa- 
dors to  negociate  with  Elizabeth,  but  to  no  purpose ;  for  they 
were  won  by  bribes  to  betray  him,  and  spin  out  the  time  till 
the  execrable  murder  was  effected.  James  finding  all  his  ef- 
forts ineffectual,  recalled  his  treacherous  ambassadors,  and 
commanded  the  ministers  to  pray  for  the  queen  his  mother, 
"that  it  might  please  God  to  illuminate  her  with  the  light  of 
his  truth,  and  save  her  from  the  apparent  danger  wherein  she 


1586.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  357 

was  cast."  Not  one  of  these  worthy  gentlemen,  however, 
would  do  so,  one  only  excepted ;  David  Lindsay  of  Leith ,  alone 
of  all  the  godly  brethren,  had  sufficient  charity  and  fortitude 
to  obey  the  prince's  precept.  They  kept  Knox's  unchristian 
example  and  uncharitable  sentiments  in  remembrance,  "  that 
she  was  utterly  unworthyof  their  prayers."  The  opposition  to 
the  prince's  pious  intentions  was  strongest  in  Edinburgh,  the 
clerical  watch-tower  of  the  nation  for  sedition  and  treason  ;  but 
as  he  was  determined  to  carry  his  filial  intentions  into  effect, 
he  appointed  a  special  day  for  offering  up  prayers  in  her  behalf, 
and  commanded  archbishop  Adamson  to  officiate  on  that  day 
in  St.  Giles's  church.  This  was  too  good  an  opportunity  for 
insulting  the  feelings  of  the  prince  to  be  neglected, — the  bre- 
thren might  live  a  century  without  meeting  such  another  op- 
portunity. Accordingly,  in  the  diabolical  spirit  which  the 
presbyterian  regimen  infused  into  the  ministers  of  the  period, 
they  prompted  a  young  fellow  named  Cowper,  who  was  not  even 
in  their  own  pretended  orders,  to  mount  the  pulpit  before  the 
time,  so  as  to  exclude  the  archbishop.  When  James  entered 
the  church,  and  saw  the  pulpit  thus  occupied,  he  addressed  the 
intruder  from  his  pew,  saying,  "  Master  John,  that  place  was 
destined  for  another ;  yet  since  you  are  there,  if  you  will  obey 
the  charge  that  is  given,  and  remember  my  mother  in  your 
prayers,  you  may  proceed."  But  that  was  just  what  he  had 
been  placed  there  on  purpose  to  omit,  and  adding  blasphemy 
to  his  insolence, — he  audaciously  replied,  "  He  would  do  as 
the  Spirit  of  God  should  direct  him,'''  clearly  indicating  the 
course  which  he  intended  to  pursue.  James  commanded  him 
to  withdraw,  but  he  refused  to  move  ;  and  the  captain  of  the 
guard  was  therefore  sent  to  remove  him  forcibly ;  but  before 
leaving  the  pulpit,  he  denounced  a  woe  on  the  people,  and 
addressing  the  prince,  said,  "  This  day  shall  be  a  witness 
against  the  king  in  the  day  of  the  Lord."  He  also  said  to  the 
king,  that  "  he  should  make  account  one  day  to  the  Great 
Judge  of  the  world  for  such  dealing."  The  privy  council  sent 
Cowper  to  Blackness,  with  some  other  ministers  who  justified 
his  conduct,  and  uttered  seditious  speeches ;  on  which  there 
was  no  public  worship  in  Edinburgh,  even  the  king's  own  chap- 
lains, Craig  and  Duncanson,  not  only  positively  refused  to 
pray  for  her  preservation,  but  declined  to  officiate  at  alP. 

The  queen  was  rather  joyful  than  dejected  at  the  near  pros- 
pect of  death,  and  thanked  God  that  her  sorrows  were  so  soon 
to  be  ended.     She  wrote  to  Elizabeth,  requesting,  "  in  the 

'  Calderwood,  p.  211. — Spottiswood. 


358  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  IX. 

name  of  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  soul  and  memory  of  Henry  VII. 
progenitor  of  both,  and  by  the  royal  honour  and  title  which 
she  had  borne,  that  her  body  might  be  carried  by  her  servants 
into  France,  to  be  buried  beside  her  mother  ;  that  she  should 
not  be  put  to  death  secretly,  but  in  the  presence  of  her  servants 
and  others,  who  might  witness  her  dying  in  Christ,  against  the 
false  rumours  which  her  adversaries  might  disj)erse  of  her;  and 
that  her  servants  might  be  permitted  to  go  whither  they  chose, 
and  enjoy  the  mean  legacies  she  had  bequeathed  to  them."  To 
none  of  all  these  requests  did  the  queen  of  England  return  any 
answer,  under  pretence  that  she  had  never  received  any  such 
letter. 

Elizabeth  had  made  many  efforts  to  have  her  taken  off  by 
poison,  but  could  procure  none  base  enough  for  that  purpose; 
which  made  her  break  out  into  reproaches  against  the  keepers, 
as  "  nice  and  precise  fellows,"  and  into  scornful  complaints  of 
the  "  daintiness  of  their  consciences."  Persecution  could  not 
have  been  carried  further  than  in  the  present  instance ;  for 
Mary  was  peremptorily  denied  the  consolation  of  her  confessor 
in  her  last  moments.  She  was  even  forced  to  hear  the  exhor- 
tations of  the  dean  of  Peterborough,  who,  with  mistaken  zeal, 
disturbed  her  peace  with  an  attempt  to  make  her  a  proselyte. 
At  the  block  he  persisted  in  speaking,  when  Mary  said,"  Peace, 
Mr.  Dean  ;  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  you,  nor  you  with  me." 
The  noblemen  then  interfered,  and  prevented  any  further  per- 
secution. She  then  commended  unto  God  the  afflicted  state  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  prayed  for  her  son,  and  for  Eliza- 
beth, and  concluded,  "  As  thy  arms,  O  Christ !  were  spread  on 
the  cross,  so  with  the  outsti-etched  arms  of  thy  mercy  receive 
me,  and  forgive  me  my  sins."  And  as  she  was  about  to  lay  her 
head  on  the  block  she  sent  this  charitable  message,  with  her 
blessing,  to  her  son  : — "  Although  she  was  of  another  religion 
than  that  wherein  he  was  brought  up,  yet  she  would  not  press 
him  to  change  unless  his  conscience  forced  him  to  it ;  not 
doubting  but,  if  he  led  a  good  li/e,  and  were  careful  to  do  justice 
and  govern  well,  he  would  be  in  a  good  case  in  his  own 
religion  1." 

The  following  simple  and  affecting  narrative  was  written  by 
Robei't  Wingfield,  Esq.  an  eye-witness  of  this  horrid  tragedy, 
in  his  letter  to  Cecil : — 

"  It  being  certified,  the  sixth  of  February  last,  to  the  said 
queen,  by  the  right  honourable  the  earl  of  Kent,  the  earl  of 

'  James  I.  Premonition  to  Clu'istian  Monarchs,  cited  iu  Leslie's  Case  Stated, 
fifth  edition,  p.  99. 


1586.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  359 

Shrewsbury,  and  also  by  sir  Amias  Paulet  and  sir  Drue  Drury, 
her  governors,  that  she  was  to  prepare  herself  to  die  on  the 
eighth  of  February  next,  she  seemed  not  to  be  in  any  terror  for 
aught  that  appeared  by  any  of  her  outward  gestures  or  beha- 
viour, (other  than  marvelling  she  should  die,)  but  rather  with 
smiling,  cheerful,  and  pleasing  countenance,  digested  and  ac- 
cepted the  said  admonition  of  preparation  to  her,  as  she  said, 
unexpected  execution  ;  saying,  that  her  death  should  be  wel- 
come unto  her,  seeing  her  majesty  was  so  resolved,  and  that 
that  soul  were  too  far  unworthy  the  fruition  of  the  joys  of 
heaven  for  ever,  whose  body  would  not,  in  this  world, be  content 
to  endure  the  stroke  of  the  executioner  for  a  moment.  And 
that  spoken,  she  wept  bitterly,  and  became  silent. 

"  The  said  eighth  day  of  February  being  come,  and  time  and 
place  appointed  for  the  execution,  the  queen  being  of  stature 
tall,  of  body  corpulent,  round-shouldered,  her  face  fat  and 
broad,  double-chinned,  and  hazel-eyed,  her  borrowed  hair 
auburn.  Her  attire  was  this:  on  her  head  she  had  a  dressing 
of  lawn, edged  with  bone  lace,  a  pomander  chain  and  an  Agnus 
Dei  about  her  neck,  a  crucifix  in  her  hand,  a  pair  of  beads  at 
her  girdle,  with  a  golden  cross  at  the  end  of  them  ;  a  veil  of 
lawn  fastened  to  her  caul,  bowed  out  with  wire,  and  edged 
round  about  with  bone  lace.  Her  gown  was  of  black  satin 
pointed,  with  a  train  and  long  sleeves  to  the  ground,  with 
aconi  buttons  of  tett,  trimmed  with  pearl,  and  short  sleeves 
of  satin  black  cut,  with  a  pair  of  sleeves  of  purple  velvet  whole 
under  them ;  her  kirtle  whole  of  figured  black  satin,  and  her 
petticoat  skirts  of  crimson  velvet;  her  shoes  of  Spanish  leather, 
with  the  rough  side  outwards ;  a  pair  of  green  silk  garters ; 
her  nether  stockings  worsted  coloured  watchett,  cloaked  with 
silver,  and  edged  on  the  top  with  silver,  and  next  her  leg  a 
pair  of  Jersey  hose  white,  &c.  Thus  apparelled  she  departed 
her  chamber,  and  willingly  bended  her  steps  towards  the  place 
of  execution. 

"  As  the  commissioners  and  divers  other  knights  were  meet- 
ing the  queen  coming  forth,  one  of  her  servants,  called  Melvin, 
kneeling  on  his  knees  to  his  queen  and  mistress,  wringing 
hands  and  shedding  tears,  used  these  words  unto  her: — '  Ah  I 
madam,  unhappy  me  !  what  man  on  earth  was  ever  the  mes- 
senger of  so  important  news  and  heaviness  as  I  shall  be,  when 
I  shall  report  that  my  good  and  gracious  queen  and  mistress 
is  beheaded  in  England  ?'  This  said,  tears  prevented  him  of 
any  farther  speaking ;  whereupon  the  said  queen,  pouring  forth 
her  dying  tears,  thus  answered  him, — '  My  good  servant,  cease 
to  lament,  for  thou  hast  cause  rather  to  joy  than  mourn ;  for 


360  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP,   IX. 

now  shall  you  see  Mary  Stuart's  troubles  receive  their  long  ex- 
pected end  and  detennination :  for  know,  (said  she,)  good  ser- 
vant, all  the  world  is  but  vanity,  and  subject  still  more  to  sor- 
row than  a  whole  ocean  of  tears  can  bewail.  But  I  pray  thee, 
(said  she,)  carry  this  message  from  me,  that  I  die  a  true  woman 
to  my  religion,  and  like  a  true  queen  of  Scotland  and  France ; 
but  God  forgive  them,  (said  she,)  that  have  long  desired  my  end, 
and  thirsted  for  my  blood  as  the  hart  doth  for  the  water-brooks. 
Oh,  God!  (said  she,)  show  thou,  [who]  art  the  anchor  of  truth, 
and  truth  itself,  and  laio  west  the  inmost  chamber  of  my  thought, 
how  that  I  was  ever  willing  that  England  and  Scotland  should 
be  united  together. — Well,  (said  she,)  commend  me  to  ray  son, 
and  tell  him  that  I  have  not  done  any  thing  prejudicial  to  the 
state  and  kingdom  of  Scotland;'  and  so  resolving  herself  again 
into  tears  said, '  Good  Melvin,  farewell !'  and  with  weeping 
eyes,  and  her  cheeks  all  besprinkled  with  tears  as  they  were, 
kissed  him,  saying,  '  Once  again  farewell,  good  Melvin,  and 
pray  for  thy  mistress  and  queen.'  And  then  she  turned  her- 
self unto  the  lords,  and  told  them  she  had  certain  requests  to 
make  unto  them.  One  was  for  certain  money  to  be  paid  to  Curie, 
her  servant:  SirAmias  Poulett,  knowing  of  that  money,  an- 
swered to  this  effect :  '  It  should.'  Next  that  her  poor  sei-vants 
might  have  that  with  quietness  which  she  had  given  them  by 
her  will,  and  that  they  might  be  favourably  entreated,  and  to 
send  them  safely  into  their  countries ;  *  to  this  (said  she)  I  con- 
jure you  last,  that  it  would  please  the  lords  to  permit  her  poor 
distressed  ser\'ants  to  be  present  about  her  at  her  death,  that 
their  eyes  and  hearts  may  see  and  viitness  how  patiently  their 
queen  and  mistress  would  endure  her  execution,  and  to  make 
relation  when  they  came  into  their  country  that  she  died  a  true 
catholic  to  her  religion.'  Then  the  earl  of  Kent  did  answer 
thus :  '  Madam,  that  which  you  have  desired,  cannot  conve- 
niently be  granted,  for  if  it  should,  it  were  to  be  feared,  lest 
some  of  them,  with  speeches  and  other  behaviour,  would  both 
be  grevious  to  your  grace,  and  troublesome  and  unpleasing  to 
us  and  our  company,  whereof  we  have  had  some  experience ; 
they  would  stick  to  put  some  superstitious  trumpery  in  prac- 
tice, and  if  it  were  but  in  dipping  their  handkerchiefs  in  your 
grace's  blood,  whereof  it  were  very  unmeet  for  us  to  give 
allowance.' 

"  My  lords  (said  the  queen  of  Scots),  I  will  give  my  word, 
although  it  be  but  dead,  that  they  shall  not  deserve  any  blame 
in  any  the  actions  you  have  named,  but,  alas!  poor  souls,  it 
would  do  them  good  to  bid  their  mistress  farewell ;  and  I  hope 
your  mistress  (meaning  the  queen),  being  a  maiden  queen,  will 


1586.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  361 

vouchsafe,  in  regard  of  womanhood,  that  I  shall  have/ some  of 
my  owTi  people  about  me  at  my  death,  and  I  know  her  majesty 
hath  not  given  you  any  such  straight  charge  or  commission, 
but  that  you  might  grant  me  a  request  of  far  greater  courtesy 
than  this  is,  if  I  were  a  woman  of  far  meaner  calling  than  the 
queen  of  Scots.'  And  then  perceiving  that  she  could  not 
obtain  her  request  without  some  difficulty,  burst  out  into  tears, 
saying, 

"  '  I  am  cousin  to  your  queen,  and  descended  from  the  blood 
royal  of  Henry  the  Seventh,  and  a  married  queen  of  France, 
and  an  anointed  queen  of  Scotland.'  Then  upon  great  consul- 
tation had  between  the  two  earls,  and  the  others  in  commis- 
sion, it  was  granted  to  her,  what  she  instantly  before  earnestly 
entreated,  and  desired  her  to  make  choice  of  six  of  her  best 
beloved  men  and  women.  Then  of  her  men  she  chose  Melvin, 
her  apothecary,  her  surgeon,  and  one  old  man  more,  and  of 
her  women,  those  two  who  did  lie  in  her  chamber.  Then 
with  an  unappalled  countenance,  without  any  terror  of  the 
place,  the  persons,  or  the  preparations,  she  came  out  of  the 
entry  into  the  hall,  stepped  up  to  the  scaffold,  being  two  feet 
high,  and  twelve  feet  broad,  with  rails  round  about,  hmig 
and  covered  with  black,  with  a  low  stool,  long  fair  cushion, 
and  a  block  covered  also  with  black.  The  stool  brought  her, 
she  sat  down  ;  the  earl  of  Kent  stood  on  the  right  hand,  and 
the  earl  of  Shrewsbury  on  the  other ;  other  knights  and  gen- 
tlemen stood  about  the  rails.  The  commission  for  her  execu- 
tion was  read  (after  silence  made)  by  Mr.  Beale,  clerk  of  the 
council,  which  done,  the  people  with  a  loud  voice  said, '  God 
save  the  queen.'  During  the  reading  of  this  commission,  the 
said  queen  was  very  silent,  listening  unto  it  with  so  careless 
a  regard,  as  if  it  had  not  concerned  her  at  all,  nay,  rather  with 
so  merry  and  cheerful  a  countenance,  as  if  it  had  been  a 
pardon  from  her  majesty  for  her  life,  and  with  all  used  such  a 
strangeness  in  her  words,  as  if  she  had  not  known  any  o. 
the  assembly,  nor  had  been  any  thing  seen  in  the  English 
tongue. 

"ThenMr.  Doctor  Fletcher,  dean  of  Peterborough,  standing 
directly  before  her  without  the  rails,  bending  his  body  with 
great  reverence,  uttered  this  exhortation  following : — 

"  '  Madam,  the  queen's  most  excellent  majesty  (whom  God 
preserve  long  to  reign  over  us),  having  (notwithstanding  this 
preparation  for  the  execution  of  justice  justly  to  be  done  upon 
you,  for  your  many  trespasses  against  her  sacred  person,  state, 
and  government,)  a  tender  care  over  your  soul,  which  presently 
departing  out  of  your  body,  must  either  be  separated  in  the 

VOL.  I.  3  A 


362  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IX. 

true  faith  in  Christ,  or  perish  fore  ver,  doth  for  Jesus  Christ 
offet  unto  you  the  comfortable  promises  of  God,  wherein  I 
beseech  your  grace,  even  in  the  bowels  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
consider  these  three  things, 

" '  First,  your  state  past,  and  transitory  glory :  Secondly, 
your  condition  present,  of  death :  Thirdly,  your  estate  to  come, 
either  in  everlasting  happiness,  or  perpetual  infelicity.  For 
the  first  let  me  speak  to  your  grace,  with  David  the  king : 
forget  (madam)  yourself,  and  your  own  people,  and  your  father's 
house  :  forget  your  natural  birth,  your  royal  and  princely 
dignity ;  so  shall  the  King  of  kings  have  pleasure  in  your 
spiritual  beauty,  &c. 

"  '  Madam,  even  now,  madam,  doth  God  Almighty  open  you 
a  door  into  a  heavenly  kingdom  ;  shut  not,  therefore,  this  pas- 
sage by  the  hardening  of  your  heart,  and  grieve  not  the  Spirit 
of  God,  which  may  seal  your  hope  to  the  day  of  redemption. 

"  The  queen  three  or  four  times  said  unto  him,  '  Mr.  Dean, 
trouble  not  yourself  nor  me  ;  for  know  that  I  am  settled  in  the 
ancient  catholic  and  Roman  religion,  and  in  defence  thereof, 
by  God's  grace,  I  mind  to  spend  my  blood.' 

"Then  said  Mr.  Dean,  'Madam,  change  your  opinion,  and 
repent  you  of  your  former  wickedness :  settle  your  faith  only 
upon  this  ground,  that  in  Christ  Jesus  you  hope  to  be  saved.' 
She  answered  again  and  again,  with  great  earnestness,  '  Good 
Mr.  Dean,  trouble  not  yourself  any  more  about  this  matter ; 
for  I  was  born  in  this  religion,  have  lived  in  this  religion,  and 
am  resolved  to  die  in  this  religion.' 

"  Then  the  earls,  when  they  saw  how  far  uncomfortable  she 
was  to  hear  Mr.  Dean's  good  exhortations,  said,  '  Madam,  we 
will  pray  for  your  grace  with  Mr.  Dean,  that  you  may  have 
your  mind  lightened  with  the  true  knowledge  of  God  and  his 
word.' 

" '  My  lords,'  answered  the  queen, '  if  you  will  pray  with  me, 
I  will  even  from  my  heart  thank  you,  and  think  myself  greatly 
favoured  by  you ;  but  to  join  in  prayer  with  you  in  your 
manner,  who  are  not  of  one  religion  with  me,  it  were  a  sin,  and 
I  will  not.' 

"  Then  the  lords  called  Mr.  Dean  again,  and  bade  him  say 
on,  or  what  he  thought  good  else.  The  Dean  kneeled  and 
prayed,  as  follows :  '  Oh,  most  gracious  God,'  &c. 

"  All  the  assembly,  save  the  queen  and  her  servants,  said  the 
prayer  after  Mr.  Dean  as  he  spake  it,  during  which  prayer,  the 
queen  sat  upon  her  stool,  having  her  Agnus  Dei,  crucifix, 
beads,  and  an  office  in  Latin.  Thus  furnished  with  supersti- 
tious trumpery,  not  regarding  what  Mr.  Dean  said,  she  began 


1586.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  363 

very  fastly  with  tears  and  a  loud  voice  to  pray  in  Latin,  and 
in  the  midst  of  her  prayers,  with  over  much  weeping  and 
mourning,  slipped  off  her  stool,  and  kneeling  presently  said 
divers  other  Latin  prayers.  Then  she  rose  and  kneeled  down 
again,  praying  in  English  for  Christ's  afflicted  church,  an  end 
of  her  troubles,  for  her  son,  and  for  the  queen's  majesty,  to 
God  for  forgiveness  of  the  sins  of  them  in  this  island :  she 
forgave  her  enemies  with  all  her  heart,  that  had  long  sought 
her  blood.  This  done,  she  desired  all  saints  to  make  interces- 
sion for  her  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  Jesus  Christ.  Then 
she  began  to  kiss  her  crucifix,  and  to  cross  herself,  saying  these 
words :  '  Even  as  thy  arms,  oh  Jesus  Christ,  were  spread  here 
upon  the  cross,  so  receive  me, — so  receive  me  into  the  arms 
of  thy  mercy.' 

"Then  the  two  executioners  kneeled  down  unto  her,  desiring 
her  to  forgive  them  her  death.  She  answered,  '  I  forgive  you 
with  all  my  heart ;  for  I  hope  this  death  shall  give  an  end  to 
all  my  troubles.' 

"  They,  with  her  tvt'o  women  helping,  began  to  disrobe  her, 
and  then  she  laid  the  crucifix  upon  the  stool.  One  of  the 
executioners  took  from  her  neck  the  Agnus  Dei,  and  she  laid 
hold  of  it,  saying  she  would  give  it  to  one  of  her  women  ; 
and  withal  told  the  executioner  that  he  should  have  money  for 
it.  Then  they  took  off  her  chain,  she  made  herself  unready 
with  a  kind  of  gladness,  and  smiling,  putting  on  a  pair  of 
sleeves  with  her  own  hands,  which  the  two  executioners  before 
had  rudely  pulled  off,  and  with  such  speed,  as  if  she  had 
longed  to  be  gone  out  of  the  world. 

"  During  the  disrobing  of  this  queen  she  never  altered  her 
countenance  ;  but  smiling,  said,  she  never  had  such  grooms  be- 
fore to  make  her  unready,  nor  ever  did  put  off  her  clothes 
before  such  company.  At  length,  unattired  and  unapparelled 
to  her  petticoat  and  kirtle,  the  two  women  burst  out  into  a  great 
and  pitiful  shrieking,  crying,  and  lamentation,  crossed  them- 
selves, and  prayed  in  Latin.  The  queen  turned  towards  them, 
embraced  them,  and  said  these  words  in  French,  Ne  cry-vous, 
fay  pray  e  pur  vous,  and  so  crossed  and  kissed  them,  and  bade 
them  pray  for  her. 

"  Then  with  a  smiling  countenance  she  turned  to  her  men 
servants,  Melvin  and  the  rest,  crossed  them,  bade  them  fare- 
well, and  to  pray  for  her  to  the  last. 

"  One  of  the  women  having  a  Corpus  Christi  cloth,  lapped 
it  up  three-comer  wise,  and  kissed  it,  and  put  it  over  the  face 
of  her  queen,  and  pinned  it  fast  upon  the  caul  of  her  head. 
Then  the  two  women  dej^arted.    The  queen  kneeled  down  ou 


364  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  IX, 

the  cushion  resolutely,  and  without  any  token  of  fear  of  death, 
said  aloud,  in  Latin,  the  Psalm  In  te  Domine  confido;  then 
groping  for  the  block,  she  laid  down  her  head,  putting  her 
chain  over  her  back  with  bo  thher  hands,  which  holding  there 
still,  had  been  cut  off  had  they  not  been  espied.  Then  she 
laid  herself  upon  the  block  most  quietly,  and  stretching  out 
her  arms  and  legs,  cried  out.  In  manus  tuas,  Domine^  com- 
mendo  spiritum  meum,  three  or  four  times. 

"  At  last,  while  one  of  the  executioners  held  her  straitly  with 
one  of  his  hands,  and  the  other  gave  two  strokes  with  an  axe 
before  he  did  cut  off  her  head,  and  yet  left  a  little  gristle 
behind. 

"  She  made  very  small  noise,  no  part  stirred  from  the  place 
where  she  lay.  The  executioners  lifted  up  the  head,  and  bade 
'  God  save  the  queen.'  Then  her  dressing  of  lawn  fell  from 
her  head,  which  appeared  as  grey  as  if  she  had  been  three- 
score and  ten  years  old,  pulled  very  short,  her  face  much 
altered,  her  lip's  stirred  up  and  down  almost  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  after  her  head  was  cut  off.  Then  said  Mr.  Dean,  '  So 
perish  all  the  queen's  enemies.'  The  earl  of  Kent  came  to  the 
dead  body,  and  with  a  lower  voice,  said, '  Such  end  happen  to 
all  the  queen's  and  gospel's  enemies.' 

"  One  of  the  executioners  plucking  off  her  garters,  espied  her 
little  dog,  which  had  crept  under  her  clothes,  which  would  not 
be  gotten  forth  but  with  force ;  and  afterwards  would  not  de- 
part from  the  dead  corpse,  but  came  and  laid  down  between 
her  head  and  shoulders;  a  thing  much  noted.  The  dog,  im- 
brued in  her  blood,  was  carried  away  and  washed,  as  all 
things  else  were  that  had  any  blood,  save  those  things  which 
were  burned. 

"  The  executioners  were  sent  away  with  money  for  their  fees, 
not  having  any  one  thing  that  belonged  unto  her, 

"  Afterwards  every  one  was  commanded  forth  to  the  hall, 
saving  the  sheriff  and  his  men,  who  carried  her  up  into  a 
great  chamber,  made  ready  for  the  surgeons  to  embalm  her, 
and  she  was  embalmed. 

*'  And  thus,  I  hope,  (my  very  good  lord,)  I  have  certified 
your  honour  of  all  actions,  matters,  and  circumstances,  as  did 
proceed  from  her,  or  any  other  at  her  death :  wherein  I  dare 
promise  unto  your  good  lordship  (if  not  in  some  better  or  worse 
words  tlian  were  spoken  1  am  somewhat  mistaken)  in  tnatter, 
I  have  not  any  whit  offended:  howbeit,  I  will  not  so  justify 
my  duties  herein,  but  that  many  things  might  well  have  been 
omitted,  as  not  worthy  of  notice.  Yet,  because  it  is  your  lord- 
ship's fault  to  desire  to  know  all,  and  so  I  have  certified  all,  it 


1586.]  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND.  365 

is  an  offence  pardonable  :  so  resting  at  your  honour's  further 
commandment,  I  take  my  leave,  this  11th  of  February,  1586. 
Your  Honour's, 

In  all  humble  service  to  command, 

R.  W." 

"  This,  says  Spottiswood,  was  the  end  of  queen  Mary's  life  ; 
a  princess  of  many  rare  virtues,  but  crossed  with  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  fortune,  which  never  any  did  bear  with  greater 
courage  and  magnanimity  to  the  last,  after  a  captivity  of  nine- 
teen years."  Near  to  her  sepulchre  at  Peterborough,  some 
friend,  who  mourned  in  secret  her  untimely  end,  affixed  the  fol- 
lowing inscription,  in  Latin.  The  author  was  never  known, 
nor  could  ever  be  discovered : — 

"  Mary,  queen  of  Scotland,  daughter  of  a  king,  widow  of 
the  king  of  France,  kinswoman  and  next  heir  to  the  queen  of 
England,  adorned  with  royal  virtues  and  a  princely  spirit; 
having  often,  but  in  vain,  implored  to  have  the  right  due  to  a 
prince  done  unto  her,  the  ornament  of  our  age  and  mirror  of 
princes,  by  a  barbarous  and  tyrannical  cruelty  is  cut  off;  and 
by  one  and  the  same  infamous  judgment,  both  Mary,  queen 
of  Scotland,  is  punished  with  death,  and  all  kings  living  are 
made  liable  to  the  same.  A  strange  and  uncouth  kind  of  grave 
this  is,  wherein  the  living  are  included  with  the  dead;  for 
with  the  ashes  of  this  blessed  Mary,  thou  shalt  know  that  the 
majesty  of  all  kings  and  princes  lies  here  depressed  and  vio- 
lated. But  because  the  regal  secret  doth  admonish  all  kings 
of  their  duty,  traveller,  I  will  say  no  more  ^" 

"  The  deep  condemnation  of  her  taking  off"  will  for  ever  re- 
main a  stigma  on  the  annals  of  England,  and  blast  the  memory 
of  the  maiden  queen.  Mary  Stuart  was  not  Elizabeth's 
subject,  and  therefore  could  not  be  guilty  of  treason  against 
her.  Elizabeth  could  not  possess  any  jurisdiction  over  Mary, 
who  was  an  independent  sovereign, — had  been  decoyed,  by 
false  pretences  of  friendship  into  her  kingdom, — had  been  per- 
fidiously imprisoned,  after  the  most  solemn  promises  of  friend- 
ship and  protection,  which  her  unfortunate  circumstances  and 
nearness  of  blood  loudly  called  for.  This  martyred  queen 
was  most  illustrious  for  her  royal  descent,  her  many  heroic 
virtues,  her  clemency  (for  she  allowed  her  subjects  the  most 
complete  toleration,  and  disturbed  none  on  the  score  of  reli- 
gion) ;  for  the  unrelenting  and  long  enduring  persecution  which 
she  suffered  from  her  brutal  and  rebellious  nobles,  and  most 
turbulent  and  seditious  protestant  ministers  ;    her  long  and 

^  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  357. 


366  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IX. 

cruel  imprisonment,  first,  by  her  own  traitorous  subjects,  who 
certainly  intended  to  have  murdered  her,  and  next  by  her 
treacherous  cousin  and  sister  queen,  Elizabeth,  who  actually 
did  murder  her ;  and  for  the  detestable  lies,  forgeries,  and 
calumnies  which  have  been  heaped  on  her  devoted  head  by 
the  traitors  who  surrounded  her  during  her  life,  and  which 
have  been  repeated  as  most  veritable  truths  by  succeeding 
historians.  This  murdered  queen  was  the  daughter  of  a  king 
— was  the  lineal  hereditary  queen  of  Scotland — was  queen  and 
dowager  of  France — and  was  the  undoubted  heiress  to  the 
crown  of  England  and  Ireland,  and  which  her  descendants  at  this 
moment  inherit.  Mary  Stuart  was  exalted  by  her  birth  above 
all  her  contemporaries;  and  her  bitterest  enemies  have  been 
compelled  to  allow  that  she  possessed  all  the  accomplish- 
ments belonging  to  her  sex,  with  many  transcendant  and  rare 
talents.  Camden  calls  her  "  a  lady  fixed  and  constant  in  her 
religion,  of  singular  piety  towards  God,  invincible  magnitude 
of  mind,  wisdom  above  her  sex,  and  of  admirable  beauty." 

It  is  a  somewhat  remarkable  and  providential  circumstance, 
that  Mary  outlived  the  whole  of  the  persecuting  faction  of  her 
rebellious  nobles,  and  that  not  one  of  them  died  a  natural 
death.  One  fell  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  another  committed 
suicide,  and  the  others  received  the  just  reward  of  their  many 
treasons  on  the  scaffold  ;  whilst  the  secret  instigator  of  all  their 
treasons  and  rebellions,  and  at  last  the  open  murderer  of  that 
innocent  queen,  lived  a  solitary  life,  and  died  unhappily 
the  last  of  her  name  and  dynasty.  But  the  good  sense  of 
the  English  nation  prevented  the  calamity  of  a  disputed  suc- 
cession, which  her  death  might  have  occasioned,  by  proclaim- 
ing immediately  and  unanimously,  on  her  decease,  the  son  of 
that  same  murdered  queen,  as  her  just  and  lineal  successor, 
and  whose  blood  now  circulates  in  almost  every  crowned  head 
in  Europe. 

After  the  legal  murder,  every  thing  that  Mary's  blood  had 
touched  was  burnt ;  her  body  was  embalmed,  and  wath  solemn 
mockery  buried  in  the  cathedral  of  Peterborough  ;  but  after 
king  James's  accession,  it  was  removed  to  Westminster  Abbey'. 

Not  one  of  the  bad  men  that  committed  the  long  list  of  enor- 
mities against  queen  Mary,  murdered  her  husband,  and  at  last 
usurped  her  power,  died  the  death  of  all  men :  every  one  came 
to  a  violent  death,  and  the  inferior  actors  were  all  executed  by 
the  bloody  policy  of  the  chiefs,  to  prevent  their  revealing  to 
the  world  the  real  perpetrators  and  instigators  of  the  atrocious 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  357. 


J  586.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  3G7 

murder  of  king  Henry.  On  the  scaffold,  eveiy  one  of  the  in- 
ferior actors  in  the  gunpowder  drama  laid  the  guilt  on  Moray, 
Morton,  Bothvvell,  and  Lethington ;  they  also  unanimously 
acquitted  the  queen  "  of  being  participant  or  ware  thereof." 
Lord  Herries  directly  accused  the  earl  of  Moray  of  the  king's 
murder,  at  his  own  table,  and  challenged  him  to  single  com- 
bat ;  but  conscious  guilt  deteiTed  the  regent  from  accepting. 
Moray  was  a  man  of  unbounded  ambition,  and  was  by  no 
means  scrupulous  of  the  means  of  attaining  his  object.  He 
made  religion  a  cloak  for  his  repeated  rebellions ;  and  while 
appearing  to  be  zealous  in  the  support  of  the  protestant  religion, 
he  actually  robbed  the  church  of  much  of  its  property.  He 
was  latterly  of  a  suspicious,  cruel,  tyrannical  disposition,  as  his 
usage  of  his  sister  and  sovereign  fully  shows.  She  was  much 
attached  to  him,  and  trusted  implicitly  in  him ;  so  much  so, 
"  that  shortly  after  our  sovereign's  hame  coming  fra  the  realme 
of  France,  in  Scotland ;  the  eai'l  of  Moray  having  respect  then, 
and  as  appears  yet,  by  his  proceedings,  to  place  himself  in  the 
government  of  this  realme,  and  to  usiunp  the  kingdom  ;  by  his 
counsel  caused  the  queen's  majesty  to  become  so  subject  unto 
him  as  her  grace  had  been  a  pupil,  in  such  sort  that  her  high- 
ness's  subjects  had  not  access  unto  her  grace,  to  propone  their 
own  causes,  or  to  receive  answer  thereof,  but  by  him  only ;  so 
that  he  only  was  recognosced  as  prince,  and  her  majesty  but  a 
shadow,"  For  his  treachery  to  those  who  confided  in  him, 
and  his  cruelty  to  all  the  queen's  loyal  adherents,  especially  the 
Hamiltons,  whom  he  oppressed  and  harassed,  he  became  uni- 
versally hated  by  the  queen's  followers,  and  it  is  said  that  he 
himself  became  jealous,  cruel,  and  fearful  of  assassination. 
His  unrelenting  persecution  of  the  queen  gave  Elizabeth  that 
sovereignty  over  Scotland,  which  the  most  warlike  and  illustri- 
ous of  her  predecessors  had  never  been  able  to  acquire  by  the 
sword.  He  tacitly  acknowledged  the  crown  of  England  to  be 
paramount,  by  prosecuting  an  independent  sovereign  for  ac- 
tions falsely  alleged  to  have  been  committed  within  her  own 
dominions,  in  the  courts  of  a  foreign  sovereign ;  and  he  thereby 
constituted  Elizabeth  a  judge  over  the  crown  of  Scotland, 
which  had  ever  been  independent,  and  owned  no  superior  but 
God  only.  Such  is  the  consequence  of  guilty  ambition ;  a 
lawful  sovereign,  however  weak  or  wicked,  would  never  have 
dishonoured  the  crown  as  Moray  certainly  did,  in  order  to  pro- 
mote his  own  ambition. 

His  cruelty  and  injustice  to  James  Hamilton,  of  Bothwell- 
haugh,  was  the  cause  of  his  own  untimely  end.  Hamilton 
was  loyal  to  his  queen, — a  crime  of  the  deepest  dye  in  Moray's 


368  HISTORl  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IX. 

estimation;  and  was  taken  after  the  battle  of  Langside,  and 
sentenced  to  be  hanged,  and  his  estates  to  be  forfeited;  but  he 
made  his  escape.  His  wife  kept  possession  of  Woodhouselee, 
of  which  she  was  the  heiress,  thinking  that  the  forfeiture  only 
extended  to  her  husband's  hereditary  property.  Moray  con- 
ferred Woodhouselee  on  Ballandine,  a  creature  of  his  own, 
who  took  possession  of  the  house,  and  not  only  turned  the 
poor  woman  out  of  doors,  but  stript  her  naked,  and  left  her  in 
that  condition  in  the  open  fields,  in  a  cold  dark  night,  where, 
before  day,  she  became  furiously  mad.  Hamilton  vowed  re- 
venge, and  watching  an  opportunity, he  shot  the  regent  through 
the  body,  as  he  rode  slowly  through  Linlithgow;  he  died 
shortly  after,  and  had  no  time  to  acknowledge  his  share  of  the 
late  king's  murder.  When  queen  Mary  heard  in  her  prison 
of  his  cruel  murder,  she  evinced  no  sign  of  resentment  for  the 
injuries  he  had  done  her  in  her  fortune,  but,  above  all,  in  her 
reputation,  but  shed  abundance  of  tears,  and  protested  that 
"  she  was  heartily  sorry  that  he  was  taken  away  so  suddenly, 
before  he  had,  by  a  serious  repentance,  expiated  his  sins 
against  God,  his  sovereign,  and  his  country." 

The  duke  of  Orkney  (Bothwell)  sailed  with  a  small  fleet  for 
the  Orkney  Islands,  pursued  by  Kirkaldy  of  Grange.  He  stood 
over  for  Norway,  where  he  fell  in  with  a  Turkish  vessel,  which 
he  attacked ;  but  some  Norwegian  vessels  coming  to  the  Turk's 
assistance,  he  was  captured  in  spite  of  the  most  determined 
bravery.  The  king  of  Denmark  detained  him  a  close  pri- 
soner as  a  common  pirate.  The  regent,  Moray,  immediately 
sent  commissioners  to  the  court  of  Denmark,  requesting  that 
the  duke  of  Orkney  might  be  delivered  up  to  him,  that  he 
might  suffer  condign  punishment  for  tlie  murder  of  king 
Henry.  But  his  Danish  majesty,  looking  on  the  commis- 
sioners as  the  deputies  of  rebels  and  usurpers,  replied,  "  that 
he  knew  of  no  authority  they  had  in  Scotland  to  demand, 
examine,  or  condemn  any  man;  and  that  if  their  king  had 
been  murdered,  it  was  the  business  of  their  queen  to  look  to 
that."  Moray  was  obliged  to  pocket  this  affront;  and  the 
unfortunate  duke,  after  a  tedious  and  painful  confinement  of 
ten  years,  died  in  prison.  "  He  was,"  says  Crawford,  "  one 
of  the  handsomest  men  of  his  time,  well  made,  and  of  un- 
doubted courage,  though,  in  his  declining  fortune,  otherwise 
represented  by  his  adversaries,  who  forgot  that  he  was  unani- 
mously chosen  general  of  their  army,  when  very  young,  merely 
on  the  score  of  his  bravery.  He  had  ever  been  a  constant 
loyalist,  and  representing  an  ancient  family  which  gave  him 
many  dependents,  he  made  use  of  his  power  in  doing  consider- 


1586.]  CHURCH  of  Scotland.  369 

able  service  to  the  crown.  But  being  a  man  far  from  a  very 
strict  life  and  conversation,  and  relying  too  much  on  the  suc- 
cesses of  his  youth,  he  became  at  last  too  forward  and  ambi- 
tious, by  which  in  his  riper  years  he  betrayed  himself  into  all 
the  inconveniences  that  afterwards  befel  him.  That  he  mur- 
dered the  king  was  the  universal  belief,  and  it  seems  to  be  indis- 
putable ;  but  that  Moray  and  Morton  were  his  associates  and 
sharers  in  the  guilt,  is  equally  undeniable:  for,  although  the 
former  retired  from  Edinburgh  to  avoid  suspicion,  and  died 
without  acknowledging  his  crime,  j'et  the  latter,  after  an  im- 
punity of  fourteen  years,  justly  lost  his  head  for  that  detestable 
murder.  The  rebels  were  glad  of  his  escape  from  Carberry 
Hill :  no  man  pursued  him  then,  neither  did  any  man  offer  to 
attack  him  at  Dimbar,  whither  he  retreated,  and  remained  at 
least  fourteen  days,  although  they  issued  sham  proclamations 
for  his  apprehension.  Indeed,  if  Kirkaldy  had  taken  him  at 
Orkney,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  he  would  have  been  sa- 
crificed on  the  spot,  to  prevent  a  betrayal  of  his  accomplices. 
It  was  confidently  reported  at  that  time,  by  very  good  men, 
and  many  people  of  reputation  and  honov;r,  that  during  his 
imprisonment  in  Denmark,  and  at  his  death,  he  often  solemnly 
protested  that  the  queen  was  wholly  innocent  of  the  murder 
of  her  husband;  on  which  her  enemies,  to  remove  the  force  of 
so  pregnant  an  evidence,  immediately  gave  it  out  that  he  died 
mad.  Nevertheless,  in  four  years'  time  thereafter,  her  perse- 
cutor, the  earl  of  Morton,  when  he  came  to  the  scaffold,  was 
forced,  by  remorse  of  conscience,  to  do  her  the  same  justice^ 
and  confirm  the  words  of  her  dying  adversary^ ," 

Kirkaldy  of  Grange,  who  betrayed  the  queen  at  Carberry 
Hill,  was  executed  as  a  traitor  by  Morton.  Lethington  com- 
mitted suicide  by  swallowing  poison.  He  and  Buchanan 
were  the  grand  forgers  of  all  the  spurious  letters  and  sonnets, 
which  were  palmed  on  the  world  as  the  genuine  productions 
of  the  royal  martyr. 

After  a  long  life  of  extortion,  sacrilege,  treasons,  and  mur- 
ders, Morton  was  tried  and  condemned  after  James  had  as- 
sumed the  reins  of  government,  for  the  murder  of  the  prince's 
father;  although  Elizabeth  moved  heaven  and  earth  to  save 
his  life,  lest  he  should  expose  that  consummation  of  hypocrisy 
and  savage  ferocity  which  she,  in  conjunction  with  her  Scottish 
confederates,  had  practised  against  the  reputation  and  life  of 
her  unfortunate  rival  and  heiress.  Morton  confessed  to  Law- 
son,  and  one  or  two  ministers,  "  That  on  his  return  from 

*  Crawford's  Mem.  55,  56. 
VOL.    I.  3  B 


370  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  IX. 

England,  whither  he  had  been  banished  for  the  murder  of 
secretary  Rizzio,  Bothwell  came  to  him  at  Whittingham,  and 
proposed  the  murder  of  the  king,  alleging  it  was  the  queen's 
own  desire  to  have  him  despatched,  as  the  principal  au- 
thor of  Rizzio's  death,  and  desired  his  (Morton's)  assist- 
ance in  the  affair :  to  which  he  replied,  that  if  Bothwell 
would  bring  it  under  the  queen's  own  hand,  he  might 
then,  probably,  engage  in  the  business ;  but  that  Bothwell 
often  laboured  to  draw  him  in,  and  promised  to  bring  the 
queen's  handwriting ;  yet  he  had  never  been  able  to  procure  any 
such  thing, — and,  if  he  had,  he  was  determined,  even  then,  to 
have  nothing  to  do  in  it.  He  knew  Archibald  Douglas,  his 
cousin,  was  engaged  in  the  murder  before  it  was  committed ; 
he  told  him  he  had  assisted  in  the  execution  of  the  fact^" 
Hollinshed,  cited  by  Guthrie,  says,  part  of  Morton's  confes- 
sion was  suppressed,  "  out  of  tenderness  to  people  now  liv- 
ing." The  persons  so  tenderly  dealt  with,  then  living,  were 
Elizabeth  and  her  secretary  Cecil.  This  concealment  by  the 
ministers  who  attended  his  last  hours,  was  to  cover  the  vil- 
lany  of  those  "  people  now  living,"  and  to  continue  the  false 
prejudice  against  queen  Mary.  Morton  confessed  also  his 
intention  of  putting  prince  James  into  Elizabeth's  power,  by 
sending  him,  under  pretence  of  education,  into  England.  In 
consideration  of  this  confession,  James  changed  his  sentence 
fi-om  hanging  to  decollation.  Accordingly,  his  head  was 
struck  off  by  the  maiden, — an  instrument  of  his  own  in- 
vention. 

1  Crawford's  Mem.  74. 


1593.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  371 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  PRESBYTERIAN  ESTABLISHMENT. 

1593. — A  general  fast  imposed  by  a  few  ministers — the  causes. — Tlie  first  pres- 
byterian  general  assembly — the  king  inhibits  the  meeting — they  evade  the 
king's  complaints — the  king  obliged  to  temporise. — The  Assembly  assumes  a 
power  of  legislating  in  civil  causes — the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers  at  issue 
— ecclesiastical  tyranny. — Reclamation  of  the  shoemakers. — Submission  of  the 
ministers. — The  synod  of  Fyfe  excommunicates  the  popish  lords — the  king's 
efforts  to  save  them — ineffectual. — Accidental  meetmg  of  the  king  with  the 
popish  lords — the  ministers  complain  against  them — pertinacity  of  the  minis- 
ters, and  perplexity  of  the  king — popish  lords  condemned. — The  king's  per- 
plexities between  the  ministers  and  the  popish  lords. 1594. — Birth  of  a 

prince. — Bothwell's  sedition — embezzlement  of  public  money. — Bothwell's 
history. — An  Assembly — transactions  of  the  kirk — the  ministers  inhibited 
from  speaking  irreverently  of  the  king. — The  king  demands  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sures against  Hunter— refused, — Baptism  of  prince  Henry. — Rebellion  of  the 

popish  lords. 1595. — An  Assembly  at  Montrose — articles  proposed  by  the 

king. — Death  of  Chancellor  Maitland. — Dearth  and  scarcity  of  grain. 1596. 

— The  defections  of  the  kirk. — Calderwood's  lamentation: — An  Assembly — 
corruptions  of  the  ministers — a  new  covenant  framed — a  list  of  public  sins. — 
End  of  the  sincere  assemblies. — A  convention  of  the  estates  at  Falkland. — 
Melville's  conduct — conference  with  ministers. — Melville's  speech. — Motion 
for  the  recal  of  the  banished  lords — Bruce's  opposition  and  saucy  answer. — 
Return  of  the  popish  lords. — Alarm  of  the  ministers. — Sjmod  of  Fyfe  excom- 
municates the  lords. — Huntly  restored. — Council  of  the  church — summoned  the 
president  of  the  Court  of  Session — their  intolerance — the  king's  displeasure. — 
Complaint  preferred  by  the  council  of  the  church — the  king's  answer. — Birth 
of  the  princess  Elizabeth. — Outrageous  conduct  of  Black,  one  of  the  minis- 
ters.— The  brethren  make  common  cause  with  Black. — The  king's  firmness — 
he  denounces  the  council  of  the  kirk — orders  the  council  to  dissolve. — Black 
banished. — A  fast  proclaimed. — Riot  and  assault  on  the  king — his  vigorous 
measures — ministers  instigate  to  a  general  rebellion. — Bruce's  letter  to  lord 

Hamilton — conduct  of   the  ministers. 1597. — Consequences   of  the  late 

sedition. — An  Assembly — fifty  questions  proposed  to  them — perplexity  of  the 
ministers. — The  king's  measures — Melville's  opposition — his  nephew's  pro- 
test.— Proceedings  of  the  Assembly — advantages  gained  by  the  king — acts 
made. — Death  of  Lesslie,  bishop  of  Ross — succeeded  by  Lindsay. — An  Assem- 
bly meet  at  St,  Andrew's — the  lawful  Assembly  meet  at  Dundee. — Edin- 
burgh divided  into  parishes. — The  king  admits  Melville  to  an  interview.— 
Imposition  of  hands  or  ordination  restored. — Archbishop  Bancroft's  corre- 
spondence with  the  king — an  ecclesiastical  council  appointed. — A  royal  visita- 


372  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  X. 

tion  of  the  university  of  St.  Andrew's. — Subjects  of  Melville's  lectures. — 
Parliament   restores  the  popish  peers — petition  for  restoring  the  prelates  to 

parliament — act  of  restoration. 1598. — An  Assembly — proposal  of  sending 

prelates  to  parliament — fifty-one  persons  recommended  to  be  sent. — The  king 
master  of  the  Assemblies. — Melville  intrudes  into  the  Assemblies. — Opposi- 
tion of  Bruce  to  the  imposition  of  hands. — Meeting  of  commissioners  at  Falk- 
land— articles  agreed  on. — Name  of  bishop  to  be  changed  to  commissioner  of 

the  kirk. — Archbishop  Beaton  re-appointed  to  the  see  of  Glasgow. 1599. — 

Basilikon   Doron  —  excites   Melville's   wrath. 1600. — Assembly — vacant 

bishoprics  filled. — End  of  the  presbyterian  establishment. — Death  and  message 
of  John  Dury. — The  king's  opinion  of  the  brethren. 

1593. — In  the  end  of  the  preceding  year,  a  casual  meeting  of 
the  ministers,  but  not  an  Assembly,  imposed  an  universal 
fast  throughout  the  kingdom,  on  their  own  authority,  to  be  ob- 
served on  the  17th  and  24th  of  December.  The  causes  of  this 
fast  were  declared  to  be  "  the  practices  of  enemies  within  and 
without  the  country,  intending  to  execute  the  bloody  decrees 
of  the  council  of  Trent;  a  fearful  desolation  of  the  greatest 
part  of  the  country,  perishing  in  ignorance  through  want  of 
pastors  and  sufficient  means  to  entertain  the  word  among 
thetn,  with  a  carelessness  of  the  magistrates  to  provide  re- 
medy; a  fearful  defection  of  all  classes  to  popery  and  atheism, 
especially  of  the  nobility,  through  the  resorting  and  trafficking 
of  Jesuits,  seminary  priests,  and  other  papists,  vyithout  execu- 
tion of  any  law  against  them;  the  general  disorder  of  the 
whole  state  of  the  commonwealth,  overflowing  with  all  kind 
of  impiety,  contempt  of  God's  word,  and  blasphemy  of  his 
name,  contempt  of  the  sovereign,  treason,  shedding  of  innocent 
blood,  adultery,  witchcraft,  and  other  abominable  crimes. 
These  causes  to  be  enlarged  at  the  discretion  of  any  brother, 
according  as  he  shall  have  sure  knowledge  and  sense  of  the 
premises^." 

Under  the  self-accusing  imputation  of  this  black  and  fearful 
catalogue  of  crimes,  the  godly  brethren  held  the  first  purely 
presbyterian  Assembly  at  Dundee,  in  the  latter  end  of  April. 
It  would  appear  that  they  had  met  on  their  own  authority, 
without  consulting  the  government,  although  they  had  agreed 
that  no  Assembly  should  be  called  but  by  the  king's  autho- 
rity ;  for  no  sooner  was  the  king  informed  of  their  convocation, 
than  he  despatched  sir  James  Melville,  of  Hallhill,  to  declare 
"  that  he  would  not  suffer  the  privilege  and  honour  of  his 
crown  to  be  diminished,  and  Assemblies  to  be  made  when  and 
where  they  pleased.     He  therefore  commanded  them  to  send 

'  Calderwood,  p.  271-2. 


1593.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  373 

two  or  three  members,  to  whom  he  should  communicate  his 
will  for  the  time  and  place  of  their  next  meeting.  Sir  James 
\vas  also  instructed  to  direct  them  to  pass  an  act  to  inhibit  mi- 
nisters from  declaiming  in  the  pulpit  against  his  majesty  and 
council,  under  pain  of  deprivation.  In  regard  of  Mr.  Craig's 
advanced  age,  he  requested  they  would  nominate  six  brethren 
for  him  to  choose  a  domestic  chaplain  from  the  number,  in 
Craig's  place, — to  appoint  some  in  every  presbytery  to  inform 
his  majesty  of  the  practices  of  the  papists  and  those  who  pro- 
tect the  earl  of  Bothwell,  whose  whole  courses  tended  to  the 
subversion  of  all  religion,  and  to  the  danger  of  his  majesty's 
person ;  and  that  they  should  examine  those  who  arrive  in 
and  depart  from  the  seaports. 

By  repeated  encroachments,  the  brethren  had  gained  such  a 
dangerous  accession  of  power,  that  they  w^ere  very  naturally 
unwilling  to  part  with  it,  and,  accordingly,  these  articles  were 
either  altogether  rejected,  or  else  were  evaded,  in  a  general  re- 
ply. The  liberty  of  meeting  when  and  where  they  pleased  was 
a  privilege  not  to  be  yielded  so  easily;  they  therefore  sheltered 
themselves  under  the  act  of  parliament  passed  the  preceding 
year.  And  as  for  declaiming  in  the  pulpit,  they  said,  an  act  of 
Assembly  had  been  passed,  prohibiting  "  any  minister  to  utter 
in  pulpit  any  rash  or  irreverent  speeches  against  his  majesty 
and  council  or  their  proceedings ;  but  to  give  their  admoni- 
tions upon  just  and  necessary  causes,  and  in  all  fear,  love,  and 
reverence."  The  king  considered  this  an  evasion  which  would 
not  operate  in  the  slightest  degree  as  any  restraint  on  the  rav- 
ings of  the  brethren,  who  w^ere  ever  ready  to  find  "  a  just 
and  necessary  cause"  for  an  outpouring  of  the  vials  of  their 
wTath  on  the  king  and  his  government.  He  therefore  rejected 
this  act  as  unsatisfactory ;  and  in  consequence  of  their  obsti- 
nacy, he  paid  very  little  attention  to  their  petitions  against  the 
Roman  Catholic  or  associated  lords,  and  against  the  erection 
of  tithe  impropriations  into  temporal  lordships  ^ 

James  had  been  constrained,  much  against  his  inclination, 
by  the  pressing  necessities  of  his  situation,  being  exposed  to 
the  continual  treasonable  attempts  of  Bothwell  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  grasping  ambition  of  the  brethren  on  the  other, 
to  give  the  royal  sanction  to  an  act  of  parliament,  that  de- 
clared all  who  contemned  the  censures  of  the  church  to  be 
outlaws,  which  armed  the  ministers  with  the  most  formidable 
and  tremendous  powers,  and  they  were  far  from  consulting  jus- 
tice or  loving  mercy  in  these  cases.     The  heat  of  their  own 

1  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  393.— Calderwood,  235,  285. 


374  HISTORY  OF   THE  [CHAP.  X. 

intemperate  passions,  or  the  most  groundless  suspicions,  were 
quite  sufficient  to  bring  men  of  the  mo!:;t  exalted  rank,  the 
purest  patriotism,  or  the  most  blameless  lives,  into  their  pres- 
tjyterian  inquisition,  where  they  lost  the  whole  benefit  of  civil 
society,  at  the  caprice  of  the  ministers.  But  the  brethren  were 
now  in  the  very  zenith  of  their  glory.  "  Never,"  says  Petrie. 
in  the  exultation  of  his  heart,  "  had  mercy  and  truth,  righteous- 
ness and  peace,  since  Christ's  coming  in  the  flesh,  a  more 
glorious  meeting  and  amiable  embracing  on  earth,"  than  at  this 
crisis.  From  outlawing,  they  proceeded  next  to  exercise  the 
power  of  excommunicating  those  who  would  not  submit  to 
their  domination.  They  again  assumed  a  legislative  power ; 
and  on  their  own  authority  the  Assembly  enacted,  "  that  none 
professing  religion  within  the  church  of  Scotland  should 
from  thenceforth  repair  to  any  of  the  king  of  Spain's  domi- 
nions, where  the  tyranny  of  the  Inquisition  was  used,  for  traf- 
fic of  merchandise,  or  other  the  like  negociations,  till  the  king 
did  obtain  liberty  firom  the  king  of  Spain  to  his  subjects  for 
traffic  in  these  bounds,  without  any  danger  of  their  person  or 
goods  for  the  cause  of  religion,  under  the  pain  of  excommuni- 
cation." 

The  mercantile  body  were  greatly  alarmed  at  this  most 
\\  antou  and  mischievous  assumption  of  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment, and  petitioned  the  king  and  council  to  be  relieved  from 
the  cruel  tyranny  of  the  presbyterian  inquisition.  The  king 
was  highly  incensed  at  this  assumption  of  his  prerogative, 
and  granted  the  prayer  of  the  merchants'  petition  immediately. 
The  civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers  were  now  at  issue, — the 
fonner  authorised  the  merchants  to  continue  their  traffic  in  the 
face  of  the  anathemas  of  the  Assembly,  whilst  the  latter  excom- 
municated them,  whereby  they  became  outlaws,  and  were  ren- 
dered liable  to  lose  the  protection  of  the  laws  both  in  person  and 
property.  Harassed  by  this  inquisitorial  tyranny,  the  merchants 
offered  to  cease  all  trade  with  Spain,  if  the  godly  inquisitors 
would  only  allow  them  so  much  time  as  to  make  up  their  ac- 
counts and  receive  their  balances  from  their  Spanish  corre- 
spondents ^  Thus  the  brethren  cramped  and  destroyed  the 
commerce  and  resources  of  the  country,  and  exercised  a 
moral  tyranny  over  the  minds  and  consciences  of  their  op- 
pressed people,  more  insupportable  than  even  the  gloomy  op- 
pression of  the  Spanish  inquisition.  Not  satisfied  with  de- 
stroying the  foreign  trade  of  the  kingdom,  they  next  proceeded 
to  level  the  thunders  of  the  Assembly,  by  their  own  usurped 

^  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  393. — Calderwood. — Guthrie,  viii.  310. 


1593.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  375 

authority,  on  the  domestic  commerce.  They  passed  an  act 
for  abolishing  the  weekly  market  of  Edinburgh,  then  held  on 
Monday  ;  but  the  shoemakers  excited  a  riot  against  them,  and 
menaced  them  with  personal  chastisement  and  banishment 
from  the  city,  if  they  should  persevere  in  this  obnoxious  mea- 
sure. The  brethren,  who  acknowledged  that  they  had  re- 
ceived their  mission  from  the  people,  readily  acquiesced  in  the 
will  of  their  masters,  cancelled  the  act,  and  allowed  the  market 
to  continue  to  be  held  on  Monday  as  usual.  This  victory 
of  the  mob  over  the  ministers  gave  great  satisfaction  at  court, 
and  excited  much  merriment ;  the  good-natured  king  asserting 
"  that  rascals  and  souters  [shoemakers]  could  obtain  at  the 
ministers'  hands  what  the  king  could  not  in  matters  more  rea- 
sonable ^"  But  had  the  king  possessed  less  of  the  "  milk  of 
human  kindness,"  he  might  have  obtained  all  his  reasonable 
demands  :  had  he  curbed  the  licentious  zeal  of  these  brethren, 
and  made  some  severe  examples,  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  he 
might  have  saved  himself  much  trouble  and  many  insults,  and 
the  countiy,  both  then  and  since,  much  guilt  and  misery. 

In  July,  the  associated  popish  lords  had  been  cited  before 
parliament,  but  in  consequence  of  some  informality  in  the  ci- 
tation their  case  was  remitted  to  the  king  and  council.  On 
this,  the  brethi'en  took  alarm,  as  if  the  church  of  Rome  had  been 
on  the  point  of  re-establishment ;  and  in  October,  the  synod 
of  Fife  met  in  St.  Andrews,  and  summarily  excommunicated 
the  earls  of  Errol,  Huntly,  and  Angus,  the  loi'd  Hume,  and 
sir  James  Chisholm.  "  The  said  synod,"  says  Calderwood, 
"  in  name  and  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  did  cut  off 
the  said  persons  yrom  their  communion,  and  delivered  them  to 
Satan  to  the  destruction  of  the  flesh,  that  the  spirit  may  be 
safe,  if  it  so  please  God  to  reclaim  them  by  true  repentance ; 
otherwise,to  their  just  everlasting  condemnation;  andordaineth 
intimation  to  be  made  hereof  by  every  one  of  the  brethren  in 
their  kirks  immediately,  with  interdiction  that  none  presume  to 
receive  them  within  their  houses,  or  have  any  dealings,  fellow- 
ship, or  society  with  the  said  excommunicate  persons ;  with 
certification,  that  the  contraveners  shall  incur  the  like  censure, 
sentence,  and  judgment-."  This  is  in  the  very  worst  spirit  of 
popery ;  and  one  of  the  well  known  marks  of  the  beast  is  here 
clearly  developed,  which  forbids  all  traffic  with  heretics  or 
excommunicated  parties.  In  the  Roman  church,  none  are  per- 
mitted to  buy  or  sell,  except  those  who  are  implicated  in  the 
l^redicted  blasphemy  or  apostacy  with  which  the  man  of  sin  has 

1  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  394.  -  Calderwood,  p.  291. 


376  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X 

tainted  the  Roman  Church.  "  He  causeth  all,  both  small  and 
great,  rich  and  poor,  free  and  bond,  to  receive  the  mark  in  their 
right  hand,  or  in  their  foreheads ;  and  that  no  man  might  buy 
or  sell,  save  he  that  had  the  name  or  the  mark  of  the  beast,  or 
the  number  of  his  name.  Here  is  wisdom,^''  but  it  is  the  wisdom 
of  the  serpent  without  the  innocence  of  the  dove.  There  seems, 
however,  to  have  been  but  little  "  wisdom"  on  the  part  of  the 
presbyterians ;  for  these  noblemen  neither  lived  within  the 
jurisdiction  of  this  synod,  nor  belonged  to  their  communion- 
The  synod  addressed  letters  to  all  the  presbyteries,  but  espe- 
cially to  that  of  Edinburgh,  desiring  them  to  publish  their  act 
of  excommunication.  Notwithstanding  his  utmost  efforts,  the 
king  was  unable  to  prevent  its  proclamation  in  the  kirk,  al- 
though he  condescended  to  argue  with  the  ministers,  and  con- 
founded them  with  two  flagrant  informalities  :  1st,  that  these 
noblemen  were  not  subject  to  their  synod :  and  2d,  that  they 
had  not  been  formally  cited  to  answer. 

Highly  incensed  at  the  tyrannical  conduct  of  the  synod  of 
Fife,  the  king  sent  for  Robert  Bruce,  one  of  the  city  ministers, 
and  represented  to  him  the  injustice  and  informality  of  this 
most  wanton  sentence,  and  commanded  him  to  defer  its  publi- 
cation :  "  For,"  said  the  king,  "  these  persons  were  neither 
subject  to  the  synod  of  Fife,  nor  were  they  cited  to  answer ; 
and  if  this  be  your  order,  that  the  ministers  of  one  synod  may 
excommunicate,  and  at  their  desire,  all  the  rest  shall  make  in- 
timation, who  shall  be  secure,  or  how  shall  it  be  eschewed,  but 
that  numbers  shall  in  this  way  be  brought  into  trouble  ?"  Bruce 
bluntly  answered  his  majesty,  "  that  it  was  not  in  his  power  to 
stay  the  publication,  the  brethren  having  already  concluded  the 
same ;  and  that  the  ministers  of  Fife  had  their  own  reasons, 
and  were  answerable  only  to  the  General  Assembly."  "  Well," 
said  the  king,  "  I  could  have  no  rest  till  ye  got  what  ye  call 
the  discipline  of  the  church  established  ;  'now  seeing  I  have 
found  it  abused,  and  that  none  among  ye  hath  power  to  stay 
such  disorderly  proceedings,  I  will  think  of  a  mean  to 
help  it^" 

The  king  made  a  progress  to  Jedburgh,  to  suppress  the  usual 
licentious  liberties  of  the  borderers  ;  and  at  Falla,  the  excom- 
municated lords  threw  themselves  in  the  king's  way,  entreating 
his  protection  against  the  tender  mercies  of  the  brethren.  The 
king  recommended  them  to  retire  to  Perth,  and  there  wait  the 
issue  of  a  trial.  This  accidental  circumstance  coming  to  the 
ears  of  the  brethren,  they  despatched  messengers  to  the  king, 

'  SpottiswooJ,  b.  vi.  31)7. 


1593.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  377 

with  violent  complaints  against  himself  and  the  associated 
lords,  whom  they  denounced  as  traitors  and  outlaws.  They  de- 
manded that  their  trial  might  not  be  precipitated,  till  the  pro- 
fessors of  religion,  who  had  determined  on  being  their  prose- 
cutors, had  time  to  prepare  their  accusation  ;  "  being  resolved^" 
said  they,  "  if  they  should  all  lose  their  lives  in  one  day,  if 
they  continue  enemies  to  God  and  his  truth,  that  the  country 
should  not  bruik  them  and  us  together,"  The  king,  much 
initated  at  the  insolence  of  the  brethren,  declared  "  that  he 
would  not  acknowledge  their  convention,  nor  their  missives 
for  commissioners,  seeing  they  had  assembled  themselves  with- 
out his  knowledge."  The  commissioners  stuck  to  their  point ; 
and  insisted  on  treating  with  the  king  as  an  independent  legal 
body,  but  which  he  peremptorily  refused.  After  much  alterca- 
tion, his  majesty  condescended  to  hear  the  ministers  as  subjects, 
but  not  as  the  representatives  of  a  commission  of  the  kirk.  He 
assured  the  zealous  brethren  that  his  meeting  with  the  asso- 
ciated lords  was  purely  accidental,  and  that  as  they  had  soli- 
cited a  trial,  he  could  not  of  his  princely  duty  refuse  it,  and 
moreover,  that  he  was  determined  that  justice  should  be  in- 
differently administered^  May  we  be  here  allowed  to  say, 
that,  as  James  was  alike  the  sovereign  of  both  the  Roman 
Catholic  lords  and  of  the  godly  brethren,  he  was  of  "his 
princely  duty"  bound  to  minister  justice  indifferently  to  each  of 
them,  and  that  the  former  were  better  entitled  to  protection 
and  justice,  than  the  latter  were  to  the  gratification  of  their 
satanical  and  malignant  passions.  The  result  of  this  mission 
gave  mighty  umbrage  to  the  presbyterian  ministers,  who,  in 
accordance  with  their  fundamental  principle  of  resistance  to 
the  powers  that  be,  resolved  to  assemble  in  arms  at  the  place 
of  trial,  and  become  the  prosecutors.  When  the  king  chal- 
lenged them  for  this  disloyal  and  pugnacious  conduct,  they 
excused  themselves  by  alleging,  "  that  it  was  the  cause  of  God, 
and  in  defence  thereof  they  could  not  be  deficient."  To  prevent 
this,  the  king  issued  a  proclamation,  prohibiting  all  convoca- 
tions of  the  subjects  in  arms,  and  commanded  the  brethren  to 
remain  peaceably  at  home.  Nevertheless,  the  ministers  col- 
lected a  large  force  of  aimed  men  from  all  parts  of  the  country ; 
and  six  of  the  brethren  were  associated  with  the  judges,  and, 
as  might  be  expected,  the  popish  lords  were  condemned  2. 

The  earl  of  Angus  was  committed  close  prisoner  to  Edin 
burgh  Castle,  but  made  his  escape ;  and  the  earls  of  Huntly 
and  Errol  were  cited  to  appear  before  the  king  and  piivy 

1  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  397-8.  -  Ibid.  400. 

VOL.  I.  3  c 


378  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X. 

council ;  but  not  appearing,  they  were  denounced  as  rebels. 
Nevertheless,  says  Calderwood,  "  The  godly  were  not  content 
with  the  favour  granted  by  this  act  to  the  excommunicated 
earls,"  and  certain  ministers  were  desired  "  to  crave,  that  their 
persons  may  be  warded,  before  there  were  any  farther  proceed- 
ing or  any  favour  granted  unto  them."  In  March,  the  king 
made  a  progress  northward,  accompanied  by  some  military,  and 
demolished  the  castles  of  Slaines,  Strathbogie,  Newton,  Burn- 
house,  and  Craigie,  belonging  to  the  popish  recusants,  the  earls 
of  EiTol  and  Huntly,  Sir  Walter  Lindsay,  and  Sir  John  Oglevie. 
Parliament  met  on  the  21st  July,  and  ratified  the  forfaultrycf 
that  arch-traitor,  the  earl  of  Bothwell.  On  the  1 1th  of  October, 
the  popish  lords  were  reconciled  to  the  king.  "  This  year  is 
most  observable  in  respect  the  king  was  tossed  like  a  tennis-ball 
betwixt  the  precise  ministers  and  the  treacherous  papists,  in 
respect  when,  as  he  had  cast  down  and  demolished  some  of 
their  houses,  and  committed  other  some  of  them  to  prison,  and 
exiled  others ;  and  in  effect  done  all  that  lay  in  him  to  do  ;  yet 
Mr.  Robert  Bruce,  a  minister,  told  him  to  his  face  out  of  the 
pulpit,  '  that  God  would  raise  more  Bothwells  against  him 
than  one ;'  that  was  more  enemies  than  Bothwell,  if  he  did 
not  revenge  God's  quarrel  against  the  papists,  before  his  own 
particular,  and  repented  him  not  of  his  own  trespasses  and 
iniquities  ^" 

1594. — On  the  19th  of  February,  the  queen  was  delivered 
at  Stirling  of  a  son.  Lord  Souclie  arrived  as  ambassador  from 
Elizabeth,  to  complain  of  the  king's  favour  to  the  popish 
lords.  He  commenced  an  intrigue  immediately  with  the  no- 
torious Bothwell,  who  was  again  engaged  in  sedition,  and  also 
with  some  of  the  brethren,  who,  both  in  their  private  conver- 
sation and  public  sermons,  openly  encouraged  the  people  to 
enlist  under  the  standard  of  that  chosen  son  of  presbytery,  to 
whom  the  brethren  sent  one  Andrew  Hunter  to  attend  upon 
him  as  his  chaplain.  Neither  was  this  all.  There  had  been  a 
collection  made  in  all  the  churches  for  the  poor  saints  of  Ge- 
neva, who  were  then  in  trouble,  and  this  money  was  deposited 
with  James  Melville  for  the  purpose  of  being  remitted ;  but, 
in  the  abundance  of  their  zeal  to  stir  up  strife  and  sedition,  in- 
stead of  sending  it  to  Geneva,  they  paid  it  over  to  two  of  Both- 
well's  captains  to  raise  soldiers  for  his  service,  that  he  might 
embroil  the  kingdom  in  rebellion  !  The  king  discovered  the 
ambassador's  intrigues,  and  dismissed  him  without  vouchsafing 
him  an  audience. 

'  Biilfour's  Annals,  i.  393—315. 


1594.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  379 

It  may  be  as  well  to  dismiss  Bothwell  at  once.  In  the  year 
1592,  he  made  an  attempt  to  seize  the  king's  person  at  Falk- 
land ;  but  his  co-conspirators  not  keeping  their  appointment, 
he  was  disappointed,  and  again  retired  under  Elizabeth's  pro- 
lection,  who  negociated  through  lord  Borough  for  his  return 
and  reception  into  favour.  The  king  peremptorily  refused  to 
receive  such  a  notorious  traitor;  but  some  of  his  confederates  in  , 
the  household  introduced  Bothwell  and  another  conspirator 
into  the  king's  bed-chamber,  with  their  swords  drawn  and  a 
force  behind  them,  who  kept  the  king  in  custody  until  he  had 
granted  their  desires.  By  the  mediation  of  the  English  am- 
bassador and  some  of  the  city  ministers,  who  were  engaged  in 
the  plot,  the  king  was  forced  to  agree  "  that  pardon  should  be 
given  to  Bothwell  and  his  accomplices  for  all  matters  past ; 
and  that  this  matter  should  be  ratified  by  act  of  parliament  in 
November  following  :  that  in  the  meantime  the  lord  chancel- 
lor, lord  Hume,  the  master  of  Glammis,  and  sir  George  Hume, 
who  were  supposed  to  favour  the  j)opish  lords,  shoidd  be  ex- 
cluded from  court.  And  finally,  that  Bothwell  and  all  his 
party  should  be  held  as  good  subjects."  These  conditions 
were  extorted  from  the  king  on  the  14th  August,  1593,  but 
were  declared  void  by  a  convention  of  the  estates  held  at 
Stirling  on  the  7th  September  following.  Bothwell  naturally 
resented  this  decision  of  the  estates,  and  created  some  distur- 
bance, but  which  was  soon  quelled.  He  was  cited  to  appear 
before  the  privy  council  at  Edinburgh,  which  he  failed  to  do, 
and  was  in  consequence  denounced  a  rebel,  which  only  ani- 
mated him  to  fresh  sedition.  The  English  ambassador  gave 
him  secret  encouragement  and  assistance,  and  he  prepared 
new  forces,  under  pretence  of  banishing  the  popish  lords ; 
"  but,  in  truth,  to  make  the  king  of  no  signification  in  the 
power  of  government."  He  took  possession  of  Leith,  at  the 
head  of  400  horse ;  but  the  trained  citizens  of  Edinburgh 
charged  him  before  he  had  effected  a  junction  with  the  forces 
of  the  other  conspirators,  and  completely  routed  and  dispersed 
his  followers.  Elizabeth  now  became  sensible  of  the  infamy 
which  she  had  incurred  by  protecting  such  an  incorrigible  and 
infamous  rebel,  and  she  issued  a  proclamation  prohibiting 
any  of  her  subjects  from  harbouring  or  assisting  him.  The 
kirk  also  seeing  that  since  his  last  defeat  he  was  no  longer  able 
to  serve  their  purposes,  in  keeping  the  king  and  government  in 
continual  agitation,  ordered  the  ministers  in  all  places  to  dis- 
suade their  people  from  joining  with  him  in  any  of  his  insur- 
rections. The  continual  personal  danger  in  which  this  traitor 
kept  the  king,  reduced  him  to  comply  with  the  unreasonable 


380  HISTORY  OF  THE    '  [cHAP.  X. 

demands  of  the  kirli,  and  to  establish  their  discipline  for  his 
own  preservation.  But  his  treachery  to  the  kirk  in  trafficking 
with  the  popish  lords,  at  the  very  time  that  he  was  supposed 
to  be  acting  most  zealously  in  their  cause,  tended  to  alienate  the 
support  of  his  most  ardent  friends  and  supporters  among  the 
presbyterian  ministers.  He  was  now  reduced  to  the  last  extre- 
mity. Elizabeth  had  proclaimed  and  disowned  him,  and  the 
kirk  had  excommunicated  him  for  havingjoined  with  the  popish 
lords.  He  was  betrayed  by  his  own  party,  who  impeached  his 
brother  Hercules,  who  was  executed  in  Edinburgh,  and  being 
shut  out  from  England,  he  fled  to  France,  where  he  met  with 
rough  treatment :  he  then  moved  on  to  Spain,  where  his  hereti- 
cal tenets  rendered  him  obnoxious  to  the  inquisition,  and  he 
was  at  last  obliged  to  retreat  to  Naples,  where  he  dragged  out 
the  short  remnant  of  his  days  in  contempt,  disease,  and  beg- 
gary 1. 

On  the  7th  May,  the  General  Assembly  met  at  Edinburgh, 
and  Andrew  Melville  was  chosen  moderator.  The  sentence 
of  excommunication  pronounced  by  the  Fife  synod  against 
the  popish  lords,  was  confirmed  and  ratified,  and  ordered  to  be 
published  in  every  parish.  A  committee  was  nominated  to  ad- 
monish the  king  of  the  dangers  of  the  realm,  eleven  in  num- 
ber, with  as  many  remedies,  suitable,  in  their  judgment,  to  the 
emergency.  The  king  made  little  objection  to  the  remedies, 
except  to  the  seventh, — "  that  the  subjects  be  charged  to  put 
themselves  in  arms  by  all  good  means,  and  be  in  readiness  to 
pursue  and  defend,  as  they  shall  be  warned  by  his  majesty,  or 
otherwise,  on  urgent  occasions"  To  this  suspicious  looking 
article  James  replied, — "  To  be  ready  at  my  charge  is  very 
meet,  but  I  understand  not  the  last  clause  of  urgent  occa- 
sions'^." He  therefore  peremptorily  rejected  this  license ;  and, 
indeed,  if  it  had  been  granted,  the  subjects^  would  soon  have 
wrested  the  sword  out  of  his  hands ;  for  who  was  to  be  judge 
of  these  "  urgent  occasions"  but  the  subjects  themselves, 
hounded  on  by  the  pugnacious  brethren  ? 

The  king  sent  sir  Robert  Melville  and  Mr.  Hume,  with  in- 
structions to  the  Assembly  :  one  of  which  was,  that  they 
"  should  inhibit  the  ministers  from  uttering  any  irreverent 
speeches  in  pulpit  againt  his  majesty's  person,  council,  or 
estate,  under  the  pain  of  deprivation."  This  warning  was  oc- 
casioned by  the  conduct  of  a  minister  named  John  Ross,  who, 
in  a  sermon  preached  at  Perth,  had  given  utterance  to  some 

'  Heylin's  Hist,  of  Presbyteiiaus,  lib.  ix.  pp.  331,  332. — Balfour's  Annals. 
-  SpottJswood,  b.  vi.  iC5  — C'aldcrwood,  302,  303. 


1594.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  381 

most  irreverent  and  indecent  invectives  against  the  king  ;  who 
now  desired  that  the  said  Ross  should  be  censured  as  his  fault 
deserved.  The  king  had  often  required  this  external  decency 
to  be  observed,  but  without  success,  for  the  bringing  of  railing 
accusations  against  the  king  and  his  nobility  seemed  to  have 
been  one  of  the  elements  of  the  new  religion.  All  the  satis- 
faction, therefore,  which  they  afforded  to  his  majesty,  was  an 
admonition  to  lloss  to  speak  more  reverently  for  the  time  to 
come,  so  as  he  might  give  no  just  cause  of  complaint ;  which 
was  rather  an  encouragement  to  proceed  in  the  same  uncha- 
ritable course,  than  an  authoritative  censure.  This  nicety 
stands  in  violent  contrast  to  the  vindictive  and  never-ceasing- 
tenacity  with  which  they  pursued  any  one  who  offended  against 
their  own  discipline,  or  against  whom  they  adopted  any  pre- 
judice. The  king  also  demanded  the  punishment  of  excom- 
munication to  be  pronounced  against  Andrew  Hunter,  one  of 
their  own  brethren,  whom  they  themselves  had  appointed  chap- 
lain to  Bothwell,  and  with  whose  assistance  they  had  main- 
tained a  treasonable  correspondence  with  that  arch-trailor.  He 
craved  this  doom  from  them,  "  for  the  scandal  he  had  brought 
upon  their  profession,  he  being  the  first  open  traitor  of  their 
function  against  a  christian  king  of  their  own  religion,  and 
their  natural  sovereign."  But  their  own  traffic  with  Hunter 
had  been  too  considerable  to  allow  them  to  sacrifice  him  for 
treason ;  they  therefore  excused  themselves  from  the  process  of 
excommunication,  but  they  deposed  him  from  the  ministry  as 
a  deserter  of  his  flock,  and  as  one  suspected  of  having  joined 
himself  with  the  king's  rebels.  The  Assembly  were  more 
complaisant  to  the  king  upon  the  third  article  that  he  ordered 
to  be  presented  to  them,  which  was,  "  that  ministers  should  be 
ordained  by  an  act  of  Assembly  to  dissuade  their  flocks,  both 
by  public  and  private  exhortation,  from  concurring  with  Both- 
well  in  his  treasonable  attempts,  or  with  any  other  that  should 
make  insurrection  against  the  authority  established  by  God  in 
his  majesty's  person."  This  demand,  which  conveyed  a  severe 
reproach  upon  their  principles,  was  conceded,  and  an  act  was 
made  to  the  desired  effect. 

On  the  30th  of  August,  the  young  prince  was  baptized  by 
David  Cunningham,  titular  bishop  of  Aberdeen,  in  the  chapel 
royal,  Stirling,  and  his  titles  were  proclaimed  Henry  Fredeiick, 
knight  and  baron  of  llenfrew,  lord  of  the  Isles,  earl  of  Car- 
rick,  duke  of  Rothsay,  Prince  and  Steward  of  Scotland.  Spe- 
cial ambassadors  were  present  from  the  courts  of  England, 
Denmark,  Brunswick,  Mecklenburgh,  and  the  United  Pro- 
vinces.    A  chair  of  slate   was   reserved  for  an  ambassador 


382  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X. 

from  Fiance,  but  no  representative  of  that  power  made  his  ap- 
pearance. His  godfathers  were  the  king  of  Denmark,  the 
duke  of  Mecklenburgh,  and  the  estates  of  the  Netherlands,  by 
a  commission  sent  to  their  ambassador  at  the  covirt  of  HoH- 
rood  House.  Queen  Elizabeth  was  his  godmother,  and  was 
represented  by  her  ambassador,  the  earl  of  Sussex.  Money 
was  thrown  from  the  palace  windows  among  the  populace,  the 
ambassadors  were  royally  feasted,  and  the  same  day  a  number 
of  knights  were  created  ^ 

The  peace  of  the  kingdom  was  broken  by  the  rebellion  of 
the  popish  lords  in  October,  who  defeated  the  earl  of  Argyle, 
the  king's  lieutenant,  that  had  been  sent  against  them,  with  con- 
siderable slaughter,  in  Glenlivet,  a  valley  of  the  Spey  lying 
south  of  the  hill  calledJ^elrinnes.  On  receiving  information 
of  the  total  route  of  his  lieutenant's  forces,  the  king  collected 
some  troops  and  went  himself  at  their  head,  and  drove  the  rebel 
lords  into  the  fastnesses  of  Caithness  2. 

1595. — The  arch-traitor  Bothwell  still  continued,  at  the  in- 
stigation of  the  brethren,  grievously  to  torment  the  king  with 
sedition  and  bloodshed.  In  the  month  of  June  the  General 
Assembly  met  at  Montrose,  where,  as  usual,  there  was  much 
altercation  between  the  brethren  and  the  king's  commis- 
sioners,— the  spirit  of  resistance  to  the  king's  authority  being 
tlie  foundation  of  all  their  proceedings,  and  which  produced 
its  natural  fruits  of  sedition  and  strife.  The  royal  commis- 
sioners urgently  pressed  the  following  articles: — 1.  Whoever 
did  meddle  or  practise  any  treasonable  enterprise  against  his 
majesty's  person  and  estates,  being  found  and  declared  culpa- 
ble by  law,  they  should  likewise  incur  the  sentence  of  excom- 
munication, that  so  there  might  be  an  inseparable  union  be- 
twixt the  two  swords. — 2.  That  no  excommunication  should 
be  pronounced  at  the  appetite  of  particular  men,  but  that  a 
sufficient  number  of  the  church  should  be  first  assembled,  and 
the  same  determined  by  public  consent. — 3.  That  none  should 
be  excommunicated  for  civil  causes,  crimes  of  light  import- 
ance, or  particular  wrongs  of  ministers,  lest  the  censure  should 
fall  into  contempt,  and  become  like  the  pope's  cursing. — 
4.  That  no  summary  excommunication  should  be  thenceforth 
used,  but  that  lawful  citation  of  parties  should  go  before  in  all 
causes  whatsoever.  The  first  and  second  were  conditionally 
granted ;  but  to  the  third  and  fourth  they  requested  time  for  de- 
liberation till  next  assembly,  and  they  discharged,  in  the  mean- 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  .'390. — Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  -106. 
-  Balfour's  Annals,  i,  397. 


1596.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  383 

time,  the  exercise  of  summary  excommunications,  unless  the 
church  and  state  were  in  imminent  danger.  The  king  was 
mightily  displeased  at  this  exception,  which  he  thought  would 
be  a  sufficient  warrant  for  the  turbulent  and  seditious  at  any 
time  to  resort  to  extreme  measures  ^ 

The  lord  chancellor  Maitland  died  this  year,  on  whom  the 
king  wrote  an  elegant  epitaph  in  verse.  Balfour  says,  he  was 
"  a  resolute,  wise,  and  learned  man  as  any  in  his  time,  and 
had  been  chancellor  some  ten  years,  from  the  parliament  of 
Linlithgow  to  this  year  2."  It  was  in  consequence  of  his 
guilty  participation  in  the  murder  of  the  earl  of  Moray,  that 
presbytery  received  an  establishment ;  but  bloodshed  in  those 
days  was  looked  upon  as  a  matter  of  course.  A  great  scarcity 
afflicted  the  kingdom,  occasioned  entirely  by  the  family  feuds  and 
wars  with  which  it  was  devastated  from  one  end  to  the  other, 
whereby  agriculture  was  prevented,  and  the  fruits  of  the  earth 
were  destroyed  in  wanton  barbarity.  "  This  year  was,  by  the 
vulgar  people,  reckoned  among  the  ill  years^  because  of  the 
dearth  and  scarcity  of  corn,  which  the  abundance  of  winds  in 
the  harvest  time  had  caused.  Yet,  for  the  bloodshed  and 
slaughters  covomsMiQ^  in  all  quarters  of  the  country,  was  it  more 
justly  to  be  so  accounted^.'''  The  price  of  grain  reached  the 
highest  amount  that  had  ever  been  known  previous  to  that 
time,  and  that,  too,  at  the  harvest  time,  when  grain  ought  to 
have  been  cheapest"*. 

1.596. — The  natural  consequence  of  breaking  loose  from  the 
former  government  was  daily  appearing  with  a  fearful  increase, 
which  was  manifested  in  seditions  and  treasonable  combinations 
among  the  laity,  and  the  most  indecent  railings  of  the  brethren 
in  their  pulpits  against  the  king  and  his  government.  Even 
"  the  sincerest  kirk  in  the  world"  was  not  entirely  free  from 
pollution;  for  Calderwood  laments  its  defections  and  back- 
slidings  with  exquisite  pathos:  "  This  year,"  says  he,  "  is  a 
remarkable  year  to  the  kirk  of  Scotland,  both  for  the  beginning 
and  for  the  end  of  it.  This  kirk  was  now  come  to  the  greatest 
purity  it  had  ever  attained  unto,  so  that  her  beauty  was  ad- 
mirable to  foreign  kirks.  But  the  devil,  envying  the  happiness 
and  laudable  proceedings  of  the  ministry  and  Assemblies  of 
the  kirk,  stirred  up  both  papists  and  politicians  to  disturb  her 
peace.  The  papists  perceived  there  was  no  rest  for  them  in 
Scotland,  if  the  authority  of  the  kirk  continued.  Politicians 
feared  that  their  craft  and  trade,  which  is  to  use  indifferently 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  406. — Calderwood,  308. 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  405. — Annals,  i.  397. 

3  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  404.  *  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  398. 


384  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X. 

all  men  and  means  to  attain  mito  their  own  ends,  and  to  set 
themselves  up,  as  it  were,  in  the  throne  of  Christ,  should  be 
undone.  Whereas,  at  her  earnest  desire,  the  apostate  earls, 
Angus,  Huntly,  and  Errol,  were  forfaulted  for  an  unnatural 
and  treasonable  conspiracy  with  the  Spaniards,  and  were  ex- 
pelled out  of  the  country,  and  she  was  now  setting  herself  to 
reform  whatsoever  abuses  and  corruptions  were  seen  in  her 
members,  and  against  the  re-entry  and  restoration  of  the  said 
earls ;  but  was  forced,  by  craft  and  policy  of  politicians  and 
dissembled  papists,  to  take  herself  to  the  defence  of  her  own 
liberties,  and  of  that  holy  discipline,  which  was  her  bulwark, 
and  to  desist  from  farther  opposition  to  the  re-entry  of  the  ex- 
communicated earls ;  for  some  thorny  questions,  in  points  of 
discipline,  were  devised,  whereby  her  authority  was,  in  many 
points,  called  in  doubts  Ministei'S  were  called  before  the  coun- 
cil, to  give  an  account  of  their  rebukes  in  sermons,  and  to 
underlye  their  censure.  The  ministers  of  the  kirk  in  Edin- 
burgh were  forced  to  lurk;  and  that  kirk,  which  was  a  ivatch- 
toiver,  and  shined  as  a  lamp  to  the  rest,  was  darkened,  and  no 
less  danger  appeared  to  threaten  the  rest.  In  a  word,  in  the 
end  of  this  year  began  a  fearful  decay  and  declining  of  this 
kirk,  which  continued  long,  proceeding  from  worse  to  worse; 
so  that  the  godly  did  see  greater  corruption  nor  ever  they 
looked  to  have  seen  in  their  days^" 

The  General  Assembly  met  in  March,  and  debated  long  on 
the  corruptions  of  all  estates;  but  it  was  especially  found  that 
the  corruptions  of  the  ministers  themselves  were  so  great,  as 
to  render  inquiry,  both  into  their  offices,  lives,  and  manners, 
absolutely  necessary.  In  consequence,  the  Assembly  ap- 
pointed a  day  of  humiliation  for  reconciling  themselves  to 
God,  and  to  avert  his  wrath,  "  particularly  on  account  of  the 
offences  of  the  king's  house,  in  the  court  anc]  in  the  judgment 
seats."  On  account  of  the  continual  backslidings  of  the  kirk, 
a  new  covenant  was  framed  "  for  the  better  discharge  of  their 
duties,  and  for  reconciling  themselves  to  God;"  as  it  was  dis- 
covered that  all  their  bands  and  covenants  had  only  led  them 
farther  and  farther  from  the  truth.  They  were  constantly 
patching  up  presbytery  with  some  new  covenant  or  scheme, 
to  preserve  the  glory  of  the  holy  discipline.  "  This  is  the 
covenant  that  by  some  is  so  often  objected  to,  and  said  to  be 
violated  by  those  that  gave  obedience  to  the  canons  of  the 
chui-ch,  albeit  there  is  not  a  word  or  syllable  that  sounds, 
either  to  confirming  the  church  government  then  in  use,  or  to 

'  Calderwood,  p.  311. 


1596.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  38j 

the  rejecting  that  which  since  then  hath  been  estabhshed.  But 
when  other  arguments  fail  them,  somewhat  must  be  said  to 
entertain  the  conceits  of  the  popular.  By  this  covenant  all 
did  bind  themselves  to  abide  in  the  profession  of  the  truth, 
and  to  walk  in  the  same  as  God  should  enable  them.  But  for 
the  rules  of  policy  or  ceremonies,  serving  to  good  order  or  de- 
cency, let  inspection  be  taken  of  the  register  which  is  extant, 
and  it  shall  plainly  appear  that,  at  the  time,  there  was  not  so 
much  as  any  mention  made  thereof  ^" 

This  Assembly  recounted  a  most  horrible  list  of  crimes,  of 
the  most  inhuman  and  unnatural  sort,  which  overspread  the 
whole  kingdom.  They  openly  accused  the  judges  of  selling 
justice,  and  of  the  most  grievous  oppression  of  the  poor. 
Bloodshed,  adultery,  and  fornication,  always  held  the  most 
prominent  places  in  all  the  black  catalogue  of  sins  of  which 
the  ministers  complained.  But  on  this  occasion  they  produced 
a  new  item ;  viz.  "  sacrilegious  persons,  as  abbots,  priors,  dumb 
bishops,  voting  in  parliament  in  the  name  of  the  kirk,  which 
is  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  country,  whereby  the  cause  of 
the  kirk  is  damnified  2."  The  sacrilegious  desecration  of  the 
ecclesiastical  property  began  now  to  appear ;  "  for  lack  of  provi- 
sion, and  sufficient  stipends  for  pastors,  the  people  lie  together, 
ignorant  of  their  salvation  and  duty  to  God  and  the  king, 
whereby  atheism,  and  all  kinds  of  vice,  overfloweth  the  land, 
there  being  about  four  hundred  parish  kirks  destitute  of  the 
ministry  of  the  word^."  This  is  surely  a  humbling  confession 
of  the  "  admirable  beauty  and  purity  that  this  kirk  had  at- 
tained unto ;"  "  the  devil"  had  little  occasion  to  "  envy  it."  Such 
spots  in  the  feasts  of  charity;  such  gainsayings  of  Core;  clouds 
without  water ;  such  raging  waves  of  the  sea,  foaming  out  their 
own  shame,  and  which  threw  up  mire  and  dirt,  must  have 
given  him  supreme  delight.  Instead  of  moving  Satan's  envy, 
such  confusion  and  evil  work  must  have  been  as  health  to  his 
navel,  and  marrow  to  his  bones.  After  giving  vent  as  above  to 
his  lamentation  over  the  defections  andbackslidings  of  the  kirk, 
Calderwood  devotes  a  distinct  line  to  denote,  thus,  that 

"  Here  end  the  sincere  General  Assemblies  of 
THE  Kirk  of  Scotland  V 

The  king  held  a  convention  at  Falkland  on  the  12th  of 
August,  when  the  recal  of  the  banished  lords  was  debated. 
Some  ministers  were  ordered  to  attend ;  but  Andrew  Melville 


Spottiswood,  p.  416.  -  Calderwood,  p.  320. 

•»  Calderwood's  True  History,  p.  323. 


Ibid. 
History,   p.  323, 

VOL.  I.  3  D 


386  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  X. 

went  there  without  any  warrant,  as  a  commissioner  from  the 
Assembly.  When  the  ministers  were  called  by  name  into  the 
king's  presence,  Melville  bluntly  entered  first,  for  which  intru- 
sion the  king  checked  him.  Says  Melville,  "  Sir,  I  have  a 
calling  to  come  here  from  Christ  and  his  kirk,  who  have  spe- 
cial interest  in  this  turn,  and  against  whom  this  convention  is 
assembled  directly.  I  charge  you  and  your  estates,  in  the 
name  of  Christ  and  his  kirk,  that  ye  favour  not  his  enemies, 
whom  he  hateth,  nor  go  about  to  call  home  and  make  citizens 
of  those  who  have  traitorously  sought  to  betray  their  native 
country  to  the  cruel  Spaniard,  to  the  overthrow  of  Christ's 
kingdom."  His  majesty  was  indignant  at  this  insolent  and 
unwarrantable  intrusion,  and  ordered  him  to  withdraw;  on 
which  he  retired,  thanking  God  that  he  had  had  an  opportunity 
of  disburdening  his  conscience  in  the  cause  of  the  kirk. 

The  king  and  privy  council  determined  on  recalling  the 
Roman  Catholic  lords,  at  which  the  brethren  took  alarm  ;  and 
the  commission  of  the  General  Assembly  met  at  Cupar,  and 
appointed  a  deputation  to  wait  on  the  king  at  Falkland,  to  de- 
precate this  measure.  James  Melville,  a  man  of  a  mild  dis- 
position, addressed  the  king;  but  his  majesty  interrupted  him, 
and  denounced  their  late  meeting  at  Cupar  as  unwarrantable, 
and  blamed  the  whole  body  of  the  brethren  for  their  silly 
fears  and  unjust  suspicions  of  his  sincerity.  This  inflamed 
the  irritable  temper  of  Andrew  Melville,  who  rudely  seizing 
the  king  by  the  sleeve,  called  him  "  God's  silly  vassal,"  and 
then  addressed  him  in  a  rude  and  intemperate  speech,  as  fol- 
lows:— "  Sir,  we  will  always  reverence  your  majesty  in  pub- 
lic; but,  since  we  have  this  occasion  to  be  with  your  majesty 
in  private,  and  since  you  are  brought  into  extreme  danger, 
both  of  your  life  and  crown,  and  along  with  you  the  country 
and  church  of  God  are  like  to  go  to  wreck  for  not  telling  you 
the  truth  and  giving  you  faithful  council, — we  must  discharge 
our  duty,  or  else  be  traitors  both  to  Christ  and  you.  There- 
fore, sir,  as  divers  times  before  I  have  told  you,  so  now  again 
T  must  tell  you,  there  are  two  kings  and  two  kingdoms  in 
Scotland:  there  is  Jesus  Christ,  the  king  of  the  church,  whose 
subject  king  James  VI.  is,  and  of  whose  kingdom  he  is  not  a 
king,  nor  a  lord,  nor  a  head,  but  a  member.  Those  whom 
Christ  has  called  and  commanded  to  watch  over  his  church, 
and  govern  his  spiritual  kingdom,  have  sufficient  power  and 
authority  from  him  to  do  this,  both  jointly  and  sevei'ally :  the 
which  no  christian  king  or  prince  should  control  or  discharge, 
but  fortify  and  assist,  otherwise  they  are  not  faithful  subjects 
of  Christ,  and  members  of  his  church.     Sir,  when  you  were 


1590.]  CHUnCIl  OF  SCOTLAND.  387 

in  your  swaddling-clothes,  Christ  Jesus  leigncd  freely  in  thi:^ 
land,  in  spite  of  all  his  enemies.  His  officers  and  ministers 
convened  and  assembled  for  the  ruling  and  welfare  of  his 
church,  which  was  ever  for  your  welfare,  defence,  and  pre- 
servation, when  these  same  enemies  were  seeking  your  de- 
struction and  cutting  off."  James  was  obliged  to  temporise 
with  these  furious  zealots,  and  to  promise  that  the  noblemen 
should  not  be  recalled ;  but  the  brethren  retired  from  this  con- 
ference, dissatisfied,  as  usual,  with  the  king's  sincerity,  and  ac- 
cusing him  of  a  decided  leaning  to  popery.  But  surely  no 
sober  christian  of  the  present  day  can  defend  such  an  assump- 
tion of  the  worst  spirit  of  popery. 

From  Elizabeth's  great  age,  James  was  in  daily  expectation 
of  succeeding  to  the  throne  of  England,  and  he  was  very  de- 
sirous of  leaving  his  native  kingdom  in  peace;  but  as  nothing 
could  be  accomplished  without  consent  of  the  brethren,  he 
consulted  Robert  Bruce,  one  of  the  city  ministers,  respecting 
the  recal  of  the  banished  lords,  that  they  might  be  reconciled 
by  reason  and  argument  to  embrace  the  religion  then  es- 
tablished by  law.  Bruce  gave  a  sort  of  half  consent  to  recal 
Errol  and  Angus,  but  would  not  listen  to  any  terms  in  favour 
of  Huntly.  The  king,  anxious  that  Huntly  should  be  in- 
cluded, desired  Bruce  to  consider  of  his  proposals  till  the  next 
day,  but  Bruce  was  still  immoveable,  and  replied  to  the  king, 
who  insisted  on  treating  the  exiles  alike,  with  his  usual  inso- 
lence, "  Sir,  I  see  your  resolution  is  to  take  Huntly  into  fa- 
vour, which,  if  you  do,  I  will  oj^pose,  and  you  shall  choose 
whether  you  shall  lose  Huntly  or  me,  for  both  of  us  you  cannot 
keep !  ^"  The  king  was  so  disgusted  with  this  insolence,  that 
he  ever  after  disliked  Bruce.  These  persecuted  noblemen, 
however,  ventured  to  return  without  formal  leave,  which  cre- 
ated such  an  alarm  among  the  brethren,  that  they  appointed 
the  first  Sunday  of  December  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  humili- 
ation, for  the  danger  that  thereby  threatened  religion.  The 
carl  of  Huntly,  who  had  been  concealed  amongst  his  friends 
and  tenants  in  the  north,  sent  a  petition  to  James,  to  be  al- 
lowed to  remain,  and  resume  his  station,  offering,  at  the  same 
time,  to  give  security  for  keeping  the  king's  peace.  The  king 
said,  after  hearing  the  petition,  that  longer  continuance  in  the 
state  in  which  the  popish  lords  were  at  present  was  neither  con- 
sistent with  the  safety  of  religion  nor  his  own  honour.  It  was  his 
anxious  desire  to  bring  them  to  the  profession  of  the  truth,  and 
to  extend  his  cleuiency  towards  them;  but  he  insisted  on  hav- 

'  Spcttiswood,  p.   117. 


388  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.   X. 

ing  belter  security  for  the  peaceable  behaviour  of  Huntly  than 
he  had  offered,and  stricter  conditions.  The  convention  approved 
of  his  majesty's  judgment,  and  remitted  the  imposition  of  the 
conditions  to  the  king  and  council  and  this  arrangement  was 
afterwards  confirmed  by  another  convention  of  estates,  which 
met  at  Dumfermline^  But  the  real  or  affected  alarm  of  the 
presbytery  was  not  yet  allayed ;  the  zealous  brethren  of  Fife 
convoked  the  commission  of  the  General  Assembly,  to  which 
the  synods  throughout  the  kingdom  sent  deputies,  when  a  me- 
morial of  the  danger  that  threatened  the  kingdom  was  drawn 
up,  and  transmitted  to  the  several  presbyteries,  recommending 
them  to  excommunicate  the  Roman  Catholic  peers.  The 
exiles,  not  being  members  of  their  church,  could  not  be  cut  off 
from  it,  and  excommunicating  them  only  exhibits  that  vindic- 
tive spirit  which  actuated  the  ministers,  because  it  involved 
the  peers  in  civil  penalties  fatal  to  their  property.  They 
next  nominated  a  certain  number  of  ministers  from  different 
places,  to  sit  in  Edinburgh,  and  to  form  the  Council  of  the 
Church,  to  sit  perpetually  ;  to  collect  information  and  trans- 
mit it  to  the  presby  teri  es  ;  to  assume  the  royal  prerogative  of  con- 
voking  the  General  Assembly  if  their  jealous  fears  should  fancy 
it  necessary  to  meddle  in  all  civil  matters,  whether  connected 
with  "  Christ's  kingdom"  or  otherwise ;  and  to  watch  over  their 
now  falling  polity. ^  The  first  act  of  this  illegal  and  uncon- 
stitutional body  was  to  summon  loid  Seton,  the  president  of 
the  Court  of  Session,  before  them,  for  holding  communication 
with  the  earl  of  Huntly;  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  he  so 
far  recognised  their  usurped  powers  as  to  appear  and  con- 
descend to  clear  himself  from  their  accusation,  but,  upon 
promising  obedience,  they  acquitted  him  3. 

James  naturally  became  alarmed  at  this  imperium  in  impe- 
no,  this  conclave  of  presbyterian  pontiffs.  He  sent  several 
privy  councillors,  to  endeavour  to  negociate  with  them  for  a 
reconciliation  with  the  banished  lords,  but  to  no  purpose  ;  the 
ministers  asserted,  "  that  in  their  judgment,  and  by  God's 
law,  they  deserved  death,  and  could  neither  be  lawfully  par- 
doned nor  restored  ;  and  if  the  king  and  council  should  take  on 
them  to  do  it,  they  should  answer  to  God  and  the  coimtry,  but 
for  them  they  would  give  no  consent."  There  is  much  of  a 
persecuting  spirit  in  this  reply,  and  there  is  little  doubt,  if  the 
secular  arm  had  been  as  tyrannical  as  the  spiritual,  the  popish 
lords  would  have  been  consigned  to  the  stake.      The  commis- 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  417.  -  Spottiswood.— Calderwood 

•*  SiJOttiswood,  b.  vi.  418. 


1596.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  389 

sioners  reminded  ihe  tyrannical  Council  "  that  the  bosom 
of  the  church  should  always  be  patent  to  returning  sinners." 
riie  ministers  promptly  replied,  "  that  the  church  indeed 
coidd  not  refuse  their  satisfaction,  if  it  were  truly  offered  ; 
nevertheless,  the  king  stood  obliged  to  do  justice."  When 
these  godly  watchmen  could,  by  no  sober  arguments,  be  per- 
suaded to  yield  in  their  severity  against  the  Roman  Catholic 
lords,  the  commissioners  broke  up  the  conference,  and  reported 
the  stubborn  pertinacity  of  the  supreme  "  Council  of  the 
church :"  "  the  khig  was  greatly  commoved,  inveighing  against 
the  ministers  at  his  table,  in  council,  and  everywhere."  Pro- 
voked to  the  last  extremity,  he  declaimed  against  the  brethren, 
their  holy  discipline,  and  their  doctrine.  The  more  sober  and 
rational  part  of  the  ministry  foresaw  the  evils  that  this  conten- 
tion would  produce,  and  advised  that  most  unconstitutional 
and  unwarrantable  body,  "  the  Council  of  the  church,"  to  wait 
on  the  king,  and  deprecate  his  displeasure.  To  their  excuses 
his  majesty  peremptorily  answered,  "  that  there  could  be  no 
agreement  so  long  as  the  marches  of  the  two  jurisdictions 
were  not  distinguished  ;  that  in  their  preachings  they  censured 
the  affairs  of  the  state  and  council,  convocated  Assemblies 
without  his  license,  concluded  what  they  thought  good, — not 
one  desiring  his  allowance  and  ap})robation  ;  and  in  their  sy- 
nods, presbyteries,  and  particular  sessions,  meddled  with  every 
thing  on  colour  of  scandal ;  and,  in  consequence,  it  was  vain 
to  think  of  any  agreement,  or  that  the  same  being  made,  it 
could  stand  and  continue  any  time^." 

The  ministers  were  unable  to  answer  the  king ;  therefore 
they  blinked  the  question  altogether,  and  immediately  fell  to 
complain  of  the  favour  shewn  to  the  popish  lords  at  the  late 
conventions  of  Falkland  and  Dumfermline — the  invitation 
given  to  the  countess  of  Huntly  to  be  present  at  the  princess's 
baptism — the  putting  the  princess  into  the  hands  of  the  lady 
Livingston,  who  was  an  avowed  and  obstinate  papist — and 
last,  though  not  the  least,  "  the  alienation  of  his  majesty's 
heart  from  the  ministers,  as  aj^peared  by  all  his  speeches,  both 
in  public  and  private."  In  reply,  the  king  said,  very  truly,  that 
"  they  had  given  him  too  just  cause,  by  railing  against  him 
and  his  proceedings,  privately  and  in  their  sermons.  He  had 
granted  nothing  to  the  popish  lords  but  what  the  estate  had 
found  needful  for  the  peace  and  quiet  of  the  realm.  He  es- 
teemed the  lady  Huntly  a  good  and  discreet  lady,  and  worthy 
of  his  countenance,  and  that   she  was   a  papist  they  might 

1  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  417-19. 


390  UISTOHY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X. 

blame  themselves,  who  had  never  taken  care  to  inform  her  of 
the  truth.  Lastly,  he  had  entrusted  his  daughter,  the  princess, 
to  the  lord  Livingston,  a  nobleman  known  to  be  of  good  re- 
ligion, and  not  to  his  lady,  who  should  not  be  suffered  to  take 
any  care  of  her  unless  she  conformed  in  point  of  religion  ^" 

On  the  19th  August,  the  queen  was  delivered  of  a  daughter 
at  Stirling,  who  was  baptized  on  the  28th  November,  in  the 
Chapel  Royal,  Holyrood  House.  She  received  the  christian 
name  of  Elizabeth,  and  on  the  14th  February,  1615,  .she  was 
married,  at  the  age  of  17,  at  Whitehall,  to  Frederick  V. 
count  palatine  of  the  Rhine,  to  whom  she  bore  eight  sons  and 
five  daughters  ;  the  youngest  of  whom,  Sophia,  was  declared 
successor  to  the  crown  of  Great  Britain,  and  whose  son,  the 
elector  of  Hanover,  afterwards  succeeded,  by  the  title  of 
George  I.^ 

Whilst  animosities  and  contentions  were  disgracing  the 
brethren,  and  producing  the  most  mischievous  feuds  between 
the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  powers,  which  at  that  period  were 
by  no  means  well  defined  or  understood  by  either  party,  a  new 
subject  of  contention  arose,  which  embroiled  the  whole  mi- 
nistry, for  the  brethren  made  it  a  party  cause.  David  Black, 
one  of  the  ministers  of  St.  Andrews,  in  a  sermon  full  of  se- 
dition and  incendiary  matter,  railed  in  the  most  scurrilous  and 
malignant  manner  on  the  king  and  queen,  saying,  "  that  all 
kings  were  the  devil's  bairns,  and  the  heart  of  king  James  was 
full  of  treachery."  He  charged  his  majesty  with  conniving  at 
the  return  of  the  popish  lords,  by  which  duplicity  he  said  he 
"  detected  the  treachery  of  his  heart."  He  next  attacked  the 
bench,  and  called  the  judges  "  miscreants  and  bribers ;"  of 
the  nobility,  he  said  they  were  "  degenerate,  godless  dissem- 
blers, and  enemies  to  the  church  ;"  and  in  the  fury  of  his  sedi- 
tious harangue,  "  he  called  the  queen  of  England  an  atheist, 
and  a  woman  of  no  religion."  In  all  periods  of  the  world 
there  have  been  good-natured  individuals  who  have  a  mali- 
cious pleasure  in  communicating  things  of  a  mischievous  ten- 
dency ;  and  it  was  not  long  before  the  subject  of  this  sermon 
was  brought  under  the  notice  of  the  English  ambassador,  who 
immediately  complained  to  the  king  of  this  insult  on  his  sove- 
reign. The  king  cited  Black  to  answer  for  the  expressions 
used  in  his  sermon,  before  the  privy  council.  Andrew  Mel- 
ville accompanied  Black,  and  sounded  the  tocsin  of  alarm  to  the 
whole  brethren,  as  if  the  king  had  been  determined  to  bring 
their  doctrine  under  his  immediate  control.    In  consequence, 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.    119.  ^  Balfour's  Annals. — British  Peerage. 


1596.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  391 

the  whole  of  the  brotherhood  made  common  cause  witli  Black  ; 
and  the  Council  of  the  church  exerted  every  effort  to  protect 
and  screen  him  from  deserved  punishment.      Robert  Pont, 
senator  of  the  College  of  Justice,  and  titular  bishop  of  Caith- 
ness, protested  solemnly  against  the  king's  interference  with 
their  doctrines  taught  from  the  pulpit;  but  in  the  case  of  Black 
it  was  not  doctrine  that  was  inquired  into,  but  the  seditious  and 
treasonable  language  which  he  had  used.  Black  denounced  the 
whole  charge  as  "  false,  untrue,  and  calumnious,"  and  asserted 
that  "  speeches  delivered  in  pulpit,  albeit  alleged  to  be  trea- 
sonable, could  not  be  judged  by  the  king,  till  the  church  first 
took  cognition  thereof!  but  as  he  did  not  come  there  to  solve 
questions,"  he  declined  answering ;  and  he  rejected  at  same 
lime  the  king  and  council  as  judges.  The  brotherhood  protested 
that  they  would  oppose  the  king's  authority  of  judging  treasona- 
ble matter  in  their  discourses  "  so  long  as  they  had  breath."    It 
was  to  no  purpose  that  the  king  declared  he  had  no  intention 
of  abridging  the  church's  liberties,  or  impairing  their  spiritual 
jurisdiction  ;  no  asseveration  could  assuage  the  jealousy  of  the 
brethren,  neither  did  the  king's  most  solemn   assurances  ever 
meet  with  the  slightest  credence.     He  said,  "  This  licentious 
discoursing  of  affairs  of  state  in  the  pulpit  cannot  be  tolerated. 
My  claim  is  only  to  judge  in  matters  of  sedition  and  other  civil 
and  criminal  causes,   and  of  speeches  that  may  import  such 
crimes,  wheresoever  they  be  uttered ;  for  that  the  pulpit  should 
be  a  place  privileged,  and  under  colour  of   doctrine,  people 
stirred  up  to  sedition,  no  good  man,  I  think,  will  allow.     If 
treason  and  sedition  be  crimes  punishable  when  they  are  com- 
mitted, much  more  if  they  be  committed  in  the  pulpit,  where 
the  word  of  truth  only  should  be  taught  and  heard."     The  bre- 
thren contended  that  as  their  commission  was  from  God,  "  the 
same  ought  not  to  be  controled  in  any  civil  judicature."      The 
lordly  successor  of  St.  Peter,  in  the  plenitude  of  his  power, 
could  not  have  made  a  more  extravagant  claim  for  the  supre- 
macy of  the  keys  over  the  sword.     "  Would  you  keep  your 
commission,"  said  the  king,  "  there  would  be  no  strife  ;  but  I 
trust  your  commission  be  not  to  rule  estates." 

This  seditious  obstinacy  obliged  the  king  to  publish  a  pro- 
clamation, in  which  he  recapitulated  the  many  and  increasing 
encroachments  on  his  authority  of  the  newly-erected  tribunal, 
"  The  Council  of  the  Kirk"  ;  in  convoking  the  subjects  as  if 
they  had  no  lord  or  superior  over  them,  whereby  the  ministers 
were  constantly  deserting  their  flocks  to  attend  on  this  coun- 
cil. He  therefore  commanded  the  members  of  this  body  to  dis- 
solve themselves,  to  repair  immediately  to  their  respective 


392  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  X. 

charges,  and  not  to  meet  again  in  this  unlawful  council  under  pain 
of  rebellion.  By  another  proclamation  he  strictly  prohibited  all 
noblemen  and  gentlemen  from  joining  or  assisting  this  council. 
He  offered  to  withdraw  his  action  against  Black,  if  the  kirk 
would  waive  the  declinature  which  all  the  presbyterian  party 
had  signed  ;  but  the  ministers,  confident  in  their  own  supposed 
strength,  refused  to  waive  it,  or  declare  it  to  be  simply  a  gene- 
ral and  not  a  particular  declinature.  They  answered,  there- 
fore, "  That  both  their  pulpits  and  their  preachers  too  should 
be  totally  exempted  from  the  king's  authority  ;  and  that  they 
were  resolved  to  stand  to  their  declinature  unless  the  king 
would  entirely  remit  Black's  and  all  similar  cases  to  the  eccle- 
siastical judge  ;  and  that  no  minister  should  be  charged  for  his 
preaching,  at  least  before  the  meeting  of  the  next  General 
Assembly,  which  should  be  in  their  own  power  to  call  as  they  saw 
occasion."  This  answer  incensed  the  king,  and  he  again  pe- 
remjnorily  charged  the  commissioners  of  the  kirk  to  leave  the 
capital  immediately;  and  Black  was  cited  to  appear  before  the 
privy  council  on  the  last  of  November.  The  king  alleged  most 
truly,  "that  certain  persons  of  the  ministry  abiding  in  the  town 
of  Edinburgh  had  of  long  time  continued  together  devising 
plots  prejudicial  to  his  majesty's  authority,  and  usurping  apower 
over  their  brethren '."  This  decisive  step  filled  the  pulpits 
with  the  most  indecent  railing  and  invectives  against  the  king 
and  privy  council ;  and  as  the  latter  body  could  by  no  means 
bring  the  brethren  to  acknowledge  the  king's  civil  jurisdiction, 
nor  Black  to  confess  the  seditious  language  he  had  uttered, 
he  was  sentenced  to  banishment  beyond  the  river  Spey,  Imme- 
diately the  ministers  proclaimed  a  national  fast,  to  be  observed, 
as  tlieir  usual  custom  was,  on  the  weekly  festival  of  Sunday, 
"  for  the  wrongs  done  to  Christ's  kingdom,"  meaning  in  the 
person  of  Black,  "  and  which  they  opposed  with  the  spiritual 
armour  given  them  by  Christ ;"  on  wdiich  day  "  the  doctrine 
sounded  powerfully  ;"  that  is,  the  ministers  uttered  the  most 
furious  invectives  against  government,  and  excited  the  people 
to  sedition  and  tumult  2. 

The  fear  of  the  reintroduction  of  popery  still  continued  to 
haunt  the  minds  of  the  godly  brethren ;  and  the  rumour  that  the 
popish  earl  of  Huntly  had  obtained  an  audience  of  his  majesty 
was  sufficient  to  rouse  the  persecuting  spirit  of  the  zealous  bre- 
thren. They  met  in  one  of  the  churches,  and  after  an  exciting 
sermon,  in  which  the  king  was  furiously  denounced,  the  ministers 

^  Spottiswood,  p.  367. 

*  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  421.— Calderwood,  p.  339.— Heylin,  lib.  x.  p.  352. 


15:)G.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  393 

requested  the  nobility  and  gentry  to  remain  after  sermon,  and  to 
assist  them  with  their  advice  and  physical  force.  The  king  came 
that  day  to  the  Court  of  Session,  as  he  often  did,  and  being  in 
the  upper  house,  Robert  Bruce,  addressing  him,  said,  "  They 
were  sent  by  the  noblemen  and  barons  convened  in  the  Little 
Church,  to  bemoan  the  dangers  threatened  to  religion  by  the 
dealings  that  were  agamst  the  true  professors."  The  king  de- 
manded, "  Wliat  were  the  dangers  which  they  saw  ?"  "  Our 
best  affected  people,"  said  Bruce,  "  that  tender  religion,  are 
discharged  of  the  town  ;  the  lady  Huntly,  a  professed  papist, 
entertained  at  court,  and  it  is  suspected  her  husband  is  not  far 
off."  The  king  made  no  reply  to  this  speech,  but  demanded, 
"  who  they  were  that  dare  to  assemble  against  his  proclama- 
tion." The  furious  lord  Lindsay,"  in  passion"  replied,  "  that 
they  dare  do  more  than  so,  and  that  they  would  not  suffer 
religion  to  be  overthrown."  Lord  Lindsay's  insolent  language 
and  menacing  gestures,  with  the  violent  rush  of  people  into 
the  apartment,  justly  alarmed  the  king  for  his  personal  safety; 
and  with  some  difficulty  he  made  his  retreat  into  the  hall, 
where  the  judges  sat,  commanding  the  door  to  be  made  fast. 
The  ministers  asked  what  course  they  should  now  pursue  ? 
"  No  course,"  cried  the  brutal  Lindsay,  "  but  one ;  let  us  re- 
main, and  promise  to  take  one  part ;  advertise  our  friends  and 
the  favourers  of  religion  to  come  unto  us  ;  for  it  shall  be 
either  theirs  or  ours."  This  speech  increased  the  sedition  ; 
some  cried.  To  arms !  others,  "  Bring  out  Haman !"  meaning  the 
king ;  others,  "The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon."  The 
furious  uproar  of  the  people  was  increased  by  the  minister  of 
Cramond  reading  and  commenting  on  the  story  of  Haman,  and 
his  ignominious  end ;  and  violence  would  undoubtedly  have 
ensued,  had  not  the  provost  brought  the  armed  crafts  of  the 
city,  and  dispersed  the  riot. 

It  is  certain  that  this  disgraceful  riot  was  produced  by  the 
ministers,  and  Heron,  apresbyterian  writer,  expressly  acknow- 
ledges it : — "  The  clergy  of  Edinburgh,"  says  he,  "  and  the 
commission  of  the  General  Assembly,  exerted  themselves  with 
the  most  persevering  and  outrageous  activity  to  stir  up  such 
a  general  indignation  throughout  the  city  and  kingdom,  as 
should  force  the  king  to  pardon  Black,  and  submit  himself  to 
their  censorial  control.  A  tumult,  by  which  James's  life  w'as 
seriously  endangered,  was,  amid  these  bold  exertions  of  the 
clergy,  suddenly  raised  among  the  populace  of  Edinburgh  ^" 
Balfour  also  makes  the   same  acknowledgment ;    "  A  great 

'  Heron's  Hist,  of  Scotland,  iv.  p.  5G0. 
VOL.   I.  -i  E 


81)4  HISTORY  OF  TUE  [cHAP.  X. 

tumult  was  raised  in  Edinburgh  b}  the  factious  ministers  and 
commons,  against  the  Octavians ;"  eight  gentlemen  whom  the 
king  had  appointed  to  collect  his  revenue  and  govern  the  ex- 
chequer. "  Some  poor  courtiers  for  effecting  their  own  ends 
stirred  up  the  ministers,  whom  they  had  informed  that  the 
Octavians  had  counselled  the  king  to  countenance  the  popish 
lords,  and  such  as  were  Romishly  disposed  ;  then,  without 
more  adn,  was  the  Blue  Blanket  advanced,  and  a  factious  citi- 
zen, named  Edward  Johnston,  becomes  leader  to  the  rabble 
multitude,  and  c  ries  "•The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon" 
against  the  courtiers,  enemies  to  his  truths"  The  day  after 
this  dangerous  liot,  in  which  James  was  in  most  imminent 
danger  of  his  life,  strong  measures  wexe  executed  against  the 
city ;  the  king,  w  ith  his  whole  court,  retired  to  Linlithgow,  and 
the  courts  of  justice  were  ordered  to  be  removed  to  Perth.  On 
lea^'ing  Edinburgh,  the  king  issued  a  proclamation,  "  that  he 
considered  the  late  treasonable  uproar,  moved  by  certain  fac- 
tious persons  in  the  ministry  (who,  after  having  uttered  most 
seditious  speeches  in  pulpit,  did  convene  a  number  of  noble- 
men, barons,  and  others  in  the  Little  Church,  and  sent  some 
of  their  number  to  his  majesty,  being  then  in  the  upper  house 
of  Session,  using  him  in  a  most  irreverent  manner,  with 
speeches  ill  becoming  any  subject.  And  that  a  multitude  of 
the  townsmen,  by  persuasion  of  the  said  ministers,  had  trea- 
sonably put  themselves  in  arms,  intending  to  bereave  his  ma- 
jesty and  his  council  of  their  lives),  did  think  the  said  town  an 
unfit  place  for  the  administration  of  justice ;  and  therefore 
ordained  the  lords  of  session,  sheriffs,  commissioners,  and 
justices,  with  their  several  members  and  deputies,  to  remove 
themselves  forth  of  the  town  of  Edinburgh,  and  to  be  in  readi- 
ness to  repair  unto  such  places  as  should  be  appointed,"  &c. 

These  vigorous  measures  quickly  opened  the  eyes  of  the 
magistrates  and  citizens  of  Edinburgh  to  the  perilous  position 
in  which  the  malignant  spirit  of  their  ministers  had  placed 
them,  and  they  strove  to  propitiate  the  king's  wrath,  and  to 
avoid  the  penalties  of  high  treason.  The  intercession  of 
Elizabeth,  the  surrender  of  their  privileges,  and  the  payment 
of  a  heavy  fine,  procured  forgiveness  for  threatening  the  king's 
life.  The  brethren,  however,  were  not  so  easily  conquered. 
They  continued  their  seditious  and  mischievous  railing  both  in 
and  out  of  pulpit  against  the  king  and  the  privy  council.  They 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  lord  Hamilton,  proposing  to  him  to  be- 
come the  leader  of  a  general  rebellion,  and  offered  to  raise  the 

1  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  400. 


1596  ]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  395 

whole  commons  of  the  kingdom  in  arms,  if  he  would  take  the 
command ;  but  which  that  nobleman  indignantly  refused,  and 
laid  their  treasonable  letter  before  the  king.  Disappointed  in 
their  diabolical  intention  of  wrapping  the  whole  kingdom  in 
blood  and  slaughter,  and  setting  up  a  clerical  republic,  the  lead- 
ing ministers  were  obliged  to  seek  shelter  in  England,  where  they 
imported  and  sowed  their  republican  doctrines,which  produced 
a  bloody  harvest  in  the  following  reign  ^  The  same  presby- 
terian  author  says,  that "  the  restoration  of  episcopacy  was  soon 
after  recurred  to,  as  an  additional  measure  requisite  to  check 
the  turbulence  of  the  presby terians  2." 

The  above-mentioned  letter  was  written  by  Robert  Bruce, 
and  signed  by  him  and  Balcanquhal ;  in  which,  after  narrating 
the  injuries  sustained  by  the  church,  they  say, "  that  the  people, 
animated  by  the  word  and  motion  of  God's  Spirit,  had  gone  to 
arms."  The  word  unquestionably  meant  their  own  inflamma- 
tory sermons,  which  they  called  the  word  of  God,  and  ascribed 
that  Clime  to  the  motion  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  He  has,  by 
the  mouth  of  his  apostle,  pronounced  a  mortal  sin.  It  was  truly 
a  spirit  at  enmity  with  God,  and  ought  to  have  been  transferred 
to  a  herd  of  swine.  "  And  that  the  godly  barons  and  other 
gentlemen  that  were  in  town  had  convened  themselves  and 
taken  on  them  the  patrocinie  of  the  church  and  her  cause  ;  only 
they  lacked  a  head  and  special  noblemen  to  countenance  the 
matter ;  and  since  with  one  consent  they  had  chosen  his  lord- 
ship, their  desire  was  that  he  should  come  to  Edinburgh  with 
all  convenient  diligence,  and  utter  his  affection  to  the  good  cause, 
accepting  the  honour  which  was  offeied  unto  him."  The  bre- 
thren appointed  one  of  their  usual  fasts,  and  at  the  same  time 
deliberated  whether  they  should  excommunicate  the  lord 
president  and  the  king'  advocate.  Welsh,  a  preacher,  volun- 
teered his  services,  and  in  his  sermon  he  railed  most  unmerci- 
fully against  the  king  and  his  whole  court ;  saying,  "  he  was 
possessed  with  a  devil,  and  one  devil  being  put  out,  seven  worse 
were  entered  in  place  ;  also,  that  the  subjects  might  lawfully 
rise  and  take  the  sword  out  of  his  hand." 

1597. — This  ungodly  broil  of  the  brethren,  instead  of  wrest- 
ing the  sword  from  the  king,  as  it  was  their  intention  to  do, 
served  materially  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  government.  After 
this  clerical  tempest  and  sedition,  the  king  recovered  a  great 
deal  of  that  authority  which  had  been  wrenched  from  him  by 
the  brethren,  whose  licentious  liberty  was  now  become  dan- 
gerous to  tlie  government,  and  even  an  intolerable  nuisance  to 

'  Calderwood, — Spottiswood. — Balfour's  Annals.  •  Heron, 


396  HISTORY  OF  THE  fCHAP.  X. 

the  more  rational  and  sober  members  of  their  own  body.  The 
magistrates  of  Edinburgh  surrendered  to  the  king  the  privi- 
lege of  the  citizens  to  elect  their  own  ministers ;  and  the 
l)elulant,  factious  opposition  of  the  ministers  became  hence- 
forward less  perplexing  and  embarrassing  to  government. 
Parliament,  when  it  met,  declared  the  late  riot  and  correspon- 
dence of  the  brethren  high  treason^  which  subjected  them  to 
the  pains  and  penalties  for  that  crime,  although,  from  James's 
clemency,  they  never  were  inflicted. 

The  king,  being  sincerely  desirous  of  establishing  such  a 
decent  order  in  the  kirk,  as  might  correspond  with  the  woid 
of  God,  and  the  usage  of  the  primitive  church,  took  advantage 
of  this  juncture  to  summon  a  General  Assembly,  and  to  pro- 
pose some  measures  for  effecting  this  purpose,  Presbyterian 
writers  endeavour  to  show  that  this  Assembly  was  not  legal, 
and  consequently  that  its  acts  are  null  and  of  no  effect :  but 
all  princes  have  called  together  assemblies  of  their  national 
churches;  and,  besides,  James  had  compelled  them  to  submit 
to  his  appointment  of  their  assemblies,  and  to  his  presiding  in 
them  by  his  commissioner.  But  "  the  marches"  of  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  jurisdictions  had  never  been  properly  de- 
lined.  The  brethren  assumed  a  power  to  dictate  to  the  civil 
government,  and  to  cany  a  censorial  inquisition  into  the  bosom 
of  every  family  in  the  kingdom;  they  denounced  both  temporal 
and  eternal  vengeance  against  all  impug-ners  of  their  inquisi- 
torial censorship.  The  king,  therefore,  to  adjust  this  most 
troublesome  question,  called  this  Assembly  together  at  Perth, 
on  the  28th  February,  expressly  "  for  treating  and  determining 
the  bounds  and  exercise  of  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  ;"  and, 
that  the  members  might  be  duly  informed,  he  printed  and 
published  a  list  of  fifty  questions,  with  a  preface,  wherein  "  he 
took  God,  the  searcher  of  all  hearts,  to  record',  that  his  inten- 
tion was  not  to  trouble  the  peace  of  the  church  with  thorny 
questions,  nor  yet  to  claim  to  himself  any  unlawful  and  tyran- 
nical government  over  the  same,  but  only  to  have  the  policy 
of  the  church  so  cleared,  as,  that  all  corruptions  being  removed, 
a  j)leasant  harmony  might  be  established  betwixt  him  and  the 
ministry  ^" 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  434-8. — The  articles  were  in  number  fifty-five,  and  they 
were  drawn  up  in  the  form  of  questions  : — 1.  May  not  the  matters  of  the  externsJ 
gubernation  of  the  church  be  disputed  salvafide  et  religione  ?  2.  Is  it  the  king 
severally,  or  the  pastors  severally,  or  both  conjointly,  that  should  establish  the  acts 
concerning  the  gubernation  of  the  church  ;  or  what  is  the  form  in  their  conjunc- 
tion in  making  the  laws  ?  3.  Is  not  the  consent  of  the  most  part  of  the  flock, 
and  also  of  the  patron,  ncccssaiy  in  the  election  of  pastors  ?     4.    Is  it  lawful 


1597.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  397 

These  searcliing  questions  puzzled  and  perplexed  the  Pres- 
byterian ministers  ;  for  they  laid  bare  the  nakedness,  informa- 
lity, and  the  abuses  of  their  wliole  discipline.    They  took  great 

for  the  pastor  to  leave  his  flock  against  their  wills,  albeit  he  have  the  consent  of 
the  presbytery  ;  and  for  what  cause  should  the  presbytery  consent  thereto  ?  5. 
Is  it  lawful  for  a  minister  to  use  such  application  than  that  which  may  edify  his 
own  flock  ;  or  is  the  whole  tvorld  the  flock  of  every  particular  pastor  ?  6.  Is 
he  a  lawful  minister  who  wants  impositionem  manumn  ?  7.  Is  it  lawful  to  pastors 
to  express  in  particular  the  names  of  councillors,  magistrates,  or  others  whatso- 
ever, in  puipit,  or  so  lively  to  describe  them  that  the  people  may  understand 
whom  they  mean,  without  notorious  declared  vices  and  private  admonitions  pre- 
ceding ?  8.  For  what  vices  should  admonitions  and  reproving  of  magistrates  pass 
publicly  from  pulpits,  in  their  absence  or  presence,  respectively  ?  9.  Is  the  ap- 
plication of  doctrine  in  pulpits  lawful  which  is  founded  upon  informations,  bruits, 
and  rumours,  suspicions  and  conditions,  if  this  be  or  that  be,  probabilities,  like- 
likeliness  or  unlikeliness  of  things  to  come,  in  civil  matters,  which  aU  may  be 
false,  and  consequently  the  doctrine  following  thereupon  ?  or  should  all  applica- 
tions be  grounded  upon  the  verity  of  known  and  notorious  vices  ?  10.  Is  the  text 
whic  his  read  in  pulpit  the  ground  whereupon  all  the  doctrine  should  be  built, 
or  may  all  things  be  spoken  upon  all  texts,  so  that  the  reading  thereof  is  but  a 
ceremony  .'  11.  May  a  simple  pastor  exercise  any  jurisdiction  without  consent  of 
the  most  part  of  his  particular  session  ?  12.  Is  his  session  judge  to  his  doctrine  ? 
13.  Should  not  the  moderator  of  the  session  be  chosen  yearly,  or  any  who  hath 
voice  therein  ?  14.  May  the  session  be  elected  lawfully  by  ministers  only  without 
the  consent  of  the  whole  congregation  .'  15.  Why  should  not  elders  and  deacons 
of  particular  sessions  be  elected  ad  vitam  ?  16.  How  many  presbyteries  are  meet 
to  be  in  the  whole  country,  in  what  places,  and  how  many  pastors  of  churches  in 
every  presbytery  ?  17.  Should  not  the  elders  and  deacons  of  every  particular 
session  have  voice  in  presbyteries,  or  the  pastors  only?  18.  What  are  the  matters 
belonging  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  presbytery,  which  may  not  be  entreated  in 
particular  sessions  ?  19.  What  form  of  process  in  libelling  and  citation,  what 
terms  and  diets,  and  what  probations,  should  be  used  before  the  said  particular 
sessions  and  presbyteries  respectively  ?  20.  What  matters  should  the  synodal  as- 
semblies treat  upon  which  may  not  be  decided  in  presbyteries  ?  21.  Should  not 
all  who  have  voice  in  presbyteries  and  in  the  particular  sessions  have  voice  in  the 
synodal  assemblies  ?  22.  Should  each  imiversity  or  college,  or  every  master  or 
regent  within  colleges,  have  voice  in  presbyteries  and  synods,  in  the  towns  and 
countries  where  they  are ;  as,  likewise,  what  form  of  voice  should  they  have  in 
General  Assemblies  ?  23.  Is  it  lawful  to  congregate  the  General  Assembly  with- 
out his  majesty's  license,  he  being  plus  et  christianus  magistratus  ?  24.  Is  it 
necessary  that  the  General  Assembly  should  be  ordinarily  convened  for  weighty 
causes  concerning  the  whole  church  ?  25.  Have  not  all  men  of  good  religion  and 
learning  a  voice  in  the  General  Assembly?  26.  Is  any  particular  pastor  obliged 
to  repair  to  the  General  Assembly  ;  or  is  it  sufficient  that  only  commissioners  come 
from  every  particular  session,  presbytery,  or  synod  ?  27.  Who  should  choose  the 
commissioners,  to  come  from  every  shire  to  give  voice  in  the  General  Assembly  ? 
28.  What  is  the  number  of  those  that  give  voices,  which  is  necessary  to  the  law- 
fulness of  a  General  Assembly ;  and  how  many  of  the  number  should  be  pastors, 
and  how  many  other  men  ?  29.  May  any  thing  be  enacted  in  the  Assembly  to 
which  his  majesty  consents  not  ?  30.  Is  it  necessary  that  the  two  parts  of  them 
who  have  jms  svffragii  should  consent  to  any  thing  decerned  in  ecclesiastical 
judgments,  that  matters  pass  not  by  one  voice  more  or  less?  31.  Hath  not 
every  judgment,  inferior  to  the  General  Assembly,  a  territory  limited,  without 
the  which  they  have  no  power  of  citation  or  jurisdiction  ?  32.  What  is  the  ordi- 
nary ecclesiastical  judgment  for  his  majesty's  household  and  council,  removable 
with  his  majesty  to  any  part  of  the  realm  ?     33.  Should  there  be  libelled  pre- 


398  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  X, 

offence  at  the  king  for  thus  exposing  a  system  which  they  had 
persuaded  the  people  was  part  of  the  gospel.    From  a  perusal 
of  them  it  will  appear,  that  King  James  has  the  merit  of  fonn- 
ing  the  Presbyterian  discipline  in  the  mould  in  which  we  see 
it  established    in  Scotland  at  the  present  day  ;  and    it    is 
evident,  that  Melville  had  not  been  prepared  vvith  the  holy 
discipline  that  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  Knoxian  prelacy. 
The  discipline  which  came  from  his  hands  was  without  form, 
and  was  adj  usted  only  by  degrees  ;  yet,  nevertheless,  it  was  de- 
clared to  be  a  part  of  the  gospel !    Fearing  the  ridicule  and  con- 
tempt of  the  people,  the  leading  ministers  were  determined  to 
prevent  any  farther  exposure  of  their  nakedness,  and  they  held 
many  private  conferences  for  constructing  a  party  favourable  to 
their  cause.     In  the  meantime  the  king  was  equally  active  on 
his  part,  and  sent  Sir  Patrick  Murray,  a  gentleman  of  his  bed- 

cepts,  containing  tlie  cause  of  the  citation  and  certification  of  the  censures,  before 
all  ecclesiastical  judgments  ;  or  should  they  answer  super  inquirendis  7  34.  Have 
the  inferior  judgments  power  to  summon  any  to  compeir  before  the  superior  ?  or 
should  men  be  summoned  only  by  the  authority  of  that  judgment  before  which 
they  ought  to  compeir?     35.  Is  it  not  necessary  that  private  admonitions,  with 
reasonable  intervals  of  time,  pass  before  all  manner  of  citations  ?     36.  What  in- 
terval of  time  is  necessary  between  every  private  admonition  and  between  the  first 
citation  and  the  day  of  compeirance,  and  betwixt  the  citation  and  the  last  admo- 
nition in  every  one  of  the  said  judgments  ?     37.  How  many  citations  should  infer 
contumacy  ?     38.  Is  simple  contumacy  without  probation  of  a  crime,  or  is  any 
crime  without  contumacy,  a  sufficient  cause  of  excommunication  ?     39.  Are  there 
not  divers  kinds  of  censures,  such  as  prohihitio  privati  convictus,  inferdictio  a 
cmia,  not  published  to  the  people  ;    and  last  of  all,  ptiblica  traditio  Satance  ? 
40.  Should  the  presbyteries  be  judges  of  all  things  that  import  slander  ?  and    if 
so  be,  whereof  are  they  not  judges  ?     41.  Can  excommunication  be  used  against 
thieves,  murderers,  usurers,  and  not  payers  of  their  debts  ?  and  if  so  it  may  be, 
why  are  not  the  highland  and  border  thieves  cursed,  as  also  all  the  forswearing 
merchants  and  usurers  among  the  boroughs  ?     42.  Is  there  any  appellation  from 
the  inferior  to  the  superior  judgment .'  and  is  not  the  sentence  suspended  during 
the  appellation  ?     43.  Should  not  all  processes  and  acts  be  extracted  to  parties 
having  interest  ?     44.  Is  summary  excommunication  lawful  in  any  case  without 
admonition  and  citation  preceding  ?     45.   Have  any  others  but  pastors  voice  in 
excommunication  .'     46.  Hath  every  ecclesiastical  judgment  a  like  power  to  ex- 
communicate.' 47.  Is  it  lawful  to  excommunicate  such  papists  as  never  professed 
our  religion  .'     48.  A  woman  being  excommunicated,  having  a  faithful  husband, 
should  he  thereafter  abstain  from  her  company  ?     49.   Is  it  not  reasonable,  before 
any  letters  of  horning  be  granted  by  the  session  upon  process  of  excommunica- 
tion,  that  the  party  should  be  cited  to  hear  them  granted  ?     50.   Hath  not  a 
christian  king  power  to  annul  a  notorious  unjust  sentence  of  excommunication  .' 
51.  May  any  council  or  university  be  excommunicated.'  for  what  cause,  by  whom, 
and  the  manner  thereof?     52.  When  the  pastors  do  not  their  duty,  or  when  one 
jurisdiction  usurpeth  upon  another,  or  any  schism  falleth  out,  should  not  a  chris- 
tian king  amend  such  orders  ?     53.  May  fasts  for  general  causes  be  proclaimed 
without  a  christian  king's  command  ?     54.  May  any  ecclesiastical  judgment  com- 
pel a  man   to   swear  in  suam  tvpitudinem  ?     55.   Should   there    any  thing  be 
entreated   in   tlie   ecclesiastical  judgment  prejudicial  to  the  civil  or  private  men's 
rights  ?  and  may  not  the  civil  magistrates  stay  all  such  proceedings  ? 


1597.]  CHURCH  of  Scotland.  309 

chamber,  to  canvas  the  ministers  in  the  north,  and  to  secure 
their  votes,  because  as  yet  tlie  northern  brethren  had  not  shewn 
any  attachment  to  the  pi-esbyterian  disciplined 

On  the  8th  of  February  the  synod  of  Fife  met  at  St.  Andrews, 
and  appointed  their  members,  with  a  long  list  of  instructions,  to 
protest  at  the  Assembly  for  the  liberties  of  the  Church^.  An- 
drew Melville  organised  a  powerful  opposition,  and  sent  his 
nephew,  James,  to  be  its  leader.  The  ministers  were  exceed- 
ingly offended  that  the  holy  discipline  should  be  disputed  in 
the  Assembly,  or  that  the  gospel,  as  it  had  been  taught  by  them, 
should  be  doubted  by  the  people  ;  but  the  king  was  su]jported 
by  the  ministers  from  the  northern  parts,  and  Melville's  oppo- 
sition proved  of  little  consequence. 

The  king  himself  removed  to  Perth,  and  the  Assembly  met 
by  the  royal  summons  on  the  28th  of  February.  Some  members 
had  been  sent  up  with  restricted  powers,  and  instructions  not 
to  vote  for  any  radical  changes.  Suspecting  that  some  designs 
inimical  to  his  supremacy  were  on  foot,  James  sent  sir  John 
Cockbum  to  demand  whether  or  not  they  held  the  present  to  be 
alawfiil  General  Assembly.  This  was  not  the  universal  opinion ; 
and  had  not  the  king  fixed  them  at  this  time  by  their  own  act, 
it  would  have  given  him  much  future  trouble,  as  the  ultra  party 
would  have  declared  its  conclusions  null  and  void.  '•^  After 
long  reasoning,  answer  was  made,  that  they  did  esteem  the 
meeting  to  be  a  lawful  General  Assembly,  called  extraordinarily 
by  his  majesty's  letters ;  and  that  they  would  hear,  treat,  and 
conclude  of  things  that  should  be  moved  unto  them  according 
to  the  commissions  wherewith  they  were  authorised  3."  James 
Melville,  in  name  of  the  synod  of  Fife,  protested  against  its 
legality  and  the  validity  of  all  its  acts,  and  then  took  his  de- 
parture, lest,  as  he  said,  the  king  might  have  corrupted  him  in 
a  private  conference. 

The  king  desired  the  Assembly  to  censure  the  brethren  of 
Edinburgh,  who  had  created  the  late  riot  in  that  city;  to  sub- 
scribe the  bond  acknowledging  the  king's  supremacy  in  all 
causes  of  sedition,  treason,  and  other  civil  and  criminal  mat- 
ters, and  in  seditious  speeches  from  the  pulpits ;  and  he  re- 
quired them  to  remove  the  excommunication  denounced  against 
the  earl  of  Huntly.  In  reply,  the  ministers  pleaded  ignorance 
of  the  riot  and  the  subsequent  flight  of  the  Edinburgh  brethren, 
and  that  having  no  jurisdiction  over  them,  they  could  pass 
neither  judgment  nor  censure.     This  was  a  mere  subterfuge, 

1  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  437.  ^  Calderwood,  879. 

3  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  438.— Calderwood,  394. 


400  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X. 

for  the  General  Assembly  claims  lo  be  su]:)reme-,  and  in  the 
case  of  the  Roman  Catholic  peers,  the  synod  of  Fife,  which 
was  an  inferior  and  merely  a  local  court,  assumed  the  powers 
of  both  censure  and  judgment,  although  these  noblemen  were 
not  members  of  their  communion,  nor  were  resident  within  the 
bounds  of  that  synod.  For  the  bonds,  they  said  they  had  al- 
ready taken  an  oath  to  acknowledge  his  power  and  authority, 
and  would  not  decline  the  same;  but  with  respect  to  pulpit 
speeches,  they  intreated  time  to  consider  of  that  against  next 
Assembly.  Even  the  best-disposed  of  the  ministers  seem  to 
have  been  very  reluctant  to  part  with  this  ready  engine  of  agi- 
tation, by  which,  at  any  time,  the  kingdom  could  be  blown 
into  a  rebellion.  In  conclusion,  they  professed  their  willing- 
ness to  absolve  the  earl  of  Huntly  This  is  the  substance  of 
their  answers,  and  which  the  king  thought  it  prudent  to  ac- 
cept, that  he  might  not  drive  the  presbyterian  party  to  despe- 
ration, and  because  hopes  had  been  held  out  that  farther  con- 
cessions would  be  made  to  the  royal  authority. 

The  king  gained  a  number  of  the  more  moderate  ministers, 
who,  says  Spottiswood,"both  then  and  afterwards, in  all  assem- 
blies and  conventions,  did  stick  fast  unto  him ;"  and  he  prevailed 
on  the  Assembly  to  yield  in  many  things  to  which,  in  the  pride 
of  their  prosperity,  they  would  have  scorned  to  submit.  The 
principal  points  were, — 1st,  That  it  is  lawful  to  his  majesty,  by 
himself  or  his  commissioners,  or  to  the  pastors,  to  propose  in 
a  General  Assembly  whatsoever  point  his  majesty  or  they  de- 
sired to  be  resolved  or  reformed  in  matters  of  external  govern- 
ment, alterable  according  to  circumstances ;  providing  it  be 
done  in  right  time  and  place,  animo  cRdificandi,  non  tentandi. 
2d,  That  no  minister  should  reprove  his  majesty's  laws,  acts, 
statutes,  and  ordinances,  until  such  times  as  first  he  hath,  by 
the  advice  of  his  presbytery,  synod,  or  General  Assembly, 
complained  and  sought  remedy  of  the  same  from  his  majesty, 
and  made  report  of  his  majesty's  answer,  before  any  further  pro- 
ceeding. 3d,  That  no  name  should  be  expressed  in  pulpit  to 
his  rebuke,  except  the  fault  be  notorious  and  public  ;  which 
notoriety  is  thus  defined, — if  the  person  be  fugitive,  convict  by 
assize,  excommunicate,  contumax  after  citation  and  lawful 
admonition :  nor  yet  should  any  man  be  described  vively  by 
any  other  circumstances  than  public  vices,  always  damnable. 
4th,  That  no  minister  should  use  application  wherein  he  hath 
not  a  principal  respect  to  the  edifying  of  his  own  flock  and  jn-e- 
scnt  auditory.  5th,  That  every  presbytery  take  diligent  account 
of  the  pastor's  doctrine,  and  \hat  he  keep  himself  within  the 
bounds  of  his  words.     Olh,  That  the  answers  to  the  sixth  ar- 


1597.]  CHURCH  of  Scotland.  401 

tide  shall  be  superseded  until  the  next  General  Assembly, 
suspending,  in  the  meantime,  all  summary  excommunication 
until  the  said  Assembly.  7th,  That  the  seventh  article  be  re- 
mitted to  the  next  Assembly.  8th,  That  all  summonses  con- 
tain the  special  cause  and  crime,  and  none  to  be  given  out 
super  inquirendo.  9th,  That  no  conventions  shall  be  amongst 
the  pastors  without  his  majesty's  knowledge  and  consent,  ex- 
cept their  sessions,  presbyteries,  and  synods,  the  meetings  for 
the  visitations  of  churches,  admission  or  deprivation  of  mini- 
sters, taking  up  of  deadly  feuds,  and  the  like,  which  have  not 
been  found  fault  with  by  his  majesty.  10th,  That  in  all  prin- 
cipal towns  the  ministers  shall  not  be  chosen  without  his  ma- 
jesty's con.sent,  and  the  consent  of  the  flock.  11th,  That  all 
matters  concerning  remanent  questions  shall  be  suspended, 
and  neither  damned  nor  rebuked  in  pulpit  or  other  judicatories 
till  they  be  decided  in  the  General  Assembly ;  and  that  no 
matters  importing  slander  shall  be  called  before  them  in  the 
meantime,  wherein  his  majesty's  authority  is  prejudged,  causes 
ecclesiastical  only  excepted.^ 

This  was  a  great  victory,  and  with  which  James  was  very 
well  satisfied ;  he,  therefore,  the  more  readily  granted,  at  the 
Assembly's  intercession,  remission  of  the  parties  concerned  in 
the  late  riot,  the  cause  of  which  he  distinctly  laid  upon  the  mi- 
nisters. He  then  dismissed  the  Assembly,  and  appointed 
another  to  meet  at  Dundee  on  the  10th  of  May  next. 

This  year  the  illustrious  John  Lesslie,  bishop  of  Ross,  died 
at  Brussels,  where  he  had  chiefly  abode  since  the  murder  of  his 
sovereign,  queen  Mary.  "  A  man  he  was,  though  differing 
from  us  in  religion,  worthy  to  be  remembered  for  his  fidelity  to 
the  queen  his  mistress,  and  the  extraordinary  pains  he  took  to 
procure  her  liberty,  travelling  Avith  all  the  neighbour  princes  to 
interpose  their  credit  with  the  queen  of  England  for  her  relief 
Neither  was  he  deficient  in  ministering  the  best  consolations 
he  could  furnish  for  bearing  patiently  her  cross,  whereof  one 
treatise  he  afterwards  published,  fiill  of  piety  and  learning. 
How  heavily  he  took  her  death  it  cannot  well  be  expressed ; 
yet,  comforting  himself  in  the  best  sort  he  could,  he  put  off"  to 
this  time ;  and,  being  much  weakened  by  a  languishing  sickness 
that  held  him  some  months,  he  ended  his  days.  The  history 
of  his  country,  from  the  beginning  of  the  nation  to  these  times, 
written  by  him  in  the  Latin  tongue,  doth  witness  both  his  learn- 
ing and  judgment^."  The  following  year,  Mr.  David  Lindsay, 
minister  of  Lei th,  was  promoted  to  the  see  of  Ross.  It  is  curious, 

1  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  441.  2  Hjij^  442. 

VOL.  I.  3  F 


402  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X. 

that  the  Roman  bishops  made  no  attempt  to  perpetuate  their 
line  of  succession  in  Scotland,  which  entirely  ceased  on  the 
death  of  archbishop  Beaton,  in  the  year  1006  *- 

The  Assembly  of  last  year  had  appointed  the  following- 
Assembly  to  meet  at  St.  Andrews  in  April.  Robert  Pont, 
with  a  few  of  the  sincerer  sort,  met  there  accordingly  ;  but  as 
the  king  had  appointed  the  Assembly  to  meet  at  Dundee  in 
May,  very  few  attended,  and  these  separated  after  having  fenced 
the  meeting  and  protested  for  the  liberty  of  the  kirk.  This  was 
an  attempt  of  the  presbyterian  party  to  recover  the  ground 
which  their  own  violence  had  lost.  Before  separating,  they 
protested  that  the  late  Assembly  was  unconstitutional,  and  ail 
its  acts  null,  for  eight  several  reasons  ;  but  in  especial,  "  be- 
cause it  was  convocated  to  demolish  the  established  discipline, 
as  appeared  by  the  printed  questions  calling  in  doubt  the  whole 
discipline,  at  least  to  gain  some  advantage  against  it."  Not- 
withstanding their  protest  and  humiliation  "  under  this  de- 
solation," "the  Assembly  of  the  new  fashion"  met  at  Dundee 
in  IMay,  which  Calderwood  denominates  a  corrupt  one  ;  and  he 
draws  a  frightful  comparison  between  the  "  sincere  Assemblies 
and  the  corrupt  ones  2."  In  this  Assembly,  the  ministers  of 
Edinburgh,  who  had  been  so  deeply  engaged  in  the  late  dan- 
gerous riot,  and  who  had  been  allowed  to  return  and  resume 
their  charges,  now  resigned  them,  declining  to  serve  any  longer, 
unless  they  should  have  particular  flocks  assigned  to  them,  and 
acknowledged  that  they  were  "  wearied  of  that  confused  minis- 
try." Heretofore  the  city  ministers  had  lived  together  in  one 
common  house,  which  gave  them  an  opportunity  to  consult  in 
private,  to  foster  seditions,  and  to  put  their  treasons  into  form. 
The  king  required  them  to  give  up  this  domicile,  and  to  reside 
in  different  houses  separate  from  each  other,  so  that  they  might 
not  meet  together  without  observation.  By  this  an'angement  he 
aimed  at  nothing  more  than  to  reduce  the  people  to  a  sense  of  their 
duty,  to  curb  the  intolerable  licentiousness  of  the  city  ministers, 
"  the  watch-tower  of  the  nation,"  and  to  settle  good  order  in  the 
city  churches.  The  city  of  Edinburgh  was  therefore  divided  into 
parishes,  and  a  minister  appointed  to  each.  During  the  sitting 
of  this  Assembly,  the  king  admitted  Melville  and  his  nephew 
to  a  private  audience,  and,  says  Calderwood,  "  the  king  began 
to  speak  mildly  to  Mr.  Andrew ;  but  when  he  began  to  touch 
the  matters  that  were  to  be  treated,  Mr.  Andrew  broke  out  in 
Ms  wonted  manner,  so  that  all  that  were  in  the  house  and  below 


1  Keith's  Catalogue,  442. 
"  Calderwood,  p.  402. 


1597.]  CHURCH    OF  SCOTLAND.  403 

and  without  beard  tliem.     In  the  end  the  king  becometh  cahn, 
and  disinissetb  him  favourably  ^" 

The  king  gained  another  point  of  some  importance,  which 
was,  "  that  an  uniform  order  be  kept  in  the  ordination  of  minis- 
ters, and  that  none  be  admitted  but  by  imposition  of  hands,  and 
to  a  certain  flock  on  which  they  shall  be  astricted  to  attend  2." 
"  It  was  at  this  time,"  says  Heylin,"  that  Dr.  Bancroft,  bishop  of 
London,  began  to  correspond  with  the  king,  whom  he  recognized 
as  Elizabeth's  undoubted  heir  and  successor.  He  reflected 
how  much  it  would  conduce  to  the  peace  and  happiness  of  both 
kingdoms  if  they  were  each  governed  by  the  same  form  of  eccle- 
siastical polity  ;  and  he  accordingly  submitted  a  plan  to  his 
majesty  by  which  he  might  restore  episcopac}'  to  the  kirk."  The 
success  which  had  attended  his  late  measures  greatly  conduced 
to  this  end;  and  the  restoration  of  the  rite  of  imposition  of 
hands,  with  theastriction  of  the  ministers  to  particular  churches, 
were  two  very  important  steps  towards  it.  But  James's  most 
dexterous  movement,  and  one  which  was  likely  to  save  him 
from  that  rude  familiarity  with  which  every  individual  minister 
had  been  accustomed  to  treat  him,  was  the  appointment  by  the 
Assembly  of  thirteen  of  their  number  to  attend  on  his  majesty 
constantly.  These  were  called  the  commissioners  of  the  kirk, 
and  were  to  form  the  king's  ecclesiastical  council ;  they  might 
be  considered  as  the  seminary  of  the  future  bishops,  being  the 
exactnumber  of  the  bishojirics.  They  were  instructed  to  settle 
ministers  in  the  churches  of  Edinburgh  and  in  all  the  chief  cities 
and  towns  in  the  kingdom  ;  to  present  all  petitions  and  griev- 
ances of  the  kirk  to  the  king  ;  and  to  advise  with  the  king  in  all 
such  affairs  as  were  conducive  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of 
the  kirk  3. 

By  his  wise  and  vigorous  measures,  James  had  attached  such 
a  majority  of  the  ministers,  that  he  found  little  difficulty  in  sub- 
duing the  turbulent  presbyterians,  who,  nevertheless,  still 
uttered  seditious  passages  in  their  sermons.  He  had  procured 
the  censure  and  punishment  of  Black ;  and  also  of  one  Wallace, 
who  had,  in  a  sermon,  abused  and  insulted  his  principal  secre- 
tary of  state.  In  their  present  temper  he  even  ventured  to 
assault  the  ringleader  and  author  of  all  the  recent  seditions  and 
disturbances.  A  royal  visitation  was  accordingly  ordered  of 
the  University  of  St.  Andrews,  of  which  the  founder  of  the 
"  holy  discipline"  was  the  rector.  A  more  dangerous  man 
could  not  have  been  placed  in  a  situation  of  all  others  the 


*  Calderwood,  p.  403.  -  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p. 

^  Heylin,  lib.  x.  355-6. 


444. 


401  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  X, 

most  convenient  for  implanting  those  republican  principles 
that  are  so  intimately  blended  with  the  presbyterian  system. 
It  was  found,  on  inquiry,  that  instead  of  teaching  divinity  in 
his  college,  Melville  lectured  on  politics  :  "  whether  the  elec- 
tion or  succession  of  kings  were  the  best  form  of  government  ? 
How  far  the  royal  power  extended  ?  And  whether  kings  were 
to  be  censured  and  deposed  by  the  estates  of  the  kingdom  in 
case  their  power  should  be  abused  ?"  The  fruit  which  this 
seed  produced  was  reaped  in  the  following  reign,  by  the  re- 
oellion  of  the  whole  presbyterian  and  puritan  party,  and  the 
murder  of  the  king.  The  king,  therefore,  with  the  advice  of 
his  ecclesiastical  council,  removed  Andrew  Melville  from  his 
office  of  rector,  and  restricted  him  from  being  a  member  of 
any  presbytery,  synod  or  assembly.  The  ecclesiastical  com- 
missioners also  recommended  that  no  man  should  for  ever  after 
continue  rector  above  the  space  of  one  year,  and  which  the 
king  confirmed.  The  ministers  of  St.  Andrews  had,  under 
Melville's  auspices,  been  exceedingly  turbulent,  and  the  council 
of  ministers  next  deposed  and  removed  them,  to  the  entire 
satisfaction  of  their  parishioners,  and  then  inducted  Mr.  George 
Gladstanes  from  Arbirlot  in  Angusshirc,  and  others  into  their 
charges  who  w^ere  "  accepted  of  the  people  with  a  great 
applause  ^" 

On  the  13tli  of  December,  parliament  met,  and  an  act  was 
passed  to  restore  the  Roman  catholic  noblemen  to  their  estates 
and  titles'^.  The  late  clerical  riot,  in  which  the  king  was  ex- 
posed to  so  much  personal  danger,  was  declared  by  parliament 
to  be  high  treason.  The  king's  ecclesiastical  council,  or  the 
commissioners  of  the  church,  in  its  name,  presented  a  petition, 
praying  "  that  the  ministers,  as  representing  the  church  and 
third  estate  of  the  kingdom,  might  be  admitted  to  give  voice 
in  parliament,  according  to  the  acts  made  m  favour  of  the 
church,  and  its  ancient  rites  and  privileges."  James  had  the 
welfare  of  his  native  church  sincerely  at  heart,  and  he  was  now 
in  the  zenith  of  his  power ;  for  by  his  own  abilities  and  address 
he  had  conquered  the  obstinate  and  intractable  brethren,  and 
compelled  them  to  acknowledge  his  supremacy  as  civil  head 
of  the  kirk.  This  petition  met  with  considerable  opposi- 
tion, but  James  derived  great  advantage  from  the  indefinite 
manner  in  which  it  was  worded.  He  was  very  anxious  to 
have  it  adopted,  and  at  last  obtained  an  act  wdierein  it  was 
declared,  "  That  such  pastors  and  ministers  as  his  majesty 

Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  447. — Heyliii,  lib.  x.  356. — Calderwood,  p.  410-11. 
Balfour's  Annals,  i.  p.  402. 


1598.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  405 

should  please  to  provide  to  the  place,  title,  and  dignity  of  a 
bishop,  abbot,  or  other  prelate,  at  any  time,  should  have  voice 
in  parliament,  as  freely  as  any  other  ecclesiastical  prelate  had 
at  any  time  bypast ;  and  that  all  bishoprics  then  in  his  ma- 
jesty's hands  and  undisposed  of  to  any  person,  or  which  should 
happen  to  fall  void  thereafter,  should  be  only  disponed  to  actual 
preachers  and  ministers  in  the  church,  or  to  such  other  persons 
as  should  be  found  apt  and  qualified  to  use  and  exercise  the 
office  of  a  preacher  or  minister,  and  who  in  their  provisions 
to  the  said  bishoprics  should  accept  in  and  upon  them  to  be 
actual  pastors  and  ministers,  and  according  thereto  should 
practise  and  exercise  the  same  *."  This  act  advanced  James's 
plans  for  the  restoration  of  the  titular  episcopacy  formerly 
established,  and  there  cannot  be  any  doubt  but  that  he  was 
firmly  determined  to  restore  it,  being  the  only  means  of  curbing 
the  intolerable  licentiousness  of  the  "sincerer  sort,"  the  "  godly 
brethren,"  or  the  presbyterian  party.  These  had  from  the 
commencement  of  their  "holy  discipline"  embroiled  the  whole 
kingdom  in  confusion  by  their  insatiable  lust  of  power,  their 
censorial  interference  in  all  public  and  private  affairs,  and  their 
unceasing  attempts  to  establish  an  ecclesiastical  republic  on 
the  ruins  of  social  order. 

1598. — In  consequence  of  the  late  enactment,  which  restored 
the  spiritual  estate  to  its  place  in  parliament,  the  king  anticipated 
the  meeting  of  the  Assembly,  which  had  been  appointed  to  con- 
vene at  Stirling  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  May.  He  therefore 
summoned  an  Assembly  to  meet  at  Dundee  in  March.  Peter 
Blackburn,  minister  of  Aberdeen,  was  chosen  moderator ;  the 
king  being  present,  he  desired  "  to  be  resolved  touching  their 
acceptation  of  place  in  parliament,  with  the  form,  manner,  and 
number  of  persons  that  should  be  admitted  to  have  voice;  and 
thereupon  desired  them  to  enter  into  a  particular  consideration 
of  the  whole  points  of  the  act ;  and  first  to  reason  whether  it 
was  lawful  and  expedient  that  the  ministers,  as  representing 
the  whole  church  within  the  realm,  should  have  voice  in  par- 
liament or  not."  After  long  debate,  the  Assembly  concluded, 
"  that  ministers  might  lawfully  give  voice  in  parliament  and 
other  public  meetings  of  the  estate,  and  that  it  was  expedient  to 
have  some  always  of  that  number  present,  to  give  voice  in  name 
of  the  church ;"  and  they  farther  recommended,  that  the  number 
which  had  that  right  when  the  Roman  catholic  church  was 
the  establishment,  should  be  appointed ;  that  is,  fifty-one  per- 
sons.    Such  a  numerous  prelacy  excited  a  hope  in  the  minis- 

^  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  M9. — Heylin,  lib.  x.  p.  357. — Calderwood,  p.  402. 


401)  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X. 

ters  that  each  might  stand  some  chance  of  acquiring  the  pri- 
vilege of  a  seat  in  parliament,  and  no  doubt,  in  some  measure, 
it  influenced  their  minds  in  concurring  with  this  measure.  It 
was  also  resolved  that  the  election  of  these  prelates  partly  ap- 
pertained to  his  majesty,  and  partly  to  the  church :  and  as 
time  would  not  peimit  the  discussion  of  other  points,  as  the 
mode  of  election,  revenues,  and  whether  or  not  the  office  should 
be  for  life,  by  what  titles  they  should  be  designated,  and  what 
precautions  should  be  adopted  for  preventing  corruption,  &c. ; 
all  these  and  some  other  points,  therefore,  were  remitted  to  the 
presbyteries  to  be  first  considered,  and  then  to  be  re-considered 
in  the  synods,  which  were  appointed  to  meet  simultaneousl}'  on 
the  first  Tuesday  in  June.  After  these  meetings,  three  minis- 
ters from  each  synod,  with  the  principals  of  the  universities, 
were  to  meet  his  majesty,  "  with  power  to  them  being  so  con- 
vened to  treat,  reason,  and  confer  upon  the  said  heads  and 
others  appertaining  thereto :  and  in  case  of  agreement  and  uni- 
formity of  opinion,  to  conclude  the  whole  question  touching 
voice  in  parliament;  otherwise,  in  case  of  discrepance,  to  remit 
the  conclusion  to  the  next  General  Assembly  i." 

The  king  had  now  become  master  of  his  ministers ;  he 
managed  the  Assemblies  at  his  pleasure,  and  restrained  the  tur- 
bulent preachers  from  meddling  with  political  or  personal 
matters  in  their  sermons,  and  he  procured  an  act  of  Assembly, 
declaring  all  summary  excommunications  to  be  contrary  to  law. 
The  General  Assembly  was  restricted  from  meeting  without  the 
king's  precept,  and  he  acquired  the  patronage  of  the  churches 
in  all  the  principal  burghs  in  the  kingdom.  In  short,  he  was 
now  supreme  head  of  the  church,  acquired  by  his  own  address 
and  management ;  and  he  conquered  a  host  of  the  most  perti- 
nacious, pragmatical,  meddling,  and  seditious^  preachers  with 
which  any  country  w- as  ever  affiicted.  A  little  of  the  Geneva 
leaven  was,  however,  exhibited  in  the  commencement  of  the 
Assembly  of  1597,  and  which  will  be  most  indicative  of  the 
spirit  of  the  times  and  the  parties,  if  given  in  Calderwood's 
own  language.  "  After  calling  of  tlic  roll  of  the  commissioners, 
Mr.  Andrew  Melville  was  challenged  by  the  king  for  coming  to 
the  Assembly,  seeing  by  his  authority  he  was  discharged  from 
all  Assemblies.  He  answered,  he  had  a  doctoral  charge  in  the 
kirk  which  was  ecclesiastical.  But  the  king  would  suffer 
nothing  to  be  done  till  Mr.  Andrew  was  removed.  He  was 
commanded  by  the  king  to  keep  his  lodging.  Upon  Wednesday 
the  eighth,  Mr.  Patrick  Galloway  had  a  flattering  sermon,  and 

1  Spottisvraod,  b.  vi.  p.  409. 


1597.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  407 

exhorted  to  a  confused  peace,  witKoiit  due  distinction  betwixt 
peace  in  God  and  peace  in  the  Devil.  The  assessors  were 
elected  by  the  king  against  all  order.  Nothing  of  moment  was 
done  the  first  two  days,  but  ministers  sent  for  to  the  king. 
Upon  Thursday  the  9th,  Mr.  Andrew  Melville  and  Mr.  John 
Johnston,  Professors  of  Theology  in  St.  Andrews,  were  charged 
to  depart  out  of  the  town  of  Dundee,  under  the  pain  of  horn- 
ing. When  the  Assembly  convened,  Mr.  John  Davidson  said, 
there  was  A\rong  done  to  the  Assembly  in  discharging  Mr. 
Andrew  Melville  and  Mr.  John  Johnston,  I  will  not  hear  one 
word  of  that,  said  the  king,  twice  or  thrice.  We  must  crave 
help,  then,  said  Mr.  John,  of  him  that  will  hear  us^" 

In  the  new  di\'ision  of  parishes,  a  new  set  of  ministers  was 
appointed.     Robert  Bruce  had  never  been  ordained  in  any 
way ;  he  had  merely  a  toleration,  or,  as  he  said,  "  an  approba- 
tion of  the  General  Assembly,"  for  ten  years,  that  he,  as  a  con- 
fessed laic,  had  exercised  the  whole  functions  of  a  minister. 
Yet  during  all  this  time  he  administered  the  sacraments,  and 
they  were  esteemed  valid,  even  without  such  ordination  as  the 
holy  discipline  could  confer.     He  himself  alleged,  that  "  the 
approbation  of  the  General  Assembly  was  equivalent  to  ordina- 
tion ;"  and  he  made  the  most  determined  resistance  to  the  im- 
position of  hands,  and  even  created  a  tumult  in  the  church,  by 
appealing  to  the  people,  when  three  ministers  had  met  there  for 
the  purpose  of  ordaining  him.     And  it  was  not  till  a  threat  of 
the  deprivation  of  his  benefice  was  held  out,  that  he  at  last 
submitted,  on  the  19th  of  May,  but  not  without  a  protest.    "  It 
is  to  be  observed,"  says  Calderwood,  "  that  this  imposition  oi 
hands,  whereabout  this  business  was  made,  was  holden  for  a 
ceremony  unnecessary  and  indifferent  in  our  kirk,  while  that 
now  they  were  laying  the  foundation  of  episcopacy,  it  was 
urged  as  necessary  2." 

Although  the  Melvillians  had  set  aside  Knox's  Book  of 
Discipline  as  being  of  too  episcopal  a  complexion  for  their 
discipline,  yet  they  retained  some  of  its  features.  He  did 
not  approve  of  the  imposition  of  hands  in  ordination  or  ad- 
mission, as  he  called  it;  "  for  albeit  the  apostles  used  impo- 
sition of  hands,  yet,  seeing  the  miracle  is  ceased,  the 
using  of  the  ceremony  we  judge  not  necessary T  There 
is  a  remarkable  coincidence  of  language  in  this  decision  with 
the  nan  obstante  of  the  council  of  Constance — "  though  Christ 
did  institute  in  both  kinds,  and  the  primitive  church  did  so  ad- 

'  Calderwood,  p.  415,  l\f>.  ^  Calderwood. 


408  HISTOUY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X. 

minister,  yet  we  desire  the  contrary  to  be  observed  i."  The 
Melvillians  followed  Knox  in  rejecting  the  rite  of  the  laying 
on  of  hands,  and  a  presbyterian  minister  of  the  present  day, 
of  some  celebrity,  addressing  the  Anglican  bishops  and  clergy, 
says,  "  After  a  lapse  of  twenty-one  years,  and  it  is  said  at  the 
earnest  entreaty  of  king  James,  and  in  order  to  gratify  his 
majesty,  the  reformed  church  of  Scotland  consented  to  the 
form  of  ordination  now  in  use,  as  one  '  not  necessary^  as  in 
your  church  it  is  esteemed,  but  as  proper  and  becoming.  We 
are  therefore  bound  to  tell  you,  in  all  honesty,  that  at  no  period 
of  our  church's  history  has  she  looted  upon  ordination  as  con- 
veying, through  an  apostolical  channel  and  chain  of  unbroken 
succession,  the  indelible  character,  graces,  and  influences,  of 
which  you  hold  it  to  be  the  divinely  appointed  vehicle  2." 

The  general  tone  of  moderation  shewn  in  the  synods,  on  the 
discussions  of  the  propositions  which  were  remitted  to  them 
from  the  Dundee  Assembly,  induced  the  king  to  hope  that  he 
should  not  meet  with  any  very  violent  opposition  to  his  views. 
He  therefore  issued  letters  to  ihe  synods,  requiring  the  com- 
missioners from  each  to  meet  him  at  Falkland,  on  the  29th  of 
July.  There,  says  Spottiswood,  "  after  a  long  deliberation, 
it  was  with  an  unanimous  consent  agreed  :"  That  for  each  va- 
cant bishopric  the  church  should  nominate  six  persons,  out  of 
whom  the  king  should  choose  one  ;  but  if  his  majesty  should 
not  like  any  of  them,  then  the  church  should  choose  other  six, 
one  of  whom  must  be  chosen  without  farther  refusal.  2.  That 
the  churches  being  sufliciently  planted,  and  no  prejudice  done 
to  schools,  colleges,  and  universities  already  erected,  he  should 
be  put  into  possession  of  the  rest  of  that  prelacy  to  which  he 
was  to  be  preferred.  The  following  cautions  were  jealously 
inserted,  at  which  the  king  winked  for  the  present: — 1.  That 
the'prelates  should  not  propose  any  thing  in  'council,  conven- 
tion, or  parliament,  in  the  name  of  the  church,  without  the 
church's  w^arrant;  neither  should  they  keep  silence  if  any 
thing  was  mooted  prejudicial  to  the  church,  under  pain  of  de- 
position. 2.  They  should  be  obliged  to  give  an  account  of 
their  proceedings  to  ev^ery  Assembly,  and  obtain  its  ratifica- 
tion without  any  appeal,  under  pain  of  infamy  and  excommu- 
nication. 3.  They  should  be  content  with  that  part  of  their 
benefice  which  should  be  appointed  for  their  living.  4,  That 
he  should  not  dilapidate  his  benefice  without  consent  of  the 

'  Perceval's  Roman  Schism,  p.  144-5. 

-  An  Address  to  the  Bishops  and  Clergy  at  Large,  of  the  Church  of  England, 
p.  52,  sec.  24.     Anno  1839, 


1597.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  409 

King  and  the  Assembly.  5.  That  they  should  be  bound  to  at- 
tend the  congregation  faithfully  at  which  he  should  be  ap- 
pointed minister,  in  all  the  points  of  a  pastor,  and  be  subject  to 
the  trial  and  censure  of  his  own  presbytery  or  provincial  as- 
sembly, as  any  other  of  the  ministers  that  bear  no  commission. 
6.  In  the  administration  of  discipline,  &c.  he  should  neither 
usurp  nor  claim  to  himself  any  more  power  or  jurisdiction 
than  any  of  his  brethren.  7.  In  presbyteries,  synods,  and 
assemblies,  they  should  behave  themselves  in  all  things  as  one 
of  the  brethren,  and  be  subject  to  their  censure.  8.  At  ad- 
mission they  should  swear  to  all  these  and  other  points.  9.  If 
they  should  be  deposed  by  the  presbytery,  &c.  their  places  in 
parliament  to  be  ipso  facto  void.  10.  That  they  should  be 
called  commissioners  of  such  and  such  a  place,  if  so  be  the  par- 
liament be  induced  by  his  majesty  to  accept  that  title,  other- 
wise the  General  Assembly  should  consider  and  determine  the 
same  ;  as  also  how  long  they  should  continue  in  office,whether 
ad  vitam,  except  some  offence  make  him  unworthy,  or  for  a 
shorter  space,  at  the  pleasure  of  the  church  ^ 

It  was  by  no  means  the  king's  intentions  that  these  minute 
precautions  should  be  allowed  to  stand  in  force,  which  would, 
in  point  of  fact,  have  subjected  the  king  and  parliament  to  the 
control  and  supremacy  of  the  General  Assembly.  He  was 
glad  to  bring  these  zealous  men  to  any  agreement  which  would 
advance  order,  peace,  and  good  government,  trusting  to  time  to 
remove  their  fears  and  prejudices,  and  that  the  men  whom  he 
intended  to  place  in  authority  would,  by  their  wisdom  and  pru- 
dence, make  all  their  cautions  needless. 

At;,  this  conference,  the  ministers  discussed  the  necessity  of 
abolishing  the  nam,e  of  bishop,  and  substituting  in  its  place 
that  of  commissioners  of  the  kirk  ;  because  the  name  of  bishop 
was  associated  with  the  idea  of  corruption  and  tyranny  in  the 
minds  of  the  people,  owing  to  the  incessant  railing  of  the  sin- 
cerer  sort  against  that  order,  which  having  taken  a  deep  root 
in  the  feelings  and  associations  of  the  people,  had  created  a 
prejudice  which  has  not  yet  entirely  ceased 2.  "  Episcopacy  in 
Scotland  has  always  had  to  struggle  with  recollections,  which, 
though  they  are  connected  with  circumstances  altogether 
foreign  to  its  principles,  as  a  system  of  church  government, 
have  had  a  powerful  effect  in  swaying  the  sentiments  of  the 
people,  and  in  thereby  disqualifying  them  for  a  candid  exami- 
nation of  the  grounds  on  which  it  has  recommended  itself  to 

^  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  452. — There  is  not  a  word  about  this  agreement  in  Cal- 
derwood.  '  Calderwood. 

VOL.  I.  3  G 


410  HISTORY  OF   THE  [CHAP.  X. 

the  greater  part  of  the  Christian  world.  In  England,  from 
the  earliest  protestant  times,  the  most  eminent  martyrs  of 
which  the  church  has  to  boast  belonged  to  the  highest  order 
of  the  prelacy.  The  names  of  Latimer,  Ridley,  and  Cranmer, 
are  dear  to  the  memory  of  the  pious,  warm  the  heart  of  the  pa- 
triot, and  associate  themselves  with  a  long  series  of  events, 
which  will  always  prove  interesting  to  the  lover  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  In  the  reign  of  James  II.  too,  when  the 
faith  of  the  nation  was  menaced,  and  the  constitution  in 
church  and  state  seemed  about  to  fall  a  prey  to  the  bigotry  of 
ihe  sovereign,  the  first  victims  of  royal  anger  were  the  highest 
churchmen  in  the  kingdom ;  and  the  first  symptoms  of  popular 
indignation,  accordingly,  were  manifested  in  behalf  of  the  in- 
jured prelates  who  had  set  the  first  example  of  opposition. 
The  hierarchy  of  the  South,  in  short,  has  derived  no  small  ad- 
vantage, and  derived  no  mean  increase  of  strength,  from  the 
same  class  of  occurrences,  which,  in  Scotland,  contributed 
greatly  to  weaken  the  influence  of  the  higher  clergy,  as  well 
as  to  cloud  the  annals  of  the  episcopal  establishment  at  large 
with  the  most  unfavourable  remembrances  ^" 

On  the  24th  December  the  queen  was  delivered  of  a  daugh- 
ter, who  was  christened  in  the  Chapel  Royal,  Holyrood 
House,  on  the  15th  April,  1599,  by  David  Lindsay,  minister 
of  Leith,  and  named  Margaret.  She  died  young.  On  this 
occasion,  the  lord  Hamilton  and  the  earl  of  Huntly  were 
created  marquisses.  In  June  the  king  convened  the  estates 
at  Edinburgh,  when  there  were  eight  acts  passed,  the  last  of 
which  was  to  restore  James  Beaton  to  his  archbishopric  of 
Glasgow,  and  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  what  remained  of  its 
temporalities  2.  Archbishop  Beaton  was  consecrated  at  Rome, 
in  the  year  1552  ;  but  when  he  saw  the  wild  proceedings  of 
the  reformers,  he  packed  up  the  acts  and  records  of  his  church, 
and  transported  them  to  France,  along  with  the  French  troops. 
He  deposited  all  the  writs  and  muniments  of  his  diocese  in  the 
Scots  college  and  the  Carthusian  monastery  at  Paris  ;  where 
they  met  the  fate  of  all  sacred  property  when  the  revolution 
broke  out  in  1792.  Queen  Mary  appointed  him  her  ambassa- 
dor at  the  court  of  France,  and  king  James  continued  him  in 
the  same  capacity  till  his  death  in  1603^. 

1599. — The  king  had  written  a  treatise  on  the  art  of  govern- 
ment, addressed  to  his  son  prince  Henry,  which  he  called 
Basilicon  Doron  ;  some  passages  of  which  had  been  extracted 

'  Appendix  to  Keith's  Cat.  483.  *  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  404. 

'•*  Keith's  Catalogue  of  Scottish  Bishops,  259,  260. 


1600.]  CHHRCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  411 

by  Andrew  Melville,  to  whom  Sir  James  Semple,  the  king's 
amanuensis,  had  secretly  shewn  it ;  and  there  being  some  se- 
vere remarks  in  it  on  the  holy  discipline,  whose  merits  no 
man  could  better  appreciate  than  king  James,  it  gave  him  great 
offence,  particularly  the  following  passage : — "  That  parity 
among  ministers  was  inconsistent  with  the  existence  of 
monarchy ;  that  without  bishops  the  three  estates  in  parlia- 
ment could  not  be  restored ;  and  that  the  design  of  the  pres- 
byterian  ministers  was  to  establish  a  democracy."  He  dis- 
persed copies  of  the  obnoxious  passages  among  his  fiery  bre- 
thren ;  one  of  whom,  named  Dykes,  wrote  a  seditious  libel,  and 
presented  it  to  the  synod  of  Fife, — for  which  he  was  declared 
rebel,  and  outlawed  for  non-appearance.  Melville  and  the 
sincerer  sort  had  purposely  misrepresented  the  nature  and  ten- 
dency of  the  book,  so  as  to  produce  a  considerable  ferment, 
which  determined  James  to  publish  it,  toundeceive  his  peo- 
ple. It  was  found  to  contain  much  good  sense,  and  many  sa- 
gacious maxims  of  government,  mixed  with  some  pedantic  ex- 
pressions. The  book  found  its  way  into  England,  and  paved 
the  course  more  effectually  for  his  succession  to  that  crown  than 
all  the  elaborate  treatises  that  had  been  written  on  the  subject ; 
and  it  greatly  exalted  his  character  for  piety  and  wisdom  in  the 
estimation  of  his  future  subjects  ^ 

The  king  had  now  so  thoroughly  subdued  the  brethren, 
that  he  licensed  a  company  of  comedians  to  perform,  and 
compelled  the  ministers  to  take  off  an  excommunication  which 
they  had  thundered  out  against  both  the  players  and  the  peo- 
ple for  resorting  to  the  theatre.  It  is  generally  believed  that 
the  immortal  Shakspeare  was  in  this  company.  The  1st  of 
January  was  appointed  hereafter  to  be  the  commencement  of 
the  year,  and  which  has  been  followed  in  this  work  :  formerly 
it  began  on  the  25th  March,  or  Lady  Day. 

1600.— On  the  28th  March,  the  General  Assembly  met  at 
Montrose,  where  the  king  himself  was  present.  The  chief 
subject  before  the  meeting  was  that  of  the  titular  bishops  sit- 
ting in  parliament,  which  the  Assembly  ratified  ;  also  the  con- 
clusions of  the  conference  at  Falkland  in  1598.  Then,  for  the 
continuance  of  those  that  should  be  chosen  to  sit  in  parlia- 
ment, it  was  concluded,  that  "  he  who  was  admitted  should 
annually  render  an  account  of  his  commission  to  the  General 
Assembly  ;  and  laying  the  same  down  at  their  foot,  should  be 
iherein  continued,  or  if  his  majesty  and  the  Assembly  did 
think  fit  to  employ  another,  he  should  give  place  to  him  that 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  456. 


412  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X. 

was  appointed.  That  they  who  had  voice  in  parliament 
should  not  have  place  in  the  General  Assembly,  unless  they 
were  authorised  by  a  commission  from  the  presbyteries, 
whereof  they  were  members  *." 

All  that  now  remained  to  be  done  was  to  nominate  suitable 
persons  to  fill  those  bishoprics  that  were  vacant,  which  was 
done  from  among  the  most  moderate  and  peaceably  inclined 
of  the  bretheren.  The  king  intended  to  lop  off  many  of  the  ab- 
surd restrictions  which  the  scrupulosity  of  the  sincerer  sort 
had  annexed  to  the  parliamentary  duties  of  the  new  bishops 
or  commissaries.  Aberdeen  and  Argyle  had  their  own  incum- 
bents ;  St.  Andrews  and  Glasgow  were  in  the  hands  of  the 
duke  of  Lennox  ;  Moray  was  possessed  by  the  lord  Spynie  ; 
Orkney  by  the  earl  of  Orkney ;  Dimkeld,  Brechin,  and  Dun- 
blane were  occupied  by  titular  bishops ;  but  in  the  confusion 
and  contempt  of  ordination  incident  to  the  Melvillian  kirk, 
they  were  not  preachers ;  Galloway  and  the  Isles  were  so  dila- 
pidated, that  it  was  scarcely  remembered  that  they  had  ever 
existed.  Only  Ross  and  Caithness  had  some  revenues  left; 
to  the  former  of  which  David  Lindsay  was  preferred,  and 
George  Gladstanes  to  the  latter  2;  but  who,  nevertheless,  still 
continued  to  serve  at  their  churches  in  Leith  and  St.  Andrews. 
And  thus,  says  the  venerable  Skinner,  "  a  shadow  of  episco- 
pacy was  once  more  restored  in  Scotland,  and  the  king  ap- 
peared to  be  satisfied  for  the  present,  till  he  could  get  the  sub- 
stance properly  and  regularly  recovered,  which  he  seems  all 
along  to  have  had  in  his  eye  3."  Thus,  says  the  presbyterian 
Calderwood,  "  the  Trojan  horse,  the  episcopacy,  was  brought 
in  covered  with  caviats,  that  the  danger  might  not  be  seen, 
which,  notwithstanding,  was  seen  of  many,  and  opposed  unto, 
considering  it  to  be  better  to  hold  thieves  at^the  door  than  to 
have  an  eye  upon  them  in  the  house  that  they  steal  not.  And, 
indeed,  the  event  declared  that  their  fear  was  not  without  just 
cause,  for  these  commissioners,  voters  to  parliament,  after- 
wards bishops,  did  violate  these  caviats  as  easily  as  Sampson 
did  the  cords  wherewith  he  was  bound'*." 

The  death  of  John  Dury,  which  happened  at  this  time, 
must  not  be  omitted,  on  account  of  his  death-bed  advice  to 
his  quondam  friends.  It  will  be  recollected,  that  Melville 
employed  him  as  a  sort  of  cat's-paw  to  introduce  the  subject  of 
a  strife-breeding  parity  among  ministers ;  and  whose  opinion, 

'  Spottiswood,  456.  "  Spottiswood. — Keith's  Cat. 

^  Skinner's  Ecclesiastical  Hist.  ii.  237. — Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  456. 
*  True  History,  p.  441. 


1600.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  413 

after  an  experience  of  twenty  years,  is  worth  recording.  He  ear- 
nestly desired,  he  said,  to  have  attended  the  last  Assembly,  that 
he  might  declare  his  mind  on  the  subject  which  then  occupied 
their  attention.  That  being  impossible,  from  his  approaching 
dissolution,  he  entreated  some  brethren  to  visit  him,  and  carry 
his  dying  advice  to  the  Assembly,  which  was,  "  that  there  was 
a  necessity  of  restoring  the  ancient  government  of  the  church, 
because  of  the  unruliness  of  young  ministers,  that  would  not 
be  advised  by  the  elder  sort,  nor  kept  in  order ;  and  since  both 
the  estate  of  the  church  did  require  it,  and  that  the  king  did 
labour  to  have  the  same  received,  he  wished  them  to  make  no 
trouble  therefore ;  and  to  insist  only  with  the  king,  that  the 
best  ministers,  and  of  greatest  experience,  might  be  prefeiTcd 
to  places."  As  he  desired,  this  message  was  delivered  to  the 
Assembly,  the  majority  of  whom  received  it  with  much  ap- 
probation. He  was  a  good  but  credulous  man,  and  easily  im- 
posed on;  and  consequently  was  an  excellent  tool  for  the 
Melvillian  party,  through  whose  instigation  he  was  exceed- 
ingly turbulent  while  he  was  minister  of  Edinburgh,  and 
which  occasioned  his  being  banished  to  Montrose.  After  liv- 
ing there  some  time,  he  became  minister  of  that  town,  where, 
says  Spottiswood,  "  he  lived  well  respected  and  in  gi-eat  quiet- 
ness ;  making  it  appear  that  the  many  contests  and  strifes  he 
had  in  former  times  proceeded  not  from  his  own  disposition  so 
much  as  from  the  suggestion  of  others.  For  all  the  time  he 
lived  there,  no  man  did  carry  himself  with  greater  modesty, 
nor  in  a  more  dutiful  obedience,  and  was  therefore  well  be- 
loved and  esteemed  by  the  king.  To  the  poor  he  was  exceed- 
ingly helpful,  compassionate  of  those  that  were  in  distress, 
and  merciful  eveu  when  he  seemed  most  severe^." 

Thus,  after  an  establishment  of  only  eight  years,  the  presby- 
terian  system  was  demolished,  it  having  been  found  incompa- 
tible with  civil  government,  and  even  an  intolerable  tyranny 
to  the  peaceably  inclined  of  its  own  ministers.  Many  of  the 
people  reverted  to  the  Church  of  Rome  as  a  relief  from  the 
severity  of  the  holy  discipline,  which  was  continually  chang- 
ing, and  which  was  of  a  most  arbitrary  and  oppressive  na- 
ture. In  the  preface  to  the  Basilicon  Doron,  James,  than  whom 
no  man  had  more  experience,  gave  the  brethren  the  follow- 
ing character  at  parting  with  them.  He  represents  them  as 
"  a  people  which — refusing  to  be  called  Anabaptists, — too 
much  participated  of  their  humours,  not  only  agreeing  with 
them  in  their  general  rule,  the  contempt  of  the  civil  magistrate, 

*  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  457. 


414  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP,  X. 

and  ill  leaning  to  their  own  dreams,  imaginations,  and  revela- 
tions ;  but  particularly  in  accounting  all  men  profane  that 
agree  not  in  their  fancies ;  in  making  for  any  particular  ques- 
tion of  the  polity  of  their  church  as  much  commotion  as  if  the 
article  of  the  Trinity  was  called  in  question  ;  in  making  the 
Scriptures  to  be  ruled  by  their  consciences,  and  not  their  con- 
sciences by  the  Scriptures ;  in  accounting  every  body  ethnics 
and  publicans,  unworthy  of  enjoying  the  benefit  of  breathing, 
much  less  to  participate  with  them  in  the  sacraments,  that 
denies  the  least  jot  of  tlieir  grounds ;  and  of  suffering  king, 
people,  law,  and  all  to  be  trodden  under  foot,  before  the  least 
jot  of  their  ground  be  impugned  ;  in  preferring  such  holy  wars 
to  an  ungodly  peace ;  and  not  only  in  resisting  christian  princes, 
but  denying  to  pray  for  them,  for,  say  they,  prayer  must  come 
by  faith,  and  it  is  not  revealed  that  God  will  hear  their  prayers 
for  such  a  prince.     They  used  commonly  to  tell  people  in  their 
sermons,  that  all  kings  and  princes  were  naturally  enemies  to 
the  liberty  of  the  church,  and  could  never  patiently  bear  the 
yoke  of  Christ.     Therefore  he  counsels  the  prince  to  take  heed 
of  such  puritans,  whom  he  calls  the  very  pest  of  the  church 
and  commonwealth,  whom  no  deserts  can  oblige,  neither  oaths 
nor  promises  bind ;    breathing  nothing  but  sedition  and  ca- 
lumnies ;  aspiring  without  measure,  railing  without  reason, 
and  making  their  own  imaginations  the  square  of  their  con- 


science." 


A  late  historian,  and  who  was  himself  a  presbyterian,  has 
left  the  following  picture  of  the  ministers  of  that  period  on 
record : — "  In  arrogant  pretensions  to  supreme,  unquestionable, 
uncontrolable,  heaven-derived  power,  civil  and  ecclesiastical, 
the  presbyterianism  of  Scotland  in  the  days  of  James  VI.  did 
not  yield  one  jot  to  the  popery  of  Rome.     The  reformation 
might  seem  to  give  the  Scottish  sovereign  five  hundred  popes 
to  contend  with,  instead  of  one :  should  the  monarchy  have 
been  humbled  before  the  pope,  that  was  but  to  be  destroyed 
by  the  majestic  eagle;  when  its  strength  was  weakened  by 
the  presbyterian  ministers,  this  was  to  be  devoured  by  vermin, 
or  to  be  stung  to  death  by  wasps.   James's  life  was  continually 
embittered,  during  his  residence  in  Scotland,  by  the  presby- 
terian ministers  belying  his  purposes,  obtruding  on  him  their 
insolent  advice,  preaching  sedition  from  their  pulpits,  exciting 
tumults  in  his  towns,  striving  to  entice  his  nobles  from  tlieir 
allegiance,  abetting  whoever  rose  in  rebellion  against  him,  ar- 
rogating to  themselves   all  the  censorial  powers  which   the 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  teach  us  to  attribute  to  the 
thoocrasy  of  the  ancient  Jews,  and  to  the  inspired  prophets, 


1600.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  415 

who  were  the  ministers  of  revelation.  James  struggled  against 
these  rabid  and  outrageous  opponents  with  great  dexterity,  and 
with  no  small  success.  But  he  saw  that  their  connexion,  from 
the  essential  nature  of  uncoiTupted  presbytery,  was  much  more 
with  the  people  than  with  the  throne.  Republican  in  its  in- 
timate constitution,  presbytery  could  never  be  made  the 
steady  and  permanent  supporter  of  a  monarchical  government, 
without  undergoing  a  great  change  in  form  and  principles. 
Of  all  the  reformed  churches,  that  of  England  alone  was, 
in  both  its  structure  and  its  spirit,  perfectly  congenial  to 
monarchy  ^" 

This  acknowledgment  by  a  presbyterian  writer  is  a  corro- 
borating proof  that  monarchy  in  the  church  as  well  as  in  the 
state  is  of  divine  institution ;  and  whether  or  not  his 
opinon  was  right,  may  be  gathered  from  the  whole  history  of  the 
"  holy  discipline."  The  turbulence  and  agitation  which  had 
disturbed  the  kingdom,  in  a  great  measure  ceased  after  the 
"  congenial  friend  to  monarchy"  was  restored,  though  it  was 
only  a  maimed  and  titular  episcopacy  which  was  then  set  up. 
It  may  be  gathered  from  the  questions  which  the  king  proposed 
to  the  Assembly  for  solution,  that  the  presbyterian  government 
was  at  first  merely  nominal,  and  had  not  been  brought  into  shape  ; 
nevertheless  it  would  ajDpear  that,  like  Cummins,  the  Jesuit  who 
first  introduced  the  use  of  extemporary  prayers  into  England, 
every  minister  claimed  the  "  whole  world  for  his  flock  2."  The 
question  whether  he  was  a  lawful  minister  who  wanted  impo- 
sition of  hands 3,  first  brought  back  the  ministers  to  a  resump- 
tion of  that  apostolic  rite.  The  election  of  elders,  and  the 
number  and  extent  of  the  presbyteries,  had  not  been  settled 
or  placed  on  any  proper  basis,  and  his  majesty's  questions'*  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  improvement  which  has  since  taken 
place  in  these  particulars.  The  parochial  elders  are  now 
elected  for  life,  or  at  least  during  their  residence  in  a  parish, 
and  their  good  behaviour ;  and  the  bounds  of  each  presbytery 
are  ascertained  and  fixed.  The  twenty-first  question  led  to 
the  system  which  is  now  adopted,  that  each  minister  of  a  pres- 
bytery is  a  member  of  the  provincial  synod  without  any  election ; 
and  the  jurisdiction  of  every  presbytery  and  synod  is  now  re- 
stricted to  their  territorial  bounds ;  neither  of  which  appear  to 
have  been  so  at  the  period  when  the  questions^  were  pro- 
pounded. The  king  also  reduced  them  to  the  apostolic  injunc- 
tion of  administering  joma^e  admonition  to  notorious  offenders 

J  Heron's  History  of  Scotland,  v.  337.  "  Guest.  5.  ^  Quest.  6. 

*  Quest.  15,  16,  17,  18,  21,  22.  '  Quest.  26,  27,  28,  31. 


416  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  X. 

before  they  were  cited  to  appear  and  inculpate  themselves  by 
answering  searching  interogatories  ^  It  would  appear  that  the 
presbyteries  had  claimed  and  exercised  a  universal  dominion  2; 
for  the  king  found  it  necessary  to  require  them  to  shew  the 
limits  of  their  power,  by  demanding,  "  whereof  were  they  not 
judges  ?"  It  had  become  absolutely  necessary  to  limit  their 
disposition  to  meddle  and  dictate  in  both  civil  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal affairs,  in  base  imitation  of  the  Jewish  theocrasy,  which 
may  account  for  their  assumed  dogma  that "  always'''  Melville's 
new  discipline  "  was  part  of  the  gospel.'''' 

These  interrogatories  brought  the  presbyterian  system  out 
of  that  chaotic  state  in  which  its  inventor  first  produced  it.  It 
may,  therefore,  very  justly  be  called  an  Erastian  discipline,  as 
flowing  from,  or,  at  least,  as  having  been  put  into  shape,  by 
the  civil  magistrate,  and  consequently  can  have  no  title  to  be 
called  a  holy  discipline,  or  a  part  of  the  gospel,  as  Melville  and 
his  followers  always  did  call  it.  The  fiftieth  question  clearly 
shews  the  erastianism  of  the  whole  scheme, — "  hath  not  a  chris- 
tian king  power  to  annul  a  notoriously  unjust  sentence  of  ex- 
communication ?"  The  ecclesiastical  and  civil  powers  run  in 
parallel  lines,  and  if  each  run  in  their  own  course  they  can 
never  interfere  with  each  other;  but  here  the  civil  power 
assumes  the  power  of  the  keys,  and  becomes  a  judge  of  a 
purely  religious  question,  whether  or  not  a  man  deserves  to  be 
excommunicated. 

>  Quest.  35,  2  Quest.  40. 


1593.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  417 


CHAPTER  XI. 

FROM  THE  RESTORATION  OF  TITULAR  EPISCOPACY  TO  THE 
CONSECRATION  OF  THREE  BISHOPS  IN  LONDON. 

1600. — Discontent  of  the  presbyterian  leaders. — The  Gowrie  conspiracy. — The 
king  desires  public  thanks  to  be  given  for  his  preservation — generally  refused — 
the  king's  just  sense  of  his  deliverance. — Birth  of  a  prince,  baptized  Charles. — 

Ministers  of  Edinburgh  removed. 1601. — The  pope's  breves — intrigues  of 

the  Jesuits — An  Assembly — they  lament  the  tendency  to  atheism — a  fast. — 
James  translates  the  Psalms. — Birth  of  prince  Robert. 1602. — An  Assem- 
bly— Bruce's  obstinacy. — Another  Assembly — address  to  the  king — his  reply. — 
5th  of  August  appointed  a  festival. 1603. — Death  of  Elizabeth — James  pro- 
claimed.— King's  speech  in  the  church — progress  to  London. — Death  of  arch- 
, bishop  Beaton. 1604. — Assembly  prorogued. — A  meeting  at  Aberdeen — dis- 
charged by  the  king's  commissioner — refuse  to  disperse — committed  to  Black- 
ness prison — summoned  before  the  privy  council — indicted,  and  found  guilty. — 
1605. — The  gunpowder  plot. 1606. — The  chancellor  connived  at  the  Aber- 
deen meeting. — Parliament — repeal  of  the  act  of  annexation — some  of  the  two 
contending  parties  summoned  to  London — four  bishops  appointed  to  preach 
before  them. — King's  address  at  opening  the  meeting — James  Melville's  reply. — 
Three  questions  proposed — the  elder  Melville's  reply — offended  at  the  ornaments 
of  the  chapel-royal — his  epigram — considered  a  libel — he  rails  against  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury — elder  Melville  committed  to  the  tower. — James's 
opinion  of  the  church  of  England. — Assembly  at  Linlithgow — the  king's  letter 
— constant  moderators  proposed — opposition — agreed  to. 1607. — Opposi- 
tion in  the  presbyteries. — Synod  of  Perth — decided  opposition  to  the  permanent 
moderators — a  new  one  elected — riot  in  the  synod — opposition  in  the  synods  of 

Fife  and  Glasgow. 1608. — Assembly  at  Linlithgow. — Increase  of  popery. — 

Earl  of  Huntly  excommunicated. — Deficiencies  of  the  ministers. — Assembly's 
petitions  to  the  king  granted. 1609. — Parliament — lord  Balmerino. — Cor- 
respondence with  the  pope. — Acts  ratified. 1610. — An  Assembly  at  Glas- 
gow— articles  agreed  to. 

1600. — After  eight  years  of  intolerable  agitation,  the  presby- 
terian form  of  government  was  abolished  by  the  king,  with 
the  full  consent  of  an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  ministers, 
and  the  applause  of  the  people,  whose  opinions  seem  to  have 
been  changed  by  experience  of  its  tyranny.  Externally,  affairs 
seemed  to  proceed  smoothly ;  but  the  presbyterian  party  was 
neither  extinct,  nor  even  subdued;  they  only  kept  quiet  till  they 
saw  a  favourable  opportunity  for  successful  agitation.  Their 
VOL.  I.  3  H 


418  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XI. 

leaders,  who  had  for  some  time  enjoyed  an  arbitrary  power, 
did  not  patiently  brook  the  restrictions  and  limitations  which 
were  imposed  on  them  by  the  Dundee  Assembly;  neither  did 
they  look  with  complacency  on  the  fair  foundation  that  was 
now  laid  for  the  apostoHcal  succession  which  James  after- 
wards introduced.     Soon  after  the  king  had  restored,  in  some 
measure,  tranquillity  to  the  church,  by  the  re-introduction  of 
the  titular  episcopacy,  he  encountered  the  danger  of  assassina- 
tion, by  the  treasonable  attempt  of  the  earl  of  Gowrie,  at 
Perth,  well  known  by  the  name  of  the  "  Gowrie  Conspiracy," 
which,  had  it  not  been  for  the  visible  hand  of  an  overruling 
Providence,  would  have  proved  fatal.     The  earl  of  Gowrie, 
whose  father  had  been  executed  for  high  treason  in  1581,  in- 
vited the  king  from  Falkland,  to  honour  him  with  his  com- 
pany at  dinner,  at  his  house  in  Perth,  on  the  5th  of  August, 
under  pretext  of  having  a  particular  secret  to  communicate. 
Not  suspecting  treason  from  a  nobleman  whom  he  had  restored 
to  his  father's  forfeited  honour  and  property,  he  incautiously 
accepted  the  earl's  invitation,  and  came  to  Perth  with  a  very 
small  retinue.     After  dinner  the  king  was  decoyed  into  a  re- 
mote chamber,  where  Alexander  Ruthven,  the  earl's  brother, 
upbraided  him  with  their  father's  execution,  and  bid  him  pre- 
pare for  instant  death.     Meantime  the  king,  recovering  from 
his  surprise,  had  the  presence  of  mind  and  bodily  strength, 
while  struggling  with  Ruthven,  who  had  seized  him  by  the 
throat,  to  reach  a  window,  which  he  opened,  and  called  for 
assistance.     His  retinue  hearing  the  cry  of  treason,  rushed  to 
the  rescue  by  the  back  stairs,  for  the  principal  stairs  and  pas- 
sages were  secured  by  the  conspirators,  and  in  the  assault 
which  ensued  Gowrie  and  his  brother  were  slain.    The  citizens 
flew  to  arms,  and  demanded  the  earl,  who  was  their  provost ; 
but  some  of  the  magistrates  havingbeen  admitted,  and  informed 
of  the  attempt  to  assassinate  the  king,  returned  and  pacified 
the  people.     After  quietness  was  restored  the  king  returned  to 
Falkland,  and  next  day  sent  information  of  this  shocking  event 
to  the  privy  council,  with  an  order  for  the  ministers  to  convene 
•  the  people,  and  give  public  thanks  to  God  for  his  majesty's 
deliverance.     But  this  was  inconsistent  with  the  policy  of  the 
lately  dominant  party,  who  ill  dissembled  their  recent  defeat; 
and  the  Edinburgh  ministers  refused  to  return  thanks  for  a 
mercy  of  which  they  pretended  ignorance  of  the  particulars. 
They  were  reminded,  that  all  which  government  required  of 
them  was  to  return  thanks  for  his  majesty's  preservation  from 
personal  danger  ;  nevertheless,  they  peremptorily  refused,  al- 
leging that  "  nothing  ought  to  be  delivered  in  the  pulpit  but 


1600.]  CHDRCn  OF  SCOTLAND.  419 

that  whereof  the  truth  was  known,  and  all  that  is  uttered  in 
that  place  ought  to  he  spoken  in  faith."  The  ministers  were 
determined  not  to  believe  anything  against  a  family  which  had 
rendered  the  presbyterian  cause  such  good  service  in  times 
past,  and  by  no  persuasions  or  menaces  could  they  be  induced 
to  utter  a  public  thanksgiving.  Lindsay,  bishop  of  Ross,  how- 
ever, performed  that  duty  at  the  market-cross,  and  the  people 
expressed  great  joy.  "  In  the  meantime  cometh  Mr.  David 
Lindsay,  minister  at  Leith,  who  had  been  at  Falkland, 
and  heard  the  king  relate  the  story  of  the  fact.  He  went 
with  the  lords  of  the  council  to  the  market-cross  of  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  had  an  harangue  for  the  purpose;  and 
after,  the  people,  with  uncovered  heads,  praised  God :  which 
action  being  ended,  there  were  ringing  of  bells,  shooting  of 
cannons,  between  three  and  four  in  the  afternoon,  and  bonfires 
set  out  on  the  streets,  and  upon  Arthur  Seat,  and  other  eminent 
places  far  and  near  on  this  and  the  other  side  of  thewater^." 
"  News  of  this  conspiracy  coming  to  Edinburgh  on  the  mor- 
row, the  sixth  day,  that  the  king  had  escaped  this  bloody  plot, 
there  were  great  expressions  of  joy  amongst  all  sorts  of  people, 
by  shootings  of  cannons,  ringing  of  bells,  and  bonfires;  and 
the  chancellor,  treasurer,  secretary,  comptroller,  and  collector, 
with  a  great  many  of  the  nobility,  senators  of  the  College  of 
Justice,  and  privy  councillors,  wxnt  all  of  them  to  Edinburgh 
cross,  and  heard  Mr.  David  Lindsay  declare  the  business  to 
the  people  in  a  very  eloquent  oration;  which  was  no  sooner 
finished,  but  all  of  them,  on  their  knees,  with  lifted-up  hands 
to  heaven,  gave  God  humble  and  hearty  thanks  for  his  ma- 
jesty's health,  safety,  and  delivery  out  of  so  great  danger^. 

The  refi-actory  ministers  were  compelled  to  leave  the  city 
in  forty-eight  hours,  and  were  inhibited  from  preaching  within 
his  majesty's  dominions,  under  pain  of  death.  Shortly  after 
they  ail  appeared  at  Stirling,  and  expressing  their  penitence, 
declared  that  they  were  thoroughly  resolved  of  the  truth  of 
Gowrie's  conspiracy,  and  were  accordingly  pardoned.  The 
obstinate  and  bigotted  Bruce  still  held  out,  and  said  "  he  would 
reverence  his  majesty's  report  of  that  accident,  but  could  not 
say  he  was  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  it  3."  Bruce  was  there- 
fore banished  the  kingdom,  and  went  to  France.  Yet  even  of 
those  who  had  expressed  their  contrition,  only  one  performed 
the  conditions  enjoined  to  them;  for  which  unchristian  con- 
duct the  next  Assembly  removed  them  to  country  charges,  till 

1  Calderwood,  p.  443.  *  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  406. 

*  Spottiswood. 


420  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XI. 

the  king,  with  his  accustomed  clemency,  allowed  them  to  re- 
turn to  their  livings  in  Edinburgh,  and  even  permitted  Bruce 
himself  to  return,  on  promise  of  better  behaviour.    "  What  an 
unaccountable  and  unprecedented  principle,"  says  Mr.  Skinner, 
"  do  these  men's  consciences  appear  to  have  been  actuated  by, 
who  would  neither  pray  for  one  sovereign  when  in  apparent 
danger,  nor  thank  God  for  delivering  another  out  of  it !    And 
how  provoking  it  must  have  been  to  the  king  to  have  his  own 
royal  word,  and  the  solemn  declaration  of  so  many  of  his  nobi- 
lity, thus  impudently  called  in  question;  as  if  nothing  less  than 
his  being  actually  murdered  would  have  convinced  these  men 
that  there  had  been  a  design  to  murder  him !     So  much,  in- 
deed, had  this  spirit  of  peculiar  perverseness  infected  the  suc- 
ceeding generation  of  that  character,  that  for  many  years  the 
story  of  Gowrie's  conspiracy  was  sneered  at  and  ridiculed  by 
them  as  an  idle  tale,  devised  by  the  court  to  ruin  that  noble- 
man, whose  father  and  grandfather  had  done  their  cause  such 
signal  services;  till,  about  the  beginning  of  this  (the  eighteenth) 
century,  the  earl  of  Cromarty,  then  lord  register,  published  a 
full  and  authenticated  account  of  it  from  the  public  records, 
which  his  office  afforded  him  the  inspection  of,  and  evinced 
the  reality  of  it  beyond  any  reasonable  possibility  of  contra- 
diction ^"    But  the  democratical  doctrines  of  the  presbyterian 
party  had  not  so  besotted  the  nation  as  either  to  dispute  the 
story,  or  to  despise  the  mercy  !  for  it  had  such  an  effect  on  the 
minds  of  all  honest  men,  that  in  the  following  parliament  the 
estate  of  Gowrie  was  confiscated,  his  sons  disinherited,  and 
the  name  of  Ruthven  utterly  abolished.     The  dead  bodies  of 
the  two  brothers  were  brought  to  Edinburgh,  hanged   and 
quartered,  and  their  heads  fixed  on  the  common  jail,  and  the 
5th  of  August  was  appointed  by  act  of  parliament  to  be  kept 
as  a  day  of  thanksgiving  in  all  time  coming. 

On  the  Monday  following  King  James  came  to  Edinburgh, 
and  proceeded  direct  to  the  market  cross,  which  was  covered 
with  tapestry,  on  which  he  took  his  seat,  and,  accompanied 
by  several  of  the  nobility,  publicly  returned  thanks  to  Almighty 
God  for  the  late  mercy  vouchsafed  to  him.  After  which,  Mr. 
Galloway,  his  own  chaplain,  delivered  a  discourse  from  the 
124th  Psalm,  in  which  he  narrated  the  whole  particulars  of 
the  conspiracy  and  the  king's  escape,  "  and  gave  the  people 
great  satisfaction,  for  many  doubted  that  there  had  been  any 
conspiracy."  But  the  impartial  historian  must  not  neglect  to 
continue  the  record  of  James's  more  substantial  gratitude,  and 

'  Skinner's  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Scotland,  ii.  p.  239   40. 


1600.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  4-21 

which  sheus  that  he  had  the  right  sense  ot  what  was  due  to 
God;  for  he  would  not  offer  thanksgiving  unto  the  Lord  his 
God  of  that  which  cost  him  nothing.  Accordingly,  the  next 
day  the  king  had  a  solemn  council  at  the  palace;  and  in 
token  of  his  thankfulness,  and  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  liis 
deliverance,  he  mortgaged,  for  the  entertainment  of  some  poor 
men,  the  rent  of  5£  1000  per  annum  from  the  rents  of  the  abbey 
of  Scone,  and  ordered  an  honourable  reward  to  the  three  gen- 
tlemen that  had  been  instrumental  in  his  preservation^ 

On  the  29th  of  November,  the  queen  was  again  confined  at 
Dumfermline,  and  gave  birth  to  a  son,  who  was  so  tender  and 
dehcate,  that  the  christening  was  hastened,  lest  his  death 
should  take  place.  No  mention  is  made  of  the  name  of  the 
person  who  baptized  this  prince,  who  w^as  called  Charles  ; 
but  whoever  did  it  must  have  been  without  canonical  orders ; 
and  it  was  somewhat  ominous,  that  if  he  was  baptized  in  in- 
fancy by  a  presbyterian,  he  fell  a  sacrifice  to  their  rebellious 
principles,  and  so  was  in  his  manhood  baptized  by  them  in 
his  own  blood.  So  the  defects  of  his  water  baptism  were  sup- 
plied by  his  bloody  martyrdom;  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
primitive  church,  supplied  the  %a  ant  of  that  second  birth  which 
is  the  concomitant  of  water  baptism  by  a  duly  commissioned 
minister.  On  the  day  of  his  baptism  tlie  prince  was  created 
lord  of  Ardmanoch,  earl  of  Ross,  marquis  of  Ormond,  and 
duke  of  Albany ;  and  soon  after  his  majesty  made  a  great  feast 
to  his  nobility  and  the  lords  of  his  privy  council-  In  honour 
of  this  auspicious  occasion  he  created  the  lord  Livingstone 
earl  of  Linlithgow,  the  lord  Seton  earl  of  Winton,  and  the  lord 
Cessford  earl  of  Roxburgh ;  and  a  number  of  gentlemen  were 
knighted  ^. 

From  the  ungovernable  turbulence  of  the  ministers  of  Edin- 
burgh, called  by  the  rest  "  the  watch-tower  of  the  nation,"  the 
king  was  desirous  of  having  them  removed  to  other  charges, 
and  men  of  a  more  christian  spirit  settled  in  their  places.  The 
commissioners  of  the  General  Assembly  were  equally  deter- 
mined on  their  removal,  for  they  had  become  a  nuisance  to 
all  the  well-disposed  part  of  the  ministers.  The  matter  was 
referred  to  the  next  General  Assembly,  that  the  churches 
might  not  be  lefl  without  preachers.  "  From  that  time,"  says 
Calderwood,  "  the  banner  of  truth  was  never  so  bravely  dis- 
played in  the  pulpits  of  Edinburgh  as  before," — or,  rather, 
sedition  was  never  so  publicly  preached^. 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  460  —Balfour's  Annals,  i.  407. 

2  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  403.  ^  Calderwood,  446. 


422  HISTORY  OF   THE  [CHAP.  XI. 

1601. — This  year  Pope  Clement  VIII.  sent  his  breves  into 
England,  commanding  all  those  attached  to  the  Roman  church, 
under  pain  of  damnation,  to  prevent  the  succession  after  the 
queen's  death,  of  any  one,  how  near  soever  in  blood,  to  the 
throne,  unless  he  should  bind  himself  by  oath  to  promote  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion  to  his  power.  These  breves  were 
brought  by  John  Hamilton  and  Edmund  Hay,  two  intriguing 
Jesuits,  and  who  afterwards  resorted  to  Scotland.  As  soon  as 
James  heard  of  them,  he  proclaimed  them,  and  inhibited  all 
men  from  harbouring  them,  or  assisting  them,  under  pain  of 
treason,  declaring  he  would  judge  of  their  associates  as  of 
those  who  had  treasonably  pursued  his  own  life.  They  found 
shelter,  however,  among  tlie  papists  in  the  north  for  some 
years,  when  Hamilton  was  apprehended  and  committed  to  the 
Tower  of  London,  where  he  died.  He  was  known  to  have 
been  a  chief  instigator  of  the  seditions  which  distracted  Paris 
during  the  League  ^ 

On  the  12th  of  May  the  General  Assembly  met  at  Burnt- 
island :    John  Hall,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  was 
chosen  moderator.     In  the  opening  speech  "  he  regretted  the 
general  defection  from  the  purity  and  practice  of  true  religion, 
which  was  so  great  that  it  must  at  last  terminate  either  in 
jjopery  or  atheism,  except  a  substantial  remedy  were  in  time 
provided.     And  because  the  ill  could  not  be  well  cured,  un- 
less the  causes  and  occasions  thereof  should  be  ript  up,  he 
exhorteth  those  that  were  assembled  to  consider  seriously  both 
of  the  causes  of  the  defection  and  tlie  remedies  that  were  fitted 
to  be  applied."     And  is  this  the  end  at  which  the  "  holy  dis- 
cipline," "  the  morning  star,"  had  arrived  ? — popery  or  athe- 
ism ! — a  melancholy  reflection,  which  speaks,  trumpet-tongued, 
against  the  danger  of  breaking  loose  from  lawful  authority. 
At  all  periods  of  its  existence  in  Scotland  the  pious  of  its  com- 
munion have  lamented  this  tendency  to  atheism.     At  the  best 
of  times  there  is  a  spirit  of  agitation  and  turbulence  associated 
with  it;  and  that  spirit  of  resignation  and  obedience  enjoined 
by  the  apostles  is  strangely  and  unnaturally  wanting.    There 
is  something  stem  and  gloomy,  and  terrific  to  the  mind  of  the 
sober  christian,  in  the  "  horrible  decree,"  the  maddening  sense 
of  irredeemable  predestination.     The  presbyterian  "  system 
abounds  in  fearful  terrors  of  bad  angels;  every  emblem  of 
mortality  which  the  charnel-house  can  supply  marks  their  se- 
pulchres. Filial  confidence,  christian  hope,  the  happy  Sunday, 
the  glad  sense  of  resurrection,  infuse  no  cheering  spirit  into 

*  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  463. 


1610.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  423 

their  religion.  It  walks  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  but  not  as  fearing  no  evil  from  Christ's  presence;  for 
the  unearthly  light  which  breaks  into  it  reveals  not  blessed 
angels,  but  shapes  of  dismay." 

The  Assembly  ordained,  that  the  Edinburgh  ministers  should 
be  removed  from  theii"  charges,  because  after  the  king  had  par- 
doned their  contumacy  in  the  affair  of  the  Gowrie  conspiracy, 
they  had  obstinately  refused  to  fulfil  the  conditions  ;  and  the 
Assembly  directed  that  they  should  be  sent  to  such  parts  of 
the  country  as  the  commissioners  (as  the  new  titular  bishops 
were  called)  should  appoint.  John  Hall  was  excepted,  as  he 
had  fulfilled  his  conditions  and  was  peaceably  disposed,  or,  as 
Calderwood  says,  he  was  "  inclined  to  episcopacy."  A  solemn 
fast,  on  the  last  two  Sundays  of  June,  was  ordered  for  the  sins 
of  the  land,  of  which  they  give  a  fearful  detail ;  atheism  seems, 
indeed,  to  have  made  rapid  strides,  and  many  were  falling  back 
to  the  church  of  Rome,  from  disgust  at  the  intolerable  tyranny 
of  the  godly  brethren.  After  long  debate  it  was  recorded  that 
"  the  wrath  of  God  was  kindled  against  the  land  for  the  irre- 
verent estimation  of  the  Gospel  and  the  sins  in  all  estates,  to 
the  dishonour  of  their  profession  ;  lack  of  care  in  the  ministry 
to  discover  apostates  ;  too  hasty  admission  of  men  into  the  mi- 
nistry ;  ministers  framing  themselves  to  the  humours  of  the 
people;  the  desolations  of  the  churches  of  Edinburgh;  the 
advancing  of  men  to  places  of  trust  that  were  ill  affected  to 
religion ;  the  education  of  his  majesty's  children  in  the 
company  of  papists ;  the  training  up  of  noblemen's  children 
under  suspected  pedagogues ;  the  decay  of  schools ;  and 
the  not  urging  the  reconciled  lords  to  perform  their  condi- 
tions i." 

The  king  proposed  to  this  Assembly  that  a  correct  version 
of  the  Bible  should  be  undertaken  ;  but,  although  it  was 
heartily  agreed  to,  it  never  took  effect.  That  honour  was  re- 
served for  his  piety  as  king  of  England :  nevertheless,  he  himself 
translated  the  Psalms,  and  set  them  to  very  good  metre,  which 
are  still  extant^,  and  a  copy  of  which  is  in  the  possession  of  the 
writer  of  this  history.  Though  affairs  were  going  on  smoothly 
towards  the  restoration  of  order,  yet  the  presbyterian  party 
were  remarkably  active,  and  kept  up  an  underhand  and  secret 
influence.  James  Melville  addressed  a  very  inflammatory  letter 
to  this  Assembly,  but  which  the  king  would  not  suffer  to  be 
read.    John  Davidson,  also,  another  malcontent  presbyterian, 

*  Spottiswood. — Calderwood. 


424  HISTORY  OF  THR  [CHAP.  Xr. 

attempted,  by  letter^,  to  rouse  up  the  spirit  of  the  holy  disci- 
pline against  the  titular  episcopacy  then  forming.  His  letter 
spoke  the  sentiments  of  the  whole  party  in  general,  who  were 
ready  to  take  advantage  of  any  conjuncture  which  might  occur 
to  restore  their  dominion  over  the  consciences  of  the  people. 
Davidson  was  afterwards  challenged  by  the  council  for  his 
letter,  and  committed  to  the  castle ;  but,  being  in  an  infirm 
state  of  health,  he  was  confined  to  his  own  house  under  pain 
of  rebellion.  This  restriction  did  not  continue  above  a  month, 
when  he  was  allowed  to  exercise  his  ministry  as  heretofore 
within  the  bounds  of  his  parish  2, 

On  the  18th  of  February  the  queen  was  again  delivered  of  a 
son  at  Dunfermline,  who  was  baptized  on  the  2d  of  May  by  the 
name  of  Robert.  He  departed  this  life  the  27th  of  May  at 
Dunfermline,  and  was  interred  in  the  abbey  ^. 

1602. — James  was  now  completely  master  of  the  brethren, 
and  appointed  the  meetings  of  Assemblies  by  proclamation 
when  and  where  he  pleased.  The  Assembly  of  1602,  there- 
fore, met  in  the  chapel-royal.  Holy  rood-house,  and  they  were 
chiefly  occupied  with  the  lamentations  of  the  brethren  over  the 
right-hand  defections  and  left-hand  backslidings  of  the  "  sin- 
cerest  kirk  in  the  world."  So  great  was  the  contempt  entertained 
by  the  sincerer  sort,  or  presbyterians,  for  the  initiatory  sacra- 
ment of  baptism,  that  they  would  allow  a  child  to  die  without 
baptism  rather  than  administer  it  at  any  other  time  than  dur- 
ing preaching.    James,  however,  managed  them  so  dexterously, 

^  Calderwood,  p.  449. — Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p.  464. — Heylin,  lib.  x.  p.  359. — 
"  How  long  shall  we  fear  or  favour  flesh  and  blood,  and  follow  the  counsel  and 
command  thereof  ?  Should  our  meetings  be  in  the  name  of  man  ?  Are  we  not 
yet  to  take  up  ourselves  and  to  acknowledge  our  former  errors  and  feebleness  in 

the  work  of  the  Lord  ? Is  it  time  for  us  now,  when  so  many  of  our 

worthy  brethren  are  thrust  out  of  their  callings  without  alj  order  of  just  proceed- 
ing, and  Jesuits,  atheists,  and  papists,  are  suffered,  countenanced,  and  advanced  to 
great  rooms  in  the  realm,  for  bringing  in  of  idolatry  and  captivity  more  than  Baby- 
lonical,  with  an  high  hand,  and  that  in  our  chief  city. — 1  say,  is  it  time  for  us  of 
the  ministry  to  be  inveigled  and  blindfolded  with  pretence  of  preferment  of  some 
small  number  of  our  brethren  to  have  voice  in  parliament,  and  have  titles  of 
prelacy  ?  Shall  we,  with  Samson,  sleep  on  DeUlah's  knees,  till  she  say  '  The  Philis- 
tines be  upon  thee,  Samson  ?'"  Then,  after  some  ill-natured  satire  on  the  king's 
recent  achievements,  he  adds,  "  Therefore,  if  there  be  any  zeal  in  us,  laying  aside 
all  bygones,  let  us  join  together  as  one  man,  and  that  before  all  things,  to  purge 
the  land  of  this  fearful  idol atrie,  leaving  all  other  things  to  be  handled  in  the  next 
Assembly ;  taking  example  of  the  children  of  Israel,  who,  hearing  but  a  report  of 
the  erection  of  a  contrary  altar  by  their  brethren  of  Reuben,  &c.  determined  with 
all  speed  to  have  rooted  them  out,  if  the  matter  had  been  so.  The  matter  with 
us  is  out  of  doubt,  and  therefore  let  us  shew  our  zeal  for  the  Lord  and  his  cause ; 
otherwise  we  can  look  for  no  blessing  at  the  hands  of  God." 

*  Calderwood,  p.  457.  ^  Balfour's  Annals,  i. 


1602.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  425 

that  lie  procured  the  brethren  to  concur  in  an  act  of  Assembly, 
"  that  ministers  should  not  refuse  the  sacrament  of  baptism  to 
infants,  nor  delay  the  same  on  whatsoever  pretext,  the  same 
being  required  by  the  parents,  or  others  in  their  name."  This 
rational  act  brought  them  a  step  nearer  to  the  church  of  Eng 
land,  from  which  they  had  so  far  retrograded  during  the  reign 
of  presbytery.  But  no  persuasions  could  prevail  on  the  bigoted 
Robert  Bruce  to  comply  with  the  condition  of  the  sentence  ab- 
solving him  from  his  contumacy  in  the  Gowrie  business,  which 
was  to  declare  that  the  king  had  escaped  from  a  real  danger. 
He  would  only,  he  said,  speak  when  and  where  God  should 
move  him;  and  being  immoveable  in  his  obstinacy,  he  was  de- 
prived of  his  living. 

The  Assembly,  which  should  have  met  at  St.  Andrews  in 
July,  was  prorogued  by  the  king  till  the  10th  of  November, 
when  it  met  at  Holyrood  House,  and  Patrick  Galloway  was 
chosen  moderator,  who  addressed  the  king  as  follows: — "  That 
the  church  was  impugned  by  two  sorts  of  enemies ;  to  wit, 
papists  and  sacrilegious  persons  ;  and  therefore,  in  the  name  ol 
the  whole  church,  he  entreated  his  majesty  that,  as  he  had  with 
great  travel  and  happy  success  made  the  principals  of  the  popish 
profession  conform  themselves  in  outward  obedience,  so  he 
would  use  his  princely  authority  towards  the  other  sort,  and 
compel  them,  if  not  to  restore  all,  at  least  to  grant  a  competent 
allowance  to  ministers  forth  of  the  tithes  they  possessed." 
The  king  graciously  accepted  this  speech,  and  replied,  "  That 
it  could  not  be  well  with  the  church  so  long  as  ministers  were 
drawn  from  their  charges  to  attend  the  yearly  modification  of 
stipends,  and  that  he  held  it  fittest  at  once  to  condescend  upon 
a  competent  provision  for  every  church,  and  deal  with  those  that 
possessed  the  tithes  to  bestow  a  part  thereof  to  the  aforesaid 
uses  ;  and,  seeing  that  business  would  require  a  longer  time 
than  they  could  well  continue  together,  that  they  should  do 
well  to  make  some  overtures  to  those  that  had  the  commission 
for  stipends,  promising  for  himself  that  he  should  stand  for  the 
church,  and  be  an  advocate  for  the  ministers."    Some  beneficial 
overtures  were  proposed ;  but  they  were  postponed  to  a  subse- 
quent Assembly.     It  was,  however,  enacted  that,  in  perjjetual 
remembrance  of  his  majesty's  happy  delivery  from  the  late 
treasonable  plot  for  his  assassination,  the  5th  of  August  should 
be  solemnly  kept   as  a  day  of  thanksgiving,  as  it  had  been 
ordained  by  parliament-     It  was  also  ordained  that  marriages 
should  be  solemnized  on  any  day  of  the  week  that  the  parties 
interested  sliould  desire.     The  Assembly  was  then  dissolved, 
VOL.  I.  3  I 


426  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAr.  XI 

and  appointed  to  meet  again  at  Aberdeen  on  the  last  Tuesday 
of  July  1604 1. 

Calderwood  asserts  that  Spottisavood,  the  historian,  and 
afterwards  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  who  had  gone  to  France 
as  chaplain  to  the  Duke  of  Lennox,  was  denounced  at  this 
Assembly  for  having  been  present  during  the  celebration  of 
mass;  but  the  charge  being  unsupported  by  evidence,  it  fell  to 
the  ground.  He  also  complains  that  this  was  not  a  free 
Assembly  ;  for  if  any  of  the  presby  terian  ministers,  who  were 
soured  and  disappointed  with  the  loss  of  their  own  influence, 
and  the  depression  of  their  party,  made  any  of  their  usual 
assaults  upon  the  king  or  the  Assembly,  he  says  the  king  would 
boast  (threaten)  or  taunt,  and  the  moderator  would  imperiously 
command  him  silence.  But  he  adds, "  no  wonder  that  matters 
went  as  they  did,  when  Messrs.  Bruce,  Melville,  and  Davidson, 
men  of  great  authority  and  credit  in  the  kirk,  were  withholden 
from  this  Assembly."  In  fact,  the  leading  presbyterians  had 
become  intolerable  both  to  the  king  and  to  their  own  brethren, 
and  therefore  both  the  king  and  the  ministers  were  obliged  to 
concur  in  excluding  them  from  a  court  which  they  always  filled 
with  violence  and  contention  2. 

1603. — Elizabeth  died  on  the  24th  March ;  and  the  same 
day  James  was  proclaimed,  first  at  Whitehall,  and  afterwards 
at  the  cross  in  Cheapside, "  with  an  infinite  applause  of  all  sorts 
of  people." 

The  queen  had  gone  on  Sunday  to  the  privy-chamber  to 
attend  divine  service,  and  from  that  time  she  grew  rapidly 
worse.  She  remained  upon  cushions  on  the  floor  for  the  next 
four  days  and  nights,  and  no  one  could  persuade  her  either  to 
take  any  sustenance  or  to  go  to  bed.  At  last,  between  force 
and  pex'suasion,  they  got  her  to  bed  ;  but  she  still  refused  any 
remedy  that  was  offered.  On  Wednesday,  the  23d  March,  she 
grew  speechless,  and  in  the  afternoon  made  signs  for  the  privy 
council  to  be  called ;  and  by  putting  her  hand  to  her  head 
when  the  king  of  Scots  was  named  to  succeed  her,  they  all 
knew  that  he  was  the  man  she  desired  should  reign  after  her. 
At  six  o'clock  she  made  signs  for  archbishop  Whitgift  and  her 
chaplains  to  attend  her,  and  she  answered  all  his  interroga- 
tories by  signs  respecting  her  faith  and  hope.  She  kept  him 
on  his  knees  in  prayer  for  upwards  of  an  hour,  "  with  earnest 
cries  to  God  for  her  soul's  health,  which  he  uttered  with  that 
fervency  of  spirit  as  the  queen  to  all  our  sight  much  rejoiced 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  p,  468-9. — Calderwood.  Calderwood,  p.  46?. 


1603.]  CHUKCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  427 

thereat,  and  gave  testimony  to  us  all  of  her  christian  and  com- 
fortable end."  She  died  on  the  24th,  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  soon  after  the  archbishop  left  her^ 

Sir  Robert  Carey,  afterwards  earl  of  Monmouth,  was  the 
first  who  brought  the  news  of  the  late  queen's  death  to  Scot- 
land ;  and  James  was  on  that  same  day  proclaimed  with  due 
formality  at  the  cross  in  the  High  Street.  On  Sunday,  the  3d 
April,  the  king  of  Great  Britain,  France,  and  Ireland,  Defender 
of  the  Faith,  &c.  attended  divine  service  at  St.  Giles'  church, 
and  afterwards  harangued  the  people,  as  his  frequent  custom 
was,  saying,  "  As  God  has  promoved  me  to  a  greater  power 
than  I  have,  so  I  must  endeavour  to  establish  religion,  and  to 
take  away  corruption  in  both  countries.  Ye  need  not  doubt 
but  as  I  have  a  body  as  able  as  any  king  in  Europe,  whereby  I 
am  able  to  travel ;  so  I  shall  visit  you  every  three  years  at 
least,  or  oftener,  as  I  shall  have  occasion,  (for  so  I  have  written 
in  my  book  addressed  to  my  son,  and  it  were  a  shame  for  me 
not  to  perform  what  I  have  written,)  that  I  may  with  my  own 
mouth  take  account  of  the  execution  of  justice  of  them  that  ai-e 
under  me,  and  that  ye  yourselves  may  see  and  hear  me,  and, 
from  the  meanest  to  the  greatest,  have  access  to  ray  person, 
and  pour  out  your  complaints  in  my  bosom  2." 

On  the  5th  of  April,  his  majesty  departed  on  his  progress  to 
his  new  dominions,  accompanied  by  a  number  of  the  nobility 
and  gentry  of  both  nations.  The  multitude  of  Scottish  sub- 
jects who  went  with  or  followed  after  the  court,  imported  into 
England  all  that  spirit  of  insubordination  which  the  holy  dis- 
cipline had  engendered  in  Scotland,  and  which  fermented  in 
both  kingdoms  till  its  natural  fruit  was  produced  in  the  grand 
rebellion.  If  the  tree  be  corrupt,  so  must  the  fruit  be ;  for  from 
within,  out  of  the  heart  of  men,  proceed  those  evil  thoughts 
which  ripen  into  covetousness,  blasphemy,  pride,  and  rebellion, 
"  and  defile  the  man."  And  in  the  life  of  bishop  Hacket  this 
defilement  is  lamented:  that  "After  the  coming  in  of  the  Scots 
with  king  James,  the  seed  of  fanaticism  [was]  then  laid  in  the 
scandalous  neglect  of  the  public  liturgy,  which  all  the  queen's 
time  was  exceedingly  frequented ;  the  people  then  resorting  as 
devoutly  to  prayers  as  they  would  afterwards  to  hear  anj'  famous 
preacher  about  the  town.  And  his  aged  parents  often  observed 
to  him,  that  religion  towards  God,  justice  and  love  amongst 
neighbours,  gradually  declined  with  the  public  prayer  3." 

James  Beaton,  the  Roman  Catholic  archbishop  of  Glasgow 

^  Robert  Carey,  Earl  of  Monmouth's,  Memoirs.         "  Calderwood,  472. 
^  Cited  by  the  Bishop  of  Moray,  in  "  A  Friendly  Address,"  &c.  p.  51. 


428  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAR  XI. 

dying  at  Paris,  the  king  appointed  John  Spottiswood,  the 
historian,  as  titular  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  and  to  attend  the 
queen  in  her  journey  to  England  as  her  eleemosj'nary.  This 
was  the  last  link  of  the  apostolic  chain,  which  had  come  down 
without  interruption  from  St.  Paul,  and  the  ancient  British 
church,  through  St.  Ninian,  first  bishop  of  the  Candida  Casa,  or 
Galloway,  in  the  fourth  century  ;  by  whom  the  northern  parts 
of  Saxon  England  had  been  converted  to  the  christian  faith. 
This  chain  remained  broken  for  only  seven  years,  when  an 
apostolic  character  was  again  imparted  to  the  Scottish  church 
by  the  consecration  of  Spottiswood  in  1610. 

On  Monday,  the  25th  of  July,  king  James  and  queen  Anne 
were  solemnly  crowned  in  Westminster  Abbey  by  JohnWhitgift, 
archbishop  of  Canterbury  ^ .  James  assumed  the  title  of  King  of 
Great  Britain,  and  most  anxiously  promoted  an  union  between 
the  two  kingdoms.  He  endeavoured  to  abolish  the  name  of 
"  the  Borders  ;"  and  removed  the  garrisons  from  Berwick  and 
Carlisle,  commanding  the  citizens  to  turn  their  iron  gates  into 
ploughshares.  But  that  which  he  found  to  be  of  the  most  diffi- 
cult accomplishment,  was  to  repress  the  licentiousness  of  the 
sincerer  sort  of  the  brethren,  who  now  broke  out  into  all  their 
former  scurrilous  abuse,  when  the  restraint  of  his  presence 
among  them  was  removed. 

1604. — The  General  Assembly,  which  was  appointed  to 
have  met  at  Aberdeen  in  July,  was  prorogued  to  the  same 
month  of  the  following  year,  on  account  of  the  king's  project 
for  an  union  of  the  two  kingdoms;  l)ut  James  being  informed 
that  some  of  the  sincerer  sort  were  making  great  preparations 
for  attending  that  meeting,  in  order  to  annul  all  the  acts  of 
Assembly  in  favour  of  episcopacy,  he  directed  the  commis- 
sioners still  farther  to  prorogue  the  Assembly,  and  not  to  name 
any  time  for  its  meeting  till  they  were  authorised  b}'  him.  They 
accordingly  intimated  to  the  presbyteries  his  majesty's  will; 
at  the  same  time  informing  them,  that  the  king  intended  to 
summon  a  number  of  the  bishops,  and  some  of  the  presbyterian 
brethren,  to  court,  in  order  to  hear  their  differences  debated, 
and  to  prevent  their  disorderly  meetings  in  future.  Out  of 
fifty  presbyteries,  forty-one  obeyed  the  king's  mandate ;  but 
the  other  nine  sent  their  commissioners  to  hold  an  Assembly 
at  Aberdeen  in  defiance  of  the  royal  authority.  John  Forbes 
and  John  Welsh,  the  leading  men,  were  secretly  prompted  by 
some  of  the  discontented  nobility.  Sir  Alexander  Straiten, 
the  king's  commissioner,  discharged  the  meeting  by  proclama- 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  i.  455. 


1604.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  429 

tion  at  the  market-cross ;  nevertheless,  the  brethren  met  the 
next  day,  when  the  royal  commissioner  commanded  them  in 
the  king's  name  to  dissolve.     They  replied,  that  "  they  were 
wai*ranted  by  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  that  they  could  not 
betray  the  liberties  of  the  church  by  giving  way  to  such  un- 
lawful prohibitions."    The  commissioner  showed  them,  "  that 
the  liberty  granted  for  holding  Assemblies  could  not  annul  his 
majesty's  power  for  continuing  or  proroguing  their  meetings ; 
for  even  the  parliament,  which  is  the  highest  court  of  the  king- 
dom, is  called,  prorogued,  and  dismissed,  as  he  judges  most 
convenient,  and  you  will  not  equal  your  Assemblies  to  the 
Parliament  of  the  three  estates."     He  objected  to  the  paucity 
of  their  numbers,  the  absence  of  the  ordinary  clerk  and  the 
moderator  of  the  former  Assembly,  which  prevented  their  en- 
tering on  the  duties  of  an  Assembly  in  a  legal  and  orderly 
manner.     These  arguments  made  no  impression ;  and  they 
proceeded,  notwithstanding,  in  their  disorderly  course,  elected 
Forbes  to  be  moderator,  and  continued  their  meeting  to  the 
last  day  of  September.   The  commissioner  denounced  them  as 
rebels  ;  and,  lest  they  should  make  a  new  uproar  in  September, 
the  council  cited  the  two  leaders,  Forbes  and  Welsh,  to  an- 
swer for  their  contempt ;  when  they  justified  their  congress, 
and  declined  submission  to  the  council's  authority.     They 
were  found  guilty  by  a  jury  of  high  treason,  and  committed  to 
Blackness  Castle.     The  others  were  also  cited  for  October, 
thirteen  of  whom  acknowledged  their  offence,  and  were  dis- 
missed without  farther  trouble ;  but  eight  standing  to  their 
defence,  were  committed  to  different  prisons-     The  sincerer 
sort  had  industriously  propagated  a  report,  that  the  king  in- 
tended entirely  to  abolish   their  government  and  discipline, 
and  to  bring  it  to  an  exact  conformity  with  the  church  of 
England,  not  only  in  the  government,  but  also  in  the  rites  and 
ceremonies.     These  rumours,   dispersed  for   the   purpose  of 
alarming  and  agitating  the  people,  were  contradicted  b}' James 
himself,  in  a  letter  or  declaration  from  Hampton  Court. 

The  imprisoned  brethren  were  again  summoned  before  the 
privy  council  on  the  24th  October,  when  they  declined  the 
authority  of  the  king  and  council,  and  appealed  to  the  decision 
of  a  free  General  Assembly.  The  council  would  not  admit 
of  their  declining  its  authority,  and  declared  the  Aberdeen 
Conventicle  to  have  been  unlawful,  and  its  members  punish- 
able ;  but  as  they  had  now,  by  declining  their  authority,  added 
treason  to  their  former  fault,  the  council  deferred  judgment 
till  the  king's  pleasure  should  be  known.  The  king  directed 
the  council  to  proceed  against  them  according  to  lawj  and 


430  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XI. 

they  were  consequently  indicted  on  the  statute  of  1584,  which 
confirmed  the  king's  supremacy.  The  brethren  objected  to 
that  act,  as  they  said  it  was  virtually  annulled  by  the  subse- 
quent act  of  1592.  They  were,  however,  found  guilty,  and 
remanded  till  his  majesty's  pleasure  was  known.  In  the 
meantime  a  proclamation  was  issued,  "  discharging  all  sub- 
jects, of  what  rank,  place,  calling,  function,  or  condition  soever, 
either  in  public  or  private,  to  call  in  question  his  majesty's 
authority  royal,  or  the  lawfulness  of  the  proceedings  against 
the  said  ministers  ^" 

1605. — On  the  5th  November,  this  year,  was  discovered,  as 
if  by  the  finger  of  God,  one  of  the  most  wicked  and  compre- 
hensively destructive  plots  for  the  destruction  of  the  king  £t,nd 
the  three  estates  of  England,  ever  perhaps  conceived  by  the 
worst  of  men.  James  had  hitherto  lived  in  a  state- militant 
with  the  principles  and  practices  of  the  disciples  of  Geneva ; 
but  he  had  now  new,  more  powerful,  and  more  atrociously 
wicked  enemies  on  his  hands.  The  whole  power  of  Rome  and 
its  most  uncrupulously  wicked  agents,  the  Jesuits,  were  arrayed 
against  him ;  a  set  of  men  who  could  commit  any  amount  and 
every  species  of  sin  that  would  in  any  way  advance  the  in- 
terest and  dominion  of  the  Roman  pontiff.  It  is  an  estaljlished 
maxim  in  that  corrupt  church,  that  it  is  lavvful  to  do  evil  that 
good  may  come  ;  although  an  apostle  has  pronounced  a  curse 
against  this  principle.  Clement  VIII.  issued  a  bull  which  de- 
nounced James  as  an  heretic,  and  excluded  him  from  succeed- 
ing to  Elizabeth  unless  he  agreed  to  convert  his  subjects,  and 
hold  his  crown  from  the  pope.  This  bull  produced  many  tu- 
mults and  seditions  in  Ireland,  when  king  James  was  pro- 
claimed there,  and  the  Romish  priests  instigated  the  people 
to  assault  and  maltreat  the  protestants.  They  took  forcible 
possession  of  the  churches  and  set  up  the  mass,  and  when 
called  to  account,  they  justified  tlremselves  by  appealing  to 
the  pope's  bull,  and  alleged  "  that  no  person  could  be  a  lawful 
king  who  was  not  placed  on  the  throne  by  the  pope,  and  had 
not  sworn  to  maintain  the  Romish  religion."  It  was  first  ])ro- 
posed  to  assassinate  the  king,  but  Catesby  proposed  to  destroy 
all  their  enemies  "  at  one  fell  swoop,"  the  king  and  royal 
family,  the  heads  of  the  church,  the  peers,  and  the  commons 
of  England,  at  one  blow  !  The  chiefs  of  the  Jesuits  in  England 
ai)proved  of  this  wholesale  butchery,  which  exceeded  in  atro- 
city even  the  Bartholomew  massacre  in  France,  "  assuring  them 
they  might  go  on  with  a  good  conscience  and  perform  the  deed, 

'  Calderwood — Spottiswood — Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  2. 


1606  ]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  431 

seeing  they  were  heretics,  and  persons  ipso  jure  excommuni- 
caled,  and  against  whom  they  were  set."  This  conspiracy  was 
so  well  contrived,  and  the  secresy  of  the  conspirators  so  well 
secured  by  the  administration  of  an  oath  and  the  sacrament, 
that  its  discovery  was  beyond  the  reach  of  man's  ingenuity. 
And  we  may  well  say  with  the  Psalmist,  "  If  the  Lord  himself 
had  not  been  on  our  side  when  men  rose  up  against  us,  they 
had  swallowed  us  up  quick.  But  praised  be  the  Lord,  who  did 
not  give  us  over  for  a  prey  unto  their  teeth.  Our  soul  escaped 
even  as  a  bird  out  of  the  snare  of  the  fowler ;  the  snare  was 
broken,  and  we  were  delivered.  Therefore  our  help  standeth 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  who  hath  made  heaven  and  earth  i." 
The  papists,  however,  ascribed  the  honour  of  the  happy  dis- 
covery of  the  Gunpowder  Plot  to  the  devil,  who,  they  said, 
envying  the  success  of  so  good  a  work,  had  discovered  it.  The 
demons  who  were  engaged  in  this  atrocious  plot  all  confessed 
their  guilt,  and  were  executed  for  the  treason,  but  their  chiefs 
were  canonized  at  Rome,  and  are  now  in  the  number  of  those 
saints  whom  the  Trent  creed  says  "  are  to  be  worshipped  and 
prayed  toT  This  atrocious  deed,  therefore,  which,  instead 
of  being  the  envy  of  the  devil,  ought  to  have  been  considered 
his  master-piece  and  worthy  of  his  highest  love,  is  by  this 
canonization  and  worship,  made  the  act  of  the  whole  Church  of 
Rome, having  been  beforehand  authorised  by  the  pope's  autho- 
rity, and  afterwards  confirmed  by  his  admitting  the  guilty  per- 
petrators amongst  those  inferior  deities,  whom  they  worship  2. 
Well  and  truly  is  popery  named  in  Scripture  the  mystery  of 
INIQUITY.  A  despatch  was  immediately  sent  to  the  Scottish 
privy  council,  and  a  command  given  for  a  public  thanksgiving 
in  all  the  churches  for  his  majesty's  and  the  three  estates 
of  England's  happy  and  providential  deliverance  from  popish 
tyranny  and  bloodshed. 

1606. — The  brethren  imprisoned  at  Blackness  accused  the 
lord  chancellor,  the  earl  of  Dunfermline,  of  advising,  or  at 
least  of  conniving  at,  their  illegal  meeting  at  Aberdeen  ;  and 
the  king,  suspecting  him  of  double-dealing,  sent  sir  William 
Irvine,  his  confidential  servant,  to  ascertain  the  truth.  The 
lord  chancellor  excused  himself  on  the  score  of  forgetfulness  ; 
yet  the  brethren  substantiated  their  allegation  of  the  chancel- 
lor's connivance  and  underhand  support  of  their  meeting  at 
Aberdeen,  and  his  own  enmity  to  the  order  of  bishops.  When 
sir  William  made  his  report,  the  king  sagaciously  observed, 
"  that  none  of  the  two  deserved  credit,  for  the  ministers  would 

1  Psalm  124.  =  Trent  Creed,  arts.  20,  21. 


432  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XI. 

betray  religion  rather  than  submit  themselves  to  government, 
and  the  chancellor  would  betray  the  king  for  the  malice  he 
carried  to  the  bishops  ^" 

Owing  to  a  dispute  about  precedence  between  the  chancellor 
and  the  king's  commissioner,  the  earl  of  Dunbar,  the  parlia- 
ment was  prorogued,  and  removed  from  Edinburgh  to  Perth. 
A  number  of  the  ministers  assembled  there,  using  their  best 
endeavours  to  create  disunion  and  agitation.  The  earl  of 
Dunbar  sent  for  them,  and  expostulated  with  them,  saying, 
"  that  it  seemed  strange  to  him  that  they  who  had  so  often  peti- 
tioned for  the  repeal  of  the  act  of  annexation,  should  go  about 
to  hinder  it  now,  when  the  king  intended  to  do  it  in  part,  and 
especially  as  there  was  nothing  to  be  moved  in  prejudice  of 
their  discipline  ;"  at  the  same  time  he  reminded  them,  that  the 
lives  of  several  of  their  brethren  were  at  that  very  time  at  his 
majesty's  mercy.  By  his  prudence  he  quieted  these  jealous 
agitators,  and  the  parliament  finished  without  any  disturbance. 
This  parliament  repealed  the  act  of  annexation,  and  the  tempo- 
ralities and  revenues  were  restored  to  the  bishops  ;  so  far  at 
least  as  was  in  the  power  of  the  crown.  Before  this,  the  re- 
stored bishops  had  been  unable  irom  poverty  to  attend  their 
duty  in  parliament,  or  even  to  visit  their  dioceses.  Another 
act  was  passed,  more  correctly  defining  and  confirming  the 
royal  prerogative,  which  was  rendered  necessary  by  the  sedi- 
tious meeting  at  Aberdeen  2. 

Soon  after  the  dissolution  of  parliament,  the  king  summoned 
a  number  of  the  presbyterian  party,  with  the  archbishops  of 
St.  Andrews  and  Glasgow,  and  the  titular  bishops  of  Orkney 
and  Galloway,  to  assist  at  a  conference  for  settling  the  peace 
of  the  church,  to  be  held  in  his  own  presence  at  Hampton 
Court,  on  the  20th  of  September.  The  king  appointed  Drs. 
Barlow,  Buckeredge,  Andrews,  and  King,  fo  preach  before  the 
Scottish  divines  on  the  subjects  chiefly  in  controversy  between 
the  episcopal  and  the  presbyterian  divines.  But  all  their  argu- 
ments were  thrown  away  on  Melville  and  the  brethren  on  his 
side.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  that  men  prepossessed  in 
favour  of,  and  called  there  to  defend,  a  system  of  government, 
of  which  Melville  himself  was  the  author,  were  to  yield  to  the 
reasonings  of  men  whom  they  despised  and  hated  as  "  dis- 
honouring Christ,"  and  as  "  ruining  so  many  souls  by  bearing 
down  the  purity  of  the  gos])el,  and  maintaining  po}nsh  super- 
stition and  corruption."  The  attempt  was  absurd  and  impo- 
litic, and   the  result  that  which  might  have  been  expected. 

'  Spott'swooil,  b.  vii.  -190.  -   Ibid.  490. 


1606.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  433 

Dr.  Barlow,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  adduced  proofs  from  Scripture 
and  the  fathers  for  "  the  superiority  of  bishops  to  presbyters, 
and  also  to  shew  the  inconveniences  of  parity  in  the  church." 
Dr.  Buckeridge,  bishop  of  Rochester,  gave  a  satisfactory  ac- 
count of  the  king's  supremacy  in  causes  ecclesiastical,  and  in 
the  course  of  his  sei'mon  frequently  compared  the  pope  and 
presbytery  together  in  their  opposition  to  sovereign  princes. 
Dr.  Andrews,  bishop  of  Chichester,  contended  for  the  jDower 
of  all  sovereign  princes  to  convoke  S3'nods  and  councils  ;  and 
Dr.  King,  bishop  of  London, "  discoursed  of  the  office  of  pres- 
byters, and  did  prove  lay  elders  to  have  no  place  nor  office  in 
the  church,  and  that  the  late  device  was  without  all  waiTant 
of  precept  or  example,  either  in  Scripture  or  antiquity  ^." 

The  first  audience  was  on  the  22d  September,  at  which  there 
were  several  of  the  Scottish  nobility  pi'esent,  and  Dr.  Monta- 
gue, dean  of  the  chapel  royal,  \\hen  the  king,  addressing  the 
prelates  and  ministers,  said,  "  that,  having  left  the  church  of 
Scotland  in  peace  at  his  parting  forth  of  it,  he  did  now  hear 
of  great  disturbances  in  the  same  ;  whereof  he  desired  to  un- 
derstand the  true  cause,  and  to  have  their  advice  how  the  same 
might  be  best  removed.  This  being  the  eiTand  in  general  for 
which  I  have  called  you,  I  should  be  glad  to  hear  your 
opinions  touching  that  meeting  in  Aberdeen,  where  a  handful 
of  ministers,  in  contempt  of  my  authority,  and  against  the  dis- 
charge given  them,  did  assemble ;  and  though  they  were  neither 
a  sufficient  number,  nor  the  accustomed  order  kept,  they 
would  take  upon  them  to  call  it  a  General  Assembly,  and  have 
since  proudly  maintained  it,  by  declining  my  council,  and 
such  other  means  as  they  chose  to  use.  The  rather  I  would 
hear  your  minds,  because  I  am  informed  that  divers  ministers 
do  justify  that  meeting,  and  in  their  public  preachings  com- 
mend these  as  persons  distressed,  which  is  in  eflfect  to  proclaim 
me  a  tyrant  and  persecutor." 

James  Melville  answered,  in  the  name  of  the  others,  "  that 
there  was  no  such  discharge  given  to  those  ministers  who  met 
at  Aberdeen,  as  was  alleged  ;  many  of  the  presbyteries  never 
having  received  his  majesty's  letters,  and  those  who  had  re- 
ceived them  considering  that  there  were  weightier  reasons  for 
holding  the  Assembly  than  for  deferring  it,  had  resolved  to 
send  their  commissioners  in  conformity  with  the  original  con- 
vocation. Neither  moderator  nor  clerk  were  essential  parts  of 
an  Assembly ;  and,  as  the  moderator  had  absented  himself 
purposely,  and  the  clerk  had  refused  to  serve,  the  brethren  had 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  49". 
VOL.   I.  3  K 


434  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XI. 

lawfully  created  others  in  their  places.  Therefore,  the  brethren 
being  warranted  by  the  word  of  God  and  his  majesty's  laws  to 
meet,  and  having  been  sent  there  by  their  several  presbyteries, 
he  could  not  conscientiously  condemn  them." 

His  majesty  next  proposed  three  questions,  and  required  their 
answers :— "  1st,  If  it  be  lawful  to  pray  publicly  for  persons 
convicted  by  the  lawful  judge  as  for  those  in  distress  and 
affliction  ?     2d,  Whether  a  christian  king,  by  his  royal  autho- 
rity, may  convoke,  prorogue,   and   dissolve  Assemblies,  for 
causes  known  to  himself?     And,  3d,  Whether  the  king  could 
cite  any  one,  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  before  the  privy  council,  and 
pass  judgment  for  whatsoever  offences  committed  by  them,  in 
whatsoever  place  within  his  dominions ;  and  if  the  king  may  not 
take  cognition  of  the  offence,  and  give  sentence  therein  ?  and, 
farther,  whether  or  not  all  his  subjects,  being  cited  to  answer 
before  him  and  his  council,  are  obliged  to  appear,  and  acknow- 
ledge him  or  them  forjudges  of  these  offences  ?"    The  brethren 
desired  time  for  reply  ;  and  at  a  second  meeting,  when  a  num- 
ber of  the  English  bishops  and  clergy  were  present,  the  king 
desired  their  answers  respecting  the  conventicle  at  Aberdeen. 
The  Scottish  bishops  unanimously  condemned  the  conventicle 
as  "  turbulent,  factious,  and  unlawful ;"  but  Andrew  Melville 
replied,  "  that  he  could  not  condemn  the  Assembly,  being  a 
private  man:  that  he  came  to  England  upon  his  majesty's 
letter  without  any  commission  from  the  church  of  Scotland, 
and  though  he  had  commission  in  dicta  causa,  yet  not  hearing 
what  they  could  say  for  themselves,  he  could  not  give  his 
judgment.     Sentence  was  given  against  them  in  a  justice- 
court  ;  how  justly  he  did  remit  that  to  the  great  judge;  but 
for  himself  he  would  say,  as  our  Saviour  said  in  another  case, 
Quis  me  constituit  Judicem  ?""     James  Melville  offered  to  pre- 
sent a  petition  which  he  had  received  since  his  arrival  in 
London,  in  behalf  of  the  imprisoned  ministers,  which,  he  said, 
would  sufficiently  explain  their  sentiments.    The  king  took  the 
petition,  and  while  he  was  reading  it,  Andrew  Melville  broke 
out  into  "  a  great  passion,"  and  upbraided  the  king's  advocate 
with  many  foul  and  opprobrious  epithets.    The  earl  of  North- 
ampton inquired  what  was  meant  by  certain  words  ;  the  king 
replied,  "  he  calleth  him  the  muckle  deevil:"  and  then,  folding 
up  the  petition,  said,  "  I  see  you  are  all  set  on  maintaining  the 
base  conventicle  at  Aberdeen :  but  what  answers  do  you  give 
to  the  three  questions  ?"     It  was  replied  that,  "  finding  they 
concerned  the  whole  church,  they  would  not,  by  their  private 
opinions,,  prejudge  the  same."     "  But  you  will  not,"  said  the 
king,  "  call   the    royal    authority  in    question,  and    subject 


1606.]  CHURCH    OF  SCOTLAND  435 

it  to  your  Assemblies  !"  This,  they  said,  was  far  from  their 
designs ;  "  but  if  his  majesty  would  be  pleased  to  set  down  in 
writing  what  he  required,  they  would  labour  to  give  hiai 
satisfaction  ^" 

Andrew  Melville  took  offence  at  the  decent  ornaments  of 
the  chapel-royal.  Particularly,  having  attended  divine  service 
on  Michaelmas-day  the  29th  September,  he  stigmatized  the 
rites  and  ceremonies  in  a  Latin  epigram,  "  as  the  superstitious 
relics  of  the  scarlet  whore."  Some  busy-body  showed  a  copy 
of  the  verses  to  the  king,  at  which  he  was  justly  offended. 
Melville  was  summoned  before  the  English  privy  council ; 
acknowledged  the  verses,  and  his  contempt  and  abhorrence  of 
the  solemn  service  of  the  church ;  but  at  the  same  time  alleged, 
that  he  had  no  intention  of  circulating  the  obnoxious  libel. 
"  The  archbishop  of  Canterbury  considered  it  as  a  libel  on  the 
worship  of  the  church  of  England;  but  as  Melville  was  not  a 
voluntary  spectator,  nor  a  subject  of  England,  it  cannot  be 
deemed  even  a  legal  misdemeanor,  much  less  within  the  laws 
of  treason  2."  "  Melville  was  moved,"  says  Calderwood,  "  to 
see  such  vanity  and  superstition  in  a  christian  church,  under 
a  christian  king,  born  and  brought  up  in  the  pure  light  of  the 
gospel,  and  especially  before  idolaters,  to  confirm  them  in 
their  idolatry,  and  to  grieve  the  hearts  of  true  professors. 
When  Bancroft,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  began  to  speak,  he 
charged  him  with  profanation  of  the  Sabbath,  imprisoning, 
silencing,  and  bearing  down  of  faithful  preachers,  holding  up 
of  an  antichristian  hierarchy  and  popish  ceremonies.  Shaking 
the  white  sleeves  of  his  rochet,  he  called  them  Romish  rags ; 
and  told  him,  that  if  he  was  the  author  of  the  book  called 
'  English-Scotizing,'  he  esteemed  him  the  capital  enemy  of  all 
reformed  kirks  in  Europe,  and  would  profess  himself  an  enemy 
to  him  in  all  such  proceedings,  to  the  effusion  of  the  last  drop 
of  his  blood  3."  This  insolent  railing  was  a  talent  with  which 
the  father  of  presbytery  was  amply  gifted,  but  which  is  very 
discreditable  to  any  one,  and  especially  to  the  head  and  chief 
of  the  "  godly  brethren," — "  the  sincerer  sort," — and  is  a  decided 
proof,  that  the  spirit  with  which  they  were  actuated  was  in 
opposition  to  Christianity,  and  not  of  a  "  godly"  sort. 

This  conference  produced  the  reverse  of  a  good  effect,  and 
exasperated  the  king's  antipathy  to  a  man  who  had  systemati- 
cally taught  and  practised  resistance,  and  even  open  rebellion, 
as  a  fundamental  principle  of  religion.     Melville  was  found 

1  Calderwood,  p.  337-543.— Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  497,  498. 
-  Scottish  Episc.  Magazine,  i.  66.  ^  Calderwood,  548. 


436  HISTORY  OF  THE  L^HAP.  XI. 

guilty  of  scandalum  magnatum,  and  committed  to  the  custody 
of  Dr.  Overall,  dean  of  St.  Paul's :  the  other  ministers,  his  ad- 
herents, were  committed  to  the  charge  of  some  of  the  bishops. 
James  Melville  very  justly  complains  of  this  treatment,  for 
which  there  does  not  appear  to  have  been  any  just  cause,  as 
they  were  members  of  an  independent  established  church,  in- 
vited by  the  king  to  a  free  conference,  and  were  surely  entitled 
to  the  privileges  of  what  is  called  a  safe  conduct.  Melville 
was  again  cited  before  the  privy  council  of  England ;  the  earl 
of  Salisbury  urged  him  to  yield  to  the  primacy,  and  taxed  him 
with  his  indecent  rhyme  on  the  public  worship  of  the  church  of 
England.  He  refused,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  yield,  and  ac- 
companied his  refusal  with  a  most  intemperate  vituperation  of 
the  king,  the  bishops,  and  the  lords  of  the  council  present ; 
he  accused  them  of  "  dishonouring  Christ,  and  ruining  of  so 
many  souls,  by  bearing  down  the  purity  of  the  gospel,  and 
maintaining  popish  superstitions  and  corruptions."  He  was 
confined  in  the  tower  for  several  years,  but  at  last  ended  his 
days  at  Sedan.  James  Melville  was  confined  to  the  town  of 
Newcastle-on-Tyne,  and  the  other  brethren  to  different  parts 
of  Scotland.  The  titular  bishops  were  sent  home  to  their  sees. 
James  directed  his  letters  to  the  council  of  Scotland,  ordering 
the  brethren,  who  had  been  imprisoned  at  Blackness  on 
account  of  the  Aberdeen  conventicle,  to  be  banished,  but 
which  was  never  put  in  force.  They  were  sent  to  remote  parts 
of  the  Highlands,  where  they  propagated  their  tenets.  These 
were  harsh  measures,  and  James  can  only  be  justified,  by  sup- 
posing that  he  was  compelled  to  adopt  them  by  the  ungovern- 
able and  seditious  conduct  of  the  godly  brethren,  who  taught 
railing  at  dignities  and  rebellion  as  fundamental  principles  of 
their  religion  ^ 

Of  the  church  of  England  king  James  said,  "  That  he 
found  that  form  of  rehgion  which  was  estabUshed  under  queen 
Elizabeth,  of  famous  memory,  by  the  laws  of  the  land,  to  have 
been  blessed  with  a  most  extraordinary  peace,  and  of  long 
continuance  ;  which  he  beheld  as  a  strong  evidence  of  God's 
being  very  well  pleased  with  it.  That  he  could  find  no  cause 
at  all,  on  a  full  debate,  for  any  alteration  to  be  made  in  the 
Common  Prayer  Book,  though  that  was  most  impugned ;  that 
the  doctrines  seem  to  be  sincere,  the  forms  and  rites  to  have 
been  justified  out  of  the  practice  of  the  primitive  church ; 
and  tliat  there  was  nothing  in  the  same  which  might  not  very 
well  have  been  borne  withal,  if  either  the  adversaries  would 

J  Calderwood.— Spottiswood.— M'Crie's  Life  of  Melville. 


1606.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  437 

have  made  a  reasonable  construction  of  them ;  or  that  he  him- 
self had  not  been  so  nice,  or  rather  jealous,  for  having  all  pub- 
lic forms  in  the  service  of  God,  not  only  to  be  free  from  all 
blame,  but  from  any  suspicion.  And  with  the  church  of  Eng- 
land and  her  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  James  expressed  him- 
self so  highly  pleased,  that  he  entered  into  a  gratulation  to 
Almighty  God  for  bringing  him  into  '  the  promised  land,'  as 
he  called  it,  where  religion  was  purely  professed,  the  govern- 
ment ecclesiastical  approved  by  manifold  blessings  from  God 
himself,  as  well  in  the  increase  of  the  gospel  as  in  a  glorious 
and  happy  peace ;  where  he  had  the  happiness  to  sit  among 
grave  and  learned  men,  and  not  to  be  a  king  (as  elsewhere  he 
had  been)  without  state,  without  honour,  and  without  order  i." 

The  king  entertained  a  constant  care  for  his  native  church, 
and  felt  an  anxious  desire  to  settle  it  on  a  solid  and  lasting 
foundation.  As  a  preparatory  step  to  the  establishment  of  a 
true  and  valid  episcopacy  (the  titular  episcopal  establishment, 
being  like  the  presbyterian  brethren,  totally  deficient  of  cano- 
nical orders),  and  which  was  the  grand  design  of  his  whole 
reign,  induced  him  to  convoke  a  General  Assembly  on  the 
10th  December,  at  Linlithgow.  He  sent  the  earl  of  Dunbar 
as  his  commissioner,  and  who  is  falsely  accused  by  Calder- 
wood  of  having  distributed  40,000  merks  among  the  sincerer 
sort,  to  soften  their  clamours  and  to  make  them  more  tractable. 
On  the  appointed  day,  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  brethren, 
with  thirty-three  noblemen,  barons,  and  others,  assembled  at 
Linlithgow,  and  elected  James  Nicolson  to  be  their  moderator. 
The  commissioner  presented  his  majesty's  letter,  to  the  follow- 
ing effect : — "  That  it  was  not  unknown  to  them  what  pains 
he  had  taken  whilst  he  lived  amongst  them,  as  well  to  root  out 
popery  as  to  settle  a  good  and  perfect  order  in  the  church  ; 
and  that  notwithstanding  of  his  care  bestowed  that  way,  he 
had  been  continually  vexed  by  the  jealousies  of  some  perverse 
ministers,  who,  traducing  his  best  actions,  gave  out  among  the 
people  that  all  he  ^ent  about  was  to  thrall  the  liberty  of  the 
gospel.  Neither  content  thus  to  have  wronged  him,  they  had, 
in  his  absence,  factiously  banded  themselves  against  such  of 
their  brethren  as  had  given  their  concurrence  to  the  further- 
ance of  his  majesty's  just  intentions ;  on  the  knowledge  of 
which,  he  did  lately  call  the  most  calm  and  moderate,  as  he 
esteemed,  of  both  sides,  to  his  court,  thinking  to  have  pacified 
matters,  and  to  have  removed  the  divisions  that  had  arisen  in  the 
church ;  but  matters  not  succeeding  as  he  wished,  he  had  taken 

f  Hcylin's  Hist,  of  Presb.  lib.  x.  363-4. 


438  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XI. 

puqjose  to  convene  them  for  setting  down  such  rules  as  he 
hoped  should  prevent  the  like  troubles  in  future,  willing  them 
to  consider  what  was  most  fitting  for  the  peace  of  the  church, 
and  to  apply  themselves  to  the  obedience  of  his  directions,  as 
they  did  expect  his  favour," 

It  was  then  proposed,  on  the  part  of  the  crown,  that  his 
majesty,  "  apprehending  the  gi*eatest  cause  of  the  misgovern- 
mcnt  of  the  church's  affairs  to  be,  that  the  same  are  often,  and 
almost  ordinarily,  committed  to  such  as,  for  lack  of  wisdom 
and  experience,  are  no  way  able  to  keep  things  in  a  good  fi-ame ; 
for  remedying  this  inconvenience,  thinketh  meet,  that  at  pre- 
sent there  be  nominated  in  every  presbytery  one  of  the  most 
grave,  godly,  and  of  greatest  authority,  to  have  the  care  of  the 
presbytery  where  he  remaineth,  till  the  present  jars  and  fire  of 
dissension  which  is  among  the  ministry,  and  daily  increases, 
to  the  hindrance  of  the  gospel,  be  quenched  and  taken  away  ; 
and  the  noblemen  professing  papistry  within  the  kingdom  be 
either  reduced  to  the  profession  of  the  truth,  or  then  repressed 
by  justice  and  a  due  exertion  of  the  laws.     And  for  the  encou- 
ragement of  the  said  moderators,  and  the  enabling  them  to  the 
attendance  of  the  church  affaii's,  his  majesty  is  graciously 
pleased  to  allow  each  of  them  one  hundred  pounds  Scots,  or 
two  hundred  merks,  according  to  the  quality  of  their  charge ; 
but  where  the  bishops  are  resident,  his  majesty  will  have  them 
to  moderate  and  preside  in  these  meetings.     As  likewise,  be- 
cause it  often  falleth  out  that  matters  cannot  be  decided  in  pres- 
byteries, by  reason  of  the  difficulties  that  arise,  and  that  the 
custom  is  to  remit  the  decision  thereof  to  the  diocesan  synod, 
it  is  his  majesty's  advice,  that  the  moderation  of  these  Assem- 
blies be  committed  to  the  bishops,  who  shall  be  burthened  with 
the  delation  of  papists,  and  solicitation  of  justice  against  those 
that  will  not  be  brought  to  obedience ;  in  respect  his  majesty  . 
hath   bestowed  on  them  places  and  means  to  bear   out  the 
charges  and  burdens  of  difficulty  and  dangerous  actions,  which 
other  ministers  cannot  so  w^ell  sustain  and  undergo." 

This  overture  naturally  produced  a  warm  debate.  Con- 
siderable opposition  was  made  to  the  proposal  of  permanent 
moderators,  as  it  was  not  difficult  to  imagine  that  such  a  func- 
tionar}'^  might  gradually  merge  into  a  bishop.  One  of  the  godly 
brethren,  without  pretending  to  have  the  second  sight,  alleged 
he  "  saw  the  horns  of  the  mitre"  in  the  back-ground.  Great 
fears  were  expressed  that  a  constant  moderator  would  usurp 
an  authority  inconsistent  with  his  place  over  his  brethren  ;  but 
in  the  end,  twelve  resolutions  were  drawn  up  and  agreed  to,  all 
tending  to  check  any  usurpation  of  power, — also  providing  for 


1607.]  CHt  RCH   OF   SCOTLAND.  439 

absence,  death,  or  other  casualties,  by  which  the  official  mode- 
rator might  be  prevented  from  presiding  ;  and,  with  these  pre- 
cautions, the  king's  overture  was  agreed  to  :  four  only  of  the 
whole  Assembly  dissented,  four  others  refused  to  vote, — pre- 
tending to  have  no  authority  from  the  presbyteries  which  they 
represented,  and  two  more  answered  non  liquet.  In  conclu- 
sion, on  a  review  of  the  rolls  of  the  presbyteries,  the  existing 
moderators  were  appointed  to  continue  as  the  new  permanent 
presidents,  unless  their  respective  synods  shoidd  see  cause  to 
appoint  otherwise  ^ .  James  Law,  tjtular  bishop  of  Orkney ,  was 
deputed  to  acquaint  the  king  ^vith  the  passing  of  this  act ;  and 
also  to  present  some  petitions,  urging  the  king  to  measures  of 
vindictive  persecution  against  the  Roman  Catholic  lords. 

1607. — When  James  saw  the  act  for  the  perpetual  modera- 
tors, he  said,  he  was  too  well  acquainted  with  the  brethren  to 
expect  that  this  ordinance  would  be  readily  submitted  to,  for 
their  "  desire  to  keep  all  things  in  a  continual  constant  volu- 
bility was  such,"  he  said,  "  that  they  would  never  agree  to  a 
settled  form  of  government;"  and  the  event  justified  his  ma- 
jesty's prediction.  Some  of  the  presbyteries  silently  ac- 
quiesced, but  decided  opposition  was  evinced  by  the  greatest 
number,  more  especially  by  those  synods  which  had  been  placed 
under  the  bishops  as  their  perpetual  moderators.  The  pres- 
byterian  party  struggled  hard  against  the  new  measures,  and 
dexterously  caught  at  every  circumstance  to  avert  their  own 
extinction.  In  the  synod  of  Fife,  archbishop  Gladstanes  was 
violently  opposed  when  he  assumed  the  chair  in  accordance 
w^ith  the  late  act,  and  the  brethren  attempted  to  elect  one  of 
their  ov/n  number  as  moderator ;  and  some  of  them,  in  other 
dioceses,  also  attempted  to  prevent  the  bishops  from  acting  as 
the  moderators. 

But  the  synod  of  Perth  signalized  itself  in  the  most  extra- 
ordinary manner  at  their  meeting  on  the  first  Tuesday  in  April, 
when  the  sincerer  sort  assembled  in  great  numbers,  in  order 
to  oppose  the  approach  to  regularity  introduced  by  the  Lin- 
lithgow Assembly.  In  manifest  contempt  of  the  act  of  that 
Assembly,  they  peremptorily  inhibited  all  the  presbyteries 
within  their  jurisdiction  from  acknowledging  its  authority,  or 
from  obeying  its  conclusions  in  the  matter  of  the  permanent 
moderators.  Not  contented,  however,  with  the  resistance  fun- 
damentally inherent  in  their  constitution,  they  threatened  to 
excommunicate  Mr.  Lindsay,  the  parson  of  St.  Madois,  whom 
the  Assembly  had  confii-med  as  the  permanent  moderator  of 

'  Spottiswood. — Calderwood. 


440  HISTORl  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XL 

the  Perth  presbytery,  if  he  should  dare  to  act  as  president,  in 
obedience  to  the  authority  of  the  supreme  court. 

The  lord  Scoon  was  sent  to  attend  this  synod,  armed  with  his 
majesty's  commission ;  and  he  threatened  them  with  the  king's 
vengeance  if  they  refused  to  admit  the  constant  moderators  to 
the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  their  office.  But  threats  had 
little  effect  on  the  sincerer  sort,  who  were  case-hardened  with 
spiritual  pride  and  self-sufficiency.  Row,  the  last  moderator, 
preached,  and  it  was  the  king's  instructions  to  lord  Scoon, 
that  if  he  impugned  the  late  acts  of  Linlithgow,  he  should 
pull  him  out  of  the  pulpit ;  and  as  his  sermon  was  chiefly  di- 
rected against  these  acts,  lord  Scoon  had  risen  several  times  to 
stop  the  preacher,  but  was  prevented  by  some  gentlemen  that 
sat  near  him.  The  brethren  met  hastily  again  after  dinner, 
to  elude  the  commissioner's  presence,  but  being  advised  of 
their  stratagem,  he  suddenly  entered,  and  challenged  them  for 
proceeding  to  business  before  he  had  produced  his  commis- 
sion. Row  answered,  that  they  were  accomplishing  prelimina- 
ries, so  as  not  to  interrupt  the  business  of  the  synod  by  electing 
a  moderator  after  his  lordship  had  taken  his  seat ;  and  it  was 
part  of  the  official  duties  of  the  new  moderator  to  receive  his 
lordship's  commission.  Lord  Scoon  informed  him,  that  his 
commission  chiefly  related  to  the  moderator,  and  if  they  pre- 
sumed to  elect  one,  and  refused  to  read  his  commissions,  one 
from  the  king,  the  other  from  the  council,  he  would  instantly 
discharge  the  synod,  and  lay  it  under  the  pain  of  treason. 
After  much  altercation,  it  was  agreed  to  adjourn  till  tlie  fol- 
lowing day.  At  their  next  meeting  the  same  intemperate 
language  was  used  on  both  sides;  and  finally  the  brethren 
proceeded  to  take  the  votes  for  a  moderator  of  their  own  sen- 
timents. Row  took  the  roll,  and  began  to  read  over  the  names 
of  the  membeis:  lord  Scoon  interfered  to  prevent  this  wan- 
ton insult  on  the  king's  authority  and  the  act  of  Assembly, 
and  attempted  to  snatch  the  roll  out  of  Row's  hand.  They 
struggled  for  the  possession,  but  Row  being  a  powerful  man, 
pinned  his  lordship  down  with  his  right  hand,  and  with  his 
left  extended,  held  the  roll,  and  read  it  to  the  end.  In  spite 
of  the  commissioner's  threats,  persuasions,  and  entreaties,  they 
proceeded  to  the  election  of  a  moderator,  and  in  defiance  of 
the  act  of  Assembly  and  the  king's  authority,  which  appointed 
the  bishop  as  the  fixed  president,  they  chose  Henry  Living- 
ston, and  commanded  him  to  enter  to  his  place. 

In  the  midst  of  this  uproar  and  bitter  excitement,  the  bre- 
thren held  up  their  hands  in  prayer  to  the  God  of  order,  unity, 
and  peace.     Lord  Scoon  attempted  to  prevent  them ;  he  ^vo- 


1760.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  441 

tested  against  the  election,  and  threatened  them  with  the  ven- 
geance of  the  laws.     He  rose  to  prevent  the  moderator  from 
taking  his  seat,  and  collaring  each  other,  Livingston  com- 
menced his  prayer,  saying — "  Let  us  begin  at  God,  and  be 
humbled  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ."  "  Lord  Scoon,in  agreat 
rage,  chapping  on  his  breast,  said  with  a  loud  voice,  '  The 
devil  a  Jesus   is  here^'"      Livingston    proceeded,    nothing 
daunted,  when  Scoon  threw  the  table-cloth  over  him,  but  which 
did  not  impede  his  purpose ;  for  they  continued  at  their  prayer, 
"  and  besought  the  Lord  to  be  avenged  on  the  blasphemy  of 
his  name,  and  contempt  of  his  glory,  which  was  trampled 
under  foot  by  profane  men."    Finding  that  nothing  else  would 
do,  his  lordship  called  for  force  to  eject  them,  and  now  de- 
nounced them  rebels.     They  returned  next  day  to  their  hall, 
but  finding  the  door  locked,  and  admission  denied  them,  they 
collected  seats  and  benches  outside  the  church  door,  determined 
at  all  hazards  to  hold  a  synod  even  in  the  open  air;  whence 
they  hurled  the  thunders  of  excommunication  and  anathemas 
against  the  lord  Scoon,  all  presbyteries  which  should  admit  of 
the  constant  moderators,  and  every  individual  who  should  ac- 
cept of  the  office.    The  members  were  cited  to  answer  for  their 
seditious  conduct  before  the  privy  council,  were  discharged  from 
meeting  again,  and  the  presbyteries  within  its  jurisdiction  were 
commanded  to  accept  their  appointed  moderators,  under  pain 
of  rebellion  2. 

In  Fife  the  resistance  to  the  act  of  Assembly  was  equally 
determined :  the  king's  commissioners  could,  by  no  threats  or 
entreaties,  induce  the  synod  to  accept  of  the  archbishop  of  St. 
Andrews  as  their  moderator,  agreeable  to  the  injunctions  of 
the  General  Assembly.  They  were  accordingly  dissolved,  and 
prohibited  from  again  meeting,  and  all  the  burghs  were  dis- 
charged from  receiving  them.  The  synod  of  Glasgow  was 
held  on  the  18th  of  August,  at  which  the  earl  of  Abercora 
acted  as  his  majesty's  commissioner.  The  same  difficulties 
with  the  brethren  were  experienced  in  that  synod  also ;  but  by 
threats  of  proclaiming  them  rebels,  he  succeeded  in  procuring 
the  election  of  archbishop  Spotiiswood  to  be  their  moderator, 
and  so  to  confonn  to  the  act  of  Assembly^.  In  short,  the  oppo- 
sition was  strong  in  those  synods,  where  the  sincerer  sort  were 
most  numerous;  but  the  king  was  resolute  to  restore  order;  and 
had  affairs  been  conducted  with  more  prudence  and  less  acri- 

1  Calderwood,  557.  ^  ibid.  pp.  5G5-567. 

3  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  22. 

VOL.  I.  3  L 


442  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP,  XI. 

mon  y  on  the  part  of  his  agents,  it  was  much  to  have  been  desired. 
But  he  would  have  shown  more  political  wisdom  if  he  had  in- 
troduced, gradually  and  silently,  those  changes  which  tended 
to  the  subversion  of  that  "  parity  among  ministers,"  which,  we 
have  seen,  produced  a  most  abundant  harvest  of  "  strifes." 
Row  and  Livingston  were  summoned  to  appear  before  the  privy 
council,  to  answer  for  their  proceedings  at  the  synod  of  Perth. 
Row  absconded,  and  lay  concealed  for  some  time  among  his 
political  friends ;  but  Livingston  was  severely  reprimanded, 
and  strictly  enjoined  to  confine  himself  within  the  boundaries 
of  his  own  parish.  The  titular  bishops,  or  commissioners,  as 
they  were  called,  met  together  at  Holyrood  House,  and  ap- 
pointed Mr.  Galloway  to  be  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh. 
16r  8. — No  sooner  had  one  clerical  disturbance  been  quelled, 
or  at  least  smothered  for  the  time  being,  than  some  new  divi- 
sion occurred  to  distract  James's  peaceful  government,  and  to 
increase  the  schisms  which  rent  and  distracted  the  "  holy  dis- 
cipline," The  popish  lords  Errol,  Huntly,  and  Angus,  had  been 
for  years  exposed  to  the  persecution  of  the  presbyterians;  and 
having  been  goaded  by  their  continual  clamour  and  inqui- 
sitorial interference,  they  broke  out  into  acts  of  retaliation,  and 
made  no  secret  of  their  attachment  to  the  church  of  Rome, 
and  many  of  the  people  returned  to  that  church,  and  sheltered 
themselves  under  their  protection.  This  being  represented  to 
the  monarch,  whose  anxious  desire  was  to  compose  all  the 
feuds  and  differences  in  his  dominions,  he  ordered  an  Assembly 
to  meet  at  Linlithgow,  in  July,  and  sent  the  earls  of  Dunbar, 
Winton,  and  Lothian,  as  his  commissioners.  The  bishop  ot 
Orkney  was  elected  the  moderator,  who  declared  that  the  king's 
object  in  convoking  the  present  Assembly  was  to  take  cog- 
nizance of  the  growth  of  popery  in  all  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
and  its  alarming  increase,  by  the  return  of  many  to  the  bosom 
of  that  church.  That  the  church  of  Rome  made  many  con- 
verts at  that  time,  is  not  by  any  means  surprising,  from  the 
devoted  fervour  of  thejesuits,  who  were  concealed  in  all  parts 
of  the  kingdom  in  vast  numbers,  and  under  various  pretexts, 
for  making  j)roselytes  and  extending  the  power  and  influence 
of  the  see  of  Rome,  to  accomplish  which  their  vow  binds  them 
to  compass  sea  and  land.  It  may  also  not  unreasonably  be 
ascribed  to  that  wretched  state  of  anarchy  and  confusion  which 
the  holy  discipline  had  stimulated  combined  with  the  doc- 
trines taught  by  those  of  the  Geneva  school,  on  the  dark 
topics  of  election  and  reprobation,  or  the  eternal  decree,  as  it 
is  called.     The  greatest  number  of  the  papists  were  in  the 


1607.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  443 

northern  parts,  under  the  protection  of  the  earl  of  Huntly,\vho 
was  accordingly  excommunicated^. 

After  this  unjustifiable  stretch  of  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  the 
brethren  instituted  a  minute  inquiry  into  their  own  manifold 
backslidings,  "  in  beating  down  Christ,  putting  him  in  bonds, 
covering  his  face  purposing  to  bury  him  with  the  Jews;"  when 
it  was  lamentably  discovered  to  arise  from  the  entire  negligence 
of  teaching  and  catechising  the  young  ;  the  too  sudden  admis- 
sion of  young  men  into  the  ministry  ;  and  the  utter  distraction, 
that  is,  the  spirit  of  sedition  and  turbulence,  by  which  those 
were  actuated  who  were  admitted  to  the  ministry.  Among 
the  remedies  proposed,  it  was  resolved  that  the  ministers 
should  apply  themselves  diligently  to  the  instruction  of  youth, 
by  that  best  of  all  modes,  catechising,  especially  to  instruct 
them  in  the  Belief,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, all  of  which  had  been  neglected  or  despised,  to  make  room 
for  preaching,  for  which  the  Geneva  school  has  always  been 
noted.  "  And  for  the  present  distractions  in  the  church,  see- 
ing the  same  did  arise  partly  from  a  diversity  of  opinions 
touching  an  external  govei'nment,  and  ])artly  from  divided 
affections,they  were  all,  in  the  fear  of  God,  exhorted  to  lay 
down  all  rancour  and  grudges,  and  to  be  cordially  reconciled 
to  each  other,  which  all  present  promised  by  holding  up  their 
hands  '^."  In  this  Assembly  the  cause  of  episcopacy  advanced, 
and  the  bishops  gained  several  advantages;  for  they  were  con- 
firmed as  constant  commissioners  to  the  General  Assembly, 
and  peimanent  moderators  of  their  presbyteries  and  synods. 

The  Assembly  drew  up  a  petition  to  the  king,  requesting 
"  that  a  commission  should  be  granted  to  each  of  the  bishops 
within  his  own  diocese,  and  to  such  well-affected  noblemen, 
barons,  and  gentlemen,  as  the  commissioners  of  Assemble 
should  nominate,  for  apprehending  of  Jesuits,  seminary  priests, 
excommunicated  papists,  and  traffickers  against  religion ;  tliat 
excommunicate  papists  be  closely  imprisoned,  and  none  have 
access  to  them  but  well-affected  persons."  This  petition,  and 
an  address  from  the  Assembly,  were  i)resented  to  the  king  at 
Hampton  Court,  by  the  archbishop  of  Glasgow  and  several 
noblemen  and  ministers,  who  were  very  graciously  received, 
and  the  petition  was  granted.  The  king  addressed  the  de- 
puties, saying,  "  that  the  difference  between  the  lawful  and 
unlawful  meetings  was  easily  perceptible  by  the  fruits  arising 
from  both;  for  as  that  unlawful  conventicle  at  Aberdeen  had 
caused  a  schism  in  the  church,  and  given  the  enemies  of  reli- 

^  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  505,         ^  Ibid,  b,  vii,  p.  505.— Calderwood. 


444  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XI. 

gion  a  great  advantage,  so  in  this  Assembly  they  had  not  only 
joined  in  love  among  themselves,  which  is  the  main  point  of 
religion,  but  also  had  taken  a  solid  course  for  repressing  of 
popery  and  superstition  :  that  he  did  allow  all  their  petitions, 
and  would  give  order  for  a  convention,  which  should  ratify 
the  conclusions  of  the  Assembly ;  assuring  them,  that  the 
church,  keeping  that  course,  should  never  lack  his  patrocinie 
and  protection."  The  council  was  immediately  directed  to 
publish  his  majesty's  acceptance  of  the  Assembly's  proceed- 
ings ;  and  enjoined  to  commit  Huntly,  Errol,  and  Angus,  to 
different  castles^. 

1609. — In  the  parliament  held  this  year  at  Edinburgh, 
several  acts  were  passed  in  favour  of  the  church ;  some  of  them, 
however,  lacked  that  spirit  of  charity  and  forbearance  which 
should  characterize  ecclesiastical  statutes.  But  at  that  time, 
and  for  many  years  after,  toleration  for  other  men's  opinions 
was  unknown  both  in  theory  and  practice ;  and,  even  so  late 
as  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  it  was  openly  declared,  that  "  to 
grant  toleration  was  to  establish  iniquity  by  law."  By  these 
statutes,  noblemen  were  enjoined,  under  very  heavy  penalties, 
to  send  their  sons  abroad  to  travel  only  in  those  countries 
where  the  reformed  religion  was  established  ;  and  that  the 
tutors  sent  with  them  should  be  chosen  and  licensed  by  the 
bishop  of  the  diocese  where  they  resided :  that  none  should 
succeed  to  property  who  were  suspected  of  popery,  till  they 
produced  a  bishop's  certificate  of  their  being  sound  in  the  faith : 
and,lastly,those  who  were  excommunicated  for  nonconformity 
should  be  deprived  of  their  estates'^.  This  was  a  hard  and 
unjust  law,  and  not  much  to  the  credit  of  the  age,  or  of  the 
church  ;  and,  in  effect,  it  threw  the  fire  of  persecution  on  th« 
secular  arm.  Excommunication  was  then  unmercifully  dealt 
out  at  the  vindictive  dictation  of  a  set  of  -aspiring  brethren, 
who  frequently  wielded  that  dangerous  weapon  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  private  revenge,  and  subjected  individuals  incurring 
it  to  the  unjust  vengeance  of  the  law. 

During  the  latter  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  while  James's 
succession  was  precarious,  and  subject,  in  some  degree,  to  her 
caprice.  Lord  Balmerino  had  carried  on  a  clandestine  corre- 
spondence with  the  see  of  Rome,  and  had  even  surreptitiously 
procured  James's  signature  to  a  letter  addressed,  with  all  his 
apostolical  titles,  to  pope  Clement  VIII.  He  wrote  to  the 
pope  in  the  king's  name  in  the  year  1598,  to  solicit  him  to 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  509. — Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  25-29. 
'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  510. — Calderwood,  p.  601. 


1610.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  415 

bestow  a  cardinal's  hat  on  a  Mr.  Chisholme,  a  Scotsman,  but 
who  then  held  a  bishopric  in  France.  Elizabeth  heard  of  the 
letter,  and  with  her  usual  jealousy  challenged  it  as  contrary  to 
his  duty  as  a  protestant  sovereign.  James  disavowed'it,  as,  in- 
deed, he  tnew  nothing  of  it ;  but  afterwards,  in  his  controversy 
with  Bellarmine,  that  cardinal  accused  him  of  renouncing  the 
mild  and  tolerating  sentiments  which  he  had  expressed  in  his 
letter  to  Clement,  and  of  having  disappointed  the  hopes  therein 
suggested  of  becoming  a  convert  to  the  church  of  Rome.  Lord 
Balmerino  confessed  that  the  letter  was  concerted  without  the 
knowledge  of  his  master,  and  which  was  presented  to  James 
among  other  public  papers,  and  subscribed  without  his  know- 
ledge of  its  contents.  Balmerino  was  sent  down  to  Scotland 
to  be  tried,  when  he  was  found  guilty  of  the  "  treasonable,  sur- 
reptitious, fraudulent,  and  false  stealing  of  his  majesty's  hand 
to  a  letter  directed  to  pope  Clement  VIII."  He  was  con- 
demned; but  his  life  was  spared  at  the  intercession  of  the 
queen^,  and  after  a  slight  imprisonment,he  was  permitted  to  re- 
side on  his  own  estate.  He  died  of  grief  about  two  years 
afterwards.  On  the  24th  of  June,  the  earl  marshal,  as  the  king's 
commissioner,  held  a  parliament,  when  the  acts  of  the  late  con- 
rention  were  ratified,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  commissaries  or 
bishops  was  restored  to  the  church,  and  a  statute  made  for  the 
apparel  of  churchmen,  judges,  and  magistrates.  Patterns  of 
these  were  sent  from  London ;  and  all  the  parties  concerned 
were  ordered  to  provide  themselves  with  the  prescribed  habits 
wdthin  a  certain  time,  under  pain  of  rebellion  2. 

1610. — James's  care  for  the  church  of  his  native  kingdom 
was  unremitting,  and  unaltered  either  by  change  of  scene,  or  by 
distance.  He  had  long  regretted  and  severely  felt,  the  entire 
want  of  order  and  decency  in  its  government.  Every  minister 
was  a  pope  in  his  own  parish  ;  and  every  turbulent,  factious  in- 
dividual among  them  could  easily  embroil  the  whole  kingdom 
either  by  an  obstinate  opposition  to  the  civil  or  ecclesiastical 
laws,  or  by  raising  a  simulated  alarm  of  the  king's  "  defection 
to  popery."  "  When  they,"  [the  jjresbyterians]  says  a  presby- 
terian  author,  "  beheld  apostates  loaded  with  honours  and 
emoluments,  it  was  natural  for  them  to  rouse  their  army — the 
PEOPLE — for  the  purpose  of  yet  degrading  foes,  [the  bishops] 
against  whom  their  indignation  became  continually  more  fierce 
and  more  inveterate^."  It  is  much  to  be  lamented,  that  the 
people  were  so  frequently  appealed  to  in  the  Scottish  reforma- 

'  Calderwood,  604, — Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  511. — Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  29,  30. 
^  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  512.  *  Heron. 


446  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XI 

tion,  and  which,  perhaps,  may  be  one  of  the  causes  of  the  spi- 
ritual pride  that  reigns  there.  Lawful  governors,  whether 
civil  or  ecclesiastical,  never  appeal  to  the  people,  because  the 
people  are  to  be  governed  ;  whereas  usurpers,  both  in  the  com- 
monwealth and  in  the  church,  invariably  "  rouse  their  army," 
and  by  stimulating  the  fierce  and  uncharitable  passions  of  the 
people,  they  introduce  by  clamour,  intimidation,  and  force 
of  numbers,  measures  of  innovation  against  those  institutions 
which  have  the  advantage  of  antiquity,  universality,  and  con- 
sent. To  remedy  the  intolerable  disorders  consequent  on  the  holy 
discipline,  the  king  was  daily,  by  his  letters,  urging  the  titular 
bishops  to  take  on  them  vigorously  the  administration  of  eccle- 
siastical affairs ;  but  they  evinced  considerable  disinclination 
to  act  vigorously  without  the  sanction  of  the  General  Assembly, 
on  account  of  the  popular  clamour  and  the  pragmatical  oppo- 
sition which  they  met  with  from  the  sincerer  sort  in  their 
dioceses. 

On  the  6th  of  June  an  Assembly  met  by  royal  proclamation 
at  Glasgow ;  the  earl  of  Dunbar,  the  lord  president  of  the 
Court  of  Session,  and  Sir  Alexander  Hay,  principal  secretary 
of  state,  having  been  appointed  royal  commissioners,  the  king 
addressed  a  circular  "  missive"  to  all  the  presbyteries:  that, 
"  being  advertised  of  great  confusion  arising  in  the  church 
by  reason  of  the  loose  unsettled  government  which  is  therein, 
and  being  entreated  by  sundry  of  our  good  subjects,  bishops, 
ministers,  and  others,  for  license  to  some  general  meeting  of 
the  church,  wherein  hope  is  given  us  that  some  good  course, 
by  common  consent,  shall  be  taken  of  all  misorders  and  divi- 
sions of  mind  that  hath  so  long  continued  among  the  ministry, 
to  the  great  scandal  of  their  profession,  shoidd  cease  and  be 
extinguished ;  we  have  been  pleased  to  yield  to  their  request, 
and  have  granted  liberty  for  a  General  Assembly  to  be  holden 
at  Glasgow  the  8tli  day  of  January  next :  and  therefore  we 
will  and  require  you,  to  make  choice  of  the  most  wise,  discreet, 

and  peaceably  disposed  ministers  among  you to 

advise anent  the  late  eruptions,  to  communicate  to 

our  commissioners  the  estate  of  every  church  within  any  of  the 

same,  the  maintenance  allowed  thereto and  what 

is  the  best  course  to  be  taken  for  the  ready  payment  of  the 
ministers,  so  as  they  be  not  distracted  from  their  charges,  and 
forced  to  attend  the  law  by  discussing  of  suspensions,  &c. 

And  because,  by  our  letters,  we  have  particularly 

accpiainted  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  with  our  purpose 
herein,  and  sent  unto  him  a  sj^ecial  note  of  the  names  of  such 
as  we  desire  to  be  at  our  meeting  j  it  is  our  pleasure  that  ye 


1610.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  447 

conform  yourselves  thereto,  and  make  choice  of  the  persons 
that  ye  take  to  be  fittest  for  giving  advice  in  all  matters  i." 
Spottisvvood,  titular  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  was  elected  mo- 
derator. The  commissioners  proposed  certain  points  of  dis- 
cipline for  discussion,  by  his  majesty's  command,  "  that  all 
things  might  thereafter  be  done  orderly  in  the  church,  and  with 
that  consent  and  harmony  which  was  fitting  among  preachers." 
After  a  debate  which  lasted  three  days,  the  Assembly  agreed 
to  and  enacted  the  following  nine  articles  : — 

1 .  The  Assembly  did  acknowledge  the  indiction  of  all  such 
General  Assemblies  of  the  church  to  belong  to  his  majesty 
by  the  prerogative  of  his  crown  ;  and  all  convocations  in  that 
kind  without  his  licence,  to  be  merely  unlawful,  condemning 
the  conventicle  at  Aberdeen  in  1605,  as  having  no  warrant 
from  his  majesty,  and  contrary  to  the  prohibition  he  had  given. 

2.  That  synods  shall  be  kept  in  every  diocese  twice  in  the 
year,  viz.  in  April  and  October  ;  the  archbishop  or  bishop  to 
be  moderator.  And  when  the  dioceses  are  so  large  that  the 
ministers  cannot  all  conveniently  assemble  at  one  place,  that 
the  archbishop  or  bishop  shall  appoint  a  constant  moderator. 

3.  That  no  sentence  of  excommunication  or  absolution  from 
the  same,  shall  be  pronounced  against,  or  in  favour  of,  any  per- 
son, without  the  knowledge  and  approbation  of  the  bishop  of 
the  ""diocese,  who  must  answer  to  God  and  his  majesty  for  the 
formal  and  impartial  proceeding  thereof.  And  the  process 
being  found  fonnal,  that  the  sentence  be  pronounced  at  the 
bishop's  direction  by  the  minister  of  the  parish  where  the  ofien- 
der  hath  his  dwelling  and  the  process  did  first  begin. 

4.  That  all  presentations  in  time  coming  be  directed  to  the 
archbishop  or  bishop  wherein  the  lapsed  benefice  lieth,  with 
power  to  the  archbishop  or  bishop  to  dispone  or  confer  the  bene- 
fice, after  the  lapse,  jure  devoluto. 

5.  That  in  the  deposition  or  suspension  of  ministers,  the 
bishop  shall  associate  with  himself  some  ministers  within  the 
bounds  where  the  delinquent  serveth,  and  after  just  trial  of  the 
facts  and  merits,  pronounce  sentence  of  deprivation.  The  like 
order  to  be  observed  in  the  suspension  of  ministers  from  the 
exercise  of  their  functions. 

6.  That  every  minister  at  his  admission  swear  obedience  to 
his  majesty  and  to  his  ordinary  [bishop]  according  to  the  form 
agreed  on  anno  1571. 

7.  That  the  bishops  visit  their  dioceses  themselves ;  and 
where  too  extensive,  that  he  appoint  one  to  visit  in  his  place  ; 

»  Calderwood,  621—622. 


448  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XI. 

and  if  any  minister,  without  just  cause  or  lawful  excuse,  shall 
absent  himself  from  the  visitation  or  diocesan  assemblies,  he 
shall  be  suspended  from  his  office  and  benefice,  and  if  persisted 
in,  deprived. 

8.  That  in  the  conventions  of  ministers  for  exercise,  the 
bishop,  being  present,  shall  preside,  or,  in  his  absence,  by  one 
of  his  synod  of  his  nomination. 

9.  And,  lastly,  that  no  minister  shall  speak  against  any  of  the 
foresaid  conclusions  in  public,  nor  dispute  the  question  ot 
equality  or  inequality  of  ministers,  as  tending  only  to  the  enter- 
tainment of  schism  in  the  church,  and  the  violation  of  the  peace 
thereof ^ 

These  articles  were  agreed  to  almost  unanimously  ;  and  this 
Assembly,  which  was  free  and  perfectly  uncontroled,  placed  it 
beyond  the  power  of  any  future  faction  in  the  church  to  alter 
the  foundation  which  was  then  laid  for  the  episcopal  govern- 
ment of  the  church  in  all  time  coming.  The  deliberation  con- 
tinued several  days,  and  the  Assembly  adopted  the  articles  so 
unanimously,  that  there  were  only  three  who  voted  against  them, 
whilst  137  were  for  them.  The  presbyterian  party  were  quite 
aware  that  the  acts  of  this  Assembly  were  fatal  to  their  cause, 
and  therefore  Calderwood  has  indignantly  recorded  the  names 
of  all  the  noblemen  and  ministers,  "  who  concurred  at  this 
meeting,  to  the  damnable  conclusions  following^,"  for  the  execra- 
tion of  all  presbyterians  for  all  generations.  After  these  conclu- 
sions had  been  agreed  to,  and  the  business  of  the  Assembly  dis- 
posed of,  the  permanent  moderators  of  presbyteries  complained 
to  the  earl  of  Dunbar,  that  the  stipends  promised  to  them  had 
never  been  paid  since  the  year  1606,  for  which  he  excused  him- 
self, by  alleging  absence.  However,  he  paid  the  whole  of  their 
arrears,  and  discontinued  their  services,  as  the  bishops  were 
now  legally  the  moderators.  The  sincerer  sort  immediately 
asserted,  that  the  payment  of  this  Just  debt  was  corruption  and 
bribery".  Spottiswood  says,  certain  of  the  discontented  sort 
did  interpret  the  payment  of  this  debt  to  be  a  sort  of  corrup- 
tion, giving  out, '  that  this  was  done  for  obtaining  the  ministers' 
voices :'  hovvbeit  the  debt  was  known  to  he  Just,  and  that  no 
motion  was  made  of  that  business  before  the  aforesaid  conclu- 
sions were  enacted 3."  Calderwood  is  furious  at  both  the  payers 
and  the  receivers  of  the  arrears  of  salary,  and  says,  "  Money 
was  given  largely  to  such  as  served  the  king  and  the  bishops' 
turn,  under  pretence  of  bearing  their  charges  .  .  .  .    Thecon- 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  512.~Calderwood,  531.  *  Calderwood,  625— 632. 

■'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  513. 


IGIO.]  CHL'RCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  449 

staut  moderators,  so  many  as  were  present,  got  every  one  their 
hundredth  pounds  Scots,  which  ivas  promised  at  the  convention 
holden  anno  1606  at  Linlithgow  ^"  This  admission  confutes 
the  whole  of  the  accusation ;  and  truly  if  so  many  members  had 
been  bribed  by  so  small  a  sum  distributed  among  a  few,  their 
appetite  for  corruption  must  have  been  large  indeed.  The 
synods  and  presbyteries  did  not  submit  to  this  new  regulation 
without  a  great  opposition  by  individual  members  of  the  sin- 
cerer  sort ;  but  the  privy  council  issued  a  proclamation,  com- 
manding all,  of  whatsover  function,  to  obey  the  decision  of  the 
Glasgow  Assembly 2." 

Soon  after  the  dissolution  of  this  Assembly,  the  king  com- 
manded the  titular  archbishop  of  Glasgow  to  select  other  two 
titulars,  and  repair  to  court.  Accordingly,  he  chose  the  bishops 
of  Brechin  and  Galloway.  The  titular  bishops  had  been  re- 
stored to  their  seats  and  votes  in  parliament,  and  the  Glasgow 
Assembly  had  conferred  on  them  more  substantial  power  than 
they  had  hitherto  enjoyed ;  but,  as  neither  acts  of  parliament  nor 
of  Assembly  can  confer  the  spiritual  character,  of  which  they 
were  wholly  deficient,  and  which  could  only  be  conferred  by 
the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  those  who  had  themselves  re- 
ceived it  "  from  hand  to  hand  from  the  apostles,"  according 
to  the  rules  and  canons  of  the  primitive  church,  James  deter- 
mined that  they  should  receive  consecration  at  the  hands  of 
English  bishops,  whom  he  specially  appointed  for  that  pui^pose. 
The  Scottish  prelates  arrived  in  September,  and  at  their  first 
audience  the  king  informed  them  of  his  motives  for  calling  them 
to  London;  and  addressing  them  to  the  following  effect, 
said — "  That  he  had,  to  his  great  charge,  recovered  the  bishop- 
rics forth  of  the  hands  of  those  that  possessed  them,  and  be- 
stowed the  same  on  such  as  he  hoped  should  prove  worthy  of 
their  places  ;  but,  since  he  could  not  make  them  bishops,  nor 
could  they  assume  that  honour  themselves,  and  that  in  Scotland 
there  was  not  a  sufficient  number  to  enter  charge  by  consecra- 
tion, he  had  called  them  to  England,  that,  being  consecrated 
themselves,  they  might  at  their  return  give  ordination  to  those 
at  home,  and  so  the  adversaries'  mouths  be  stopped,  who  said 
that  he  did  take  upon  him  to  create  bishops  and  bestow 
spiritual  offices,  which  he  never  did,  nor  would  he  presume  to 
do,  acknowledging  that  right  to  belong  to  Christ  alone,  and 
those  he  had  authorised  by  his  power." 

To  which  the  archbishop  replied,  in  the  name  of  the  others, 
"  that  they  were  willing  to  obey  his  majesty's  desires,  but  only 

'  Calderwood,  G25. — Spottisvvood,   b.  vii.  513.  ^  Calderwood. 

VOL.  I.  3  M 


460  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  XI. 

they  feared  that  the  church  of  Scotland,  on  account  of  former 
usurpations,  might  take  this  for  a  sort  of  subjection  to  the  church 
of  England."  But  the  king's  patriotic  affection  for  his  native 
church  had  foreseen  that  objection,  and  provided  against  it, 
by  excluding  the  two  archbishops  of  Canterbury  and  York  (who 
alone  might  have  claimed  any  such  supremacy)  from  the  com- 
mission. Heylin  says,  that  Bancroft,  who  had  chiefly  forwarded 
the  good  work,  very  cheerfully  agreed,  not  caring  who  partici- 
pated in  its  honour,  so  long  as  the  churches  of  both  kingdoms 
might  receive  the  benefit  of  it.  The  commission  was  directed 
to  George  Abbot,  bishop  of  London,  Launcelot  Andrews, 
bishop  of  Ely,  and  James  Montague,  bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells, 
and  they  were  appointed  to  consecrate  the  Scottish  titulars  in 
the  chapel  of  London  House,  on  the  21st  of  October.  Balfour 
states  the  bishops  to  have  been  "  London,  Ely,  Worcester,  and 
Rochester  ^"  Dr.  Andrews,  bishop  of  Ely,  proposed  that, 
previous  to  consecration,  the  Scottish  bishops  should  be  or- 
dained presbyters,  as  the  orders  which  they  had  received  must 
be  accounted  null  and  void,  the  parties  conferring  them  having 
had  themselves  no  lawful  mission.  Archbishop  Bancroft,  who 
was  present,  objected  to  this  proposal,  inasmuch  as  the  epis- 
copal order  included  the  two  inferior  degrees.  He  adduced 
the  instances  from  antiquity,  of  Ambrose,  archbishop  of  Milan, 
and  Nectarius,  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  were  conse- 
crated to  the  episcopal  office  without  having  been  ordained 
as  priests.  This  reasoning  being  allowed,  or,  as  Spottiswood 
says,  "  having  been  applauded  to  by  the  rest,"  the  Scottish 
prelates  were  duly  consecrated,  and  became  bishops  in  reality, 
their  former  ministrations  in  that  character  having  been  alto- 
gether an  usurpation  2. 

Calderwood  maintains  that  this  consecration  was  null  and 
of  no  effect,  because,  says  he,  there  was  no  mention  of  con- 
secration in  the  Glasgow  Assembly  ;  *'  for  howbeit  the  unhappy 
pack  there  convened  tied  presbyteries  and  synods  unto  them 
in  the  cases  expressed,  yet  meant  they  not  to  determine  that 
there  was  a  distinct  office  of  a  bishop  in  the  word  differing 

from  the  office  of  a  minister The  power  granted  to  them 

was  only  a  power  derived  from  that  convention,  which  another 
Assembly  might  take  from  them  again  without  degradation  or 
execration,  as  they  call  it.  Their  consecration,  therefore,  is  of 
no  force,  and  ought  not  to  be  acknowledged  3."     Such  loose 

*  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  35. 

-  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  314. — Calderwood,  544. — Heylin,  lib.  xi.  p.  382.— 
Perceval's  Apostolical  Succession. — Keith's  Cat.  p.  263. 
•*  Calderwood,  p.  644. 


1610.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  451 

and  Erastian  notions  \vere  constantly  maintained  in  both  the 
Knoxian  and  Melvillian  establishments;  and  it  is  to  be  re- 
gretted, that  they  are  still  prevalent  in  t'he  present  kirk. 

At  the  same  time,  the  king  instituted  a  Court  of  High  Com- 
mission. Lay  elders  were  set  aside,  "  considering  they  have 
neither  warrant  in  the  word  of  God,  nor  example  of  the  primi- 
tive church ;"  and  in  their  place  the  ministers  were  to  make 
choice  of  fit  persons  in  every  parish  for  repairing  the  fabric 
of  the  church,  providing  elements  for  the  holy  communion, 
collecting  contributions  for  the  poor,  and  other  necessary  ex- 
penses. It  was  determined  that  no  minister  shall  be  admitted 
without  an  exact  trial  preceding,  and  imposition  of  hands 
used  in  their  ordination  by  the  bishop  and  two  or  three  minis- 
ters ;  and  that  a  form  of  ordination  be  printed  and  precisely 
followed  by  every  bishop  ;  that  the  election  of  bishops  shall 
in  time  coming  be  made  according  to  the  conference  anno  1571; 
that  when  it  shall  be  tliought  expedient  to  call  a  General  As- 
sembly, a  supplication  be  made  to  his  majesty  for  license  to 
convene ;  and  that  the  said  Assembly  shall  consist  of  bishops, 
deans,  archdeacons,  and  such  of  the  ministry  as  shall  be  se- 
lected by  the  rest.  The  archbishop  and  four  ministers  were  to 
compose  a  quorum,  who  were  to  have  cognizance  of  all  ranks, 
and  from  whose  decision  there  should  be  no  appeal.  The 
bishops  were  appointed  visitors  of  schools  and  colleges ;  and 
they  could  suspend  or  deprive  contumacious  ministers  as  the 
case  might  require^. 

"  The  three  consecrated  bishops,"  says  a  venerable  author, 
"  on  their  return  home,  conveyed  the  episcopal  powers,  which 
they  had  now  received  in  a  canonical  way,  to  their  fonner 
titular  brethren :  to  George  Gladstanes,  in  St.  Andrews  ;  Peter 
Blackburn,  in  Aberdeen ;  Alexander  Douglas,  in  Moray ; 
George  Graham,  in  Dunblane ;  David  Lindsay,  in  Ross ;  Alex- 
ander Forbes,  in  Caithness ;  James  Law,  in  Orkney ;  Alex- 
ander Lindsay,  in  Dunkeld ;  John  Campbell,  in  Argyle ;  and 
Andrew  Knox,  in  the  Isles.  Thus,  after  fifty  years  of  confusion, 
and  a  multiplicity  of  turnings  and  windings,  either  to  improve 
or  to  set  aside  the  plan  adopted  in  1560,  we  see  an  episcopal 
church  once  more  settled  in  Scotland,  and  a  regular  apostolic 
succession  of  episcopacy  introduced,  on  the  extinction  of  the 
old  line  [meaning  the  Roman  Catholic],  which  had  long  before 
failed,  without  any  attempt,  real  or  pretended,  to  keep  it  up  2. 

The  king  had  been  long  projecting  this  settlement,  and  had 
gone  on,  by  gradual  advances  from  one  step  to  another,  with 

*  Spottiswood,  b.  \ii.  p.  515.  '  Skinuer's  Eccl.  Hist.  ii.  253. 


452  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XI. 

much  patience  and  great  perseverance  to  the  last.     Yet  it  can- 
not be  said,  that  the  education  he  received  in  his  youth  was 
such  as  would  prejudice  him  in  favour  of  episcopacy,  or  that  it 
was  the  ambition  of  the  clergy  which  prompted  him  to  the  re- 
establishment  of  it.     It  is  true,  many  of  them  were,  eveii  in  the 
times  of  the  greatest  confusion,  well  inclined  to  the  primitive 
episcopal  model,  and  sufficiently  acquainted  with  early  anti- 
quity to  see  the  expediency  and  necessity  of  it ;  but  a  few  tur- 
bulent incendiaries,  such  as  Melville,  Black,  and  Bruce, — who, 
when  they  appear,  will  always  find  some  abettors  and  followers, 
— were  perpetually  raising  such  clamours  and  disturbances,  as 
deterred  the  quiet  lovers  of  truth  from  entering  the  lists,  to 
struggle  with  such  fiery  and  unmanageable  tempers  ;  and  had 
not  the  king,  by  his  learning,  been  able  to  confute  their  licen- 
tious principles,  as  well  as  steady  to  the  resolutions  he  had 
formed,  these  few  fanatical  levellers  would  have  kept  both 
church  and  state  hi  a  continual  ferment.     But  his  constancy 
carried  his  point,  and  he  lived  to  see  the  good  effects  of 
his  policy.     The  persons  now  invested  with  the  episcopal 
character  made  it  their  business,  both  by  their  example  and 
authority,  to  stem  the  tumultuous  torrent  of  former  times,  and 
to  preserve  peace  and  harmony  among   all  ranks  of  people 
mider  their  charge ;  insomuch,  that  a  presbyterian  historian 
[Calderwood],  contemporary  with  this  solemn  restoration  of 
real  episcopacy,  makes  a  heavy  complaint  that  by  far  the 
greatest  -part  of  the  nation  submitted  quietly  to  it ;  and,  happily, 
it  was  not  in  the  power  of  the  late  democratical  party  for  a  long 
time  to  create  any  very  powerful  opposition  to  it. 

Succession  is  the  divine  charter  of  the  gospel  priesthood, 
and  is  one  of  the  marks  of  a  true  church.  It  is  the  duty, 
therefore,  of  every  ambassador  of  Christ  to  be  confident  of  his 
evidence,  and  of  the  people  also  to  know  ^whether  they  live 
under  the  conduct  of  such  a  ministry  as  may  lawfully  preach, 
administer  the  sacraments,  absolve  penitents,  thrust  out  stub- 
born offenders,  and  preserve  the  faith  "  once  delivered  to  the 
saints,"  and  which  can  be  no  otherwise  done  than  by  the  apos- 
tolical succession.  But  presbyters  never  received  by  their 
ordination  authority  to  ordain  others,— -no  word  of  God  gives 
it  to  them, — and  all  the  rules  of  the  whole  church  take  it 
from  them  ; — therefore,  their  attempt  to  ordain  without  and 
against  bishops  must  be  void  and  of  no  effect,  and  only  occa- 
sions schism  by  dividing  the  church  upon  an  unjust  cause. 
They  could  not  receive  the  power  of  the  keys  from  those  who 
had  no  power  to  confer  it;  and  therefore,  in  celebrating  the 
eucharist,  and  baptizing,  they  did  nothing  but  profane  God's 


16 10. J  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  453 

ordinances.  This  profanation  had  been  in  fearful  operation  for 
a  long  period  of  time.  In  the  papal  church  of  Scotland,  lav- 
men  were  preferred  to  bishoprics  who  had  not  the  apostolic 
grace  ;  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  they  ministered  at  the  altar  in 
holy  things,  and,  considering  the  lax  and  Erastian  ophiions 
then  prevalent,  it  is  not  improbable  that  these  commendators, 
as  the  lay  bishops  were  called,  may  have  assisted  at  consecra- 
tions, and  so  vitiated  the  whole  succession  of  the  papal  church 
in  Scotland.  This  is  a  species  of  profanation  that  had  long 
existed,  and  which  called  loudly  for  reformation  and  deep  peni- 
tence ;  for  from  the  laxity  of  the  papal  discipline,  laymen  of 
the  most  immoral  lives  were  permitted  to  offer  strange  fire  be- 
fore the  Lord,  like  Nadab  and  Abihu,  the  younger  sons  of  Aaron, 
and  whom  the  Lord  devoured  with  fire,  as  a  warning  to  all  future 
generations  that  none  should  offer  incense  before  Him  but  the 
seed  of  Aaron,  or  those  who  are  called  with  the  same  divine  au- 
thority that  he  was.  After  the  demolition  of  the  Roman  church, 
down  to  the  period  at  which  we  have  now  arrived,  none  but 
laymen  without  any  kind  of  orders,  or  even  the  apostolic  cere- 
mony of  the  laying  on  of  hands,  had  ever  officiated,  with  the 
exception  of  Knox  and  a  few  of  the  early  preachers  Avho  were 
in  priests'  orders.  Erastianism  and  profanation  came  down 
from  the  first  reformation  like  a  torrent,  and  along  with  them 
every  species  of  private  immorality  and  public  profligacy. 
Considering  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  and  the  immorality 
with  which  he  was  surrounded,  king  James  was  a  miracle  of 
chastity  and  morality ;  and  which  was  so  astonishing  to  his 
people,  that  they  could  only  account  for  it  upon  the  principle 
that  his  chaste  conduct  proceeded  from  impotency  ^ 

From  the  age  of  tweh  e  years,  when  he  assumed  the  govern- 
ment, he  had  maintained  a  mortal  struggle  with  the  democrati- 
cal  Genevan  party  in  the  establishment.  His  adhesion  to 
episcopacy  arose  from  his  conviction  of  its  divine  origin ;  a  con- 
clusion which,  through  divine  grace,  he  arrived  at  from  the 
study  of  the  scriptures  and  the  history  of  the  church,  with 
both  of  which  he  was  well  acquainted.  He  found  that  there 
is  a  more  clear  and  unequivocal  evidence  for  the  divine  institu- 
tion of  episcopal  government  than  can  be  produced  for  the  au- 
thenticity of  the  canon  of  scripture.  The  canonical  books  were 
not  separated  from  the  apocryphal  till  after  the  decease  of  the 
apostles,  that  is,  till  the  second  century ;  and  some  of  the 
books  were  not  received  into  the  sacred  canon  even  in  the  third 
century.     Yet  our  Lord  clearly  indicated  the  canon  of  the  Old 

^  Spottiswood,  b.  vi.  377.— Vide  his  own  letter,  ante,  p.  336. 


454  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.   XI, 

Testament : — "  All  things,"  said  he,  "must be  fulfilled  which 
were  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  and  in  the  Prophets,  and  in 
the  Psalms"  If,  therefore,  it  be  found  that  episcopacy  is  Oi 
divine  institution,  it  will  follow  as  a  natural  consequence  that 
ordination  was  always  performed  by  bishops,  but  never  without 
them ;  and  that  the  foi*m  of  ordinations  by  presbyters  or  priests 
without  bishops,  arc  null  and  of  no  effect.  If  this  position  be 
granted,  how  much  more  null  and  invalid,  so  to  speak,  must 
the  Knoxian  and  Melvillian  admissions  have  been,  which  were 
performed  by  men  who  had  no  canonical  orders  of  any 
sort  themselves,  but  who  had  unhappily  despised  and  rejected 
even  the  apostolic  rite  of  the  imposition  of  hands.  This  state 
of  things  would  not  have  been  tolerated  in  the  primitive 
church,  when,  as  Knox  justly  said, "  all  things  were  carried 
order,  and  well." 

Our  belief  of  the  authenticity  of  the  canon  of  scripture 
rests  entirely  on  the  infallible  evidence  of  the  church,  which  is 
the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth,  for  we  stand  by  faith  in 
Christ.  Our  belief,  therefore,  that  the  sacred  gospels  and  epis- 
tles are  genuine,  must  necessarily  depend  on  the  credit  and 
integrity  of  those  who  outlived  the  apostles,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, and  on  the  evidence  of  the  whole  church  ever  since.  But 
episcopacy  has  a  fuller  testimony  on  its  side,  and  of  a  different 
description  from  that  which  demonstrates  the  validity  of  the 
canon  of  scripture.  The  evidence  of  episcopacy  has  ever 
been  open  and  patent  to  every  man's  senses,  whether  learned  or 
ignorant ;  no  man  could  open  his  eyes  and  look  about  him 
without  seeing  the  whole  machinery  of  government,  which 
was  constantly  descending  in  an  unbroken  line  of  succession. 
He  could  not  help  seeing  that  no  sooner  did  one  bishop  die 
than  another  was  consecrated  in  his  place  ;  and  it  was  much 
easier  to  prove  the  existence  and  descent  of  bishops  than  it  was 
to  prove  that  any  of  the  apostles  or  evangelists  wrote  the  books 
which  are  ascribed  to  them.  It  is  much  easier  to  prove  that 
James  or  Charles  were  kings  of  Scotland,  and  that  monarchy 
was  the  form  of  government  in  all  periods  of  our  history,  than 
to  convince  any  one  that  the  former  was  the  author  of  Basilicon 
Doron,  and  the  latter  of  Eikon  Basilike.  From  the  days  of 
Knox,  the  ministers  who  had  taken  the  places  of  the  papal 
clergy  were  as  Korah,  and  as  strangers  not  of  the  seed  of 
Aaron,  who  came  near  to  offer  incense  before  the  Lord ;  and 
therefore  the  blood  of  the  people  was  upon  their  heads.  They 
were  usurpers  of  the  sacred  office ;  hence  the  word  of  God  which 
they  preached  was  without  power  and  authority,  and  the  sa- 
craments which  they  administered  were  without  validity,  and 


11  JO.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  455 

conveyed  no  divine  grace.  The  people  could  not  be  answer- 
able for  not  hearkening  to  or  not  obeying  the  word  of  God  as  de- 
livered by  them,  because  they  had  no  authority  to  preach  it 
and  that  divine  grace  did  not  accompany  their  administration 
is  evident  on  their  own  shewing,  and  their  constant  complaints 
that  all  the  worst  works  of  the  flesh  were  fearfully  prevalent 
among  all  ranks  of  the  people.  They  could  not  make  their 
people  members  of  Christ  by  baptism,  and  so  the  adopted  sons 
of  God,  nor  convey  the  grace  of  justification  or  the  remission  of 
sin  by  that  mystery,  because  they  had  no  right  to  make  a  cove- 
nant in  the  name  of  Christ ;  hence  the  alienation  of  the  people 
from  God,  and  their  own  continual  complaints  of  murders, 
adulteries,  and  incests.  They  could  not  administer  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ  to  the  people,  because  they  had 
no  commission  from  Christ  to  consecrate  bread  and  wine 
as  the  representatives  of  His  body  which  was  broken,  and 
of  his  blood  which  was  shed  tor  the  remission  of  sins.  So 
that  by  usurping  the  ministerial  functions  without  divine 
authority  and  commission,  they  became  blind  leaders  of 
the  blind  ;  they  deprived  their  people  of  the  means  of  grace 
and  all  the  sure  and  well-grounded  hopes  of  future  glory. 
The  whole  people  seemed  to  have  been  given  up  to  a 
reprobate  mind  ;  yet,  in  the  midst  of  judgment,  God  re- 
membered mercy,  and  inspu'ed  the  heart  of  the  king  with 
a  firm  resolution  to  gather  his  people  again  within  the 
ark  of  God ;  and  his  good  intentions  being  well  sup- 
ported by  the  titular  bishops  and  the  better  part  of  the 
ministers,  whose  hearts  God  had  touched,  the  church  which 
was  conveyed  to  the  greater  part  of  England  by  bishops  Aidan, 
Finan,  and  Colman,  was  restored  to  Scotland  by  their  sue 
cessors. 

The  papal  succession,  which  had  existed  with  more  or  less 
purity  from  St.  Ninian,  bishop  of  Galloway,  who  was  conse- 
crated by  Martin,  bishop  of  Tours,  about  the  year  450,  ended 
at  the  death  of  James  Beaton,  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  in  the 
year  1603.  The  long  usurpation  of  the  pope  had  given  the  papal 
hierarchy  the  unchristian  impression,  that  no  consecration  of  a 
bishop  could  be  canonical  or  valid  unless  with  the  pope's  au- 
thority and  mandate.  Hence  the  Scoto-papal  hierarchy  made 
no  effort  to  continue  their  line  of  succession ;  and  which  may  be 
devoutly  contemplated  as  a  merciful  dispensation  of  Almighty 
Providence.  From  the  monstrous  corruption  of  the  papacy  in 
permitting  the  bishoprics  to  be  filled  with  laymen  without  any 
holy  orders,  it  is  evident  that  the  Scottish  papal  hierarchy 


45G  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XI. 

was  not  pure,  and  therefore  a  succession  flowing  through  such 
a  hanriel  would  have  tainted  the  whole  stream.  We  have 
also  reason  to  bless  God  that  they  suffered  their  church  to  be 
extinguished,  and  no  succession  to  be  kept  up,  in  the  three 
kingdoms,  which  has  prevented  the  guilt  of  schism  on  our  part 
— a  guilt  which  is  now  thrown  incontestibly  on  the  heads  of  the 
papists  themselves,  by  their  having,  at  a  great  distance  of  time, 
introduced  missionary  bishops  from  the  churches  of  Italy  and 
Spain,  and  who  are  not  at  all  connected  with  the  catholic 
church  of  the  united  kingdom. 

The  "  holy  discipline"  of  Melville  was  entirely  democratical 
in  its  formation  and  tendency,  and  was  totally  different  from 
the  pseudo-episcopal  "  evangel"  of  Knox  ;  and  it  is  a  me- 
lancholy fact,  that  wherever  the  former  has  been  settled,  it  was 
always  introduced  by  the  sword  and  sedition.  It  so  com- 
menced in  Geneva,  where  it  was  originally  invented ;  from 
thence  the  same  turbulent  spirit  disturbed  the  peace  of  France, 
the  Netherlands,  Scotland,  and  lastly  of  England.  In  the  few 
years  which  elapsed  from  Melville's  appearance  until  the  pe- 
riod at  which  we  have  now  arrived,  we  have  seen  little  else 
than  sedition,  and  even  open  rebellion,  as  the  fruit  which 
distinguished  its  origin;  for  by  its  fruit  must  a  tree  be  known. 
Sedition,  resistance  to  the  sovereign  powers,  and  open  rebel- 
lion and  murder,  are  not  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  but  these  fruits 
sprung  incontestibly  from  the  holy  discipline,  and  therefore 
we  are  fully  warranted  in  concluding  that  it  was  not  of  God. 
The  church  is  represented  in  Scripture  as  "  a  sea  of  glass  like 
unto  crystal,"  pure,  placid,  peaceable — as  a  "  pure  river  of 
water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal,  proceeding  out  of  the  throne  of 
God  and  of  the  Lamb ;"  typifying  the  everlasting  settled  state 
of  the  pious  and  the  just,  and  as  such  free  from  those  sudden 
miry  floods  which  swell  and  pollute  the  stream  of  temporal 
rivers;  whereas  the  symbolical  sea  of  the  holy  discipline  was 
turbulent  and  restless,  ever  casting  up  mire  and  dirt,  which 
being  deprived  of  the  gentle  fertilizing  rains  and  soft  dews 
of  God's  Holy  Spirit,  fell,  from  the  violent  excitement  in 
which  it  began,  into  absolute  infidelity.  Voltaire  boasted  that 
in  "  Calvin's  own  town,  in  his  day,  there  were  but  a  few  beg- 
garly fellows  who  believed  in  Christ,  and  that  from  Geneva  to 
Berne  not  a  christian  was  to  be  found!'"  The  late  principal 
Rose,  of  King's  College,  London,  says,  the  German  "  divines 
have  rejected  all  belief  in  the  divine  origin  of  Christia- 
nity;"  and  he  adds,  that  "Mr.  Stuart,  of  Andover,  in  America, 
states  the  same  fact,  in  very  strong  terms,  with  respect  to  the 


If)  10.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND,  457 


Students  in  his  own  country  i."  The  General  Assembly  of  1601 
expressly  acknowledged  that  the  presby  terian  discipline  "  must 
at  hist  terminate  cither  in  popery  or  atheism."  Indeed,  the 
holy  discipline  has,  ever  since  its  invention,  had  a  regular  and 
]irogressive  downward  tendency  to  atheism;  and  accordingly 
this  tendency  has  ever  been  the  constant  complaint  of  all  the 
good  and  pious  men  of  its  communion.  The  late  Dr.  M'Crie, 
in  a  public  protest  of  the  religious  community  of  seceders,  of 
which  he  was  a  sort  of  head  or  chief  leader,  lamented  its  exist- 
ence at  the  present  day.  "  The  synod,"  he  says,  "  condemns 
the  voluntary  system"  on  account  of  its  atheistical  character 
and  tendency  3.  To  this  may  be  added  the  testimony  of  Dr. 
Walker,  late  bishop  of  Edinburgh,  who  says,  "  No  system  of 
faith,  refined  by  the  exclusive  and  excessive  zeal  of  a  party, 
retains,  for  a  hundred  years  successively,  its  original  import, 
colour,  and  iniluence,  as  may  be  easily  verified  by  consider- 
ing the  present  state  of  the  Calvinistic  or  reformed  churches 
abroad  and  in  our  own  island,  by  comparing  the  present  senti- 
ments of  the  large  majority  of  their  successors  with  the  con- 
fession and  the  sentiments  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  and 
of  their  immediate  followers ;  while  the  church  of  England, 
claiming  no  dominion  over  our  faith,  nor  presuming  to  enforce 
partial  and  exclusive  comments,  has  preserved  substantial 
truth  more  perfectly  and  mure  generally  than  any  other  na- 
tional church  among  the  reformed*." 

But  even  admitting,  for  the  sake  of  argument  merely,  that 
the  so-called  holy  discipline  had  been  the  apostolic,  and  there- 
fore the  divine  institution  of  the  church's  government,  yet  the 
long  continuance  of  the  episcopal  regimen,  even  from  the 
ajjostolic  era,  would  be  fatal  to  the  Melvillian  scheme;  It  is 
undeniable,  that  if  the  presbyterian  system  had  been  apostolic, 
it  must  have  been  in  abeyance  for  fifteen  centuries,  and  at  the 
time  when  it  was  renewed  by  Calvin,  Beza,  and  Melville,  there 
was  no  such  discipline  in  existence  in  any  part  of  the  world. 
None  of  these  men  could  produce  any  evidence  that  they  had 
any  divine  commission  to  restore  the  long-lost  holy  discipline, 
and  there  were  no  presbyterian  ministers  to  show  their  succes- 
sion from  any  presbytery  which  might  have  been  established 
by  the  apostles.  It  will  not  do  to  say,  that  men  who  had  been 
episcopally  ordained  could  restore  that  which  was  lost,  be- 

*  State  of  Protestantism  in  Germany,  p.  2.  '  Ante,  ch.  xi.  p.  422. 

^  Vindication  of  the  Principles  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  in  relation  to  ques- 
tions presently  agitated,  1S36.  ■•  Life  of  Whitgift. 

VOL.   I.  3  N 


458  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XI. 

cause,  upon  Beza's  principles,  episcopacy  is  a  satanical  ema- 
nation; and  therefore,  if  presbytery  came  through  this  satani- 
cal episcopacy,  presbytery  is  as  far  in  the  wrong,  and  as 
much  a  satanical  institution,  as  episcopacy  is  said  to  be.  But 
the  matter  is  not  improved  by  the  notorious  fact  that  these 
three  men  were  mere  laymen,  and  therefore  were  greater 
"  gainsayers"  than  even  Korah  himself^  who  was  a  priest,  but 
wanted  to  assume  the  office  of  the  high  priest,  and  establish  a 
holy  discipline.  If  presbytery  is  the  divine  government  of  the 
church,  then  it  cannot  be  denied  that  its  Great  Head  had  en- 
tirely broken  His  solemn  parting  promise,  of  being  with  it 
"  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world  ;"  for  it  ceased  to 
exist  for  fifteen  centuries.  This  breach  of  promise  will  be 
readily  granted  by  both  parties  to  be  an  impossibility — for 
God  is  truth  itself,  and  its  fountain  ;  and  both  will  readily 
agree,  that  to  accuse  Him  of  suffering  his  church  throughout 
the  whole  world  to  be  extinguished,  and  the  gates  of  hell  thus 
to  prevail,  is  a  grievous  sin.  But  to  maintain  that  episcopacy 
is  satanical,  as  Beza  and  Melville  asserted,  and  an  antichris- 
tian  tyranny  which  ought  to  be  extirpated,  as  the  solemn 
league  and  covenant  says,  is  to  invert  the  apostle's  words,  and 
practically  to  assert  that  God  is  a  liar^  This  is  a  dreadful 
conclusion  to  arrive  at,  and  it  becomes  the  followers  of  Melville 
to  look  well  to  the  position  in  which  they  have  placed  them- 
selves by  having  left  their  first  love.  Let  them  be  entreated, 
therefore,  to  remember  from  whence  they  are  fallen,  and  to  re- 
pent and  do  their  first  works,  that  their  candlestick  may  be 
restored  to  them,  and  themselves  restored  to  the  communion 
of  the  church  catholic,  from  which  they  are  at  present  en- 
tirely cut  off. 

'  Romans,  iii.  4. 


1611.]  CHURCH  OF   SCOTLAND.  459 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PRIMACY  OF  GLADSTANES  AND  SPOTTISWOOD. 

1611. — Consecrations  of  the  bishops. — First  sitting  of  the  high  commission. — 
Discontent  of  the  nobles  and  the  presbyterian   party. — Constitution  of  the 

court. 1612.  —  The    hiw    of    excommunication    repealed.  —  Archbishop 

Gladstanes'  letter  to  the  king. — Parliament. — Acts  of  the  Glasgow  Assembly 
ratified. — Acts  of  1592,  establishing  the  holy  discipline,  repealed. — Marriage 

of  the  Princess  Sophia. — Death  of  Henry  Prince  of  Wales. 1613. — 

King  James  excommunicated  by  the  pope. — Death  of  bishop  Hamilton,  of 
Galloway  —  Succeeded  by  William   Cowper. —  Death  of  bishop   Lindsay,  of 

Ross. 1614. — Death  of  James  Melville. — Easter  observed. — Oglevie  the 

Jesuit. — Examination  of  Oglevie.  —  The  king's  instructions  and  questions. 
— Oglevie's  answers — Tried  by  the  provost  and  baiUes — Arraigned  for  high 
treason — His    defence — Found   guilty,    and    executed.  —  Some   resemblances 

noticed. — Moffat  banished. 1615. — Communion  on  Easter  Day. — Death  of 

archbishop  Gladstanes — His  Character. — Spottiswood  translated  to  St.  Andrews. 

— Several  translations.  — Malcom  tried  for  seditious  preaching. 1616. — 

Absolution  of  the  Marquis  of  Huntly. — Disputes  between  the  chancellor  and  the 
clergy. — King's  explanation. — Archbishop  of  Canterbury's  letter,  and  foi'm  of 
absolution. — Huntly  absolved  in  Scotland. — Death  of  Blackburn,  bishop  of 
Aberdeen. — Alexander  Forbes  consecrated  bishop  of  Aberdeen. — An  Assembly. 
— Aliturgy  ordered  to  be  compiled. — Some  other  regulations  proposed,  but  their 
adoption  deferred. — Jesuits. — Marquis  of  Huntly  reconciled. — Archbishop  of 

Spalato. 1617. — The  kmg  intimates  his  intention  of  visiting  Scotland. — 

Portraits  of  the  apostles. — Popular  indignation. — King's  arrival. — Parliament. 
— King's  speech. — Lords  of  the  articles. — Laws  regarding  the  church  opposed 
by  the  bishops. — Consternation  of  the  presbyterian  party. — Intemperate  sermon 
of  Struthers. — Some  brethren  protest. — Parhament  dissolved. — Severe  mea- 
sures against  the  malcontent  brethren. — The  communion  administered  kneeling. 
— Liturgy  used  in  the  chapel  royal. — Meeting  of  the  king  and  the  bishops  at 
St.  Andrews. — King's  speech. — An  Assembly  proposed — The  king's  objec- 
tions— Permits  an  Assembly  to  meet — The  meeting — Some  acts  passed. — The 
king  displeased. — The  king's  letter  (note). — Severe  measures. — Reflections. — 
The  king's  second  letter — His  opinion  of  the  acts. — Archbishop  preaches  on 
Chi'istmas  Day. — Dissatisfaction  of  the  presbyterian  party. — Simpson  submits, 
and  is  discharged. — Bishop  of  Aberdeen  dies. — Succeeded  by  Forbes,  of  Corse. 

— James's  mode  of  selecting  the  bishops. 1618. — An  episcopal  synod. — 

Petition  for  another  Assembly. — Good  Friday  observed. — Communion  received 
kneeling  on  Easter  Day  and  Whitsunday. — Assembly  at  Perth. — Lord  Binning 


460  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP,  XII- 

Commissioner. — The  king's  letter. — The  five  articles  of  Perth. — Lord  Binning's 
letter  to  the  king. — Passive  resistance  of  the  presbyterian  party. — Ancient 

observation  of  the  christian  festivals. — Some  reflections. 1G19. — Comet. — 

Death  of  the  queen. — The  articles  still  resisted,  and  become  a  cause  of  discon- 
tent.— Awkward  coincidence  of  the  five  points  condemned  by  the  synod  of  Dort. 
— Synod  of  Dort. — The  doctrines  of  Calvin  peculiar  to  presbytery. — Arminius 
— The  five  points  —  Advantage  taken  of  that  synod.  —  Condemnation  of 
Arminius. — A  parochial  meeting. — Death  of  Cowper,  bishop  of  Galloway. — 

Lindsay  made  bishop  of  Brechin. 1621. — Discontent  of  the  presbyterians. 

— A  fast. — Perth  articles  ratified  in  parliament. — Some  ministers  committed. 

— The  king's  letter  to  the  bishops  and  council. — Great  storm, 1022-24. — 

Willian  Rigge  summoned  before  the  privy  council. — Conventicles  prohibited. 

1625. — Death  of  king  James — His  last  hours — His  character — accused  of 

deserting  the  kirk — His  own  contradiction. 


1611. — On  Sunday  llie  13th  of  January,  and  on  Sunday  the 
24th  of  February,  the  other  bishops  were  consecrated  at  St. 
Andrews  and  Leith  by  Spoltiswood,  archbishop  of  Glasgow; 
Lamb,  bishop  of  Brechin,  and  Hamilton,  bishop  of  Gallo- 
way, "  after  the  same  manner  that  they  were  consecrated 
themselves.  But  the  consecration  of  the  first  three  being  null, 
the  rest  that  followed  are  null  also^"  Such  is  the  opinion  Oi 
the  presbyterian  Calderwood,  and  had  his  premises  been  cor- 
rect his  conclusion  would  bo  undeniable  ;  but  he  is  entirely 
mistaken  in  his  reasoning  ;  nevertheless  it  is  considered  unan- 
swerable by  his  party. 

This  great  work  reflects  immortal  honour  on  James's  peace- 
ful reign  ;  and  his  tenacity  of  purpose  and  ability  in  bringing 
it  to  a  conclusion  shew  that  he  was  a  far  superior  man  than 
the  malignant  pens  of  some  his  contemporary  historians  have 
represented  him.  Immediaiely  after  the  consecration  of  the 
bishops  at  London,  James  erected  a  Court^of  High  Commis- 
sion for  ordering  all  ecclesiastical  matters  that  did  not  come 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  bishops'  courts.  He  also  gave 
some  directions  for  the  better  exercise  of  their  authority,  and 
appointed  this  court  to  sit  for  the  first  time  in  February  of  this 
year.  At  a  meeting  of  the  bishops  and  some  of  the  principal 
clergy  in  Edinbui'gh  in  February,  the  following  royal  directions 
were  approved,  and  adopted  as  a  national  rubric  in  ecclesias- 
iical  affairs : — 

1.  That  every  particular  matter  should  not  be  brouglit  at 
first  before  the  High  Commission,  nor  any  thing  moved  unto  it, 
except  the  same  was  appealed  unto,  or  complained  of  by  one 

'  Calderwood,  p.  644. 


1011.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  461 

of  the  bishops  as  a  thmg  that  could  not  be  rectified  in  their 
diocese  ;  or  then  some  enoimous  offence,  in  the  trial  whereof 
the  bishojDS  should  be  found  too  remiss. 

2.  That  every  archbishop  and  bishop  should  make  his  resi- 
dence at  the  cathedral  church  of  his  diocese,  and  labour  so  far 
as  they  could  and  were  able,  to  repair  the  same. 

3.  That  all  archbishops  and  bishops  be  careful  in  visitation 
of  their  diocese,  and  every  third  year  at  least  take  inspection 
of  tlie  ministers,  readers,  and  others,  serving  cure  within  their 
bounds. 

4.  That  each  of  the  archbishops  visit  their  province  every 
seven  years  at  least- 

5.  Whereas  there  be  in  sundry  dioceses  some  churches  be- 
longing to  other  bishops,  that  care  be  taken  to  exchange  the 
churches  one  with  another,  that  all  the  dioceses  may  be  con- 
tiguous, if  possible  the  same  may  be  performed.  As  likewise 
in  regard  some  dioceses  are  too  large,  and  others  have  a  small 
number  of  churches,  scarce  deserving  of  the  title  of  a  diocese  ; 
and  that  a  course  be  taken  for  enlarging  the  same  in  a  reason- 
able proportion,  by  uniting  the  nearest  churches  of  the  greater 
diocese  thereto. 

6.  That  the  convention  of  ministers  for  the  exercise  of  doc- 
trine exceed  not  the  number  of  ten  or  twelve  at  most,  and  over 
them  a  moderator  be  placed  by  the  ordinary  of  the  diocese, 
where  the  said  conventions  are  licensed,  with  power  to  call  be- 
fore them  all  scandalous  persons  within  that  precinct,  and  cen- 
sure and  correct  offenders  according  to  the  canons  of  the  church ; 
yet  are  not  these  moderators  to  proceed  in  any  case  either  to 
excommunication  or  suspension,  without  the  allowance  of  the 
ordinary.  And  if  it  shall  be  tried  that  these  ministers  do 
usui-p  any  ftirlher  power  than  is  permitted,  or  carry  themselves 
unquietly,  either  in  teaching  or  otherwise,  at  these  meetings, 
in  that  case  the  bishop  shall  discharge  the  meeting  and  censure 
the  offenders  according  to  the  quality  of  the  fault. 

7.  Considering  that  lay  elders  have  neither  warrant  in  the 
word  of  God,  nor  example  of  the  primitive  church,  and  that 
nevertheless  it  is  expedient  that  seme  be  ap2:)ointed  to  assist  the 
minister,  in  repairing  the  fabric  of  the  church,  providing  ele- 
ments for  the  holy  communion,  and  collecting  the  contributions 
for  the  poor,  with  other  necessary  services,  the  minister  is  to 
make  choice  of  the  most  wise  and  discreet  persons  in  the 
parish  to  that  effect,  and  present  their  names  to  the  ordinary, 
that  his  approbation  may  be  had  thereto. 

8.  That  iIk;  ministers  of  the  parish  be  authorised  to  call 


462  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.      II 

before  them  and  their  associates,  so  allowed,  all  public  and 
notorious  offenders,  and  enjoin  the  satisfaction  according  to  the 
canons  of  Ore  church  ;  or  if  they  be  obs'tinate  and  contuma- 
cious, declare  their  names  to  their  bishop,  that  order  may  be 
taken  with  them. 

9.  That  no  minister  be  admitted  without  an  exact  trial  pre- 
ceding, and  imposition  of  hands  used  in  their  ordination  by 
the  bishop  and  two  or  three  ministers  whom  he  shall  call  to 
assist  the  service :  and  to  the  end  an  uniform  order  may  be 
kept  in  the  admission  of  ministers,  that  a  forai  thereof  may  be 
imprinted  and  precisely  followed  by  every  bishop. 

10.  That  the  elections  of  bishops  shall  in  time  coming  be 
made  according  to  the  conference  anno  1571,  and  whilst  the 
bishopric  remaineth  void,  the  dean  of  the  chapter  be  vicarius 
in  omnibus  ad  episcopatum  pertinentibus,  and  have  the  custody 
of  the  living  and  rents,  till  the  same  be  of  new  provided. 

11.  That  the  dean  of  every  diocese  convene  the  chapter 
thereof  once  at  least  in  the  year,  and  take  order  that  nothing 
pass  except  they  be  capitulariter  congregati ;  and  tliat  a  re- 
gister be  made  of  every  thing  done  by  the  archbishop  or  bishop 
in  the  administration  of  the  rents,  and  kept  safely  in  the  chapter- 
house. 

12.  That  when  it  shall  be  thought  expedient  to  call  a  General 
Assembly,  a  supplication  be  put  up  to  his  majesty  for  license 
to  convene ;  and  that  the  said  Assembly  consist  of  bishops, 
deans,  archdeacons,  and  such  of  the  ministry  as  shall  be 
selected  by  the  rest. 

13.  And  because  there  hath  been  a  general  abuse  in  that 
church,  that  youths,  having  passed  their  course  in  philosophy, 
before  they  have  attained  to  the  years  of  discretion,  or  received 
lawful  ordination  by  imposition  of  hands,  do  engage  themselves 
to  preach,  that  a  strict  order  be  taken  ibr'restraining  all  such 
persons,  and  none  be  permitted  but  those  that  have  received 
orders  to  preach  ordinarily  and  in  public  ^ 

The  Court  of  High  Commission  gave  great  offence  to  the 
proud  nobility,  who  considered  it  an  infringement  of  their 
hereditary  rights,  and  a  diminution  of  their  power  and  infiuence, 
that  the  bishops  and  clergy  should  be  raised  to  so  high  stations 
in  the  state.  In  this  discontent  they  were  readily  joined  by 
the  presbyterian  party,  who  murmured  loudly  when  they  began 
to  feel  that  the  glory  of  their  former  tyranny  ^vas  gone,  and  their 
republican  papacy  cut  up  by  the  roots.     They  derived  some 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  574 — 75. 


1611.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  403 

crumbs  of  comfort,  however,  in  the  death  of  the  earl  of  Dun- 
bar ^,  on  whose  memory  Calderwood  pours  out  the  envenomed 
indignation  of  a  most  mahgnant  and  unchristian  heart 2.    An- 
drew Melville  also  was  released  from  the  Tower,  after  four 
years' confinement,  and  allowed  to  emigrate  to  Sedan,  where  he 
died,  neither  much  respected  nor  regretted ;  nevertheless,  he 
left  his  sting  behind  him,  which  rankled  in  the  body  politic, 
and  produced  in  the  following  reign  a  mos't  loathsome  sore  ^. 
The  presbyterian  brethren  had  passed  an  act  of  Assem- 
bly, ordaining  that  all  persons  who  were  fugitive  for  capital 
crimes,  should  be  excommunicated,  unless  they  answered  in 
person  the  summons  of  the  church  courts  :  although  that  was 
impossible,  from  the  risk  of  capture  by  the  civil  judicatories, 
and  consequent  danger  of  their  lives  from  the  laws.     James 
being  convinced  of  the  injustice  and  tyranny  of  this  abomina- 
ble law,  wrote  to  the  bishops,  pointing  out  its  absurdity  and 
iniquity,  and  recommended  them  to  procure  its  abrogation. 
"  The  ecclesiastical  censure  of  excommunication,"  said  he, 
"  which  should  be  inflicted  upon  such  as  having  committed 
any  scandalous  offence  are  contemners  of  the  church,  is,  as  we 
have  been  informed,  so  far  abused  against  the  first  institution, 
that  we  cannot  sufficiently  marvel  at  the  proceeding  said  to  be 
commonly  used  among  you ;  namely,  that  persons  fugitive  for 
capital  crimes  being  cited  before  ecclesiastical  judicatories, 
although  it  be  known  that  they  dare  not  compeir  for  fear  of  their 
life,  are  sentenced  as  persons  contumacious,  whereas  the  fear 
they  stand  in  ought  in  reason  to  excuse  their  absence,  since 
they  cannot  be  judged  contemners  of  the  church,  who,  upon 
just  terrors,  are  kept  back  from  giving  their  personal  appear- 
ance       Our  will  and  pleasure  is,  there  be  no  such  form 

of  proceeding  used  among  you"*." 

^  Of  whom  archbishop  Spottiswood  says,  "  he  was  a  man  of  deep  wit,  few 
words,  and  in  his  majesty's  service  no  less  faithful  than  fortunate.  The  most 
difficile  affairs  he  compassed  without  any  noise,  and  never  returned  when  he  was 
employed  without  the  work  performed  that  he  was  sent  to  do." 

-  Calderwood,  p.  644,  says,  "  the  earl  of  Dunbar,  a  chief  instrument  employed 
for  the  overthrow  of  the  discipline  of  our  kirk,  departed  this  life  at  Why  thai,  the 
penult  of  Januar.  So  he  was  pulled  down  from  the  height  of  his  honour,  when 
he  was  about  to  solemnize  magnificently  his  daughter's  marriage  with  the  lord 
Walden.  He  purposed  to  keep  St.  George's-day  after,  in  Berwick,  where  he  had 
almost  finished  a  sumptuous  and  glorious  palace,  which  standeth  as  a  monument 
to  testify  that  the  curse  which  was  pronounced  against  the  rebuilders  of  Jericho 
was  executed  upon  him.  Of  all  that  he  conquissed  in  Scotland,  there  is  not  left 
to  his  posterity  so  much  as  a  foot-breadth  of  land.  His  death  bred  an  alteration 
in  state  affairs  ;  sundry  of  the  council,  as  well  bishops  as  others,  went  up  to  court 
in  the  month  of  March  after,  every  one  for  his  own  particular." 

^  Calderwood,  645. — Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  575. 

■*  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  578. 


464  HISTORY  OF  THE  [ciIAr.  XII. 

On  receipt  of  the  king  s  letter,  the  archbishop  of  St.  An- 
drews convened  the  bishops  and  some  of  the  clei'gy,  when, 
after  considerable  opposition,  it  was  agreed  that,  as  "  the  prin- 
cipal end  of  all  chnrch  censures,  especially  of  excommunica- 
tion, was  the  reclaiming  of  offenders,  and  the  bringing  of  them 
to  the  acknowledgment  of  their  sin,  ....  they  did  therefore 
judge  it  more  safe,  in  these  cases,  to  advertise  people  of  the 
heinousnessof  the  act  committed,  warning  them  to  make  their 
own  profit  thereof,  and  to  forbear  all  proceedings  against  the 
fugitive  person  till  his  condition  should  be  made  known."  The 
act  was  therefore  repealed,  and  the  ministers  were  inhibited 
from  following  out  any  process  against  fugitives  in  future  ^ 

1612. — The  church  now,  at  last,  enjoyed  temporary  rest ; 
and  Calderwood  cannot  find  any  thing  with  which  to  fill  up 
the  history  of  this  year  till  the  meeting  of  parliament,  but  a 
letter  from  archbishop  Gladstones  to  the  king,  which  bears  all 
the  marks  of  a  forgery  2.  Men  who  could  fabricate  such  enor- 
mous falsehoods  as  he  and  other  historians  of  his  oj)inions  have 
done,  would  not  hesitate  at  either  composing  a  letter  in  the 
archbishop's  name,  or  of  receiving  one  from  others  knowing  it 
to  be  fabricated,  to  injure  and  disgrace  the  church.     But  if 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  517,  518. 

-  Calderwood's  True  History,  p.  645.  "  Most  gracious  Sovereign, — As  it 
hath  pleased  your  majesty  to  direct  me  and  my  lord  your  majesty's  secretary,  for 
advising  anent  our  affairs  to  be  handled  in  this  approaching  parliament :  so  hap- 
pily did  I  find  him  and  my  lord  of  Glasgow  both  in  this  town,  and  convened 
them  both  immediately  after  my  arriving,  and  with  good  advertisement  we  have 
made  choice  of  those  things  which  are  most  necessary,  and  have  omited  those 
articles  which  may  seem  to  carry  envy  or  suspicion,  or  which  youi"  majesty  by 
your  royal  authority  might  perform  by  yourself.  But  all  hold  fast  this  conclu- 
sion, that  it  is  most  necessary  and  convenient,  both  for  your  majesty's  service  and 
the  well  of  the  kirk,  that  the  day — viz.  the  12th  of  October — shall  hold  precisely  to 
the  which  the  parliament  was  proclaimed  upon  the  24th  of  this  instant.  I 
will  assure  your  majesty  that  the  very  evil  will  which  is  carried  to  my  lord  chan- 
cellor by  the  nobility  and  people,  is  like  to  make  us  great  store  of  friendship  ;  for 
they  know  him  to  be  our  professed  enemy,  and  he  dissembleth  it  not,  I  thank 
God  that  it  pleased  your  majesty  to  make  choice  of  my  lord  secretary  to  be  our 
formaUst  and  adviser  of  our  acts  ;  for  we  find  him  wise,  fast,  and  secret.  We 
will  not  be  idle  in  the  meantime  to  prepare  such  as  have  vote,  to  incline  the  right 
way.  All  men  do  follow  us  and  hunt  for  our  favour,  upon  the  report  of  your 
majesty's  good  acceptance  of  me  and  the  bishop  of  Caithness ;  and  sending  for  my 
lord  of  Glasgow,  and  the  procurement  of  this  parliament  without  advice  of  the 
chancellor.  And  if  your  majesty  will  continue  these  shining  beams  and  shews  of 
your  majesty's  favour,  doubtless  the  very  pui-pose  that  seemeth  most  difficult  will 
be  facilitate  to  you.r  majesty's  great  honour  and  our  credit ;  which,  if  it  were 
greater  than  it  is,  your  majesty  would  receive  no  interest.  For  besides  that  no 
estate  may  say  that  they  are  your  majesty's  creatures,  as  we  may  say,  so  there 
is  none  whose  standing  is  so  slippery  when  your  majesty  shall  frown,  as  we  ;  for 
at  your  majesty's  nod  we  must  either  stand  or  fall.  But  we  refer  the  more  ami)le 
declaration  of  these  purposes  and  other  points  of  your  majesty's  service,  to  tiie 
sufficiency  of  my  lord  of  Glasgow  and  my  good  lord   secretary,   the  fourtornth 


1612.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  465 

archbishop  Gladstanes  really  did  write  this  letter,  which  we 
do  not  believe,  as  no  allusion  is  made  to  it  by  Spottiswood,  he 
was  a  very  unfit  person  to  be  a  christian  bishop,  and  the  head 
of  a  national  church. 

In  the  month  of  October  parliament  met  at  Edinburgh,  the 
lord  chancellor  representing  the  king ;  when  the  acts  of  the 
Glasgow  Assembly  were  confirmed  and  ratified,  and  all  the 
acts  and  constitutions  in  favour  of  presbytery,  especially  the 
act  of  1592,  which  established  it,  were  rescinded  and  an- 
nulled, in  so  far  as  they,  or  any  of  them,  or  any  part  of  the 
same,  were  derogatory  to  the  articles  then  concluded. 

"  At  this  parliament,"  says  Calderwood,  "  the  act  of  Glas- 
gow, under  the  colour  of  explanation,  was  impaired,  enlarged, 
or  altered ;  so  that,  in  effect,  it  was  a  new  act,  different  from 
that  of  Glasgow  ....  and,  therefore,  an  act  passed  without 
consent  of  the  kirk  ^."  A  large  subsidy  was  granted  to  the 
king  in  this  parliament,  on  account  of  the  Princess  Elizabeth's 
intended  marriage  with  Frederick,  the  fifth  elector  palatine  of 
the  Rhine,  and  king  of  Bohemia.  She  was  the  mother  of  the 
Princess  Sophia,  who  married  Ernest  Augustus,  Duke  of 
Brunswick-Luxembourgh,  Elector  of  Hanover,  from  whom  is 
descended  the  present  illustrious  lady  who  fills  the  British 
throne.  The  popish  faction  made  great  opposition  to  the 
grant  of  this  subsidy,  on  account  of  their  dislike  to  the  prin- 
cess's marriage  with  a  protestant  prince,  as  they  had  views  of 
filling  the  throne  with  a  papist  through  her  marriage  with  some 
of  the  popish  princes.  The  marriage  was  postponed,  however, 
and  the  court  thrown  into  mourning,  by  the  unexpected  death 
of  the  prince  of  Wales,  in  the  beginning  of  November,  at  St. 
James's,  at  the  early  age  of  eighteen  years  and  eight  months, 
greatly  lamented  both  at  home  and  abroad, — "  a  prince  of  excel- 
lent virtues,  and  all  the  perfections  that  can  be  wished  for  in 
youth'^,"  and  "  whose  death  was  lamented  by  the  most  generous 
princes  in  Christendom^."  It  was,  however,  strongly  suspected 
that  poison  had  been  administered  to  him.     He  was  interred 

bishop  of  this  kingdom.  But  my  lord  of  Glasgow  and  I  are  contending  to  which 
of  the  two  provinces  he  shall  appertain.  Your  majesty,  who  is  our  great  arch- 
bishop, must  decide  it.  Thus,  after  my  most  humble  and  hearty  thanks  for  your 
majesty's  good  acceptance  and  gracious  despatch  lately,  which  hath  filled  the  ears 
of  all  this  kingdom,  I  beseech  God  to  heap  upon  your  majesty  the  plenty  of  all 
spiritucd  and  temporal  blessings  for  ever.     I  rest, 

"  Your  majesty's  most  humble  subject  and  servitour, 
"  Edinburgh,  the  last  of  Aiigust,  1612."  "  S.  Andrews." 

1  Calderwood,  646.  '  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  329. 

^  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  40. 

VOL.  I.  3  o 


466  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

at  Westminster  u  ith  great  pomp  ;   and  his  brother.  Prince 
Charles,  Duke  of  York,  acted  as  chief  mourner. 

16] 3. — On  the  14th  February,  being  Shrove  Tuesday,  the 
Princess  Elizabeth's  marriage  was  solemnized  at  Whitehall, 
at  the  age  of  seventeen,  having  been  born  in  Scotland  on  the 
19th  August,  1596  ^  Lord  Binning,  principal  secretary  of 
state,  informed  some  of  the  clergy  that  the  king  had  been  ex- 
communicated by  the  pope,  and  was,  therefore,  liable  to  be  assas- 
sinated whenever  an  opportunity  presented  itself  to  any  zealous 
papist.  It  proved,  however,  to  be  a  false  alarm  at  that  time. 
Gavin  Hamilton,  bishop  of  Galloway,  who  was  consecrated 
at  London  in  1610,  died  this  year.  The  revenue  of  his  see 
being  small,  the  king  gave  him,  by  letters  patent,  the  abbey  of 
Dundrennan,  the  priory  of  Whithorne,  and,  Calderwood  says, 
also  the  abbeys  of  Tungland  and  Glenluce.  Bishop  Keith 
says,  "  he  was  an  excellent,  good  man;"  but  Calderwood  says, 
"  he  died  with  little  sense."  He  was  succeeded  by  William 
Coupar,  minister  first  of  Bothkennar,  in  the  county  of  Stir- 
ling, and  afterwards  minister  of  Perth.  He  was  also  made 
dean  of  the  chapel-royal,  and  resided  chiefly  in  the  Canongate. 
David  Lindsay,  bishop  of  Ross,  also  died  in  October  this  year, 
in  the  eighty-third  year  of  his  age.  "  He  was  a  grave  and 
pious  man,  and  was  the  person  who  baptized  King  Charles  I." 
He  was  "  of  a  peaceable  nature,  and  greatly  favoured  of  the 
king,  to  whom  he  performed  divers  good  services,  especially  in 
the  troubles  he  had  with  the  church  ;  a  man  universally  be- 
loved, and  well  esteemed  by  all  wise  men.  His  corpse  was 
interred  at  Leith  by  his  own  direction,  as  desiring  to  rest  with 
that  people  on  whom  he  had  taken  great  pains  in  his  life  2." 
He  was  succeeded  by  Patrick  Lindsay,  the  minister  of  St. 
Vigians,  near  Arbroath,  and  who  was  consecrated  by  arch- 
bishop Gladstanes  at  Leith,  on  the  1st  day  of  December,  to  the 
bishopric  of  Ross  ^. 

On  the  15th  of  September,  James  Stewart,  "  called  of  Jeru- 
salem," for  hearing  mass,  and  Mr.  Robert  Phillips,  a  priest,  for 
celebrating  it,  were  sentenced  to  lose  their  heads*. 

1614. — On  the  •21st  January,  James  Melville,  nephew  of  the 
founder  of  Scottish  presbytery,  died  at  Berwick,  to  which  place 
he  was  confined  by  the  king's  order,  "  where  he  made  a  happy 
and  blessed  end  ^."  He  was  a  man  of  a  milder  and  more  gentle 
disposition  than  his  uncle ;  nevertheless  he  so  far  copied  his 


^  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  45,  46.         "  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  520. 

^  Keith's  Catalogue  of  the  Scottish  Bishops. 

"  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  4 1.  *  Calderwood,  648. 


1614.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  467 

coarse  uiaiiners  as  to  speak  great  swelling  words  of  vanity,  and 
be  a  mighty  troubler  of  the  church,  presumptuous,  self-willed, 
and.  by  no  means  afraid  to  speak  evil  of  dignities. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  the  clergy  were  commanded  by  pro- 
clamation, and  the  sound  of  trumpet,  at  the  cross  of  Edinburgh, 
to  prepare  to  celebrate  the  Lord's  supper  on  Easter-day,  which 
fell  upon  the  24th  of  April ;  and  the  people  were  charged  at 
tlie  same  time  to  communicate  in  their  parish  churches,  and 
Calderwood  admits  that  "  the  most  part  obeyed:  howbeit,"  he 
adds,  "  there  were  acts  of  the  General  Assembly  standing  in 
force  against  it^" 

Although  king  James  had  succeeded  to  a  great  extent  in  sub- 
duing the  turbulent  presbyterians,  yet  he  was  now  assailed  by 
enemies  of  a  different  sort,  more  powerful,  and  more  insidious. 
In  October,  John  Oglevie,  a  Jesuit  from  the  college  of  Gratz 
in  Hungary,  was  apprehended  in  Glasgow'.  He  came,  he  said, 
"  by  command  of  his  superiors,  to  do  some  service  in  these 
parts."  There  were  found  on  him  books  containing  directions 
for  receiving  confessions ;  a  warrant  to  dispense  with  them 
that  possessed  any  church  livings ;  some  relics,  and  a  tuft  of 
Loyola's  hair,  which  he  held  in  high  veneration.  He  had 
seduced  a  number  of  young  people  of  the  better  class,  and  had 
repeatedly  celebrated  mass  in  Glasgow.  And,  in  November, 
the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  and  his  son,  Mr.  Alexander 
Gladstanes,  apprehended  one  Moffat,  a  mass  priest  at  St. 
Andrews,  who  was  examined  by  the  privy  council  on  the  10th 
December,  and  committed  to  the  castle  of  Edinburgh. 

A  commission  was  given  the  lord  Kilsyth,  the  deputy  trea- 
surer, and  the  lord  advocate,  for  the  examination  and  trial  of 
Oglevie.  Being  asked,  when  he  arrived  in  Scotland  what  was 
his  business;  and  where  he  had  chiefly  resorted,  he  replied, 
that  he  came  in  the  preceding  June,  that  his  errand  was  to  save 
souls ;  but  he  declined  to  answer  the  last  query  lest  he  might 
prejudice  others.  Neither  by  threats  nor  persuasions  could 
he  be  induced  to  discover  those  whom  he  had  deceived.  Ac- 
cording to  the  barbarous  custom  of  the  age,  they  kept  him 
some  nights  from  sleeping,  in  order  to  extort  a  confession, 
which  had  the  effect  of  causing  him  to  make  some  discoveries, 
all  of  which  he  afterwards  denied.  The  commissioners  ap- 
plied to  his  majesty  to  be  allowed  to  put  him  to  torture ;  but 
he  strictly  inhibited  this  barbarous  usage,  and  answered, 
"  That  he  would  not  have  these  fonns  used  with  men  of  his 
profession  ;  and  if  nothing  could  be  found  but  that  he  was  a 
Jesuit,  and  had  said  mass,  they  should  banish  him  the  country, 
and  inhibit  him  to  return  without  license,  under  pain  of  death. 


468  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

But  if  it  should  appear  that  he  had  beeu  a  practiser  for  the 
stirring  up  of  subjects  to  rebellion,  or  did  maintain  the  pope's 
transcendant  power  over  kings,  and  refused  to  take  the  oath  ot 
allegiance,  they  should  leave  him  to  the  course  of  law  and  jus- 
tice ;  meanwhile  his  pleasure  was,  that  the  questions  follow- 
ing should  be  moved  unto  him,  and  his  answers  thereto  re- 
quired : — 

"  1st,  Whether  the  pope  be  judge,  and  hath  power  in  spi- 
riiualibus,  over  his  majesty  ;  and  whether  that  power  will 
reach  over  his  majesty  in  temporalibns,  if  it  be  in  or  dine  ad 
spiritualia,  as  Bellarmine  affirmeth  ?  2d,  Whether  the  pope 
hath  power  to  excommunicate  kings,  especially  such  as  are 
not  of  his  church,  as  his  majesty  ?  3d,  Whether  the  pope 
hath  power  to  depose  kings  by  him  excommunicated ;  and, 
in  particular,  whether  he  hath  power  to  depose  the  king's  ma- 
jesty ?  4th,  Whether  it  be  not  murder  to  slay  the  king's  ma- 
jesty, being  so  excommunicated  and  deposed  by  the  pope?  5th, 
Whether  the  pope  hath  power  to  absolve  subjects  from  the 
oath  of  their  born  and  native  allegiance  to  his  majesty  ?" 

These  questions  were  enclosed  in  a  letter  from  the  king  to 
the  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  who  assumed  the  provost  of  Glas- 
gow as  his  assessor,  whom,  Calderwood  informs  us,  with  the 
bailies,  "  were  the  king's  judges  in  that  part^-"  The  principal 
of  the  college,  and  one  of  the  ministers,  as  witnesses,  "  did,  in 
their  hearing,  read  the  questions,  and  receive  his  answers, 
which  he  gave  under  his  hand  as  followeth^ :" — 

"  I  acknowledge  the  pope  of  Rome  to  be  judge  unto  his 
majesty,  and  to  have  power  over  him  in  spiriiualibus,  and  over 
all  christian  kings  ;  but  where  it  is  asked,  whether  that  power 
will  reach  over  him  in  temporalibus,  I  am  not  obliged  to  de- 
clare my  opinion  therein,  except  to  him  that  is  a  judge  in  con- 
troversies, viz.  the  pope,  or  one  having  authority  from  him. 
2d,  I  think  the  pope  hath  power  to  excommunicate  the  king  ; 
and  where  it  is  said  the  king  is  not  of  the  pope's  church,  I  an- 
swer, that  all  who  are  baptized  are  under  the  pope's  power  •'^. 
3d,  If  the  pope  hath  power  to  depose  the  king,  being  excom- 
municate, I  answer,  that  I  am  not  bound  to  declare  my  mind, 

1  Page  649. 

^  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  522. 

^  Vide  Den's  Theology,  vol.  ii.  114,  289. — "  Heretics,  and  all  similar  persons 
who  have  been  baptized,  are  bound  by  the  laws  of  the  church  which  concern  them ; 
nor  are  they  more  released  from  her  laws  than  subjects,  rebelling  against  their 

lawful  prince,  are  released  from  the  laws  of  that  prince  ; for  by  baptism 

they  are  made  subject  to  the  church  [of  Rome],  and  they  remain  personally  sub- 
ject to  the  church  wherever  thev  are." 


1614.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  469 

except  to  him  that  is  the  judge  in  controversies  of  rehgion. 
To  the  4th  and  5th  T  ?a\s\\  ex  ut  supra. '''' 

The  archbishop  reasoned  long  with  him,  and  explained  the 
danger  in  which  he  placed  himself  by  persisting  in  these  an- 
swers, and  he  was  allowed  a  few  days  to  reflect;  but  as  he  was 
inexorable,  his  replies  were  sent  to  the  king,  subscribed  by 
himself  The  king  then  gave  commission  to  the  provost  and 
bailies  of  Glasgow  to  bring  him  to  trial.  They  were  assisted 
by  the  marquis  of  Hamilton,  the  earl  of  Lothian,  the  lords 
Sanquhar,  Fleming,  and  Boyd.  Some  days  previous  to  his 
arraignment  he  was  officially  informed  "  that  he  was  not  to  be 
charged  with  saying  of  mass,  nor  any  thing  that  concerned  his 
profession,  but  only  with  the  answers  made  to  the  questions 
proposed;  which,  if  he  should  recal,  there  being  yet  place  for 
repentance,  the  trial  should  be  suspended  till  his  majesty  was 
of  new  advertised."  To  this  he  replied,  "  that  he  did  so  little 
mind  to  recal  any  thing  he  had  spoken,  as  when  he  should  be 
brought  to  his  answer  he  should  put  a  bonnet  on  it." 

The  trial  then  came  on  before  the  provost  and  those  above 
named,  and  he  was  arraigned  for  high  treason,  in  compassing 
and  imagining  the  king's  death.  When  it  was  demanded  if 
he  adhered  to  the  answers  which  he  had  given  in  his  examina- 
tion before  the  archbishop,  and  which  he  had  subscribed,  he 
said,  "  Under  protestation  that  I  do  no  way  acknowledge  this 
judgment,  nor  receive  you  that  are  named  in  that  commission 
for  my  judges,  I  deny  every  point  that  is  laid  against  me  to  be 
treason;  for  if  it  were  treason,  it  would  be  such  in  all  places 
and  in  all  kingdoms,  which  you  know  not  to  be  so.  As  to  your 
acts  of  parliament,  they  were  made  by  a  number  of  partial 
men,  and  of  matters  not  subject  to  their  forum  or  judicatory, 
for  which  I  will  not  give  a  rotten  fig.  And  when  I  am  said 
to  be  an  enemy  to  the  king's  authority,  I  know  not  what  au- 
thority he  hath  but  what  he  received  from  his  predecessors, 
who  acknowledged  the  pope  of  Rome  his  jurisdiction.  If  the 
king  will  be  to  me  as  his  predecessors  were  to  mine,  I  will 
obey  and  acknowledge  him  for  my  king ;  but  if  he  do  other- 
wise, and  play  the  runagate  from  God,  as  he  and  you  all  do, 
I  will  not  acknovvledge  him  more  than  this  old  hat."  He  was 
here  interrupted,  and  desired  to  speak  with  reverence  of  his 
majesty.  He  said,  "  He  should  take  the  advertisement,  and 
not  offend ;  but  the  judgment  he  would  not  acknowledge.  And 
for  the  reverence  I  do  you,  to  stand  uncovered,  I  let  you 
know  it  is  ad  redemptionem  vexationis,  and  not  ad  agnitionem 
judicii." 

He  had  permission  to  challenge  any  of  the  jury  to  whom  he 


470  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

might  take  exceptions;  but  he  said  "  he  excepted  to  them  all, 
as  either  enemies  or  friends;  if  the  former,  they  could  not  sit 
on  his  trial;  and  if  the  latter,  they  ought  to  assist  him  at  the 

bar I  am  a  subject  as  free  as  the  king  is  a  king :  I 

came  by  commandment  of  my  superior  into  this  kingdom,  and 
if  I  were  even  now  forth  of  it,  I  would  return :  neither  do  I 
repent  any  thing  but  that  I  have  not  been  so  busy  as  I  should 
in  that  which  you  call  perverting  of  subjects.  I  am  accused 
for  declining  the  king's  authority,  and  will  do  it  still  in  mat- 
ters of  religion,  for  with  such  matters  he  has  nothing  to  do  ; 
and  this  which  I  say  the  best  of  your  ministers  do  maintain  ; 
and  if  they  be  wise,  they  will  continue  of  the  same  mind. 
Some  questions  were  made  to  me  which  I  refused  to  answer, 
because  the  profFerers  were  not  judges  in  controversies  of  reli- 
gion." "  But,"  said  archbishop  Spottiswood,  who  was  pre- 
sent, "  I  hope  you  will  not  make  this  a  controversy  of  religion, 
whether  the  king,  being  deposed  by  the  pope,  may  be  lawfully 
killed  ?"  He  replied,  "  It  is  a  question  among  the  doctors  of 
the  church:  many  hold  the  affirmative,  not  improbably ;  but 
as  that  point  is  not  yet  determined,  so  if  it  shall  be  concluded, 
I  will  give  my  life  in  defence  of  it;  and  so  to  call  it  unlawful  I 
will  not,  though  I  should  save  my  life  by  saying  it." 

The  freedom  of  speech  which  was  allowed  him  made  him 
the  more  audacious;  and  the  jurors  having  withdrawn,  they 
unanimously  found  him  guilty  of  all  the  treasonable  crimes 
contained  in  the  indictment,  which  was  declared  by  sir  George 
Elphinstone  their  chancellor.  The  provost  then  pronounced 
his  doom;  and  he  was  hanged  at  the  cross  of  Glasgow  on  the 
same  afternoon.  He  was  a  well-instructed  and  an  obedient 
enthusiast  in  the  doctrines  of  Loyola,  and  would  have  reduced 
his  opinions  to  practice  had  he  found  an  opportunity;  for  in 
lamenting  his  approaching  fate  to  a  supposed  friend,  he  said, 
"  that  nothing  grieved  him  so  much  as  that  he  should  be  ap- 
prehended in  that  time;  for  if  he  had  lived  until  Whitsunday 
at  liberty,  he  should  have  done  that  which  all  the  bishops  and 
ministers  in  Scotland  and  England  should  never  have  helped; 
and  to  have  done  it  he  would  willingly  have  been  drawn  in 
pieces  with  horses,  and  not  cared  what  torment  he  had  en- 
dured i." 

In  many  remarkable  instances,  the  sincerer  sort,  or,  as  he 
called  them,  "  the  best  of  their  ministers,"  had  committed  simi- 
lar acts  of  treason;  but  with  this  remarkable  difference,  that 
they  had  always  escaped  with  banishment.  This  trial,  however, 

*  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  pp.  521-523. 


1615.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  471 

showed  the  exact  coincidence  of  their  doctrines  in  the  matter 
of  claiming  a  supremacy,  both  in  spirituals  and  temporals, 
over  the  crown.  These  positions  have  been  since  illustrated 
by  the  celebrated  Peter  Dens,  who  says,  "  the  pope  has  pleni- 
tude of  power;  so  tliat  his  power  extends  itself  to  all  who  are 
in  the  church,  and  to  all  things  \\hich  regard  the  govern- 
ment of  the  church ; because  the  power  of  binding, 

which  belongs  to  a  compulsory  power,  is  given  to  Peter  and 
his  successors.  Perpetual  custom  also  confirms  this.  Hence 
the  power  of  suspending,  excommunicating,  &c.  exists  in  the 
pope^."  Moffat  had  less  of  the  enthusiast,  or,  as  the  Jesuits 
would  say,  of  the  spirit  of  martyrdom  in  him ;  for  he  not  only 
suppressed  all  the  sentiments  in  which  Oglevie  had  gloried, 
but  even  condemned  them.  He  was  therefore  suffered  to 
depart  out  of  the  country,  "  the  king  professing,  as  he  ever  did, 
that  he  would  never  hang  a  priest  for  his  religion ;  only  those 
polygrammatic  papists  that  were  set  upon  sedition,  and  to 
move  disturbances  in  countries,  he  could  not  away  with." 
Calderwood  agrees  substantially  with  the  archbishop  in  his 
account  of  Oglevie's  trial;  but  adds,  "yet  he  [Oglevie]  had 
small  courage  when  he  came  to  the  scaffold,  where  he  died 
heartless  and  comfortless,  and  would  not  commend  himself  to 
God  at  the  minister's  desire,  till  the  hangman  desired  him  2." 

16 15.' — On  the  2d  of  May  archbishop  Gladstanes  died  in  the 
Castle  of  St.  Andrews,  and  was  interred  on  the  7th  of  June  in  the 
south-east  aisle  of  the  parish  church.     Dr.  Cowper,  bishop  of 
Galloway,  preached  the  funeral  sermon,  which,  with  his  usual 
candour,  Calderwood  says,  was  "  full  of  vile  flattery  and  lies, 
for  which  he  was  derided  by  the  people."     He  also  adds,  "  at 
the  desire  of  his  wife  and  children,  lie  [the  archbishop]  sub- 
scribed some  few  lines,  wherein  he  approved  of  the  present 
course  to  procure  to  them  the  king's  favour.     We  have  heard 
of  his  strange  disease  and  senseless  end  in  general ;  but  1  have 
not  learned,  certainly,  the  particulars^."     But  a  better  and 
more  charitable  judge  says  of  him,  "  he  was  a  man  of  good 
learning,  ready  utterance,  and  great  invention ;  but  of  an  easy 
nature,  and  induced  by  those  he  trusted  to  do  many  things 
hurtful  to  the  see,  especially  in  leasing  the  titles  of  his  bene- 
fice for  many  ages  to  come,  esteeming  that  by  this  means  he 
should  purchase  the  love  and  friendship  of  men,  whereas  there 
is  no  sure  friendship  but  that  which  is  joined  with  respect; 
and  to  the  preserving  of  this  nothing  conduceth  more  than  a 

'  Dens'  Theology,  v.  ii.  p.  155.         ^  Calderwood,  649. — Spottiswood,  523. 
^  Calderwood,  p.  650. 


472  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

wise  and  prudent  administration  of  tlie  church's  rents  wherewith 
they  are  entrusted.  He  left  behind  him,  in  writing,  a  decla- 
ration of  his  judgment  touching  matters  then  conti'overted  in 
the  church,  professing  '  that  he  had  accepted  the  episcopal 
function  upon  good  warrant,  and  that  his  conscience  did 
never  accuse  him  for  any  thing  done  that  way.'  This  he  did 
to  obviate  the  rumours  which  he  foresaw  would  be  dispersed 
after  his  death,  either  of  his  recantation,  or  of  some  trouble  of 
spirit  that  he  was  cast  into  (for  these  are  the  usual  practices  of 
the  puritan  sect) ;  whereas  he  ended  his  days  most  piously, 
and  to  the  great  comfort  of  all  the  beholders  ^" 

On  the  demise  of  Gladstanes,  Dr.  Spottiswood,  archbishop 
of  Glasgow,  was  translated  to  St.  Andrews.  James  liaw, 
bishop  of  Orkney,  was  translated  to  the  see  of  Glasgow ; 
George  Graham,  of  faithless  memory,  was  translated  from 
Dunblane  to  Orkney  ;  and  Adam  Bellenden,  rector  of  Falkirk, 
was  consecrated  at  St.  Andrews  to  the  see  of  Dunblane^. 
Spottiswood  was  unwilling  to  leave  Glasgow,  but  the  king 
was  resolved  that,  as  he  had  all  along  been  his  chief  minister 
for  ecclesiastical  affairs,  he  should  be  primate  and  metropolitan 
of  the  kingdom.  On  the  3d  of  August  he  made  his  public  entry 
into  St.  Andrews,  accompanied  by  a  large  company  of  the 
nobility  and  gentry  ;  on  the  5th  he  preached  in  the  forenoon, 
and  the  following  day,  being  Sunday,  he  was  inaugurated,  and 
the  bishop  of  Galloway  preached  ^.  On  Tuesday,  the  8th  of 
August,  he  held  a  court  of  high  commission  upon  John  Mal- 
com,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Perth,  "  a  grave,  godly,  and 
learned  man, '  for  offensive  remarks  in  a  publication  respect- 
ing the  ecclesiastical  changes  which  had  taken  place.  He 
brought  a  number  of  his  parishioners  with  him  to  overawe  the 
court ;  but  the  time  for  that  mode  of  proceeding  had  passed 
away.  He  explained  his  meaning  in  writing,  which  he  sub- 
scribed at  the  desire  of  the  court,  and  his' explanation  was 
transmitted  to  the  king,  who  was  satisfied.  Upon  the  26th 
November,  the  archbishops  of  St.  Andrews  and  Glasgow  took 
the  oaths  of  allegiance,  and  did  homage  for  their  temporalities 
in  the  Chapel  Royal  at  Edinburgh,  before  the  lord  high  com- 
missioner and  the  privy  council.  On  the  21st  December,  the 
courts  of  high  commission  for  the  two  provinces  of  St.  Andrews 
and  Glasgow  were  united  into  one  court,  by  a  royal  ordinance 
signed  by  the  chancellor  and  other  three  ministers  of  state*. 

1616. —  The  absolution  of  the  marquis  of  Huntly  by  Abbot, 

^  Spottiswood.b.  vii.  523.  '  Keith's  Catalogue  of  Scottish  Bishops. 

3  Calderwood,  650.  ■*  Calderwood,  pp.  050-654. 


1616.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  473 

archbishop  of  Canterbury,  although  sanctioned  by  the  bisliop 
of  Caithness,  who  happened  to  be  then  in  London,  had  nearly 
occasioned  a  dispute  between  the  two  churches,  but  which  was 
happily  prevented  by  letters  of  apology  or  explanation  from  the 
king  and  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  addressed  to  the  arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews,  and  which  appeased  the  rising  indig- 
nation of  the  Scottish  clergy. 

About  eight  years  previously,  the  titular  church  had  excom- 
municated the  marquis  of  Huntly,  for  his  adhesion  to  the  papal 
communion,  and  he  had  been  able  to  protect  himself  from  the 
civil  consequences  by  living  in  his  fastnesses  and  among  his 
military  tenantry  in  the  north.  He  had  also  made  simulated 
promises  of  reconcilement ;  but  he  now  began  to  shew  what 
was  called  "  open  insolencie,"  by  directing  his  officers  to  for- 
bid his  tenants  to  attend  the  established  church.  For  this  he 
was  cited  before  the  court  of  high  commission,  and  committed 
to  the  castle.  In  the  course  of  a  day  or  two  the  lord  chancellor 
set  him  at  liberty  on  his  own  warrant ;  for  which  some  of  the 
bishops  then  in  town  remonstrated  with  him.  He  "  answered 
disdainfully,  '  that  he  might  enlarge,  without  their  advice,  any 
that  w^ere  imprisoned  by  the  high  commission ;'  and  when  it 
was  told  that  the  church  would  take  this  ill,  he  said, '  that  he 
cared  not  what  their  church  thought  of  him.'"  The  clergy 
made  great  complaints  from  their  pulpits  of  this  wanton  in- 
sult on  the  chief  ecclesiastical  court ;  and  the  bishops  repre- 
sented the  case  to  the  king  as  a  direct  usurpation,  and  sent  the 
bishop  of  Caithness  to  court,  to  support  their  remonstrance. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  chancellor  complained  of  the  liberties 
the  clergy  took,  out  of  whom  some  of  the  old  leven  had  not 
yet  been  purged,  of  exclaiming  against  and  censuring  the 
actions  of  his  majesty's  ministers,  in  their  sermons. 

Before  his  imprisoment,  the  marquis  of  Huntly  had  obtained 
license  to  come  up  to  court,  and  as  soon  as  he  was  discharged 
from  the  castle  he  began  his  journey.  On  hearing  the  bishop 
of  Caithness's  complaint,  James  sent  the  under  secretary,  Mr. 
Patrick  Hamilton,  to  meet  him,  and  command  him  to  return, 
and  enter  into  ward  again  in  the  castle.  Hamilton  was  also 
the  bearer  of  a  letter  to  the  council,  sharply  rebuking  them  for 
releasing  the  marquis,  in  contempt  of  the  court  of  high  com- 
mission. The  parties  met  at  Huntingdon,  and  being  within  a 
day's  journey  of  London,  the  marquis  persuaded  Hamilton  to 
return,  and  shew  the  king  that  he  had  come  up  with  the  inten- 
tion of  giving  his  majesty  full  satisfaction  in  all  points,  and  to 
entreat  permission  to  appear  at  court.     The  king  was  pleased 

VOL.  I.  3  p 


474  HISTOUY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XII. 

with  his  offer  to  make  satisfaction,  and  he  licensed  the  mar- 
quis to  come  forward,  but  directed  him  to  go  to  the  archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  with  whom  his  lordship  had  offered  to  commu- 
nicate. But  it  being  contrary  to  the  canons  and  the  general 
practice  of  the  Catholic  church,  that  a  man  who  had  been  ex- 
communicated by  one  particular  church  should,  without  that 
church's  consent,  be  absolved  by  another  particular  church,  it 
was  a  matter  of  doubt  and  grave  consultation  what  course  to 
pursue.  The  king  was  anxious  to  win  over  the  marquis,  and 
"  to  strike  the  iron  whilst  it  was  hot,"  that  "  this  bruised  reed 
should  not  be  broken,"  although  unwilling  to  infringe  on  the 
order  of  the  church  ;  yet  he  thought  the  bishop  of  Caithness's 
presence  and  consent  would  be  a  sufficient  warrant. 

Upon  the  consent  of  the  bishop  of  Caithness,  the  archbishop 
of  Canterbury  absolved  the  old  marquis,  and  he  was  admitted 
to  the  communion  the  same  day,  in  the  chapel  at  Lambeth, 
upon  the  8th  of  July.  The  news  of  this  created  a  considera- 
ble sensation  in  Scotland,  and  was  considered  as  a  practical  re- 
vival of  the  old  claim  of  supremacy  which  the  archbishops  of 
York  had  formerly  set  up,  but  which  had  been  always  nobly  re- 
sisted. On  the  12th  of  July,  archbishop  Spottiswood  noticed 
it  in  his  sermon,  in  St.  Giles's,  and  said  that  the  king  had  pro- 
vided that  the  like  should  not  fall  out  hereafter  ^  Archbishop 
Spottiswood  wrote  a  long  letter  of  remonstrance  to  the  king, 
who  condescended  to  apologise  and  explain,  among  other 
things,  that  "  all  that  was  done  was  with  a  due  acknowledg- 
ment and  reservation  of  the  power  and  independent  authority 
of  the  church  of  Scotland ;" — "  that  the  absolution  given  him 
in  England  did  necessarily  imply  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
church  of  Scotland ;  whereas,  if  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury 
had  received  him  to  the  holy  communion,  and  not  first  ab- 
solved him,  being  excommunicated  by  the  ehurch  of  Scotland, 
the  contempt  and  neglect  had  been  a  great  deal  greater."  Still 
farther  to  allay  the  justly  aroused  indignation  of  the  Scottish 
church,  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  wrote  to  the  archbishop 
of  St.  Andrews  by  the  king's  desire,  and,  as  he  said,  "  that  the 
archbishop's  letter,  written  to  that  effect,  should  be  put  upon 
i-ecord,  and  kept  as  a  perpetual  monument  for  ages  to  come"^. " 

These  letters  having  been  communicated  to  the  clergy  and 
others,  gave  them  great  satisfaction  ;  and  as  the  king  of  blessed 
memory  commanded  it  to  be  recorded  ad  futuram  rei  memo- 
riam,  and  archbishop  Spottiswood  "  thought  it  meet  to  be  in- 

.'  Caklerwood,  p.  655.  -  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  525-628. 


1616.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  475 

serted  in  his  history,"  I  here  give  archbishop  Abbot's  letter 
without  abridgment  ^ 

Nevertheless  it  was  resolved,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  whole 
body  of  the  clergy,  that  the  marquis,  on  his  return  from  court, 
should  present  a  supplication  to  the  General  Assembly,  at  its 
convocation  at  Aberdeen,  acknowledging  his  offence,  promising 
to  continue  in  the  profession  of  the  truth,  and  to  educate  his 
children  tlierein.    On  these  conditions  he  should  be  again  ab- 

'  Salutem  in  Christo, 

Because  I  understand  that  a  General  Assembly  is  shortly  to  be  held  at 
Aberdeen,  I  cannot  but  esteem  it  an  office  of  brotherly  love  to  yield  you  an  ac- 
count of  that  great  action  which  lately  befel  us  here  with  the  marquis  of  Huntly. 
So  it  was  then,  that  upon  the  coming  up  of  the  said  marquis,  his  majesty  sharply 
in  treating  him  for  not  giving  satisfaction  to  the  church  of  Scotland,  and  for  a 
time  restraining  him  from  his  royal  presence,  the  marquis  resolving  to  give  his 
majesty  contentment,  did  voluntarily  proffer  to  communicate  when  and  whereso- 
ever his  highness  should  be  pleased  to  make  known  that  offer  to  me  ;  it  was  held 
fit  to  strike  the  iron  whilst  it  was  hot,  and  that  this  great  work  should  be  accom- 
plished before  his  majesty's  going  to  progress  ;  whereunto  a  good  opportunity  was 
offered  by  the  consecration  of  the  bishop  of  Chester,  which  was  to  be  in  my  chap- 
pel  of  Lambeth,  the  7th  of  this  month,  at  which  time  a  solemn  communion  waa 
then  to  be  celebrated. 

The  only  pause  was,  that  the  marquis  being  excommunicated  by  the  church  of 
Scotland,  there  was  in  appearance  some  difficulty  how  he  might  be  absolved  in 
the  church  of  England  ;  wherewith  his  majesty  being  acquainted,  who  wished  that 
it  should  not  be  deferred,  we  agreed  to  this  peaceable  resolution,  which  I  doubt 
not  your  lordship  and  the  rest  of  our  brethren  there  will  interpret  to  the  best. 
For,  1st,  what  was  to  be  performed  might  be  adventured  upon,  as  we  esteemed,  out 
of  a  brotherly  correspondency  and  unity  of  affection,  and  not  ordy  \_qu,  out  of  ] 
of  any  authority ;  for  we  all  know  that  as  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  is  a  free  and 
absolute  monarchy,  so  the  church  of  Scotland  is  entire  in  itself,  and  independent 
upon  any  other  church.  2dly,  we  find,  by  the  advice  of  divers  doctors  of  the 
civil  law,  and  men  best  experienced  in  things  of  this  nature,  that  the  course  of 
ecclesiastical  proceedings  would  fairly  permit  that  we  might  receive  to  our  commu- 
nion a  man  excommunicated  in  another  church,  if  the  said  person  do  declare  that 
he  had  a  purpose  hereafter  for  some  time  to  reside  among  us,  which  the  lord 
marquis  did  openly  profess  that  he  intended,  and  I  know  his  majesty  doth 
desire  it ;  and,  for  my  part,  I  rest  satisfied  that  it  can  bring  no  prejudice,  but 
rather  contentment,  unto  you  and  to  that  kingdom.  3dly,  it  pleased  God,  the 
night  before  the  celebration  of  the  sacrament,  to  send  in  our  brother  the  bishop  of 
Caithness,  with  whom  I  taking  counsel,  his  lordship  resolved  me,  that  it  was  my 
best  way  to  absolve  the  lord  marquis,  and  assured  me  that  it  would  be  well  taken 
by  the  bishops  and  pastors  of  the  church  of  Scotland.  I  leave  the  report  of  this 
to  my  lord  Caithness  himself,  who  was  an  eye-witness  with  what  reverence  the 
marquis  did  participate  of  that  holy  sacrament.  For  all  other  circumstances, 
I  doubt  not  but  you  shall  be  certified  of  them  from  his  majesty,  whose  gracious 
and  princely  desire  is,  that  this  bruised  reed  should  not  be  broken,  but  that  so 
great  a  personage  (whose  example  may  do  much  good)  should  be  cherished  and 
comforted  in  his  coming  forward  to  God  :  which  I  for  my  part  do  hope  and  firmly 
believe  that  you  all  will  endeavour,  according  to  the  wisdom  and  prudence  which 
Almighty  God  hath  given  you.  And  thus,  as  your  lordship  hath  ever  been  de- 
sirous that  I  should  give  you  the  best  assistance  I  could  with  his  majesty  for  the 
reducing  or  restraining  this  nobleman,  so  you  see  I  have  done  it  with  the  best 
discretion  I  could ;  which  I  doubt  not  but  all  our  brethren  with  you  will  take  as 
proceeding  from  my  desire  to  serve  God  and  liis  majesty,  and  the  whole  church  of 


476  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

solved,  according  to  the  form  used  in  the  Scottish  church  ; 
which  was  accordingly  done  with  great  pomp.  By  this  means 
James  was  relieved  from  the  difficulties  with  which  Huntly's 
absolution  in  England  had  encompassed  him.  The  king  en- 
tertained the  warmest  friendship  for  the  marquis  of  Huntly, 
on  whom  he  had  bestowed  the  daughter  of  his  dearest  favourite 
the  duke  of  Lennox.  He  detained  his  eldest  son  at  court, 
and  took  great  pains  to  educate  him  in  the  protestant  re- 
ligion. 

In  the  beginning  of  July,  Peter  Blackburn,  bishop  of  Aber- 
deen, died  ;  "  a  man  of  good  parts,  but,  whilst  he  studied  to 

Scotland.  I  send  you  herewith  the  form  which  I  used  in  absolving  the  lord  mar- 
quis in  the  presence  of  the  lord  primate  of  Ireland,  the  lord  bishop  of  London, 
and  divers  others.  And  so,  beseeching  the  blessing  of  God  upon  you  all,  that  in 
your  Assembly  with  unity  of  spirit  you  may  proceed  to  the  honour  of  Christ  and 
to  the  beating  down  of  antichrist  and  popery,  I  leave  you  to  the  Almighty. 

From  my  house  at  Croydon,  July  23,  1616. 

The  form  of  absolution  used  by  archbishop  Abbott. 

Whereas  the  purpose  and  intendment  of  the  whole  church  of  Christ  is  to  win 
men  unto  God,  and  frame  their  souls  for  heaven,  and  that  there  is  such  an  agree- 
ment and  corresponding  betwixt  the  churches  of  Scotland  and  England,  that  what 
the  bishops  and  pastors  in  the  one,  without  any  earthly  or  worldly  respect,  shall 
accomplish  to  satisfy  the  christian  and  charitable  end  and  desire  of  the  other, 
cannot  be  distasteful  to  either  ;  I,  therefore,  finding  your  earnest  entreaty  to  be 
loosed  from  the  bond  of  excommunication  wherewith  you  stand  bound  in  the 
church  of  Scotland,  and  well  considering  the  reason  and  cause  of  that  censure,  as 
also  considering  your  desire,  on  this  present  day,  to  communicate  here  with  us, 
for  the  better  effecting  of  this  work  of  participation  of  the  holy  sacrament  of  Christ 
our  Saviour,  his  blessed  body  and  blood,  do  absolve  you  from  the  said  excommu- 
nication, in  the  name  of  God  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost; 
and  beseech  the  Almighty  God,  that  you  may  be  so  directed  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
that  you  may  continue  in  the  truth  of  his  gospel  unto  your  life's  end,  and  then  be 
made  partaker  of  his  everlasting  kingdom." 

I  beg  leave  here  to  introduce  a  note  from  Mr.  Skinner's  Ecclesiastical  History, 
vol.  ii.  p.  257: — "  In  considering  the  Marquis  of  Hunily's  conduct,  it  appears 
somewhat  strange  that  he  should  so  long  have  scrupled  to  communicate  with  the 
church  of  Scotland  even  under  the  late  regular  settlement  upon  the  English  plan, 
and  yet,  on  his  first  appearance  in  London,  should  have  agreed  so  readily  to  join 
in  communion  with  the  church  there.  This  will  no  doubt  be  imputed  to  incon- 
sistency and  a  time-serving  disposition ;  but  there  is  a  passage  in  the  king's  letter 
which  may  be  made  use  of  to  account  for  it  in  another  way.  Among  other  argu- 
ments, the  king  desires  the  church  of  Scotland  to  consider,  that  though  the  mar- 
quis had  sworn  and  subscribed  all  the  other  articles  of  religion,  and  had  frequently 
heard  sermon,  yet '  his  absolution  at  home  was  deferred  upon  the  scruple  he  made 
about  the  presence  of  our  Saviour  in  the  sacrament.'  From  this  it  would  appear, 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  eucharist  in  the  church  of  England,  where  he  had  no 
scruples  about  the  presence  of  Christ  in  it,  was  at  that  time  different  from  the 
doctrine  of  the  church  of  Scotland,  which  kept  him  back  from  partaking  of  it  with 
them.  And  if  this  was  the  case  with  this  nobleman,  as  we  have  the  king's  word 
it  was,  it  shows  that  he  had  all  along  been  more  honest  and  conscientious,  on  a 
point  of  so  high  importance,  than  many  of  his  prosecutors  had  been  willing  to 
believe,  or  perhaps  capable  to  perceiv    " 


1616.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  477 

please  the  opposers  of  the  episcopal  state,  he  made  himself 
ungracious  to  both,  and  so  lost  his  authority."  Calderwood 
says,  he  died  "  after  he  had  lien  a  long  time  little  better  than 
benumbed  ;"  and  he  adds,  with  his  usual  malignity,  "  he  was 
more  careful  of  a  purse,  with  five  hundred  merks  in  it,  which 
he  keeped  in  his  bosom,  than  of  any  thing  else^"  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Forbes,  rector  of  Fettercaim,  and  bishop  of  Caithness, 
"  a  man  well-born  and  of  good  inclination,  was,  after  bishop 
Blackburn,  fonnally  elected  by  the  chapter,  and  translated  to 
this  see,  but  he  lived  not  much  above  a  year 2,"  According  to 
Keith's  Catalogue,  it  does  not  appear  that  a  successor  in  the 
see  of  Caithness  was  elected  till  the  year  1624,  nine  years 
after  bishop  Forbes's  translation,  when  John  Abemethy,  rector 
of  Jedburgh,  was  preferred  to  the  see  of  Caithness,  he  never- 
theless still  retaining  his  rectory  of  Jedburgh. 

A  General  Assembly  met  at  Aberdeen  on  the  1 3  th  of  Au- 
gust, in  which  the  earl  of  Montrose  sat  as  the  royal  commis- 
sioner ;  and  on  which  day  a  fast  was  proclaimed  to  be  kept  by 
proclamation  and  sound  of  trumpet.  Patrick  Forbes,  of  Corse, 
rector  of  Keith,  and  afterwards  bishop  of  Aberdeen,  preached 
in  the  morning ;  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  in  the  after- 
noon ;  and  Mr.  William  Forbes  in  the  evening.  Secretary 
Hamilton  and  the  lord  Carnegie  were  appointed  by  the  king 
assessors  to  the  high  commissioner ;  and  the  archbishop  as- 
sumed the  chair  as  moderator,  in  right  of  his  rank  as  primate 
and  metropolitan  of  the  kingdom. 

The  clergy  were  now  beginning  to  experience  the  advan- 
tage of  order  and  regular  government,  since  the  spiritual 
fathers  of  the  church  had  acquired  their  legitimate  authority, 
and  really  possessed  that  spiritual  power  to  which  they  had 
only  pretended  before.  The  Melvilles,  and  some  other  dis- 
sentients, having  been  removed,  the  broils  and  animosities 
which  formerly  disgraced  the  church  had  now  almost  entirely 
disappeared.  Accordingly,  in  this  Assembly  it  was  enacted, 
that  a  Liturgy,  or  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  should  be  com- 
piled for  the  use  of  the  church  of  Scotland  ;  and  to  this  intent 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  revise  the  Old,  or  Knox's,  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  contained  in  the  Psalm  Book  ;  that  the 
acts  of  the  General  Assembly  should  be  collected,  and  put  in 
form,  to  serve  as  canons  for  the  church  in  their  ministration  of 
discipline ;  that  children  should  be  carefully  catechised  and 
confirmed  by  the  bishops ;  that  grammar-schools  should  be 
kept  in  all  parishes ;  and  that  a  register  should  be  kept  of  all 

1  Calderwood,  p.  653.  Keith's  Catalogue,  131. 


478  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII, 

baptisms,  maniages,  and  burials,  by  every  parish  minister  ^ 
The  archbishop  of  Glasgow  and  the  bishop  of  Ross  were  then 
deputed  by  the  Assembly  to  present  these  acts  to  his  majesty, 
and  to  solicit  his  royal  confirmation.  The  king  agreed  to  all 
the  acts  of  this  Assembly — only,  he  objected  to  the  act  for  the 
confirmation  of  young  children  "  as  a  mere  hotch-potch,"  he 
said,  not  so  clear  as  requisite,  and  therefore  he  directed  it  to  be 
reformed.  The  king  required  that  the  following  articles  should 
be  inserted  among  the  canons  :  — 

That  the  holy  communion  should  be  administered  to  the 
people  kneeling;  that  it  should  be  administered  to  the  sick  or 
dying  at  home  ;  that,  in  cases  of  necessity,  baptism  should  be 
administered  in  private  houses ;  that  the  commemoration  of 
the  birth,  passion,  resurrection,  and  ascension  of  our  blessed 
Saviour,  and  the  sending  down  of  die  Holy  Ghost,  should  be 
annually  observed  at  their  appointed  seasons;  and  that  children 
should  be  catechised,  and  taught  the  Lord's  Prayer,  Creed, 
and  Ten  Commandments,  and  be  afterwards  confirmed  by  the 
bishop  2, 

Had  such  articles  been  proposed  to  have  been  introduced 
in  this  manner  in  the  days  of  the  holy  discipline,  the  sincerer 
sort  would  have  "  roused  their  army — the  people,"  to  resist 
such  a  stretch  of  the  prerogative  with  all  the  energy  of  popular 
indignation  and  tumult;  but,  in  the  present  case,  the  archbishop 
did  it  more  effectually,  and  within  the  limits  of  his  own  place. 
He  wrote  a  letter  to  the  king,  in  which  he  represented  the  irre- 
gularity of  this  course,  and  the  impossibility  of  complying  with 
his  majesty's  request,  because  the  articles  had  not  been  formally 
proposed  to  the  church,  nor  discussed  in  a  General  Assembly ; 
and  that  consequently  they  could  not  be  inserted  in  the  canons 
of  the  church  of  Scotland  without  the  consent  of  the  whole  of 
that  church.  The  king  thought  proper  to  agree  to  this  post- 
ponement of  his  favourite  measure,  and  did'not  for  the  present 
press  it  any  farther,  thinking  that  he  should  be  able  to  obtain 
the  church's  consent  when  he  came  in  person  into  Scotland  in 
the  following  year. 

Several  acts  were  made  in  this  Assembly  for  counteracting 
the  insidious  devices  of  the  Jesuits,  who,  under  various  pre- 
tences, still  lurked  in  the  kingdom,  and  taught  their  pernicious 
principles  to  children  who  attended  schools  taught  by  women. 
The  king's  and  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury's  letters  were 
read,  and  ordered  to  be  registered  in  the  acts  of  the  General 

'  Calderwood,  663. — Spottiswood,  528. 
'  Spottiswood,  529. 


1617.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOtLAK^D.  479 

Assembly;  and  the  marquis  of  Huntly  appearing  on  the  2d 
August,  declared  his  sorrow  for  having  so  long  lain  under  the 
censures  of  the  church,  made  oath  that  he  would  truly  con- 
form to  the  established  church,  and  subscribed  the  confession 
of  faith.  "  The  Assembly  ordained  the  noble  lord  to  be  ab- 
solved from  the  sentence  of  excommunication,  led  and  deduced 
against  him  before:  conform  whereto,  the  right  reverend  father, 
John,  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  moderator,  in  face  of  the 
whole  Assembly,  absolved  the  said  noble  lord,  George,  mar- 
quis of  Huntly,  from  the  sentence  of  excommunication,  led 
and  deduced  against  him,  and  received  him  into  the  bosom  of 
the  kirk  1." 

On  the  16th  December,  Marke  Antonius  de  Dominis,  arch- 
bishop of  Spalato,  or  Spalatro,  in  the  V^enetian  states,  arrived 
at  Lambeth,  where  he  was  very  honourably  received  by  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury.  He  was  appointed  dean  of  Wind- 
sor, and  master  of  the  Savoy.  He  remained  in  England  for 
some  time,  and  wrote  a  brief  declaration  of  his  reasons  for 
leaving  the  church  of  Rome,  in  his  Consilium  Profectionis,  and 
which  was  published  in  eight  different  languages  2.  His  prin- 
cipal reason  was  the  usurped  supremacy  of  the  pope  over  his 
brethren  the  bishops  of  his  communion ;  and  therefore  he 
came  to  England  in  search  of  a  purer  and  more  primitive 
episcopacy.  But  he  experienced  that,  even  there,  the  church 
was  in  bondage  and  servitude  to  the  state,  and  suffered  under 
a  regal  supremacy  nearly  as  intolerable  as  the  papal.  Dis- 
gusted with  this  discovery  he  returned  to  his  native  coun- 
try;  and,  being  invited  to  sojourn  at  Rome,  he  experienced 
the  tender  mercies  of  the  Inquisition,  and  was  never  more 
heard  of. 

1617. — About  the  end  of  January,  the  king  acquainted  the 
Scottish  privy  coimcil  by  letter  with  his  intention  to  visit  his 
native  kingdom  :  his  motives,  he  said,  "  were  a  salmon-like 
instinct,  affection,  and  earnest  longing  and  desire  to  see  the 
place  of  his  breeding,  and  an  anxious  desire  to  discharge  some 
points  of  his  kingly  office,  so  far  forth  as  he  might  commo- 
diously,  not  offending  his  good  subjects,  both  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical and  civil  estate." 

Portraits  of  the  twelve  apostles  were  sent  down  from  London 
to  ornament  the  chapel=royal,  which  excited  the  popular  indig- 
nation to  great  fury.  It  was  alleged,  that  images  were  setting 
up  for  worship,  and  that  the  next  step  would  be  to  celebrate 

'  Calderwood,  p.  665. 

^  Case  of  the  Regale,  ed.  1702,  p.  146-47.— Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  63,  64. 


480  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XII. 

mass.  The  bishops,  willing  to  allay  the  uproar,  and  remove 
the  cause  of  offence,  petitioned  his  majesty  to  order  the  removal 
of  the  paintings,  in  compliance  with  the  popular  prejudice, 
which,  though  very  unwillingly,  James  consented  to  do  ;  "  but 
yet,  with  a  sharp  rebuke  and  check  of  ignorance,  both  from 
his  majesty  and  Canterbury^,  calling  our  scarring  at  them 
scandalum  acceptum,  sed  non  datum.  We  bear  the  reproof  the 
more  patiently,  because  we  have  obtained  that  which  we 
craved  2."  On  the  13th  of  May,  James  was  met  by  the  privy 
council  at  Berwick,  by  whose  advice  he  prorogued  the  parlia- 
ment, which  had  been  summoned  for  the  17th  of  May,  to  the 
13th  of  June.  The  king  was  welcomed  to  "  the  place  of  his 
breeding"  with  the  most  extravagant  joy  and  the  warmest 
affection. 

At  the  appointed  day  (Tuesday,  the  17th  June)  parliament 
met,  and  the  king  opened  its  sittings  with  a  long  speech,  in 
which,  among  other  things,  he  recommended  "  the  establishing 
religion  and  justice,  neither  of  which,  he  said,  could  be  looked 
for,  so  long  as  a  regard  was  not  had  for  the  ministers  of  both. 
Notwithstanding  the  long  profession  of  the  truth,  numbers  of 
[parish]  churches  still  remained  unplanted ;  and  of  those  that 
were  planted,  few  or  none  had  any  competent  maintenance  :  for 
this  he  wished  some  com*se  to  be  taken,  and  certain  commis- 
sioners to  be  chosen  for  appointing  to  every  church  a  perpetual 
local  stipend,  such  as  should  suffice  to  maintain  a  minister,  and 
make  him  able  to  attend  on  his  charge  of  justice."  James  ex- 
perienced considerable  opposition  in  choosing  the  Lords  of  the 
Articles.  The  nobility  had  become  jealous  of  the  rise  and 
aggrandisement  of  the  bishops,  and,  as  most  of  them  had  con- 
trived to  appropriate  some  of  the  church  lands,  they  were  ap- 
prehensive that,  if  the  bishops'  power  increased,  they  would 
in  time  recover  the  rich  estates  of  which  their  sees  had  been 
stripped  at  the  reformation.  Whoever  the  king  recommended 
as  fit  persons  were  rejected  and  set  aside,  and  others  less 
affected  towards  his  majesty's  service  chosen  ;  and  it  was  not 
without  great  opposition  that  the  ministers  of  state  were  ad- 
mitted. Among  the  articles  proposed,  was  one  concerning  his 
majesty's  authority  in  causes  ecclesiastical,  declaring,  "  that 
whatever  should  be  determined  by  the  king,  with  the  advice 
of  the  archbishops  and  bishops,  in  matters  of  external  policy, 


'  Dr.  George  Abbot  was  at  that  time  archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
^  Letter  from  the  bishop  of  Galloway  to  Rev.  Patrick   Simpson,  of  Stirling 
March  26,  1647,  cited  in  Calderwood,  p.  674. 


1617.]  CHURCH  OF  S0OTLA.ND.  481 

the  same  should  have  the  power  and  strength  of  an  ecclesias- 
tical law."  The  bishops  opposed  this,  and  humbly  entreated 
that  the  act  might  be  reconsidered,  for  in  making  ecclesiastical 
laws  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  presbyters  were  also  re- 
quired. To  this  the  king  replied,  "  that  he  did  not  object  to  the 
ministers  giving  their  advice, or  that  a  competent  number  of  the 
most  grave  and  learned  amongst  them  should  be  called  to 
assist  the  bishop  ;  but  to  have  matters  ruled  as  they  have 
hitherto  been  in  the  General  Assemblies,  I  will  never  agree ; 
for  the  bishops  must  rule  the  ministers,  and  the  king  rule  both 
in  matters  indifferent,  and  not  repugnant  to  the  word  of  God." 
Subsequently,  the  bill  passed  the  Lords  of  the  Articles,  in  the 
following  form — "That  whatsoever  his  majesty  should  deter- 
mine in  the  external  government  of  the  churcli,  with  the  ad- 
vice of  the  archbishops,  bishops,  and  a  competent  number  of  the 
ministry,  should  have  the  strength  of  a  law^" 

This'  article  threw  the  sincerer  sort  into  the  most  dreadful 
consternation  ;  as  if  the  whole  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the 
church  of  England  were  to  have  been  thrust  on  the  nation  at 
once,  and  without  their  consent.  Theprudent  government  of  the 
bishops  had  preserved  such  a  calm  in  the  ecclesiastical  atmos- 
phere, that  a  hurricane  was  absolutely  necessary  to  maintain 
the  zeal  and  obstinacy  of  the  presbyterian  brethren,  who  still 
retained  their  livings,  notwithstanding  the  real  episcopacy 
which  had  been  established.  Accordingly,  one  Struthers  in- 
troduced into  his  sermon  a  violent  outpouring  of  his  wrath  on 
the  church  of  England,  in  which  he  condemned  her  rites  and 
ceremonies,  and  prayed  that  Scotland  might  be  spared  from  the 
like.  Not  content  with  raving  in  their  sermons  against  the 
supposed  dangers,  about  fifty  of  the  discontented  ministers  as- 
sembled, and  composed  a  protest  against  the  obnoxious  article. 
These  men  could  not  have  been  ignorant  that  the  bishops  had 
expressly  provided  that  the  ministers  should  vote  in  all  eccle- 
siastical matters,  and  had  preserved  for  them  all  the  liberty 
which  they  formerly  enjoyed  in  their  General  Assemblies,  of 
giving  their  advice  in  the  making  of  laws.  The  restoration  of 
episcopacy  had  prevented  them  from  exercising  that  licentious 
turbulence  which  had  formerly  characterised  and  disgraced 
their  meetings.  The  protest  was  conveyed  to  James  before  the 
time  of  passing  the  acts  ;  and  he  accordingly  directed  the  lord- 
register  to  lay  aside  that  article,  and  not  to  present  ii  for  ratifi 
cation,  which  was  done  there  by  toviching  with  the  sceptre,  "as 

'  Calderwood,  675. — Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  531. 
VOL.  I.  3  Q 


482  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.   XII. 

a  thing   (he  said)  no  way  necessary,  the  prerogative  of  the 

crown  bearing  him  to  more  than  was  declared  by  it 

Thereafter,  the  king,  in  a  most  gracious  speech,  having  com- 
manded the  execution  of  the  laws  made,  to  the  judges  and  other 
inferior  magistrates,  gave  the  estates  a  most  kind  and  loviiig 
farewell  ^"  So  far,  says  Mr.  Skinner 2,  "  were  the  bishops,  we 
see  by  these  two  instances,  from  humouring  or  flattering  the 
king  in  all  his  proposals,  as  a  few  malignants  falsely  upbraided 
them ;  and  so  cautious  were  they  in  this  last  instance  not  to 
stretch  the  prerogative  inherent  in  their  character  to  too  great 
a  height  above  their  brethren  of  the  lower  clergy.  For  how- 
ever willing  they  might  be,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  to  admit  their 
presbyters  to  some  share  of  legislative  power,  they  could  not 
but  know  that  in  the  primitive  and  uncorrupted  ages  this  was 
neither  demanded  nor  practised Whether  the  conde- 
scension of  our  bishops  at  this  time,  in  thus  parcelling  out  their 
legislative  authority  among  their  inferiors,  answered  any  good 
end  now,  or  produced  any  good  effect  afterwards,  is  a  question 
to  be  determined  by  events,  not  by  arguments ;  and  they  them- 
selves soon  saw  the  disagreeable  consequences  of  what  they 
had  done.  For  the  article  thus  modified  was  taken  hold  of  by 
a  few  malcontents  among  the  ministers  to  raise  a  clamour  as 
if  the  whole  fabric  of  the  church  was  to  be  demolished  at  once. 
And  to  such  a  height  did  they  carry  their  inconsiderate  zeal, 
that  while  the  parliament  was  sitting  they  drew  up  a  protesta- 
tion against  passing  the  article  into  a  law,  pleading  the  purity 
of  their  reformation,  the  liberty  and  tranquillity  of  the  church, 
and  the  many  royal  assurances  given  them  that  no  innovation 
or  alteration  should  be  imposed  upon  them  without  the  previous 
concurrence  of  the  whole  clergy  convened  in  a  General  Assem- 
bly of  the  church." 

On  the  dissolution  of  parliament,  Simpson  and  Ewart,  two 
ministers  who  in  name  of  the  others  had  subscribed  the  pro- 
test, and  Calderwood,  the  historian,  who  was  supposed  to  have 
written  it,  were  summoned  to  St.  Andrews,  and  convicted  of 
sedition  by  the  Court  of  High  Commission.  The  former  were 
imprisoned  and  suspended  from  their  ministry,  and  the  latter 
was  condemned  to  perpetual  exile.  Calderwood  was  im- 
prisoned for  some  time,  and  afterwards  went  to  Holland,  the 
grand  emporium  at  that  time  of  all  the  plots  and  conspiracies 
both  against  the  church  and  the  state  3. 

>  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  533.  ^  Ecclesiastical  History,  v.  ii.  p.  262. 

3  Spottiswood,  ^  Calderwood,  674 — 675. 


1617.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  483 

James  used  many  arguments  to  persuade  the  bishops  to 
adopt  an  exact  conformity  with  their  mother  church  of  Eng- 
land. After  his  arrival,  he  had,  as  an  example,  directed  the 
holy  communion  to  be  administered  to  his  own  household, 
kneeling ;  and  the  whole  privy  council,  with  many  of  the  nobility, 
received  the  same  in  that  humble  and  devout  attitude.  Calder- 
wood  denounces  the  kneeling  posture  as  a  disregard  of  Christ's 
institution  and  the  order  of  our  kirk;  and  he  says,  the  bishop  of 
Galloway  at  first  refused,  but  after  consideration  complied. 
"  The  ministers,"  he  says,  "  of  Edinburgh,  in  the  meantime 
were  silent,  neither  dissuading  the  king  in  private,  nor  opening 
their  mouth  in  public  against  this  innovation,  or  bad  example  •''' 
which  may  be  received  as  a  fair  acknowledgment  that  they 
consented  and  approved  of  this  ancient,  catholic,  and  most  be- 
coming gesture  of  reverence  and  humility,  James  also  had 
introduced  an  organ  into  the  chapel  royal ;  and,  says  the  same 
unwilling  witness,  "  upon  Saturday  the  17tli  of  May,  the 
English  service,  singing  of  quiristers  and  playing  on  organs, 
and  surplices,  were  first  heard  and  seen  in  the  chapel  royal  ^." 
The  English  Liturgy  was  henceforward  read  as  the  dady  ser- 
vice in  it,  up  to  the  period  of  the  riots  in  king  Charles's  time; 
and  it  is  a  curious  fact,  that  the  chapel  royal  was  at  that  time 
the  parish  church  of  the  Canongate,  whose  inhabitants  must 
have  become  familiarised  with  the  Liturgy  long  before  its  legal 
introduction. 

The  king  appointed  the  bishops,  and  about  thirty-six  of  the 
inferior  clergy,  to  meet  at  St,  Andrews  on  the  10th  of  July, 
that  he  might  communicate  his  sentiments  previous  to  his  final 
farewell,  on  his  return  to  "  the  land  of  promise."  They  met 
in  the  chapel  of  the  castle,  and  the  king  addressed  them  as 
follows: — "  What  and  how  great  my  care  hath  been  for  this 
church,  as  well  before  as  since  my  going  into  England,  is  so 
well  known  to  you  all,  as  I  neither  need,  nor  do  I  mean  to 
speak  much  of  it,  lest  any  think  I  am  seeking  thanks  for  that 
I  have  done.  It  sufficeth  me,  that  God  knoweth  my  inten- 
tion is,  and  ever  was,  to  have  his  true  worship  maintained, 
and  a  decent  and  comely  order  established  in  the  church.  But 
of  you  I  must  complain,  and  of  your  causeless  jealousies,  even 
when  my  meaning  towards  you  is  best.  Before  my  coming 
home  to  visit  this  kingdom,  being  advertised  that  in  your  last 
Assembly  an  act  was  made  for  gathering  the  acts  of  the 
church,  and  putting  them  in  form,  I  desired  a  few  articles  to 
be  inserted;  one  was  for  the  annual  commemoration  of  the 

^  Calderwood,  p.  674.  -  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  534. 


484  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

greatest  blessings  bestowed  by  our  Saviour  on  mankind,  as 
his  nativity,  passion,  resurrection,  ascension,  and  the  descent 
of  the  Holy  Spirit;  another  for  the  private  use  of  both 
sacraments  on  urgent  and  necessary  occasions;  a  third  for  the 
reverent  administration  of  his  holy  supper;  and  a  fourth  for  ca- 
techising and  confirming  young  children  by  the  bishops.  It 
was  answered,  that  these  particulars  had  not  been  moved  in 
any  of  the  church  Assemblies,  and  so  could  not  be  inserted 
among  the  rest,  which  excuse  I  admitted,  and  was  not  minded 
to  press  them  any  more,  till  you,  after  advice,  did  give  consent 
thereto ;  yet,  when  in  the  late  parliament  I  desired  my  prero- 
gative to  be  declared  in  the  making  of  the  ecclesiastical  laws, 
certain  of  your  number  did  mutinously  assemble  themselves, 
and  form  a  protestation  to  cross  my  just  desires.  But  I  will 
pass  that  among  many  other  wrongs  I  have  received  at  your 
hands.  The  errand  for  which  I  have  now  called  you,  is,  to 
hear  what  your  scruples  are  in  these  points,  and  the  reasons,  if 
any  you  can  have,  why  the  same  ought  not  to  be  admitted.  I 
mean  not  to  do  any  thing  against  reason;  and  on  the  other 
part,  my  demands  being  just  and  religious,  you  must  not  think 
that  I  will  be  refused  or  resisted.  It  is  a  power  innate,  and  a 
special  prerogative  which  we  that  are  christian  kings  have,  to 
order  and  dispose  of  external  things  in  the  policy  of  the  church, 
as  we,  by  the  advice  of  our  bishops,  shall  find  most  fitting ; 
and  for  your  approving  or  disapproving,  deceive  not  your- 
selves, I  will  never  regard  it,  unless  you  bring  me  a  reason 
which  I  cannot  answer^."" 

The  clergy  desii-ed  that  his  majesty  might  esteem  them 
humble  and  obedient  subjects,  and  requested  permission  to 
withdraw  for  consultation,  which  being  allowed,  they  ad- 
journed to  the  parish  church,  where  they  agreed  that  a  General 
Assembly  of  the  church  was  the  most  proper  place  to  decide 
on  the  king's  proposals,  where  they  would  have  the  advantage  of 
free  discussion,  and,  if  agreed  to,  they  would  be  better  received, 
and  esteemed  more  authoritative,  than  if  consented  to  by  those 
present.  Accordingly,  they  petitioned  the  king  to  convoke  a 
full  and  free  General  Assembly,  when  they  promised  these  arti- 
cles should  be  proposed  for  adoption.  The  king  having  for- 
merly had  experience  of  the  refractory  materials  of  which 
General  Assemblies  were  composed,  strongly  objected  to  sum- 
mon a  convocation  ;  for,  said  he,  if  the  Assembly  should  reject 
the  articles,  his  difficulty  would  be  greater,  "  and  when  I  shall 
use  my  authority  in  establishing  them,  they  shall  call  me  tyrant 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  ji.  533-534. 


1617.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  485 

and  perscutor."  They  all  protested  that  no  man  would  be  so 
mad  as  to  say  so:  "  yet,"  said  the  king,  "  experience  tells  me 
it  may  be  so;  therefore,  nnless  I  be  made  sure,  I  will  not  give 
way  to  an  Assembly."  Mr.  Patrick  Galloway  said,  that  the 
archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  would  answer  for  their  peaceable 
conduct;  but  the  archbishop  declined,  having  been  so  often 
previously  deceived,  and  a  pregnant  instance  of  their  insubor- 
dination having  occurred  during  the  sitting  of  parliament. 
Then,  said  Mr.  Galloway,  "  If  your  majesty  will  trust  me,  I 
will  assure  for  the  ministers;"  and  on  his  assurance  that  there 
should  be  none  of  those  factious  democratical  cabals  which 
had  formerly  disgraced  their  meetings,  he  consented  that  an 
Assembly  should  be  summoned  to  meet  on  the  2oth  November 
next,  at  St.  Andrews.  After  this  the  king  returned  to  England 
by  the  way  of  Dumfries,  where  the  bishop  of  Galloway  preached 
a  farewell  sermon,  "  which  made  the  hearers  burst  forth  in 
many  tears^,"  and  where  he  composed  a  number  of  feuds 
amongst  his  nobility,  and  compelled  the  reconciled  parties  to 
"  chap  hands,"  in  token  of  their  reconciliation  2. 

At  the  time  and  place  the  Assembly  met,  the  lord  Binning 
(afterwards  earl  of  Haddington)  and  the  viscount  Stormont 
being  the  royal  commissioners.  The  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews 
assumed  the  place  of  moderator,  and  addressed  the  meeting  in 
a  short  exhortation,  wherein  he  took  a  summary  view  of  the 
affairs  of  the  church  since  the  Reformation  ;  and  showed  that 
all  its  calamities  arose  from  the  seditious  spirit  of  its  minis- 
ters themselves,  and  earnestly  entreated  them,  for  the  glory  of 
God,  the  honour  of  the  gospel,  and  their  own  good,  to_  adopt 
a  difi'erent  course,  and  to  complete  the  king's  good  intentions, 
rather  than  to  court  the  vain  applause  of  factious  individuals. 
For  two  days  the  debates  were  conducted  with  calmness  and 
moderation,  but  a  motion  having  been  made  for  delaying  the 
decision  of  the  king's  proposals,  the  commissioner  rose  and 
objected  to  any  procrastination,  and  intimated  his  majesty's 
displeasure,  that,  after  all  their  promises,  nothing  should  be 
concluded,  but  that  they  still  evaded  the  points  before  them. 
They  passed  an  act,  however,  with  many  restrictions,  for  the 
private  administration  of  the  communion  to  the  sick,  and  for 
the  delivery  of  the  elements  in  the  communion  out  of  the  mi- 
ni5:;ter's  own  hands ;  but  the  other  articles  they  deferred  till 
another  and  a  more  convenient  opportunity.  Instead  of  satis- 
fying the  king,  these  two  acts  only  exasperated  him,  and  made 
him  consider  them  a  mockery  of  his  demands.     He  wrote  two 

^  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  534.  -  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  68. 


486  HISTORY  OF   THE  [CHAP.  XII, 

remarkably  severe  letters  to  the  archbishops,  and  in  the  post- 
script of  one  of  them  he  inserted,  with  his  own  hand — "  Since 
your  Scottish  church  has  so  far  contemned  my  clemency,  they 
shall  now  know  what  it  is  to  draw  down  the  anger  of  a  king," 
and  he  fulfilled  this  threat  by  sending  peremptory  orders  to 
the  privy  council  to  stop  the  payment  of  the  stipends  of  those 
clergy  who  had  shown  the  greatest  opposition  to  the  articles^. 

In  his  letter  to  the  archbishops,  his  majesty  said — "  We  have 
received  your  letter,  and  thereby  understand  what  your  pro- 
ceedings have  been  in  that  Assembly  at  St.  Andrews,  con- 
cerning which  we  will  have  you  know,  that  we  are  come  to 
that  age  as  we  will  not  be  content  to  be  fed  with  broth,  as  one 
of  your  coat  was  wont  to  speak,  and  think  this  your  doing  a 
disgrace  no  less  than  the  protestation  itself.  Wherefore  it  is 
our  pleasure,  and  we  command  you,  as  you  will  avoid  our 
highest  displeasure,  the  one  of  you,  by  your  deputy  in  St. 
Andrews,  and  by  yourself  in  Edinburgh,  and  the  other  of  you  in 
Glasgow,  to  keep  Christmas  day  precisely,  yourselves  preach- 
ing, and  choosing  your  texts  according  to  the  time.  And  like- 
wise that  you  discharge  all  modification  of  stipends  for  this 
year  to  any  minister  whatsoever,  such  excepted  as  have  testi- 
fied their  affection  to  our  service  at  this  time  by  furthering,  at 
their  power,  the  acceptation  of  the  articles  proposed;  and  in 
the  premises  willing  you  not  to  fail,  we  bid  you  farewell. 
*•  Newmarket,  6th  Dec.  1617." 

This  decisive  and  severe  step  had  the  desired  effect,  and  the 
clergy  became  supplicants  to  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews 
to  preach  on  Christmas  day,  and  to  intercede  with  his  majesty 
for  them.  This  vigorous  measure,  for  which  they  were  not 
prepared,  immediately  cured  the  clergy  of  their  opposition  to 
the  articles;  but  it  is  a  practical  exposition  of  the  danger  aris- 
ing to  the  liberties  of  the  church  through  a  state-paid  stipen- 
diary clergy.  The  spirit  of  martyrdom,  or  of  self-denial  and 
of  taking  up  the  cross,  does  not  fall  upon  all  men.  Although 
James  exercised  the  power  for  a  good  purpose  which  the  sacri- 
legious madness  of  the  first  reformers  had  placed  in  his  hands 
by  the  destruction  of  the  church's  independent  property,  yet 
it  might  be  abused  to  a  bad,  or  to  any  selfish  or  sectarian  pur- 
pose, and  besides,  it  threw  the  whole  power  into  the  king's 
hands,  to  be  executed  at  his  will,  or  at  that  of  a  profligate  mi- 
nister. There  was  danger  also  of  that  secular  spirit  being 
fostered  in  the  clergy  which  the  Erastian  principles  that  were 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  535. 


1617.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  487 

engendered  by  the  manner  of  the  Scottish  reformation,  and  by 
the  translation  of  the  pontificate  to  the  regality,  had  begotten. 
James  resorted  to  this  extreme  measure  because  persuasive 
arguments  had  no  effect  with  men  who  had  been  so  corrupted 
by  the  presbyterian  leaven  in  which  they  had  so  recently  wal- 
lowed; for  he  ever  desired  to  be  a  nursing  father  to  the 
church,  and  at  the  same  time  to  be  her  most  dutiful  and  obe- 
dient son,  to  protect,  love,  cherish,  reverence,  and  serve  her  as 
the  spouse  of  Christ. 

In  another  letter  which  his  majesty  wrote  to  the  archbishop 
of  St.  Andrews,  he  said — "  After  we  had  cominanded  the  dis- 
patch of  our  other  letter,  we  received  an  extract,  concluded 
(we  know  not  how)  in  your  Assembly,  and  subscribed  by  the 
clerk  thereof;  the  one  concerning  private  communion,  and  the 
other  concerning  the  form  to  be  used  at  the  receiving  the  holy 
sacrament;  both  so  hedged,  and  conceived  in  so  ridiculous  a 
manner,  as,  besides  that  of  the  whole  articles  proponed  these 
two  were  the  least  necessary  to  have  been  urged  and  has- 
tened, the  scornful  condition  and  form  of  their  grant  makes 
us  justly  wish  that  they  had  been  refused  with  the  rest;  for  in 
the  first,  concerning  the  communion  allowed  to  sick  persons, 
besides  a  necessity,  tying  them  on  oath  to  declare  that  they 
truly  think  not  to  recover,  but  to  die  of  that  disease,  besides 
the  number  required  to  receive  with  such  patients,  they  are  yet 
further  hedged  in  with  a  necessity  to  receive  the  sacrament 
in  a  convenient  room,  which  what  it  importeth  we  cannot 
guess,  seeing  no  room  can  be  so  convenient  for  a  sick  man 
(sworn  to  die)  as  his  bed;  and  that  it  were  injurious  and  inhu- 
man from  thence  in  any  case  to  transport  him,  were  the  room 
never  so  neat  and  handsome  to  which  they  should  carry  him. 

"  And  as  to  that  other  act,  ordaining  the  minister  himself 
to  give  the  elements  in  the  celebration  out  of  his  own  hand 
to  every  one  of  the  communicants,  and  that  he  may  perform 
this  the  more  commodiously,  by  the  advice  of  the  magistrates 
and  other  honest  men  of  his  session,  to  prepare  a  table  at 
which  the  same  may  be  conveniently  ministered  ;  truly,  in  this 
we  must  say  that  the  minister's  ease  and  commodious  sitting 
on  his  tail  has  been  more  looked  to  than  that  kneeling  which, 
for  reverence,  we  directly  required  to  be  enjoined  to  the  re- 
ceivers of  so  divine  a  sacrament ;  neither  can  we  perceive  what 
should  be  meant  by  that  table,  unless  they  mean  to  make  a 
round  table  (as  did  the  Jews)  to  sit  and  receive  at.  In  conclu- 
sion, seeing  either  we  and  this  church,  now,  must  be  held  ido- 
latrous in  this  point  of  kneeling,  or  they  reputed  rebellious 
knaves  in  refusing  the  same,  and  that  the  two  foresaid  acts  are 


488  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII 

conceived  so  scomfully,  and  so  far  from  our  meaning  ;  it  is  our 
pleasure  that  the  same  be  altogether  suppressed,  and  that  no 
effect  follow  thereupon.  So  we  bid  you  farewell. — Newmarket, 
11th  December,  1617."  i 

The  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  preached  in  St.  Giles's  on 
Christmas  day,  upon  the  propriety  and  the  primitive  custom  of 
observing  the  great  festivals  of  the  church  ;  and  the  bishop 
of  Galloway  in  the  Chapel  Royal ;  for  which,  and  "  playing 
upon  organs,"  Calderwood  gravely  asserts,  "  they  ought  to 
have  been  secluded  from  voting  afterwards  in  that  matter,  and 
condignly  censured."  Archibald  Simpson,  prisoner  in  the 
castle,  petitioned  the  court  of  high  commis.sion  to  be  dis- 
charged, and  professed  the  greatest  penitence.  He  was  brought 
before  the  court  and  signed  his  petition,  on  which  easy  con- 
dition he  was  restored  to  his  benefice  ;  but  in  less  than  a  week 
he  published  an  apology  for  his  submission,  which  he  ascribed 
to  weakness  and  frailty  ;  "  and  hoped  to  be  like  Peter,  qui  ore 
negavit,  et  corde  coiifessus  est,  and  never  to  betray  the  Lord's 
cause  with  .Judas 2."  This,  says  Spottiswood,  "I  have  re- 
membered, by  the  way,  to  make  the  humours  of  these  men 
seen,  and  the  small  i-egard  they  take  of  saying  and  gainsaying, 
when  it  maketh  for  their  purpose." 

On  the  14th  December,  Alexander  Forbes,  of  the  family  of 
Armurdo,  bishop  of  Aberdeen,  died  at  Leith.  He  was  a  man, 
saith  Keith,  of  "  good  inclination ;"  but  Calderwood,  de- 
lighted to  find  an  opportunity  of  maligning  a  bishop,  says, — 
"  Fain  would  he  have  uttered  something  to  the  bishop  of  St. 
Andrews,  but  he  being  loath  to  leave  his  playing  at  the  cards, 
howbeit  it  was  the  Lord's  day,  the  other  dej^arted  before  he 
came^.  These  breaches  of  the  ninth  commandment,  although 
it  was  only  one  point  of  the  law,  yet,  as  it  was  their  constant 
and  unvarying  custom,  the  presbyterian  rninisters  were  thus 
continually  guilty  of  breaking  the  whole  law ;  and  therefore 
their  evidence  is  unworthy  of  implicit  belief.  Patrick  Forbes,  of 
Corse,  an  immediate  descendant  of  the  noble  family  of  Forbes, 
which  broke  off  from  the  parent  stem  in  the  reign  of  James  III. 
was  unanimously  elected  to  succeed  the  late  bishop  in  this 
see,  "  with  the  concun-ent  voice  of  all  ranks,  and  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  king."  It  was  James's  laudable  custom, 
that  on  the  death  of  a  bi.shop  he  directed  the  archbishop  of  the 
province  to  convene  his  fellow  bishops,  and  propose  to  him 
three  clergymen  whom  they  judged  most  fit  for  the  episcopal 
ofl[ice,  out  of  whom  he  chose  one  to  be  preferred  to  the  vacant 

'  Spottiswood,  vii.  535-6.         -  Calderwood,  691.       ^  lb.  True  Hist.  p.  691. 


1618.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  489 

see.  Happy  would  it  be  for  the  church  of  England  were  this 
excellent  custom  to  be  revived,  and  it  might  be  done  without 
any  infringement  of  the  royal  prerogative,  and  with  the  greatest 
possible  advantage  to  the  church  :  or  the  crown  might  select 
three  men,  and  present  to  the  chapter  of  the  vacant  diocese, 
one  of  whom  the  chapter  should  be  bound  to  choose  for  their 
bishop. 

1618. — On  the  29lh  of  January,  the  bishops  met  at  Edin- 
burgh ;  and,  in  a  joint  letter,  entreated  his  majesty  to  permit 
the  convocation  of  another  Assembly, — promising  that,  in  the 
synodal  meetings,  they  would  exert  themselves  to  procure  obe- 
dience to  his  majesty's  desires.  The  king  replied,  that  he  had, 
on  their  primate's  solicitation,  suspended  the  execution  of  his 
last  directions  for  depriving  the  refractory  clergy  of  their  sti- 
pends, so,  on  their  request,  he  would  agree  to  another  General 
Assembly,  although,  from  past  experience,  he  did  not  antici- 
pate any  satisfactory  result. 

Three  or  four  days  before  Good  Friday,  the  provost  and 
magistrates  of  Edinburgh  received  a  letter  from  the  king,  com- 
manding them  to  see  that  the  inhabitants  observed  that  solemn 
fastof  the  church,  agreeably  to  the  proclamation  formerly  is- 
sued. On  that  day,  which  fell  on  the  3d  of  April,  proper  offi- 
cers were  sent  through  the  town,  to  see  that  no  labour  or 
trades  were  carried  on  ;  and  in  all  the  churches  there  were  pub- 
lic worship  and  seimons.  On  Easter-day  the  commimion  was 
administered,  and  the  people  received  it  kneeling.  At 
Witsunday,  also,  the  same  humble  and  becoming  gesture  was 
practised  at  the  holy  communion  ;  and  generally  the  iiTeve- 
reut  sitting  manner  formerly  in  use  was  beginning  to  be 
laid  aside.  That  shameful  system  of  uniting  parishes,  begun 
by  the  regent  Morton,  was  continued  still,  and  the  royal  com- 
missioners united  two  and  sometimes  three  churches  and 
parishes  together,  to  the  great  detriment  of  religion  and  of  the 
morality  of  the  people. 

On  the  3d  of  August,  a  proclamation  at  the  market-cross  of 
Edinburgh  indicted  a  General  Assembly  to  meet  at  Perth  on 
the  25th  of  the  same  month,  and  commanded  all  archbishops, 
bishops,  and  commissioners,  to  repair  to  Perth  on  the  day  ap- 
pointed. The  lord  Binning,  one  of  the  principal  secretaries 
of  state,  was  appointed  high  commissioner,  and  the  lords 
Scoone  and  Carnegey  as  his  assessors.  Archbishop  Spottis- 
wood  took  the  chair  as  moderator,  in  his  own  right,  as  primate 
and  metropolitan  of  the  kingdom.  The  Assembly  was  com- 
posed of  prelates,  moderators  of  presbyteries,  and  minister 
commissioners,  noblemen,  and  barons.  The  first  day  of  the 
VOL.  I.  3  R 


490  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

meeting  was  ordered  to  be  kept  as  a  fast ;  the  bishop  of  Aber- 
deen and  the  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  preached  in  defence 
of  fasts  and  festivals  in  general,  and  also  of  the  five  articles  to 
be  proposed  in  particular ;  and  to  which  James  told  them  if 
they  would  not  consent  in  that  assembly,  that  he  would  im- 
pose them  upon  the  church  by  his  own  innate  power  derived 
from  God.  Thomas  Nicolson,  the  former  clerk,  resigned  his 
office,  and,  at  the  recommendation  of  the  archbishop,  James 
Sandelands  was  appointed,  who  took  his  seat  as  clerk,  and  the 
oaths  of  office  ^  The  king's  letter,  directed  to  the  lords  of  the 
privy  council  and  the  bishops,  was  then  presented  by  Dr. 
Young,  dean  of  Winchester,  and  read  to  the  Assembly : — 

"  James  Rex. — Right  reverend,  &c.  we  gi'eet  you  well. — 
We  were  once  fully  resolved  never  in  our  time  to  have  called 
any  more  assemblies  here,  for  ordering  things  concerning  the 
policy  of  the  church,  by  reason  of  the  disgrace  offered  unto 
us  in  that  late  meeting  of  St.  Andrews,  wherein  our  just  and 
godly  desires  were  not  only  neglected,  but  some  of  the  articles 
concluded  in  that  scornful  manner,  as  we  wish  they  had  been 
refused  with  the  rest :  yet  at  this  time  we  have  suffered  to  be  in- 
treated  by  you  our  bishops  for  a  new  convocation,  and  have 
called  you  together,  who  are  now  convened  for  the  selfsame 
business  which  was  then  urged,  hoping  assuredly  that  you 
will  have  some  better  regard  to  our  desires,  and  not  permit  the 
unruly  and  ignorant  multitude,  after  their  wonted  custom,  to 
oversway  the  better  and  more  judicious  sort  in  evil,  which  we 
have  gone  about  with  much  pains  to  have  amended  in  these 
assemblies,  and  for  that  purpose,  according  to  God's  ordi- 
nance and  the  constant  practice  of  all  well-governed  churches, 
we  have  placed  you  that  are  bishops  and  overseers  of  the  rest 
in  the  chiefest  rooms.  You  plead  much,  we  perceive,  to  have 
things  done  by  consent  of  ministers,  and  tell  us  often,  that  what 
concerneth  the  chirrch  in  general  should  be  concluded  by  the 
advice  of  the  whole ;  neither  do  we  altogether  dislike  your 
opinion,  for  the  greater  your  consent  is  the  better  are  we  con- 
tented. But  we  will  not  have  you  think  that  matters  proposed 
by  us,  of  the  nature  whereof  these  articles  are,  may  not  with- 
out such  a  general  consent  be  enjoined  by  our  authority. 

"  This  were  a  misknowing  of  your  places,  and  withal  a  dis- 
claiming of  that  innate  power  which  we  have  by  our  calling 
from  God,  whereby  we  have  place  to  dispose  of  things  exter- 
nal in  the  church  as  we  shall  think  them  to  be  convenient  and 
profitable  for  advancing  true  religion  among    our   subjects. 

'  Spottiswooil,  b.  vii.  537. — Calderwood,  p.  699. 


1618.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  491 

Wherefore  let  it  be  your  care,  by  all  manner  of  wise  and  dis- 
creet persuasions,  to  induce  them  to  an  obedient  yielding  to 
these  things,  as  in  duty  both  to  God  and  us  they  are  bound, 
and  do  not  think  we  will  be  satisfied  with  delays,  mitigations, 
and  other  we  know  not  what  shifts  thathave  been  proposed ;  for 
we  will  not  be  content  with  any  thing  but  a  simple  and  direct 
acceptation  of  these  articles,  in  the  form  sent  by  us  unto  you 
along  time  past,  considering  both  the  lawfulness  and  undenia- 
ble convenience  of  them  for  the  better  furtherance  of  piety 
and  religion,  the  establishing  whereof  it  had  rather  have  be- 
comed  you  to  beg  of  us,  than  that  we  should  have  needed  thus 
to  urge  the  practice  of  them  upon  you. 

"  These  matters,  indeed,  concern  you  of  the  ecclesiastical 
charge  chiefly ;  neither  would  we  have  called  noblemen, 
barons,  and  others  of  our  good  subjects,  to  the  determination 
of  them,  but  that  we  understand  the  offence  of  the  people  has 
been  so  much  objected  ;  wherein  you  must  bear  with  us  to  say, 
that  no  kingdom  doth  breed  or  hath  at  this  time  more  loving, 
dutiful,  or  obedient  subjects,  than  we  have  in  that  our  native 
kingdom  of  Scotland  ;  and  so,  if  any  disposition  hath  appeared 
to  the  contrary  in  any  of  them,  we  hold  the  same  to  have  pro- 
ceeded from  among  you ;  albeit,  of  all  sorts  of  men,  ye  are 
they  which  both  of  duty  were  bound,  and  by  particular  bene- 
fits were  obliged  to  have  continued  yourselves,  and  confirmed 
others  by  sound  doctrine  and  exemplary  life,  in  a  reverent  obe- 
dience to  our  commandments.  What  and  how  many  abuses 
were  offered  us  by  divers  of  the  ministry  there,  before  our 
happy  coming  to  the  crown  of  England,  we  can  hardly  forget, 
and  yet  like  not  much  to  remember ;  neither  think  we  that 
any  prince  living  should  have  kept  himself  from  falling  in  utter 
dislike  with  the  profession  itself,  considering  the  many  provo- 
cations that  were  given  unto  us  ;  but  the  love  of  God  and  his 
truth  still  upheld  us,  and  will,  by  his  grace,  so  do  unto  the 
end  of  our  life.  Our  patience  always,  in  forgetting  and  for- 
giving of  many  faults  of  that  sort,  and  constant  maintaining 
of  true  religion  against  the  adversaries  (by  whose  hateful 
practices  we  live  in  greater  peril  than  you  all,  or  any  of  you), 
should  have  produced  better  effects  among  you  than  continual 
resistance  of  our  best  purposes ;  we  wish  that  we  be  no  more 
provoked,  nor  the  truth  of  God,  which  you  teach  and  profess, 
any  longer  slandered  by  such  as,  under  the  cloak  of  seeming 
holiness,  walk  disorderly  among  you,  shaking  hands,  as  it  were, 
and  joining  in  this  their  disobedience  to  magistracy,  with  the 
upholders  of  popery.  In  sum,  our  hearty  desire  is,  that  at  this 
time  you  make  the  world  see,  by  your  proceedings,  what  a  dii- 


492  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

tiful  respect  you  bear  to  us  your  sovereign  prince  and  natural 
king  and  lord  ;  that  we  in  love  and  care  are  never  wanting  to 
you,  so  ye,  in  an  humble  submission  to  our  so  just  demands,  be 
not  found  inferior  to  others  our  subjects  in  any  of  our  king- 
doms. And  that  the  care  and  zeal  of  the  good  of  God's 
church,  and  of  the  advancing  of  piety  and  truth,  doth  chiefly 
incite  us  to  the  following  of  these  matters,  God  is  our  witness  ; 
the  which,  that  it  may  be  before  your  eyes,  and  that  according 
to  your  callings  you  may  strive  in  your  particular  places,  and 
in  this  general  meeting,  to  do  those  things  which  may  best 
serve  to  the  promoting  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  even  our  prayers 
are  earnest  to  God  for  you ;  requiring  you  in  this  and  other 
things  to  credit  the  bearer  hereof,  our  servant  and  chaplain, 
the  dean  of  Winchester  (Dr.  Young,  a  Scotchman  by  birth), 
whom  we  have  chiefly  sent  thither,  that  he  may  bring  unto  us 
a  certain  relation  of  the  particular  carriages  of  all  matters,  and 
of  the  happy  event  of  your  meeting,  which  by  God's  blessing 
(who  is  the  God  of  order,  peace,  and  truth),  we  do  assuredly 
assent ;  unto  whose  gracious  direction  we  commend  you  now 
and  for  ever." 

"  Given  at  Theobalds,  10th  July,  1618." 

The  king's  letter  having  been  read,  recommending  the  five 
articles  already  mentioned,  a  committee  was  formed  of  "  the 
most  wise  and  discreet  ministers."  A  long  and  fierce  debate 
ensued  both  in  committee  and  in  the  assembly ;  which  ended, 
however,  in  adopting  into  the  canons  of  the  church  the  follow- 
ing conclusions,  commonly  called  The  Five  Articles  of 
Perth  : — 

I.  That  the  holy  sacrament  be  received  meekly  and  reve 
rently  by  the  people  on  their  knees. 

II.  That  if  any  good  christian,  known  to  the  pastor,  be,  by 
long  visitation  of  sickness,  unable  to  resort  to  the  church,  and 
shall  earnestly  desire  to  receive  the  communion  in  his  own 
house,  the  minister  shall  not  deny  him  so  great  a  comfort,  but 
shall  administer  it  to  him,  with  three  or  four  to  communicate 
with  him,  according  to  the  form  prescribed  in  the  church. 

III.  That,  in  cases  of  great  need  and  danger,  the  minister 
shall  not  refuse  to  baptize  an  infant  in  a  private  house,  after 
the  form  used  in  the  congregation  ;  and  shall,  on  the  next 
Lord's  day  after,  declare  such  private  baptism  to  the  people. 

IV.  That,  for  stopping  the  increase  of  poper^',  and  settling 
true  religion  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  it  is  thought  good  that 
the  minister  of  every  parish  catechise  the  young  children,  of 
eight  years  of  age,  in  the  Belief,  the  Ten  Commandments,  and 
tlie  Lord's  l^'-ayc/  ;  and  diat  'jhildren  so  instructed  shall  be 


1618.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  493 

presented  to  the  bishop,  who  shall  bless  them  with  prayer  for 
the  increase  of  their  knowledge,  and  continuance  of  God's 
heavenly  graces  with  them. 

V.  That  considering  how  the  inestimable  benefits  of  our 
Lord's  birth,  passion,  resurrection,  ascension,  and  the  sending 
down  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  were  comraendably  and  godly  remem- 
bered at  certain  particular  days  and  times,  by  the  whole  church 
of  the  world,  and  may  be  so  now  ;  therefore  it  is  thought  meet, 
that  every  minister  shall,  on  these  days,  make  comnaemoration 
of  the  said  inestimable  benefits  from  pertinent  texts  of  scrip- 
ture, framing  his  doctrine  and  exhortation  thereto,  and  re- 
buking all  superstitious  observations  and  licentious  profanation 
thereof*. 

Dr.  Lindsay,  bishop  of  Brechin,  says,  in  his  account  of  this 
assembly,  that  the  words  chosen  to  distinguish  the  votes  were, 
agreey  disagree,  and  non  liquet;  eighty-six  voted  agree,  forty -one 
voted  disagree,  and  four  non  liquet.  Calderwood  gives  many 
reasons  to  prove  that  this  Assembly  was  a  nullity,  and  of  course 
that  the  articles  were  of  no  authority  in  the  church.  Never- 
theless they  were  ratified  by  the  privy  council  on  the  21st  of 
October,  and  proclaimed  at  the  market-cross  of  Edinburgh  on 
the  26th  of  the  same  month,  with  those  formalities  which  gave 
proclamations  the  force  of  law.  After  the  rising  of  this  assem- 
bly, lord  Binning,  the  chief  commissioner,  wrote  the  following 
account  of  it  to  the  king,  and  which  foims  a  complete  refuta- 
tion of  all  the  lamentation,  and  mouniing,  and  woe,  which  the 
presbyterians  have  since  poured  out  upon  it : — 

"  Most  sacred  sovereign, — At  our  coming  to  this  town,  find- 
ing that  the  most  precise  and  wilful  puritans  were  chosen  com- 
missioners by  many  of  the  presbyteries,  especially  of  Lothian 
and  Fife,  I  was  extremely  doubtful  of  the  success  of  your  ma- 
jesty's religious  and  just  desires.  At  the  private  meeting  of 
your  majesty's  commissioners  and  the  bishops,  my  lord  of  St. 
Andrews  denied  not  the  apparent  difficulty ;  but  declared, 
that  being  hopeful  that  the  happiness  which  always  accom- 
panied the  justice  of  your  royal  designs  would  not  fail  in  this 
action,  he  thought  the  victory  would  be  more  perfect,  and  the 
obedience  more  hearty,  when  the  puritans  should  see  the  arti- 
cles concluded  in  the  presence  of  their  greatest  patrons,  their 
opinions  being  confuted  by  lively  reasons  and  undeniable 
truth. 

"  The  sermon  before  the  Assembly  was  made  by  the  bishop 
of  Aberdeen,  who,  with  great  dexterity,  proponed  the  weight 

'  .Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  385. — Calderwood,  713. 


494  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

of  the  purposes  to  be  entreated,  and  the  necessity  of  conside 
ration  ;  that  the  body  of  the  church  being  assembled  by  your 
royal  direction,  for  treating  of  articles  pi'oponed  by  your  ma- 
jesty, first  to  a  number  of  the  principal  ministers  at  St.  An- 
drews, and  thereafter  in  the  assembly  at  St.  Andrews,  your 
majesty  had  conceived  great  offence  for  the  delays  then  used; 
and  being  persuaded,  in  your  excellent  wisdom  and  conscience, 
that  the  articles  were  just  and  godly,  and  only  shifted  because 
they  were  proponed  by  your  majesty,  by  such  as  had  gloried 
to  be  opposite  to  your  sacred  desires,  it  was  to  be  feared,  if,  at 
this  time,  your  majesty  should  not  receive  satisfaction,  your 
wralh  might  bo  so  kindled,  as  the  church,  losing  your  wonted 
fatherly  favour,  they  might  feel  the  heavy  prejudice  of  that 
consequence;  and,  therefore,  exhorted  them,  in  humility,  zeal, 
and  christian  love,  to  dispose  themselves  to  px-oceed  wisely, 
and  with  all  due  respect  to  your  majesty. 

"  At  the  meeting  of  the  assembly,  the  archbishop  of  St.  An- 
drews made  the  exhortation :  and,  by  a  most  wise  and  godly 
discourse,  remembered  the  auditors  of  your  majesty's  infinite 
benefits  to  the  church  ;  your  wisdom  in  their  direction,  for  the 
keeping  of  purity,  and  suppressing  popery ;  your  patrocinie  oi 
the  good ;  mercy  to  the  offenders  of  their  profession  ;  care  for 
provision  and  maintenance  to  pastors ;  and  learning  and  zeal 
in  defence  of  the  true  religion,  by  your  most  famous  works 
published  against  the  adversaries,  which  had  incensed  the 
papists  to  think  your  majesty  the  only  let  of  their  prevailing, 
and  for  that  only  quarrel  to  seek,  by  treacherous  means,  the 
trouble  of  your  estate,  and  destruction  of  your  sacred  person ; 
and  the  true  professors  through  all  Europe  to  honour  your  ma- 
jesty as  the  protector  of  all  the  reformed  churches,  and  to  ac- 
knowledge your  majesty  the  umpire,  and  most  competent  and 
best  qualified  judge,  of  all  controversies  arising  amongst  them. 
Exhorting,  therefore,  every  one  to  consider  and  acknowledge 
how  justly  they  were  bound  to  express  their  loyal  respect  and 
true  obedience  to  your  majesty,  by  yielding  to  your  lawful  de- 
sires in  the  articles  proponed. 

"  The  exhortation  ended,  he  called  the  commissioners  and 
nominated  these  for  the  conference.  Some  proponed  that  a  mo- 
derator might  be  chosen;  whom  he  silenced,  because  he  wovdd 
not  suffer  the  privilege  of  his  place  to  be  questioned :  and, 
thereafter,  rehearsing  what  had  been  done  in  the  assembly  at 
St.  Andrews,  and  wittily  taking  it  pro  confesso  that  all  the  ar- 
ticles were  in  substance  allowed  there  except  that  of  kneeling 
at  the  communion,  proponed  that  to  be  disputed.  Great  in- 
s'ance  was  made  that  the  matter,  being  of  so  high  consequence. 


1618.]     '  CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND.  495 

might  be  entreated  in  the  public  Assembly ;  but  the  contrary 
was  ordained.     Difficulty  was  made  anent  the  conception  of 
the  words  of  the  question,  and  the  opposites  urged  that  reasons 
might  be  given  why  the  article  was  necessary.     It  was  an- 
swered and  concluded,  that  the  articles  coming  from  your  ma- 
jesty should  be  allowed,  unless  they  could  prove  it  were  un- 
lawful.    So  Master  William    Scott,  of  Cupar,  being  com- 
manded to  speak,  opponed  against  the  article  with  modesty,  and 
protestation  that  he  would  be  unwilling  to  adduce  reasons  to 
impugn  a  proposition  coming  from  your  majesty;  and  there- 
after proceeding  to  his  arguments,  was  seconded  by  Master 
John  Carmichael,  with  more  vehemency  and  wilfulness.    They 
alleged,  that  the  order  presently  obsen'ed  in  this  country  being 
agreeable  to  the  word,  and  Christ's  institution,  and  they  sworn, 
at  their  admission  to  the  ministry,  to  observe  the  true  religion 
and  discipline  received  in  this  church,  they  could  not,  with  a 
safe  conscience,  alter  it:  which  being  censured,  they  came 
to  the  substance  of  the  question  anent  the  manner  of  receiving, 
and  spent  the  rest  of  that  day  and  a  part  of  the  next  in  disputa- 
tion upon  that  subject ;  nothingbeing  omitted  by  the  adversaries 
which  their  own  inventions,  or  the  writings  of  those  who  allow 
their  opinion,  could  suggest.     Which  being  wisely  and  learn- 
edly refuted  by  my  lord  of  Glasgow,  whom  Dr.  Lindsay,  of 
Dundee,  and  Dr.  Philp,  of  Arbroath,  Dr.  Bruce,  and  some 
others  of  the  best  and  most  learned,  did  assist  with  many  evi- 
dent and  pithy  reasons,  the  article  was  ordained  to  be  voted 
in  the  conference,  and  in  the  end  allowed  by  so  great  odds  of 
voices  as  gave  wonderful  contentment  to  all  the  well-affected. 
Yet  the  number  of  the  vulgar  ministers  having  vote  in  the  jKib- 
lic  Assembly  being  veiy  great,  our  doubt  rested  what  the  event 
might  be,  of  that  which  depended  upon  the  opinions  of  a  mul- 
titude of  ignorant  or  pre-occupied  people.    For  remeid  thereof, 
my  lord  St.  Andrews,  who,  in  direction,  disputation,  and  all 
other  circumstances  of  this  action,  expressed  great  wisdom, 
learning,  and  authority,  well  beseeming  his  place,  delayed  the 
voting  the  second  day,  that  he  and  his  brethren  might  have 
some  time  to  dispose  things  to  a  wished  end. 

"  This  day  the  bishop  of  Galloway  made  a  very  pertinent 
sermon  to  persuade  the  brethren  to  peace  and  edification. 
Thereafter  the  Assembly  convening,  new  disturbances  were 
casten  in  to  reinverse  all  that  was  done  in  the  conference,  and 
bring  it  of  new  to  disputation,  so  as  my  lord  of  St.  Andrews 
was  forced  to  permit  all  the  articles  to  be  of  new  reasoned;  and 
if  he  had  not  by  very  grave  authority  reduced  their  discourses 
to  succinct  and  formal  reasoning,  it  had  been  impossible  to 


496  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  XII. 

bring  matters  to  any  conclusion.  Some  oppositions  made  yes- 
terday were  this  day  repeated,  and  little  of  any  substance 
added  by  such  as  were  not  of  the  conference;  all  which  were 
judiciously  and  perspicuously  refuted  by  my  lords  of  St.  An- 
drews and  Glasgow,  and  Drs.  Lindsay  and  Philp,  whose  faith- 
ful and  profitable  endeavours  merit  your  majesty's  gracious 
remembrance. 

"  If  complaint  be  made  by  Master  John  Carmichael,  that  I 
would  not  suffer  him  to  enlarge  his  discourse  of  the  ancient 
controversy  betwixt  the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches  anent 
the  precise  day  of  Christ's  birth,  I  must  have  recourse  to  ydiu- 
majesty's  mercy. 

"  In  end,  my  lord  St.  Andrews,  cutting  short  their  affected 
shifts,  whereby  they  intended  either  to  disappoint  the  matter, 
or  to  persuade  the  Assembly  to  remit  it  to  another  meeting, 
he  ordained  this  proposition  only  to  be  voted, — Wliether  the 
Assembly  would  obey  your  majesty  in  admitting  the  articles 
proponed  by  your  majesty,  or  refuse  them  ?  Some  insisted  to 
have  them  severally  voted  ;  but  both  he  and  the  dean  of  Win- 
chester, (whose  diligence,  discretion,  council,  and  good  assist- 
ance in  this  service,  have  been  faithful  and  very  commendable,) 
declared,  that  your  majesty  would  receive  none,  if  all  were  not 
granted  ;  and  so  being  put  to  voting  in  these  terms,  four  score 
and  six  allowed  the  articles,  forty  and  one  refused  them,  and 
three  were  non  liquet. 

"  My  lord  of  Scoon  antiquum  obtinet,  and  will  never  aberrare 
a  via  regia.  My  lord  Carnegie,  the  treasurer-depute,  advocate, 
Kilsyth,  and  Sir  Andrew  Carr,  have  done  that  faithful  duty 
that  became  them. 

"  The  earl  of  Lothian,  the  lords  Sanquhar,  Uchiltree,  and 
Boyd,  did  likewise  attend,  with  a  good  number  of  honourable 
and  well-affected  barons ;  but  the  praise  of  the  success  being 
only  due  to  the  wisdom  of  your  majesty's  directions,  the  wor- 
thiest instruments  have  been  the  two  archbishops,  and  the 
bishops  of  Galloway  and  Aberdeen,  and  the  remanent  of  their 
estate,  of  whom  none  were  negligent  or  remiss,  but  professedly 
resolved  in  the  advancement  of  the  action.  Many  ministers 
kythed  very  dutifully  both  in  reasoning  and  voting ;  but  all 
these  particulars  I  must  remit  to  the  dean  of  Winchester's  re- 
lation :  only  assuring  your  majesty,  that  albeit  the  contention 
was  vehement,  both  in  the  conference  and  public  assembly, 
yet,  after  they  were  voted,  there  appeared  great  contentment 
in  many  good  men's  faces,  for  the  happy  and  peaceable  appro- 
bation of  your  majesty's  articles.  If  your  continual  care  of  the 
good  of  this  country  and  church  move  your  royal  mind  to  in- 


1618.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  497 

tend  hereafter  any  church  matters  of  such  consequence,  I  be- 
seech your  majesty,  for  the  good  of  your  own  service,  to  employ 
a  more  fit  commissioner  in  my  place,  who  am  as  unskilful  in 
thir  subjects  as  I  am  ungracious  to  the  opposites.  So  thank- 
ing God  for  the  blessed  end  of  thir  affairs,  and  praying  him 
that  your  majesty  may  long  live  and  hapjaily  prevail  in  all  your 
royal  enterprizes,  I  rest  your  majesty's  most  humble,  faithful, 
and  bound  servant,  "  Binning." 

"  St.  Johnston,  [Perth,]  27th  August,  at  night,  1G18. 
"  To  the  King's  Most  Sacred  Majesty.'' 

Although  these  articles  were  passed  by  a  ma.jority  of  the  As- 
sembly, and  were  ordained  to  be  intimated  from  all  the  pulpits 
in  the  kingdom,  and  the  ministers  were  instructed  to  explain 
them  to  the  people,  and  exhort  them  to  obedience,  yet  the  godly 
brethren  of  presbyterian  sentiments  universally  neglected  to 
do  so.  In  Edinburgh,  the  people  deserted  their  parish  churches, 
where  obedience  to  the  acts  was  observed,  and  went  in 
crowds  to  attend  churches  where  "  the  sincerer  sort"  preached 
against  their  observance,  and  tliundered  anathemas  on  them, 
as  popish  superstitions.  It  seems  surprising  that,  in  a  christian 
country,  any  opposition  should  have  been  made  to  such  simple 
and  innocent  articles.  If  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  sup])er 
is  allowed  to  be  necessary  for  salvation,  it  is  more  parti- 
cularly desirable  on  the  bed  of  sickness,  and  in  the  hour  of 
death.  And  as  it  is  declared,  that  without "  being  bom  again 
of  water  and  of  the  Spirit,  we  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,"  it  was  unfeeling  to  refuse  the  laver  of  regenera- 
tion to  a  sickly  infant  at  the  point  of  death,  which,  rather  than 
baptize  at  any  other  time  than  during  sermon,  they  suffered  to 
die  without  being  made  "  a  new  creature  ?"  The  Jewish  festi- 
vals were  appointed  by  God  himself,  to  be  observed  so  long  as 
the  Aaronical  priesthood  should  endure  ;  and  our  Saviour,  who 
came  "  not  to  destroy  the  law,  but  to  fulfil  it,"  invariably  ho- 
noured all  the  Jewish  festivals  with  his  sacred  presence.  He 
was  born  at  the  feast  of  Tabernacles ;  He  suffered  the  cruel  and 
ignominious  death  of  the  cross  at  the  Passover ;  and  He  sent 
the  Comforter  to  guide  his  church  unto  all  truth  at  the  feast  of 
Weeks,  or  Pentecost,  now  commonly  called  Whitsunday.  This 
striking  coincidence  showed  their  relation  and  connection,  and 
pointed  out  the  correspondence  of  the  type  with  the  antitype, 
the  shadow  with  the  substance,  the  prediction  with  its  accom- 
plishment, and  demonstrated  to  the  faithful,  that  the  Jewish 
and  Christian  religions  are  not  two  separate  and  unconnected 
dispensations,  but  were  parts  of  one  stupendous  plan  of  redemp- 

VOL.  I.  3  s 


498  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

tion.  Besides,  the  church  has  the  example  of  the  apostles 
themselves,  and  *'  the  current  sense  of  the  church,"  in  all  ages, 
in  all  places,  "  ainong  all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  people,  and 
tongues,"  from  their  times  to  the  present  day.  It  is  not  to  be 
imagined  that  God  himself  would  ordain  the  annual  celebra- 
tion of  the  types,  which  were  but  mere  earthly  blessings,  and 
in  which  one  nation  only  was  interested,  and  yet  intend  the  sub- 
stance itself,  in  which  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  are  blessed,  to 
be  considered  simply  as  historical  events  of  no  importance,  and 
which  were  never  once  to  be  noticed,  but  to  be  thrown  aside 
with  contempt  as  popish  superstitions. 

1619. — In  the  end  of  the  preceding  year  an  unusually  large 
comet  appeared,  which  was  thought  by  the  superstitious  to  be 
of  sinister  omen.  The  Perth  articles  were  passed,  however, 
before  it  appeared,  so  it  could  not  portend  their  introduction, 
as  one  of  the  later  corruptions  of  the  "  sincerest  kirk  in  the 
world."  Queen  Anne  died  just  after  its  appearance,  "  to  the 
great  regret  of  all  honest  subjects :  a  courteous  and  humane 
princess,  and  one  in  whom  there  was  much  goodness  ^"  The 
king  was  not  very  uxorious, "  though  he  had  a  very  brave  queen." 
She  never  crossed  his  schemes  or  intentions,  nor  interfered  with 
the  politics  or  affairs  of  state ;  "  but  ever  complied  with  him 
[the  king]  even  against  tire  nature  of  any  but  of  a  mild  nature." 

The  obstinacy  of  many  people,  in  refusing  to  yield  obedience 
to  the  acts  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Perth,  created  many 
disputes,  and  much  party  spirit ;  and  withal,  the  magistrates 
of  Pidinburgh  were  suspected  of  conniving  at  the  general  deser- 
tion of  the  churches.  In  some  of  them,  likewise,  even  where 
the  articles  were  acknowledged,  the  clergy  treacherously  con- 
demned them  in  their  sermons,  as  popish  superstitions.  Against 
such  unreasonable  and  partizan  opposition,  it  was  impolitic  to 
press  the  observance  of  the  articles,  till  time  had  gradually 
worn  off  the  prejudice,  and  had  allowed  the  good  sense  of  the 
people  to  resume  its  empire,  which  the  measures  of  the  court 
completely  laid  under  the  control  of  the  most  furious  and  vio- 
lent of  the  godly  brethren.  In  Edinburgh,  the  middling  and 
lower  classes  persisted  in  their  usual  occupations  on  Christmas 
day ;  and  several  tradesmen  were  reprimanded  in  the  Court 
of  High  Commission,  and  admonished  to  be  more  circumspect 
in  future.  The  nobility,  judges,  and  privy  council,  attended 
divine  service  at  Christmas,  and  received  the  communion  kneel- 
ing. Some  of  the  clergy  accused  the  magistrates  of  using  them 
ill ;  and  they  in  their  turn  denounced  the  clergy'  ^^  Ua\r^^  *^-^ 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  540, 


1619.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  499 

cause  of  the  people's  disobedience  to  the  articles  ;  some  of  them 
having  directly  preached  against  them,  and  affirmed  that  they 
had  been  passed  against  their  inclinations.  It  will  be  recol- 
lected, that  the  obnoxious  acts  were  proposed  by  the  crown, — the 
bishops  were  merely  ministerial  in  carrying  the  king's  inten- 
tions into  effect.  They  themselves,  in  the  first  instance,  opposed 
their  introduction,  not  as  being  improper  in  themselves,  but  as 
impolitic  in  the  present  hostile  temper  of  the  people  ;  neverthe- 
less, there  was  a  large  majority  of  the  Assembly  favourable  to 
them.  The  king,  on  inquiry,  found  faults  on  both  sides,  as 
usual,  and  commanded  the  privy  council  to  appoint  other  four 
ministers,  and  to  complete  the  division  of  the  city  of  Edinburgh 
into  parishes.  Severe  measures  were  unhappily  resorted  to, 
to  compel  the  refractory  part  of  the  clergy  fo  officiate  in  their 
churches  on  the  holidays,  but  more  especially  to  administer  the 
sacrament  to  the  people  kneeling  ^  According  to  Calder- 
wood's  account,  a  most  perverse  spirit  actuated  the  people 
against  kneeling  at  the  communion,  and  the  decision  of  the 
synod  of  Dort,  against  the  five  points  of  Arminius,  was  ma- 
levolently wrested  to  excite  the  minds  of  the  people  against  the 
five  acts  of  Perth.  Richard  Dickson,  one  of  the  ministers  of 
St.  Cuthberts,  was  deprived  and  imprisoned  by  the  Court  of 
High  Commission,  because,  during  the  celebration  of  his  com- 
munion, to  which  many  of  the  puritans  had  resorted  from 
other  parishes,  he  "  declared  that  the  conclusion  of  the  General 
Assembly  was  in  itself  superstitious  and  damnable,  and  in- 
clined for  the  most  part  to  idolatry"^''' 

Contemporary  with  the  Assembly  of  Perth,  or  soon  after, 
the  Synod  of  Dort  met,  and  which  unhappily  king  James  so 
far  countenanced  as  to  send  the  bishop  of  Landaff  to  it  as  his 
representative.  Johia  Calvin  has  had  the  unenviable  felicity 
of  introducing  move  divisions,  and  envyings  and  strifes,  into 
the  church,  than  any  individual  since  the  days  of  Simon  Magus. 
He  has  rendered  the  work  of  God  the  Son  of  no  avail  by  his 
eternal  decree  ;  the  commandments  of  God  the  Father  a  mere 
mockery,  and  the  keeping  of  them  by  the  promised  assistance 
of  God  the  Holy  Ghost  a  matter  of  indifference.  For  upon 
his  system,  to  what  good  purpose  is  it  though  the  reprobate 
should  keep  the  commandments  with  the  utmost  fidelity  ?  or 
what  bad  consequence  can  result  to  the  elect  if  they  should 
wallow  in  all  the  works  of  the  flesh  ?  the  one  will,  notwithstand- 
ing, be  condemned,  and  the  other  will  be  saved,  whatever  their 
faith  and  works  may  be  in  this  life.     With  all  its  infallibility 

'  Spottiswood,  p.  540. — Calderwood,  724.  ^  Calderwood,  p.  722. 


500  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

and  despotism,  even  the  Romish  church  has  not  been  able  to 
exclude  these  doctrines  from  being  rooted  and  grounded  in  it ; 
but  presbytery  long  seems  to  have  been  its  most  congenial 
soil,  which  always  cherished  cold  disquisitions,  dark  specula- 
tions on  the  secret  things  of  God,  and  stem  and  gloomy  sour- 
ness of  disposition,  naturally  sliding  into  hypocrisy  and  infi- 
delity. The  Lutherans  were  shocked  at  Calvin's  system,  and  a 
fierce  contention  was  excited  amongst  the  foreign  protestants. 
James  Arminius  was  at  this  time  professor  of  divinity  at  Leyden, 
and  being  himself  a  disciple  of  Calvin's  school,  was  employed 
to  refute  the  Lutheran  sentiments.  This  could  not  be  done 
without  research  and  study ;  and  his  inquiries  led  him  to  an 
opposite  conclusion,  and  in  consequence  of  his  learning,  and 
close  examination  of  the  subject,  he  became  a  more  formidable 
opponent  to  the  Calvinists  than  had  hitherto  appeared.  He 
died  in  1609,  but  his  party  increased,  and  soon  after  presented 
a  remonstrance  to  the  States  of  Holland  containing ^t^e  points. 
1.  That  God  in  election  and  reprobation  has  regard  to  faith 
and  perseverance  in  the  one,  and  to  unbelief  and  impenitence 
in  the  other.  2.  That  Jesus  Christ  died  for  all  men.  3.  That 
by  the  assistance  of  divine  grace  the  commandments  of  God 
maybe  kept.  4.  That  this  grace  is  not  irresistible.  5.  That 
the  regenerate  may  fall  into  deadly  sin.  These  points  wei'e 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  five  Calvinistic  tenets,  which  main- 
tain— 1,  absolute  election  and  reprobation ;  2,  the  irresistibility 
of  grace  ;  3,  the  impossibility  of  keeping  the  commandments  ; 
4,  the  certain  perseverance  of  the  regenerate  [in  their  sense]  ; 
and  5,  that  Christ  died  only  for  the  elect  [in  their  sense  of 
election^]. 

To  allay  the  fei-ocious  disputes  which  these  opposite  opinions 
had  excited,  the  States  of  Holland  convoked  a  synod  at  Dort, 
in  which  the  opinions  of  AiToinius  were  'Synodically  con- 
demned, and  their  supporters  delivered  over  to  the  persecution 
of  the  secular  arm.  The  presbyterian  party  in  Scotland  ap- 
plied to  this  synod,  and  complained  of  episcopacy  and  the 
Perth  articles,  but  without  effect,  as  it  was  not  discipline  but 
doctrine  which  occupied  the  synod's  attention.  Our  puritans, 
however,  derived  some  temporary  advantage  from  the  decision 
of  this  convocation  ;  for  they  falsely  represented  to  the  people 
that  the  condemnation  of  the^we  Arminian  points  was  the  so- 
lemn decision  of  that  synod  against  the  five  articles  of  Perth  ! 
The  advocates  of  all  false  systems  of  religion  have  ever  support- 
ed them  "  after  the  working  of  Satan,  with  all  power  and  signs 

»  Skinnei's  Eccl.  Hist.  ii.  2;0-}'l. 


1619.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  501 

and  lying  wonders,  and  with  all  deceivableness  of  unrighteous- 
ness." Pamphlets  were  published  to  circulate  this  gross  and 
well-known  falsehood  ;  but  which  were  ably  refuted  by  Dr. 
Lindsay,  bishop  of  Brechin,  and  "  by  the  singularly  learned 
Dr.  John  Forbes,  professor  of  divinity  at  Aberdeen,  and  son  to 
the  worthy  Patrick  Forbes  of  Corse,  the  then  bishop  of  that 
see,  both  which  defences  are  sufficient  to  vindicate  the  lawful- 
ness and  obligation  of  the  Perth  articles,  as  they  are  called, 
from  all  the  noisy  and  insignificant  clamours  that  ever  were  or 
ever  will  be  raised  against  them^ ." 

Among  other  inconveniences  of  the  holy  discipline  was  that 
gainsaying,  after  the  manner  of  Core,  of  the  people  meeting  a 
few  days  previous  to  the  communion  to  censure  their  minister, 
and  to  sit  in  judgment  on  his  moral  character,  and  the  doctrine 
which  he  taught.  A  meeting  for  this  purpose  took  place  on  Tues- 
day, the  23d  of  March,  previous  to  the  solemn  commemoration 
of  our  Lord's  resurrection  at  Easter,  when  Mr.  William  Rigge, 
their  leader,  censured  and  condemned  in  very  severe  tenns  all 
the  clergy  who  observed  the  Perth  articles.  This  custom,  which 
shewed  that  the  laity  knew  not  of  what  manner  of  spirit  they 
were,  was  put  a  stop  to  by  the  king,  and  it  reflects  some  discredit 
on  the  clergy  of  that  time  that  they  tamely  submitted  to  it  2. 

Dr.  William  Cowper,  bishop  of  Galloway,  suffered  severely 
from  morbid  sensibility  and  the  scumlous  invectives  of  the 
godly  brethren  respecting  the  synod  of  Perth,  which  he  took 
so  much  to  heart  as  to  cause  his  death.  "  He  was  an  excel- 
lent and  ready  preacher,  and  a  singular  good  man,  but  one  that 
affected  too  much  the  applause  of  the  popular.  The  good 
opinion  of  the  people  is  to  be  desired,  if  it  may  be  had  lawfully; 

but  when  it  cannot  be  obtained  ( )  the  testimony  of  a  well- 

infoi-med  conscience  should  suffice."  Upon  his  death,  Mr. 
Andrew  Lambe  was  translated  from  Brechin  to  Galloway ;  and 
Mr.  David  Lindsay,  minister  of  Dundee,  was  consecrated  on 
the  23d  of  November,  by  archbishop  Spottiswood,  in  the  chapel 
of  the  Castle  of  St.  Andrews^. 

In  June,  1620,  proclamation  was  again  made  at  the  cross  of 
Edinburgh,  for  obedience  to  the  Perth  articles,  to  which  the 
majority  of  the  clergy  throughout  the  kingdom  were  favourable. 
Those,  however,  who  were  seared  with  the  "  holy  discipline," 
encouraged  the  most  irreverent  and  indecent  conduct,  and  ob- 
stinately recommended  their  flocks  to  sit,  stand,  and  even  to 
walk  about,while  they  helped  themselves  to  the  sacred  symbols. 

'  Skinner's  Ecclesiastical  Histoiy,  268.  '^  Calderwood,  p.  723. 

3  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p.  546.— Calderwood,  p.  736. 


502  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

The  refractory  clergy  were  summoned  to  answer  for  this  con- 
tumacy in  the  Court  of  High  Commission;  and  thus,  in  the  eyes 
of  their  deluded  followers,  they  were  elevated  to  the  rank 
of  martyrs. 

1621. — On  Monday,  the  27tli  of  March,  the  archbishop  of 
St.  Andrews  presented  the  king's  letter  to  the  privy  council, 
commanding  the  members  and  the  College  of  Justice  to  keep 
the  feast  of  Easter  with  due  solemnity.  By  proclamation,  all 
parties  who  had  bills  or  petitions  to  present  to  parliament 
were  ordered  to  send  them  to  a  committee  of  the  privy  council 
on  or  before  the  20th  of  May;  but  Calderwood  heavily  com- 
])lains  that  "  that  liberty  which  ministers  were  wont  to  have 
of  a  General  Assembly,  to  send  commissioners  with  articles  to 
the  estates  convened  in  parliament,  was  denied  to  them;  how- 
beit  great  was  the  necessity  long  before,  and  now  specially, 
when  papists  had  become  so  insolent,  and  ministers  were  di- 
vided among  themselves^"  The  good  man  forgot  that  the  heads 
of  the  church  were  one  of  the  estates  of  parliament  through 
whom  all  its  petitions  and  articles  found  a  legitimate  channel. 
Secret  meetings  were  held  by  the  "  sincerer  sort"  of  the  mi- 
nisters, who  were  terrified  at  the  prospect  of  the  Perth  articles 
being  confirmed  in  the  ensuing  parliament,  and  they  reviv^ed 
an  old  device  of  theirs,  of  proclaiming  a  fast  tliroughout  the 
whole  kingdom  on  the  two  last  Sundays  in  June,  "  for  con- 
tempt of  the  word,  the  preservation  of  the  king  and  his  chil- 
dren, the  Turks  laying  in  wait  to  invade  Europe,  .  .  .  and  the 
persecution  of  the  kirks  of  Germany  and  France." 

Parliament  was  summoned  to  meet  on  the  1st  of  June,  but 
was  prorogued  till  the  23d  of  July,  when  it  met  for  the  dis- 
patch of  business.  James,  marquis  of  Hamilton  and  duke  of 
Chatelherault,  was  sent  down  as  lord  high  commissioner.  A 
supply  of  four  hundred  thousand  pounds  Scots  was  granted  to 
the  sovereign.  Some  other  acts  were  also  passed  for  the  cor- 
rection of  the  forms  of  procedure  in  the  courts  of  justice,  and 
for  the  regulation  of  the  police  and  manners  of  the  country. 
One  of  the  chief  objects  of  this  parliament  was  to  confirm  the 
Five  Articles  of  Perth.  The  sincerer  sort  had  openly  boasted 
that  the  king  should  not  be  able  to  accomplish  that  point;  and 
they  came  to  Edinburgh  in  full  force,  with  the  intention  of 
making  the  most  strenuous  efibrts  in  opposition  to  the  measures 
of  the  king's  ministers.  The  commissioner  ordered  all  the 
ministers,  by  proclamation,  to  leave  the  capital  within  twenty- 
four  hours,  except  the  ordinary  parochial  clergy;  but  Alex- 

'  True  History,  p.  759. 


l()2l.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  .503 

ander  Simpson  and  Andrew  Duncan,  two  of  the  number  that 
protested  against  the  five  articles,  and  threatened  to  create  a 
disturbance,  he  committed  to  Dumbarton  Castled  Abou 
thirty  of  the  ministers  had  left  their  cure  of  souls  to  meet  in 
Edinburgh,  in  a  private  house,  "  to  concur,"  as  they  said,  "  for 
the  well  of  the  kirk,  and  according  to  the  ancient  custom  there- 
of, observed  before  in  parliament,  to  consult  upon  weighty  af- 
fairs, as  the  present  case  requireth  consideration."  Previous 
to  obeying  the  proclamation  they  drew  up  a  protest  against 
the  legality  of  the  Perth  Assembly,  and  of  the  articles  there 
enacted.  The  five  acts  were,  however,  ratified  and  confirmed 
in  this  parliament  without  any  opposition,  and  ordained  hence- 
forth "  to  be  obeyed  and  observed  by  all  his  majesty's  sub- 
jects as  law  in  time  coming;  annulling  and  rescinding  what- 
soever other  acts  of  parliament,  constitutions  and  customs, 
in  so  far  as  they  are  derogative  to  any  of  the  articles  above 
written  ^2." 

This  was  James's  last  parliament,  and  that  wherein  he  re- 
ceived the  greatest  satisfaction;  hoping  that  the  remnant  of 
the  Melvillian  faction  would  now  learn  wisdom  with  the 
failure  of  their  seditious  intentions.  It  was  dissolved  on  the  4th 
of  August,  and  he  wrote  to  the  bishops  and  to  the  council,  re- 
commending their  utmost  care  and  vigilance.  To  the  bishops 
he  said,  "  that,  as  they  had  to  do  with  two  sorts  of  enemies, 
papists  and  puritans,  so  they  should  go  forward  in  action,  both 
against  the  one  and  the  other;  that  papistry  was  a  disease  of 
the  mind,  and  puritanism  of  the  brain ; — and  the  antidote  for 
both,  a  grave,  settled,  and  well-ordered  church,  in  the  obe- 
dience of  God  and  their  king."  He  put  the  privy  council  in 
mind  of  what  he  had  written  in  his  Basilicon  Doron,  "  that 
he  would  have  reformation  begin  at  his  own  elbow,  which  he 
esteemed  the  privy  council  and  session,  with  their  members, 
to  be,  as  having  their  places  and  promotion  by  him.  He  there- 
fore commanded  them  to  conform  themselves  to  the  obedience 
of  the  orders  of  the  church  established  by  law ;  and  he  did 
assure  them,  that  if  within  fourteen  days  before  Christmas  they 
did  not  resolve  to  conform  themselves,  they  should  lose  their 
places  in  his  service."  In  the  same  letter  he  commanded  the 
council  to  take  order  "  that  none  should  bear  office  in  any 
burgh,  nor  be  chosen  sheriff"  deputy,  or  clerk,  but  such  as  con- 
formed in  all  points  to  the  said  orders."     It  never  was  neces- 


^  Balfour's  Annals,  il.  91. 

2  Calderwood,  766  —  Ibid.  782.  —  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  p   542.  —  Balfour's 
Annals,  ii.  94. 


504  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

sary  to  put  these  rigorous  and  impolitic  measures  in  force, 
inasmuch  as  the  great  majority  of  the  nation  quietly  received 
and  obeyed  the  Perth  articles.  It  was  the  sincerer  sort,  or 
presbyterian  brethren  only,  that,  with  their  characteristic  spirit 
of  opposition,  resisted  the  acts  of  the  General  Assembly,  and 
drew  off  the  ignorant  and  discontented  people  to  separate 
conventicles.  James's  views  were  liberal  and  benevolent; 
and  had  he  known  the  secret  of  toleration,  and  suffered  the 
dissentients  to  have  enjoyed  their  own  opinions  in  separate 
communions,  much  of  the  rancour  and  embittered  feelings, 
which  subsequently  distracted  and  ruined  that  church,  might 
have  been  prevented  ;  but  toleration  for  the  opinions  or  pi'eju- 
dices  of  other's  was  neither  understood  nor  practised  by  either 
party  at  that  time. 

When  the  king's  commissioner  rose  to  touch  the  Perth  acts 
with  the  sceptre,  the  token  in  the  Scottish  parliament  of  the 
royal  assent,  a  fearful  flash  of  lightning  illuminated  the  hall ; 
after  that,  a  second  and  a  third,  which  were  succeeded  by  thick 
darkness,  to  the  astonishment  and  dismay  of  the  members. 
The  lightning,  as  usual,  was  succeeded  by  three  loud  claps  of 
of  thunder,  and  a  deluge  of  rain,  so  that  in  "  the  riding,"  the 
noblemen  and  others  were  compelled  to  leave  their  horses  and 
betake  themseves  to  their  coaches.  The  godly  brethren  did 
not  fail  to  interpret  this  natural  occurrence  as  a  sure  and 
visible  sign  of  God's  anger  on  the  nation  for  ratifying  the  acts 
of  Perth,  while  others  again  said  it  was  a  sign  of  heaven's 
approbation,  like  the  thunderings  and  lightnings  at  the  giving 
of  the  law  on  Mount  Sinai.  The  sincerer  sort  called  this  me- 
morable day  "  the  Black  Saturday,"  which,  says  Calderwood, 
"  began  with  fire  from  the  earth  in  the  morning"  [the  discharge 
of  cannon  from  the  castle] ,  "  and  ended  with  fire  from  heaven 
in  the  evening ;"  and  he  says  that  this  verified  his  prophecy, 
"  that  the  parliament  could  not  end  well,  the  beginning  was 
so  evil  favoured:  they  were  banishing  God,  and  bringing  in 
the  devil  1." 

1622-24. — The  Melvillian  party  made  a  handle  of  the  Perth 
articles  to  keep  up  that  active  agitation  which  the  vigorous 
and  prudent  government  of  the  bishops  had  almost  suppressed. 
All  those  inclined  for  episcopacy,  which  were  nine-tenths  of 
the  nation,  received  the  Perth  articles  without  a  murmur,  as  a 
decent  and  commendable  order.  Some  of  the  sincerer  brethren, 
especially  in  Edinburgh,  the  old  watch-tower  of  the  presbyte- 
rian party,  had  been  jjarticularly  obnoxious  for  their  dogmatic 

1  True  History,  pp.  765-783.— Balfour's  AnnaL^  ii.  91. 


1622-24.]  CHURCH  of  Scotland.  605 

resistance  to  the  law.  They  formed  a  cabal  in  the  year  1024, 
at  the  head  of  which  was  William  Rigge,  one  of  the  bailies 
or  aldermen,  who  would  have  quietly  sunk  into  an  unknown 
and  unhononred  clod  of  the  valley,  but  for  this  opjjortunity  of 
signalizing  his  opposition.  During  the  supremacy  of  the  holy 
discipline,  a  system  very  much  on  the  plan  of  Korah  and  his 
company  was  introduced,  of  meeting  previous  to  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  holy  sacrament,  and  condemning  or  applauding,  as 
it  suited  their  tastes  or  humours,  the  doctrines  previously 
taught  in  the  pulpit,  with  the  view  of  fixing  the  holy  disci- 
pline in  the  affections  of  the  people.  In  conformity  with  this 
democratic  habit,  Rigge  challenged  Dr.  Forbes,  afterwards  the 
first  bishop  of  Edinburgh,  to  submit  the  doctrines  which  he 
taught,  to  his  censure  and  that  of  some  others  of  Rigge's  senti- 
ments ;  buthejustly  declined  to  permit  alayman  to  pass  ajudicial 
censure  on  his  sermons.  Rigge  therefore  openly  threatened  him 
and  the  other  conforming  clergy,  that  unless  they  all  returned 
to  the  old  method  of  administering  the  sacrament,  by  sitting 
round  long  tables  and  helping  themselves  to  the  elements,  in- 
stead of  the  mode  enjoined  by  the  Perth  Assembly,  of  reve- 
rently kneeling  and  receiving  the  sacred  symbols  out  of  the 
presbyter's  hands,  that  the  \'shole  people  should  forsake  them. 
Rigge,  with  his  party,  were  summoned  before  the  privy  coun- 
cil: the  former  was  deprived  of  his  civic  dignity,  and  rendered 
for  ever  after  incapable  of  holding  office ;  and  the  latter  were 
charged  to  depart  the  city.  The  privy  council  ordained  that 
the  ministers  should  reside  in  their  parishes,  and  all  popular 
elections  to  be  discontinued,  and  the  patronage  of  the  city 
churches  to  be  vested  in  the  magistrates.  Likewise,  that  those 
most  inconsistent  parochial  meetings,  wherein  the  people  cen- 
sured their  clergymen,  and  all  conventicles  and  privy  noctur- 
nal meetings,  which,  says  Balfour,  "  is  the  only  introducer  of 
schism,  and  all  sorts  of  damnable  heresies  in  God's  church," 
should  be  peremptorily  prohibited  ^  These  parochial  censor- 
ships were  the  result  of  building  on  the  sandy  foundations  of 
the  people.  "  The  priest's  lips  are  to  preserve  knowledge," 
but  if  his  doctrine  is  to  be  made  subservient  to  tiie  ignorance 
and  capricious  opinions,  and  subject  to  the  censorship  of  those 
whose  duty  it  is  to  receive  instruction  from  their  appointed 
guides,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  he  would  "  rightly  divide 
the  word  of  truth,"  when  obliged  to  tickle  the  itching  ears  of 
captious  censors  with  popular  doctrines. 

*  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  99. — CalJerwood,  806. — Spottiswood,  545. 
VOL.   I.  8  T 


50G  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

1625. — In  the  month  of  March,  James  was  seized  with  a 
disease,  which  his  physicians  termed  a  tertian  ague,  but  it  is 
supposed  they  mistook  his  complaint,  which  was  gout,  and  by 
improper  remedies  drove  it  from  his  feet  to  the  vital  parts. 
When  the  prince  of  Wales  was  introduced  to  his  bedside,  he 
desired  him  to  love  his  future  wife,  but  to  avoid  her  religion. 
He  expired  at  Theobalds,  with  great  calmness  and  composure, 
on  the  27th  of  March,  being  Sunday,  at  noon.  On  Thursday 
preceding  he  desired  to  have  the  holy  sacrament  administered 
to  him,  which  he  received  with  great  devotion ;  and  professed 
to  the  prince  of  Wales  that  he  had  received  a  singular  comfort 
thereby.  "  He  was  the  Solomon  of  his  age,  admired  for  his 
government,  and  for  his  knowledge  of  all  manner  of  learning. 
For  his  wisdom,  moderation,  love  of  justice;  for  his  patience 
and  piety  (which  shined  above  all  his  other  virtues,  and  is 
witnessed  in  the  learned  works  he  left  to  posterity),  his  name 
shall  never  be  forgotten,  but  remain  in  honour  so  long  as  the 
w^orld  endureth^"  Sir  James  Balfour  ascribes  his  death  to 
poison,  administered  by  his  most  unworthy  favourite,  the  duke 
of  Buckingham.  He  says, — "  Died  king  James,  of  most  fa- 
mous and  worthy  memory,  surnamed  the  king  of  peace,  ho- 
noured and  admired  by  the  greatest  kings  of  the  world,  for  his 
wisdom  and  prudent  government;  not  without  great  and  preg- 
nant suspicion  of  poison'^.'''' 

He  declared  on  his  death-bed  that  he  died  in  the  com- 
munion of  the  church  of  England,  and  faithfully  attached  to 
both  her  doctrine  and  discipline.  His  actual  reign  over  Scot- 
land was  nearly  commensurate  with  his  life,  and  he  reigned 
over  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  twenty-tvv^o  years  and  three 
days.  Writers  of  all  creeds  and  politics  have  agreed  to  exag- 
gerate his  failings,  and,  following  the  tactics  of  the  Melvillian 
party,  have  heaped  obloquy  and  vituperation  on  his  memory, 
forgetting,  in  the  heat  of  religious  animosity,  that  the  manners 
and  sentiments  of  the  age  in  which  he  flourished  were  essen- 
tially different  from  those  of  the  present.  He  is  accused  of 
having  been  coarse,  awkward,  and  ungainly  in  his  manners : 
but  it  should  be  at  the  same  time  recollected,  that  he  had  no 
female  court  in  which  to  form  his  manners  in  early  life.  His 
preceptors  and  courtiers  in  youth  were  rebels,  regicides,  and 
public  robbers,  in  whose  hands  he  was  a  mere  tool  to  answer 
their  guilty  ends.  Had  not  Moray  been  cut  short  in  his  guilty 
career  by  the  hand  of  an  infamous  assassin,  it  is  probable  that 

'  Spottiswood,  b.  vii.  546.         *  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.  ii.  An,  1625,  p.  102. 


1625.J  CilUECll  OF  SCOTLAND.  507 

his  life  would  have  been  sacrificed  to  the  regent's  inordinate 
ambition. 

James  was  a  man  of  undoubted  abilities.  At  the  age  of 
eighteen  he  emancipated  himself  from  the  trammels  of  the 
regicides,  and  his  kingdom  from  the  sovereignty  of  Elizabeth, 
to  whom  it  had  been  delivered  by  the  regent-'  She  go- 
verned it  all  the  time  of  the  four  regents,  till  James  restored 
his  country's  freedom,  and  taught  that  despot  to  respect  him 
as  the  sovereign  of  an  independent  kingdom.  By  his  sagacity 
and  prudence,  he  conciliated  not  only  her  good  will,  but  the 
hearty  good  wishes  of  both  the  Anglo-Catholics  and  the  pa- 
pists, for  his  succession  to  the  throne  of  England.  We  are  in- 
formed that  God  keeps  the  hearts  of  kings  in  his  own  hands — 
the  truth  of  which  was  powerfully  exemplified  in  James.  Bu- 
chanan, his  preceptor,  instilled  into  his  young  mind  the  most 
democratic  and  republican  principles, but  which  he  repudiated 
when  he  assumed  the  reins  of  government.  The  same  Power 
under  whose  rule  and  governance  are  the  hearts  of  kings,  also 
"  stilleth  the  unruly  wills  of  men."  The  ancient  national  jea- 
lousies and  antipathies  were  entirely  laid  aside,  and  the  Eng- 
lish nation,  as  one  man,  hailed  his  accession  to  the  throne  of 
England ;  there  was  not  one  dissentient  voice  in  the  whole 
kingdom,  which  marks  the  finger  of  God.  James  restored  to 
England  the  line  of  her  ancient  Saxon  monarchs,  being 
lineally  descended  from  Margaret  Atheling,  the  daughter 
of  the  true  heir  of  the  throne  of  England  of  the  Saxon  line. 

Great  obloquy  has  been  thrown  on  James  by  the  presby  terian 
party,  because,  as  they  allege,  he  deserted  "  the  sincerest  kirk 
in  the  world,"  where  alone  "  was  the  pure  light  of  the  gospel," 
and  became  a  convert  to  the  church  of  England.  He  cannot 
be  called  a  convert  to  that  church,  inasmuch  as  he  was  edu- 
cated a  member  of  a  titular  episcopal  church,  which,  we  have 
Buchanan's  assurance,  was  in  communion  with  the  church  of 
England,  and  "  subscribed  to  its  rites  and  ceremonies ;"  and 
the  whole  object  of  his  reign  was  to  bring  the  titular  church 
of  Scotland  to  conformity  and  unity,  as  far  as  circumstances 
would  admit,  with  the  church  of  England.  When  he  as- 
sumed the  reins  of  government,  he  found  a  nominal  episco- 
pacy established  as  the  religion  of  his  kingdom ;  and  when 
he  afterwards  consented  to  the  establishment  of  presbytery,  he 
reluctantly  yielded  to  a  torrent  which  he  found  himself  inca- 
pable of  controling.  From  its  determined  imitation  of  the 
church  of  Rome  in  usurping  a  supremacy  over  the  crown,  and 
n  assuming  an  unlimited  censorial  control  over  all  conditions, 
from  the  prince  to  the  peasant,  he  was  compelled  to  set  it 


508  HISTORY  OF  TIIJS  [CHAP.  XII. 

aside,  not  however  before  its  tyranny  was  become  intolerable 
to  the  nation,  and  to  restore  the  same  titular  episcopacy  which 
he  found  established  when  he  ascended  the  throne. 

In  his  answer  to  Bellarmine^,  he  himself  refutes  the 
calumny  of  his  ever  having  been  a  presbyterian  : — "  I  am  no 
apostate,"  he  says,  "  as  the  Cardinal  would  make  me,  not  only 
having  ever  been  brought  up  in  that  religion  which  I  presenthj 
jirqfess^  but  even  my  father  and  grandfather  on  that  side  pro- 
fessing the  same  :  and  so  cannot  be  properly  a  heretic,  by  their 
own  doctrine,  since  I  never  was  of  their  church.  And  as  for 
the  queen,  my  mother,  of  worthy  memory,  although  she  con- 
tinued in  that  religion  wherein  she  was  nourished,  yet  was  she 

far  from  being  superstitious  or  Jesuitic  therein as  in 

all  her  letters  (whereof  I  received  many)  she  never  made  men- 
tion of  religion,  nor  laboured  to  persuade  me  in  it;  so  at  her 
last  words,  she  commanded  her  master-household  .  . :  . .  to  tell 
me,  '  that  although  she  was  of  another  religion  than  that 
wherein  I  was  brought  up,  yet  she  would  not  press  on  me  to 
change,  except  my  own  conscience  forced  me  to  it ;  for  so  that 
I  led  a  good  life,  and  were  careful  to  do  justice  and  govern 
well,  she  doubted  not  but  I  should  be  in  a  good  case  with  the 
profession  of  my  own  religion.'  Thus  I  am  no  apostate,  nor 
yet  a  deborder  from  that  religion  which  one  part  of  my  parents 
professed,  and  another  part  gave  me  good  allowance  of.  Nei- 
ther can  my  baptism  in  the  rites  of  their  religion  make  me  an 
apostate  or  heretic  in  respect  of  my  present  profession,  since 
we  all  agree  in  the  substance  thereof,  being  all  baptized  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  upon  which 
there  is  no  variance  among  us." 

And  upon  the  subject  of  ecclesiastical  government,  he  says, 
"  That  bishops  ought  to  be  in  the  church,  I  ever  maintained 
as  an  apostolic  institution,  and  so  the  ordinance  of  God ;  con- 
trary to  the  puritans,  and  likewise  to  Bellarmine,  who  denies 
that  bishops  have  their  jurisdiction  immediately  from  God; 
(but  it  is  no  wonder  he  takes  the  puritans'  part,  since  Jesuits 
are  nothing  but  puritan-papists.)  And  as  I  ever  maintained 
the  estate  of  bishops,  and  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  for  order 
sake,  so  was  I  ever  an  enemy  to  the  confused  anarchy  or  parity 
of  the  puritans,  as  well  appeareth  in  my  Basilicon  Doron. 
Heaven  is  governed  by  order,  and  all  the  good  angels  there, 
nay,  hell  itself,  could  not  subsist  without  some  order  ;  and  the 
very  devils  are  divided  into  legions,  and  have  their  chieftains  ; 
how  can  any  society,  then,  upon  earth  subsist  without  order 

'  Cited  in  Scott.  Ep.  Mag.  for  Marcli  1821,  p.  51,  vol,  ii. 


lG-25.]  CHURCH  of  scotlanp.  509 

and  degrees?  And  therefore  I  cannot  enough  wonder  with 
what  brazen  face  any  one  can  say  that  I  was  a  puritan  in 
Scotland,  and  an  enemy  to  protestants, — I  that  was  persecuted 
by  puritans  there,  not  from  my  birth  only,  but  ever  since  four 
months  before  my  birth !  —I  tliat  in  the  year  of  God  84, 
erected  bishops,  and  depressed  all  their  popular  party,  I  then 
being  not  18  years  of  age! — I  that  in  my  said  book  to  my  son, 
do  spealc  ten  times  more  bitterly  of  them  nor  of  the  papists, 
having  in  my  second  edition  thereof  aiSixed  a  long  apologetic 
preface,  only  in  odium  puritanorum ! — and  I  that,  for  the  space 
of  six  years  before  my  coming  into  England,  laboured  nothing 
so  much  as  to  depress  their  parity,  and  re-erect  bishops  again  ! 
— Nay,  if  the  daily  commentaries  of  my  life  and  actions  in 
Scotland  were  written  (as  Julius  Cesar's  were),  there  would 
scarcely  a  month  pass  in  all  my  life,  since  my  entering  on  the 
13th  year  of  my  age,  wherein  some  accident  or  other  would 
not  convice  the  cardinal  of  a  lie  in  this  point.  And  surely  I 
give  a  fair  commendation  to  the  puritans  in  that  place  of  my 
book  where  I  affirm,  that  I  have  found  greater  honesty  with 
the  highland  and  border  thieves,  than  with  that  sort  of 
peopled" 

In  appointing  the  Scottish  bishops,  James  took  the  most  ef- 
fectual method  of  securing  a  succession  of  the  most  eminent 
and  pious  men  :  it  was  his  custom,  when  a  bishopric  fell  void, 
to  appoint  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  to  convene  the  others, 
and  name  three  or  four  well  qualified,  so  that  there  could  not 
be  an  error  in  the  choice,  and  then  out  of  the  list  the  king 
selected  one  whom  he  preferred ^ 

In  consequence  of  his  continual  bickerings  with  the  factious 
and  irreverent  presbyterian  brethren,  and  the  errors  of  his  edu- 
cation, he  was  apt  to  speak  rashly  and  unadvisedly  with  his 
lips  ;  but  which  afterwards  he  heartily  lamented  and  bewailed, 
and  said  he  hoped  God  woidd  not  impute  his  taking  his  holy 
name  in  vain  as  sins,  and  lay  them  to  his  charge,  seeing  they 
proceeded  from  passion.  Yet  it  is  a  remarkable  circumstance, 
vouched  by  Fuller,  that  in  the  presence  of  bishop  Andrews, 
who  was  himself  of  a  facetious  disposition,  James  invariably 
ceased  his  levity  and  rashness  of  speech,  and  always  stood 
much  in  awe  of  him. 

"  He  was  very  witty,  and  had  as  many  ready  witty  jests  as 
any  man  living  ;  at  which  he  would  not  smile  himself,  but  de- 
liver them  in  a  grave  and  serious  manner.     He  was  very  libe- 

'  Extract  from  a  curious  work,  by  James  VL  in  Ep.  Mag.  ii.  55. 
*=  Guthry's  Mem.  IG. 


510  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII. 

ral  of  what  he  had  not  in  his  own  grip,  and  would  rather  part 
with  o£lOO  he  never  had  in  his  own  keeping,  than  one  twenty- 
shilling-piece  within  his  own  custody.  He  spent  much,  and 
had  much  use  of  his  subjects'  purses,  which  bred  much  clash- 
ings  with  them  in  the  parliament,  yet  would  he  always  come  off 

and  end  with  a  sw^eet  and  plausible  close In  a  word,  he 

was,  take  him  altogether  (and  not  in  pieces),  such  a  king  I 
wish  this  kingdom  have  never  any  worse,  on  the  condition  not 
any  better ;  for  he  lived  in  peace,  died  in  peace,  and  left  all  his 
kingdoms  in  a  peaceable  condition,  with  his  own  motto  : — 
Beati  pacifici^. 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  108-115. 

An  Epitaph  upon  king  James's  death,  written  by  the  Rev,  Dr.   Morley,  of 
Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford  : — 

"  All  who  have  eyes  awake  and  weep, 
For  he  whose  waking  wrought  our  sleep 
Is  fallen  asleep  himself,  and  never 
Shall  awake  again  till  wak'd  for  ever  : 
Deatli's  iron  hand  hath  closed  those  eyes 
Which  were  at  once  three  kingdoms'  spies, 
Both  to  foresee,  and  to  prevent 
Dangers  as  soon  as  they  were  meant. 
That  head,  whose  working  brain  alone 
Wrought  all  men's  quiet  but  its  own, 
Now  lies  at  rest.     O  let  him  have 
The  peace  he  lent  us,  in  his  grave. 
If  that  no  Naboth  all  his  reign 
Was  for  his  fruitful  vineyard  slain  ; 
If  no  Uriah  lost  his  life 
Because  he  had  too  fair  a  wife ; 
Then  let  no  Shimei's  curses  wound 
His  lionour,  or  profane  his  ground, 
Let  no  black-mouth'd,  no  rank-breath'd  cur 
Peaceful  James  his  ashes  stir. 
Princes  are  gods  ;  O  !  do  not,  then. 
Rake  in  their  graves  to  prove  them  men.  ' 

For  two-and-twenty  years'  long  care  ; 
For  providing  such  an  heir, 
Wlio  to  the  peace  we  had  before 
May  add  twice  two-and-twenty  more  ; 
For  his  days'  travels  and  nights'  watches  : 
For  his  craz'd  sleep,  stol'n  by  snatches  ; 
For  two  fair  kingdoms  join'd  in  one  ; 
For  all  he  did,  or  meant  t'  have  done  ; 
Do  this  for  him — write  on  his  dust, 

JAMES,  THE  TEACKFULAND  THE  JUST." 


CHURCH   OF   SCOTLAND.  iill 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

PRIMACY  OF  ARCHBISHOP  SPOTTISWOOD. 

FROM  THE  ACCESSION  OP  CHARLES  I.  TILL  THE  RIOT  ON  ACCOUNT  OF  THE 

LITURGY. 

1G25. — Accession  of  Charles  I. —  Proclaimed. — Marriage  of  the  king. — Some 
items  of  the  marriage  contract. — The  queen's  popish  domestics  sent  out  of  the 
kingdom. — The  king's  embarrassments. — Intrigues  of  the  presbyterian  party — 
send  a  deputation  to  court — fasts — the  nobility  unite  with  the  disaffected  minis- 
ters.  1C26. — Charles  determined  to  follow  out  his  father's  plans. — Attempt 

to  resume  the  church  lands — difficulties  experienced. — Alterations  in  the  Court 
of  Session. — Prelates  made  privy  councillors. — Lenity  shewn  to  those  who 
scrupled  to  comply  with  the  Perth  articles. 1627. — Measures  for  the  sup- 
pression of  popery.  —  Conference. — Petition  to  the  king. — Tithe  commis- 
sioners.— Popular  alarm. — Discontent  and  intrigues  of  the  nobility. — Com- 
mission for  taking  surrendries. 1628. — Opposition  to  kneeling  at  the  com- 
munion.— Things  indifferent. — The  king's  letter. — Tactics  of  the  non-con- 
formists.— Arminianism. — Popery. — A  fast. — Consecration  of  bishop  Leslie. 
1629. — External  peace  of  the  church. 1630. — King's  desire  for  uni- 
formity.— Letter  from  Struthers,  a  minister,  to  the  earl  of  Airth. — Charles, 
prince  of  Wales,  born. — State  of  the  presbyterians. — Enthusiasm  at  the  kirk 

of  Shotts. — Convention  of  estates. — Petitions — the    oaths. 1631. — Birth 

of  princess  Mary. 1632. — Death   of  archbishop    Law. — Translation  of 

bishop  Lindsay. 1633. — Charles's  progi'ess — his  entry  into  Edinburgh — 

procession  from  the  castle — coronation — his  oath. — Bishop  Laud  preaches. — 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow. — Meeting  of  parliament. — Ratification  of  the  acts 
touching  religion. — The  king's  own  account  of  the  passing  of  the  acts. — 
Hogg's  petition — rejected. — Foundation  of  the  solemn  league  and  covenant. — 
Intrigues  of  Rothes. — Balmerino  circulates  the  petition. — The  liturgy. — Dr. 
Laud  made  a  privy  councillor. — Conferences  respecting  the  liturgy — Argu- 
ments for  one  different  from  the  English  form — A  new  compilation  determined 

on — not  the  work  of  archbishop  Laud. — Chai-ges  against  Laud. 1634. — 

Erection  of  the  bishopric  of  Edinburgh. — Consecration  of  bishop  Forbes — his 
character — his  charge. — Conformity  required. — Many  refuse  to  conform. — 
Bishop  Forbes's  death — his  writings. — Bishop  Lindsay  promoted  to  Edinburgh. 
— Sydserf. — Haig's  petition — privately  circulated. — Balmerino  committed — 
tried  and  condemned — pardoned. — Death  of  archbishop  Abbott — his  charac- 
ter.  1635. — Spottiswood  made  chancellor. — Deaths   and    translations   of 

bishops. 1636. — Lord  Traquair. — Book  of  canons. — Opposition. — Cla- 
mour of  the  non-conformists. — Traquair' s  duplicity. — Note,  account  of  the 
"pw   litnreTT. — Agitation. — Publication  of    a   liturgy — the    same   as    that  of 


512  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XIII, 

Edward  VI. — Cardinal    Rlchlieu's    intrigues. — State   of  parties. 1G37. — 

Agitation  against  the  liturgy. — Death  of  bishop  Boyd. — Consecration  of  James 
Fairly. — Liturgy  ordered  to  be  read — read  quietly  in  some  places  on  Easter- 
Day — read  in  St.  Giles's — a  riot — violence  of  the  mob. — Traquair's  treachery. 
— King's  letter  to  the  council. — Synod  of  Glasgow. — Principal  Baillie  refuses 
to  preach. — Mr.  Annand's  sermon. — Mr.  Annand  assaulted — escapes  with 
difficulty  — Henderson's  opposition. — Treachery  of  the  privy  council. — Multi- 
tudes flock  to  Edinburgh. — Activity  of  the  non-conforming  ministers. — Procla- 
mation.— Riotous  assemblage  of  women — The  bishop  of  Galloway  assaulted. — 
The  Tables — their  proceedings. — Justice  craved  on  the  bishops. — "  Declina- 
ture" against  the  bishops. — The  liturgy  in  compliance  with  a  former  petition — 
Extract  from  its  preface. — Indifference  in  England  to  the  Scottish  troubles. — 
The  people's  delusion. 

1625. — On  the  death  of  James  VI.,  his  only  survinng  son, 
Charles,  was  pro clahned  king,  to  the  universal  joy  and  satis- 
faction of  the  whole  nation;  and  on  Thursday,  the  31st  of 
March,  he  was  solemnly  proclaimed,  at  the  Cross  of  Edin- 
burgh, at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  by  the  lords  of  his 
majesty's  privy  council.  Immediately  on  his  accession  he 
wrote  to  the  council,  and  directed  them  to  make  known,  by 
proclamation,  his  will  and  pleasure  that  all  manner  of  magis- 
trates and  officers  in  his  dominions  should  continue  to  hold, 
use,  and  exercise  all  the  power  and  authority  which  they  held 
under  the  late  king,  until  his  fnrther  pleasure  was  known. 
In  April,  the  greater  part  of  the  privy  council,  with  many  of 
the  nobihty,  went  to  London,  to  kiss  hands  and  congratulate 
the  king  on  his  accession,  and  to  attend  the  funeral  of  the  late 
king ;  and  lord  Carnegy  was  left  to  govern  the  kingdom  until 
their  return^ 

On  the  8th  of  May,  Charles  was  married  by  proxy  to  Hen- 
rietta Maria,  sister  of  Louis  XIII.  king  of  France,  according 
to  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Roman  church.  The  queen 
arrived  at  Dover  on  Trinity  Sunday,  and  their  nuptials  were 
celebrated  at  Whitehall  on  Tuesday  the  21st  of  June,  in 
honour  of  which  "  the  king  held  a  werey  royall  feast  at  White- 
hall." This  marriage  was  the  beginning  of  sorroi\'s.  No 
prince  who  had  ever  ascended  the  throne  had  the  honour  and 
interest  of  religion  more  ti-uly  at  heart  than  Charles  ;  but  this 
alliance  with  idolatry  was  the  grand  and  leading  misfortune 
of  his  whole  reign.  Although  he  himself  was  firmly  opposed 
to  popery,  yet  he  was  regardless  of  the  danger  to  the  constitu- 
tion and  of  the  popish  dynasty  which  he  thus  entailed  upon 
the  throne.     By  the  man-iage  contract,  the  royal  children  were 

'  Balfour's  Annals,    ii.  11.'',  11  G. 


1625.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  513 

to  be  educated  by  their  mother  until  they  attained  the  age  of 
thirteen  ;  and  lest  they  should  be  tainted  by  protestant  milk,  a 
clause  was  inserted,  providing  that  the  children  should  not  be 
suckled  by  protestant  nurses'^.  The  object  of  these  stipula- 
tions was  so  transparent,  that  Charles  must  have  looked  for- 
ward to  a  popish  succession  ;  and  so  effectual  were  these  pre- 
cautions, that  all  his  family,  even  to  the  last  fragment  of  his 
line,  were  papists.  Henrietta  was  a  true  papist ;  restless,  in- 
triguing, and  proselytising.  The  king,  says  Coxe,  "  was 
much  troubled  with  the  ill  company  she  brought  with  her  from 
France  ;  so  that  being  at  length  scandalized  at  their  insolence, 
and  their  tampering  in  matters  of  religion,  he  dismissed  them 
into  their  own  country,  and  war  thereupon  immediately  ensued 
with  the  French  king."  This  happened  in  the  year  1627,  as 
we  are  informed  by  Rapin.  The  king  was  indignant  at  the 
insolence  of  the  queen's  domestics,  who  maintained  that,  be- 
ing a  heretic,  he  had  no  right  to  interfere  in  the  regulation  of 
her  family.  And  he  was  disgusted  at  the  presumption  of  her 
chaplains,  who  made  the  queen  perform  the  penance  of 
walking  barefoot  to  Tyburn,  to  perform  certain  devotions  at 
that  notorious  place  of  execution.  By  means  of  this  inaus- 
picious marriage,  papal  idolatry  gained  a  footing  in  the  very 
court,  and  although  the  French  party  were  bound  down  by 
treaties  not  to  interfere  in  religious  matters,  yet  such  treaties 
were  merely  waste  paper  to  the  members  of  a  church  which 
makes  it  a  merit,  worthy  of  everlasting  bliss,  to  keep  no  faith 
with  heretics.  The  queen's  popish  attendants  eagerly  seized 
every  opportunity  ofadvancing  the  interests  and  pretensions 
of  popery,  and  so  artfully  managed  their  intrigues  that  the 
whole  court  was  involved  in  the  meshes  of  religious  contro- 
versy and  animosity.  Charles  came  to  the  throne  embarrassed 
by  a  war  with  Spain,  which  he  had  not  money  to  carry  on, 
though  undertaken  by  the  advice  of  parliament ;  and  after- 
wards entering  into  one  with  France,  he  had  little  leisure  to 
turn  his  attention  to  the  church  of  Scotland,  nor  did  he  require 
to  do  so  for  some  years.  By  the  prudent  and  vigorous  mea- 
sures of  the  late  king,  the  government  of  the  church  was  peace- 
ably regulated,  and  the  whole  nation  yielded  a  willing  obe- 
dience to  the  episcopacy  so  happily  established.  A  few  only  of 
the  sincerer  sort  kept  up  a  spirit  of  discontent  and  opposition 
to  the  Perth  articles,  by  presenting  to  the  several  parliaments 
their  protestations  against  them, but  whichmet  with  little  atten- 
tion.    On  the  accession  of  Charles  to  the  throne,  and  conceiv- 

^  Preface  to  Rev.  George  Croly'a  work  on  Prophecy. 
VOL.  I.  3  u 


514  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.   XIII. 

ing  that  he  was  favourable  to  the  English  puritans,  they  sent 
Mr.  Robert  Scot,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Glasgow,  to  court 
with  a  petition,  praying  for  relief  from  compliance  with  the 
five  articles  of  Perth,  and  the  intolerable  burden  of  episcopacy. 
They  found  Charles,  however,  to  be  conscientiously  attached 
to  the  church  which  his  father  with  so  much  care  had  esta- 
blished, and  for  which  he  himself  was  destined  to  die  a  mar- 
tyr. To  archbishop  Spottiswood  he  soon  after  wrote,  and  as- 
sured him  and  the  otlier  bishops  of  his  royal  protection  and 
favour,  and  of  his  resolution  to  maintain  theintegrity  of  the 
Scottish  church.  He  desired  the  archbishop  to  continue  in  the 
good  course  so  happily  begun,  and  to  require  the  other  bishops 
to  maintain  the  order  and  laws  in  their  several  dioceses  whicli 
his  royal  father  had  enjoined  and  established  by  the  authority 
of  parliament. 

Disappointed  in  their  expectations,  the  sincerer  sort  set 
themselves  clandestinely,  but  actively,  to  increase  the  number 
of  their  adherents.  They  were  most  successful  in  Fife  and  the 
western  counties,  which  have  always  been  most  addicted  to 
the  holy  discipline.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  presbyterian 
party,  whenever  they  had  any  project  in  contemplation,  to  com- 
mence the  business  with  fasting.  Fasts  were  accordingly  re- 
sorted to  as  an  expedient  for  gaining  proselytes  ;  they  were 
not  openly  and  avowedly  proclaimed,  but  they  were  known  to 
the  godly  by  secret  intimation.  Wherever  a  godly  brother  was 
settled,  on  the  first  Sunday  of  every  quarter  secret  intimation 
was  given  to  the  initiated  of  the  sincerer  stamp,  and  those 
whom  they  could  trust  or  could  draw  over  to  their  party,  when 
they  met  in  their  churches ;  and  on  these  occasions  they  poured 
forth  the  vials  of  their  vituperation  on  the  bishops,  denouncing 
them  as  relics  of  popery,  malignants,  and  tyrants,  and  they 
alarmed  the  minds  of  their  hearers  with  the-  imaginary  dangers 
threatened  to  religion  and  civil  liberty  by  prelacy  and  its  de- 
pendencies. They  prayed  for  a  blessing  on  their  efforts  to  up- 
root and  destroy  it,  by  all  their  usual  means  of  tumult,  disordei", 
and  rebellion,  and  they  so  roused  the  passions  of  the  people, 
and  inflamed  them  with  visionary  grievances,  that  many  pro- 
selytes were  gained,  and  thus  they  paved  the  way  for  the  horrid 
scenes  which  followed  ^  But  what  turned  out  more  to  their 
advantage,  and  gave  them  greater  confidence,  was  the  accession 
of  several  noblemen  to  their  party:  Rothes,  Lindsay,  Lothian, 
Balmerino,  Cassilis,  Eglinton,  and  Loudon,  all  joined  the  dis- 
affected brethren.  These  noblemen  were  in  constant  apprehen- 

'  Guthry's  Mem.  8,  10, 


1626.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLA'ND.  515 

sion  that  Charles  would  resume  the  tithes  and  church  lands, 
which  had  been  seized  by  them  and  others  in  the  minort'es 
of  the  two  last  reigns,  when,  by  the  destruction  of  the  papal 
hierarchy,  there  were  no  legal  possessors  who  could  claim  or 
hold  them 

In  December,  Edinburgh  was  divided  into  four  distinct 
parishes,  and  two  ministers  were  assigned  to  each;  and  in 
January  of  the  following  year,  the  incumbents  were  inducted 
to  their  respective  charges  by  the  bishop")  of  Brechin  ^ 

1626. — It  was  James's  full  intention  to  have  recovered  the 
tithes  and  church  lands  out  of  the  hands  of  the  lay  impropria- 
tors, but  he  deferred  the  execution  of  this  design  on  account 
of  the  opposition  that  w^as  made  to  the  Perth  articles.  Charles 
determined  to  follow  up  his  father's  intentions,  and  also  to 
annul  all  the  grants  made  by  the  regents,  during  the  minority 
of  the  late  reign,  of  the  lands  belonging  to  cathedrals  and  re- 
ligious houses.  By  the  advice  of  his  privy  council  he  pro- 
ceeded to  the  recovery  of  his  rights  in  those  lands  and  regalities, 
which  he  endeavoured  to  effect,  first  by  an  act  of  revocation, 
and  failing  that,  by  a  commission  for  surrendering  the  supe- 
riorities^. In  January  the  king  signified  his  pleasui'e  to  the 
privy  council  respecting  the  late  revocation,  of  which,  says 
Balfour,  "  the  kingdom  conceived  so  much  prejudice,  and  in 
effect  was  the  ground  stone  of  all  the  mischief  that  followed 
after,  both  to  this  king's  government  and  family^?''  "  It  was  a 
Scotch  faction"  says  Mr.  Napier,  "  that  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, when  paving  the  way  to  such  enormities  as  the  murders  of 
Charles  I.  and  Montrose, had  wielded  the  destinies  and  decided 
the  fate  of  England.  The  savage  contempt  for  royal  authority, 
the  arts  of  popular  agitation,  the  spirit  of  persecution,  that  in- 
stantly sprung  up  to  clear  the  path  for  democracy,  these  charac- 
teristics of  the  tumults  and  insurrection  of  Scotland  in  the  years 
1637,  1638,  and  1639,  all  extended  to  England,  where  the 
puritanical  faction  were  ready  to  adopt  the  lessons,  and  eager 
to  profit  by  the  active  co-operation,  of  instructors  they  other- 
wise despised.  Clothed  with  the  language  of  loyalty  and  pa- 
triotism, and  advancing  under  cover  of  '  religion  and  liberties,' 
the  determined  besiegers  of  monarchical  government  worked 
up  from  Scotland  to  the  throne  itself*." 

The  king  secretly  purchased  from  the  families  of  Hamilton 
and  Lennox  the  abbey  of  Arbroath  and  lordship  of  Glasgow, 
and  bestowed  them  on  the  two  archbishoprics.     The  present 

'  Stevenson's  Historyof  the  Church  and  State  of  Scotland  ;  edit.  1840,  p.  104. 
2  Echard's  Hist.  102.  ^  Balfour's  Annals,  v.  ii.  128. 

^  Montrose  and  the  Covenanters,  i.  21. 


516  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

revocation  was  strictly  legal,  and  was  confined  to  the  tithes 
and  benefices  reverting,  after  the  reformation,  to  the  sovereign, 
bnt  which  had,  by  the  act  of  annexation,  been  exhausted  in 
gifts  to  the  rapacious  nobles.     But  the  plunder  of  the  church 
had  been  too  general,  and  its  possession  had  been  too  long,  to 
be  quietly  or  cheerfully  restored.     Many  of  the  gentry,  and 
almost  all  the  nobility,  had  been  enriched  with  its  plunder ; 
but  a  convention  of  estates  rejected  every  proposition  for  the 
surrender  of  the  tithes.    The  king  was  incensed,  and  published 
the  act  of  revocation,  comprehending  every  grant  of  the  two 
preceding  reigns,  which  alarmed  and  exasperated  the  nobles. 
Balfour^  says,thatoneof  the  king's  chief  reasons  was  "in  respect 
his  great  grandfather,  king  James  V.,  his  grandmother,  queen 
Mary,  and  his  own  father,  king  James  VI.,  had  done  the  like, 
to  revoke  acts  and  deeds  done  in  their  minority  to  the  detriment 
of  the  crown."     The  king  employed  the  earl  of  Nithsdale  as 
commissioner  to  parliament,  with  instructions  to  procure  the 
surrender  of  the  tithes.     On  his  arrival  in  Edinburgh,  and  the 
purport  of  his  journey  being  known,  the  impropriators  and 
possessors  of  the  church  lands  met,  and  agreed,  that  if  no 
other  argument  prevailed  with  lord  Nithsdale  to  avert  their  re- 
sumption, that  they  should  massacre  him,  and  all  his  party,  in 
the  parliament  house.    Lord  Belhaven,  who  was  old  and  blind, 
at  his  own  request  was  placed  next  to  the  earl  of  Dumfries, 
whom  he  grasped  with  one  hand,  pretending  weakness,  an4 
with  the  other  held  a  dagger  concealed,  ready  to  plunge  it  int® 
his  heart  on  the  least  commotion.    The  fierce  opposition  vvhich 
the  commissioner  experienced  convinced  him  of  the  impossi- 
bility of  accomplishing  his  master's  instructions,  and  he  ac- 
cordingly returned  to  court  without  having  effected  any  thing ; 
and  nothing  farther  was  attempted  for  some  time  2. 

In  order  that  justice  might  be  duly  administered,  Charles 
wrote  to  the  privy  council  to  make  considerable  alterations  in 
the  courts  of  law,  and  to  place  the  Court  of  Session  as  nearly 
as  possible  on  its  original  foundation.  The  Court  of  Session, 
which  answers  to  the  Queen's  Bench  in  England,  was  originally 
projected  by  John  duke  of  Albany,  regent  of  the  kingdom  in 
the  minority  of  James  V.,  who  applied  for  and  received  a  papal 
bull  from  Clement  VII,,  empowering  him  to  tax  the  prelates 
for  its  support.  The  opposition  of  the  clergy  occasioned  some 
delay ;  but  eventually  the  desires  of  James  V.  were  complied 
with,  and  he  was  authorised  to  tax  the  Scottish  bishops  and 
heads  of  religious  houses  in  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  golden 

»  Balfour's  Annak,  v.  ii.  128.  ■  Burnet's  Own  Times,  p.  23. 


1627.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  517 

ducats  of  the  chamber,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  senators, 
of  whom,  the  bull  expressly  provided,  that  one  half  should  be 
ecclesiastical  dignitaries.  Charles,  therefore,  placed  some  of 
the  bishops  on  the  bench  and  in  the  Court  of  Exchequer;  and  he 
instituted  a  Commission,  consisting  of  the  two  archbishops,  the 
bishops  of  Ross  and  Dunblane,  and  some  noblemen,  to  try 
"  grievances  ;"  that,  as  he  said,  "  all  such  of  our  subjects  as 
complain  upon  any  heavy  grievances  may  have  the  means  in 
justice  to  be  relieved."  This  court  was  very  unpopular,  and 
Balfour  says,  "it  vanished  without  so  much  as  once  meeting  ^" 
On  the  12th  of  July,  the  king  wrote  to  his  privy  council,  com- 
manding tliem  to  give  place  and  precedence  to  the  archbishop 
of  St.  Andrews  before  the  lord  chancellor  and  all  others  2. 

Under  the  same  date  the  bishop  of  Ross  was  sent  down  from 
court,  charged  to  declare  to  his  brethren,  the  archbishops  and 
bishops,  that  it  was  the  king's  will  that  those  of  the  clergy  who 
still  scrupled  to  fulfil  the  Perth  articles  should  be  tolerated 
till  they  could  be  induced  to  comply,  provided  that  they  would 
abstain  from  publicly  impugning  the  king's  authority,  the 
canons  and  government  of  the  church,  and  fiom  persuading 
others  from  yielding  obedience  to  them  :  that  the  banished  mi- 
nisters be  allowed  to  return  and  be  restored  to  their  parishes 
and  churches ;  but  that  all  who  have  been  ordained  since  the 
adoption  of  the  Perth  articles,  be  made  to  obey  and  practice 
them  under  pain  of  censure :  and  that  the  bishops  be  com- 
pelled to  see  these  articles  under  the  aforesaid  limitations  duly 
enforced^. 

1627. — At  a  meeting  of  the  bishops  and  some  of  the  clergy 
in  the  end  of  the  preceding  year,  to  consult  how  to  check  the 
increase  of  popery,  which  was  beginning  to  cause  some  alarm, 
they  sent  the  bishops  of  Ross  and  Moray  to  court,  to  entreat 
his  majesty  to  take  some  measures  for  the  suppression  of  that 
heresy.  It  does  not  appear  with  what  success  their  deputation 
■was  attended  ;  but  on  their  return  the  presbyteries  were  in- 
structed to  send  one  or  two  of  their  number  to  meet  and  confer 
with  the  bishops,  w'ho  had  been  at  court.  The  two  archbishops 
Avere  not  present  at  this  conference.  The  disaffected  ministers 
protested  against  this  meeting  being  either  called  or  considered 
a  General  Assembly,  but  only  a  conference.  This  was  readily 
granted,  and  a  petition  to  his  majesty  was  agreed  on :  the  con- 
fonning  clergy  chose  the  bishop  of  Ross,  and  the  non-con- 
formists Mr.  Robert  Scott,  minister  of  Glasgow,  to  present  it , 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  131. — Stevenson,  107.         ^  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  141. 
■^  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  131. 


518  HISTORY  OP  THE  [CHAP.  XIII, 

and  its  tenor  was  as  follows, —  1 .  To  deal  with  his  majesty  for  a 
lawful  maintenance  for  the  ministry,  and  for  the  plantation  of 
kirks.  2.  For  a  lawful  General  Assembly.  3.  That  a  petition  be 
presented  for  the  suffering  ministers,whether  banished,  deposed, 
or  confined ;  that  the  sentences  may  be  taken  off  and  they  re- 
stored to  their  places,  and  be  admitted  members  of  the  Assem- 
bly, if  they  shall  be  chosen  by  their  presbyteries.  4.  That 
none  be  troubled  in  their  ministry  for  non-conformity,  nor  in- 
trants to  the  ministry  with  subscription  until  that  Assembly  be 
called.  5.  That  any  brother,  presbytery,  or  society,  desirous 
to  send  up  any  petition  or  grievance  to  his  majesty,  shall  deliver 
the  same  to  these  commissioners'. 

This  conference  was  disapproved  of  by  the  archbishop  and 
other  bishops  who  had  not  been  present,  and  there  was  nothing 
farther  done.     After  that  the  tithe  commissioners  met,  and 
summoned  some  of  the  interested  parties  before  them ;  but  the 
lay  impropriators  taking  alarm  for  their  own  interests,  sent  the 
lairds  of  I3alcomy  and  licy  to  represent  their  affairs  to  the 
king ;  with  whom  they  were  so  far  successful,  that  on  their 
return  in  April  they  brought  letters  from  his  majesty,  recom- 
mending the  commissioners  to  relieve  the  gentry  as  much  as 
possible  in  the  valuation  and  the  composition  to  be  paid  for 
their  tithes.     This  order  was  unsatisfactory  to  the  clergy,  and 
the  commissioners  desired  them  to  try  the  state  of  the  tithes  in 
each  parish,  with  the  assistance  of  some  of  their  parishioners, 
and  to  make  aregular  report  to  them.  Reports  were  accordingly 
made  in  the  months  of  May  and  June,  which  were  approved 
of;  but  the  king  resolved  that  the  holders  should  have  their 
own  tithes  at  a  reasonable  rate,  and  all  were  ordained  to  sub-. 
mit  accordingly  to  the  commissioners  2.     Prosecutions  were 
successively  commenced  against  those  who  refused  to  accept 
the  king's  offer  and  to  submit  to  his  arbitratit)n.     The  weakest 
and  least  refractory  were  first  selected,  who  being  separately 
prosecuted,  and  having  no  means  of  combination,  were  obliged, 
although  reluctantly,  to  submit,  fearing  the  consequences  of  a 
legal  judgment. 

The  disaffected  ministers,  and  their  more  crafty  and  cvil- 
dcsigning  allies  the  lay-iniiDropriators,  eagerly  deluded  the 
people  with  a  false  report,  that  the  act  of  revocation  was  only 
a  pretext  for  repealing  all  the  acts  against  popery.  During 
the  prevalence  of  this  popular  delusion,  Charles  sent  the  earl 
of  Annandale  and  the  lord  Maxwell  as  commissioners  to  hold 
a  i)arliamcnt,  \\  ith  secret  instructions  to  the  lord  Maxwell  to 

'  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  108.  2  ibid.   108-109. 


1027.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  519 

use  his  most  stvenuous  endeavours  to  procure  the  passing  of 
an  act  of  revocation.  This  measure  excited  a  permanent  dis- 
content among  the  nobility,  and  induced  them  to  make  com- 
mon cause  with  the  presbyterian  party,  in  opposition  to  the 
crown,  and  in  their  hatred  of  the  episcopal  church,  on  whose 
spoils  they  had  enriched  themselves.  Excited  by  their  mis- 
representations, the  citizens  of  Edinburgh  attacked  the  lord 
Maxwell's  carriage,  which  he  had  sent  on  before  to  Dalkeith, 
demolished  it,  and  killed  the  horses,  and  savagely  expressed 
their  regret  that  they  had  it  not  in  their  power  to  have  served 
his  lordship  in  the  same  way.  The  presbyterian  party,  at  the 
instigation  of  their  noble  allies,  spread  an  alarm  that  it  was 
the  king's  intention  to  revoke  all  the  acts  against  the  Roman 
Catholics,  and  to  re-establish  the  church  of  Rome  ;  which,  as 
they  expected  and  designed,  quickly  excited  an  uproar  among 
the  people,  and  the  commissioners  found  it  unsafe  to  enter  on 
the  business  of  the  revocation.  Instead  of  which,  a  commis- 
sion was  issued  under  the  gi'eat  seal  for  receiving  the  surrender 
of  superiorities  and  tithes  within  the  kingdom  at  his  majesty's 
pleasure.  The  solicitor-general,  sir  Archibald  Aitchison,  sug- 
gested to  Charles,  "  that  the  act  of  revocation  had  been  repre- 
sented by  those  that  were  likely  to  be  sufferers  under  it,  as 
principally  intended  to  revoke  all  former  acts  for  suppressing 
popery  and  settling  the  reformed  religion,  and  therefore  it 
would  not  be  safe  to  proceed  further  in  it ;  but  that  a  commis- 
sion might  be  issued,  under  the  great  seal  of  Scotland,  for 
taking  the  sun'endries  of  all  such  superiorities  and  tithes 
within  the  kingdom,  at  his  majesty's  pleasure,  and  that  such 
as  refused  to  submit  might  be  impleaded  one  by  one,  beginning 
with  such  of  the  occupants  as  might  be  thought  most  willing 
to  yield,  or  least  able  to  contend :  in  which  case  he  could  as- 
sure his  majesty,  that  having  the  laws  on  his  side,  the  courts 
of  justice  must  and  would  pass  judgment  for  him."  This  pro- 
posal was  agreed  to,  and  a  commission  of  siurendry  accord- 
ingly passed  the  great  seal  on  the  26th  of  June  of  this  year  ^ 

His  majesty  wrote  to  the  privy  council,  to  show  them  that 
he  was  credibly  informed  of  the  insolent  conduct  of  papists,  and 
of  the  public  scandal  and  offence  that  they  gave  ;  and,  in  con- 
sequence, that  he  commanded  them  to  cause  the  High  Com- 
mission Court  to  take  precise  order  with  all  papists,  but  parti- 
cularly with  seminary  priests  and  Jesuits,  who  give  public 
scandal,  and  bring  religion  into  contempt.  He  also  com- 
manded his  privy  council  to  assist  the  commissioners  with 

'  Cited  in  Skinner's  Ecclesiastical  History,  ii.  287. 


520  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  XIII. 

their  whole  power  and  authority ;  but  withal,  to  deal  leniently 
with  such  papists  as  lived  in  conformity  with  the  laws,  and 
gave  no  public  scandal;  "  our  intention  being  rather  to  save 
their  souls  than  to  ruin  their  estates  ^" 

1628. — At  Easter  this  year  the  disaffected  presbyterian 
party  excited  a  great  deal  of  discontent  among  the  people,  on 
account  of  the  article  which  enjoined  kneeling  at  the  commu- 
nion. Some  meetings  were  held,  and  a  petition  was  drawn 
up  to  the  king,  setting  forth  the  evils  which  distracted  the 
church,  by  the  diversity  of  opinion  and  practice  on  this  head, 
of  which  they  themselves  had  been  originally  the  cause,  and 
which  they  still  kept  up,  out  of  an  obstinate  spirit  of  resistance 
to  lawful  authority ;  which,  indeed,  is  their  fundamental  prin- 
ciple. Things  which  are  in  themselves  indifferent,  cease  to 
be  so  when  they  are  commanded  by  lawful  authority;  and  in 
this  case  there  was  not  only  the  imposition  by  lawful  authority, 
but  there  was  in  addition  the  invariable  usage  of  the  whole 
christian  church  since  the  days  of  the  apostles.  This  petition, 
therefore,  when  presented,  was  very  displeasing  to  the  king, 
who  not  only  rejected  it,  but  wrote  to  the  archbishop  of  St. 
Andrews  to  censure  the  offenders.  It  is  very  singular,  that 
men  who  made  such  professions  of  love  for  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  and  of  detestation  of  regal  tyranny,  should  have  excited 
the  king  to  commit  an  act  of  despotism  utterly  destructive  to  li- 
berty, by  petitioning  him  to  dispense  with  the  laws,  an  eiTor  which 
was  made  one  of  the  main  charges  against  his  son  James. 
"  Having  received  a  letter,"  he  said,  "  from  the  ministers  of 
Edinbm-gh,  wherein  they  have  desired  us  to  give  way  for  ex- 
empting their  petitioners  from  kneeling  in  taking  the  sacra- 
ment, contrary  to  an  act  of  parliament;  in  that  case  we  cannot 
but  be  exceedingly  offended,  that  they  durst  presume  to  move 
us  against  that  course  that  was  so  warranta"bly  done,  and  that 
w^ithout  your  knowledge,  who  are  entrusted  in  a  charge  over 
them.  Therefore  our  special  pleasure  is,  that  you  convene 
these  persons  before  you,  and  having  tried  the  truth  of  this 
business,  and  the  chief  authors  thereof,  that  ye  inflict  such 
condign  punishment  as  may,  by  this  example,  make  others 
forbear  to  do  the  like  hereafter;  and  continue  your  best  en- 
deavours to  settle  that  order  which  was  formerly  established, 
whereby  ye  shall  do  us  most  acceptable  service." 

The  non-conformists  had  vowed  at  their  meeting,  that  if 
the  king  denied  their  petition,  they  would  resign  their  bene- 
fices, and  suffer  a  voluntary  martyrdom.     But  instead  of  this, 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  155. 


1628.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  521 

they  deprived  their  flocks  of  the  communion,  and  "  all  of  them 
forgot  to  resign  their  offices,  as  they  had  promised,  and  some 
of  them  were  restless  till  they  had  given  satisfaction  to  the 
archbishop  1."  These  are  the  fruits  of  the  "holy  discipline," 
selfish  murmurings,  emulations  and  wrath,  strifes  and  sedi- 
tions, and  depriving  the  people  of  the  means  of  grace,  through 
obstinacy  and  a  contentious  spirit.  Along  with  these  sinful 
passions  the  presbyterians  also  showed  their  strong  propensity 
to  Erastianism,  by  applying  to  the  crown  to  alter  ecclesias- 
tical laws  by  the  king's  own  sole  authority.  Now  the  same 
party  began  to  exclaim  against  Armiuianism,  and  artfully 
associated  these  opinions  with  popery,  so  as  more  readily  to 
alarm  and  affect  the  multitude.  It  does  not  follow  that  Arminius 
was  right  in  all  his  points,  because  he  opposed  the  dogmas  of 
Calvin;  yet,  on  that  account, it  has  been  the  constant  tactic  of 
the  Calvinists  to  call  those  men  Arminians  who  hold  the  sober 
and  scriptural  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England,  which  is 
an  utter  absurdity,  inasmuch  as  her  doctrines  were  published 
in  her  authorised  formularies  long  before  Arminius  was  born. 
The  divinity  professors  in  the  Scottish  universities  were  also 
roundly  charged  with  having  planted  "  this  weed,"  in  order, 
as  it  is  alleged,  to  ingratiate  themselves  with  bishop  Laud, 
which  is  likewise  a  vile  calumny. 

The  non-conformists  held  one  of  their  fasts  on  the  two  last 
Sundays  of  May  and  upon  the  intervening  Wednesday,  on 
account  of  "  the  innovations  made  upon  the  discipline  and 
worship  of  our  church,  the  prosecuting  of  many  honest  minis- 
ters for  their  opposition  to  these  innovations."  The  divisions 
in  the  church  presented  a  favourable  occasion  to  the  Romish 
party,  which  they  improved  to  their  own  advantage,  and  mass 
was  publicly  celebrated  in  several  places  of  the  kingdom.  The 
king's  intention  of  visiting  his  native  kingdom,  in  July,  was 
postponed  at  the  entreaty  of  his  pri\y  council,  on  account  of 
the  state  of  the  royal  residences,  which  could  not  be  put  in 
readiness  for  his  reception. 

On  the  17th  of  August,  Dr.  John  Leslie  was  consecrated 
bishop  of  the  Isles,  as  successor  to  Dr.  Thomas  Knox,  who 
died  in  1626.  Dr.  Leslie  was  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
men  of  the  age.  He  was  so  great  a  linguist,  that  he  spoke 
with  ease  most  of  the  modern  languages  of  Europe,  and  Latin 
with  so  much  fluency,  that  it  was  said  of  him  in  Spain,  "  Solus 
Lesleius  Latine  loquitur, — Leslie  is  the  only  man  who  can  speak 
Latin." 

^  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  p.  111. 
VOL.  I.  3  X 


522  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

1629. — The  church  seems  to  have  enjoyed  some  degree  of 
external  calm  this  year ;  but  the  holders  of  church  property 
were  secretly  using  their  influence  to  inflame  the  minds  of  the 
people  against  the  royal  and  episcopal  powers.  The  king 
wrote  again  to  the  privy  council,  and  appointed  the  arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews  to  take  precedence  of  the  lord  chan- 
cellor in  the  council  and  in  public.  This  gave  deej)  offence 
to  his  lordship,  and  he  returned  for  answer,  "  that  never  a 
stoned  priest  in  Scotland  should  set  a  foot  before  him  so  long 
as  his  blood  was  hot ;"  and  unfortunately  it  also  increased  the 
irritation  of  the  nobility  against  the  episcopal  order  ^  On  the 
13th  of  May  the  queen  gave  birth  to  a  son,  who  being  weak 
and  sickly,  was  immediately  baptized  by  the  name  of  Charles. 
He  died  the  same  day  at  Greenwich,  and  the  following  day  he 
was  solemnly  interred  at  Westminster  2. 

1630. — The  most  malicious  reports  were  spread  by  the  in- 
terested parties,  of  the  king's  intention  to  force  "  the  whole 
order  of  the  church  of  England"  upon  the  Scottish  church.  It 
was  the  desire  both  of  James  and  Charles  that  there  should  be 
an  uniform  order  observed  throughout  the  three  kingdoms;  but 
the  spirit  of  obstinate  resistance  to  authority  which  Melville 
had  introduced  and  fostered,  had  hitherto  disappointed  their 
wishes.  It  is  singular  that  all  their  power  and  authority  was 
unable  to  effect  an  uniformity  which  was  cheerfully  and  spon- 
taneously complied  with  after  the  revolution  had  relieved 
the  church  from  presbyterian  agitation,  and  threw  her  into 
the  fire  of  persecution.  Balfour  gives  a  long  letter  from  Mr. 
Struthers,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  to  the  earl  of 
Airth,  to  be  communicated  to  the  king,  wherein  he  lays  out  all 
the  grievances  of  the  party  against  the  rites  and  ceremonies 
of  the  church  of  England.  He  complains  also  of  the  "  nova- 
tions" in  religion,  and  of  two  wounds  under  which  the  Scottish 
church,  he  said,  lay  groaning ;  viz.  "  1st,  the  erection  of  bishops, 
the  other  of  geniculation ;  but  if  a  third  be  inflicted,  there  is  no 
appearance  but  of  a  dissipation  of  the  church.  In  the  first,  men 
were  only  on-lookers  on  the  bishop's  state ;  the  second  touched 
them  more  in  celebration  of  the  holy  sacrament,  but  yet  left  it 
arbitrary  to  them;  but  this  third  will  be  greater,  because  in 
the  whole  body  of  public  worship  they  shall  be  forced  to  suffer 
novelties."  Now,  this  zealous  opposer  of  episcopacy  and  of 
the  settlement  of  the  church's  rites  and  ceremonies  in  a  decent 
and  orderly  way,  was  formerly  a  strenuous  supporter  of  both  of 
these  when  it  was  his  interest  so  to  be;  for  Balfour  says,  he 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  112.  "  Ibid.  176. 


IGoO.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  523 

was  "  a  confomiitan  (as  then  named);  howbeit,  he  was  for- 
merly content  to  accept  of  a  bishopric, yet  now  would  rather  quit 
the  same,  ere  he  would  embrace  these  ceremonies  he  perceived 
were  a  broaching  to  be  introduced  in  the  church  and  stated" 

On  the  29th  of  May,  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  born  at 
St.  James's,  between  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  in  the  forenoon. 
The  following  day,  being  Sunday,  the  king,  with  the  lords  of 
his  privy  council,  went  in  state  to  St.  Paul's,  at  eight  o'clock, 
A.M.,  and  were  received  at  the  great  west  door  by  the  bishop 
and  prebends,  where  he  returned  thanks,  and  a  solemn  Te  Deum 
was  sung.  The  lyon-king-at-arms,  who  happened  then  to  be 
at  court,  was  sent  down  post  to  inform  the  Scottish  privy  coun- 
cil, and  he  arrived  on  the  1st  of  June,  where  the  news  were 
received  with  every  demonstration  of  joy.  The  prince  of 
Wales  was  baptized  by  the  name  of  Charles,  on  the  27th  of 
June,  with  great  state  and  solemnity.  On  this  occasion  the 
Lord  Maj'or  and  sir  Hineage  Finche,  recorder  of  London,  pre- 
sented the  king  with  a  cup  of  gold  valued  at  £1000.  James, 
duke  of  Lennox,  represented  Louis  XII L  and  James,  mar- 
quis of  Hamilton,  the  prince  Elector  Palatine,  the  godfathers; 
and  the  duchess  of  Richmond  stood  for  the  queen  mother  of 
France,  who  was  the  godmother  2. 

Stevenson  draws  an  exceedingly  gloomy  picture  of  the  state 
of  the  presbyterians  at  this  period ;  and  he  construes  their  dis- 
content and  opposition  to  authority  into  severe  hardships  and 
persecution.  Yet,  says  he,  "  amidst  all  these  dark  and  ill-bod- 
ing dispensations  to  the  church,  there  were  still  left  some  bright 
spots  in  her  cloud;  then  did  a  large  measure  of  the  Spirit 
convincingly  follow  the  ministry  of  the  word  in  several  places 
of  this  kingdom.  Besides  those  which  took  place  on  occa- 
sion of  the  frequent  fasts  observed  among  presbyterians  at  this 
time,  there  are  these  following  instances  ....  The  first  is 
that  wonderful  pouring  forth  of  the  Spirit  in  the  conversion  of 
many  souls  by  the  ministry  of  the  famous  Mr.  John  Living- 
ston, on  occasion  of  a  communion  at  the  kirk  of  Shotts, 
upon  the  21st  of  June  this  year.  ...  At  this  time  there  was 
so  convincing  an  appearance  of  God  and  down-pouring  of  the 
Spirit,  even  in  an  extraordinary  way,  that  did  follow  the  or- 
dinances, especially  the  sermon  on  the  Monday,  June  21st, 
with  a  strange  unusual  motion  on  the  hearers,  who,  in  a  great 
multitude,  were  there  convened  of  diverse  ranks,  that  it  was 
known,  which  I  can  speak  on  sure  grounds,  near  five  hundred 
had  at  that  time  a  discernible  change  wrought  on  them,  of  whom 

1  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  181-182.  2  ibi^.  178. 


524  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XII I. 

most  proved  lively  christians  afterwards."  And  again,  there 
was  another  extraordinary  outpouring  at  Stewarton,  which 
was  called  in  ridicule  the  Stewai'ton  sickness,  because  the 
votaries  of  this  fanaticism  fell  down  as  in  a  swoon,  and  were 
carried  in  that  state  out  of  church.  "  Satan,  indeed,  endea- 
voured to  bring  a  reproach  on  this  good  work,  by  some  excesses 
committed,  both  in  time  of  sermon  and  in  families,  by  several 
who  were  seemingly  under  serious  concern  U"  And  this  will 
ever  be  the  conclusion  of  enthusiasm  and  an  overheated  ima- 
gination, which  mistakes  their  impulses  for  "  outpourings  of 
the  Spirit."  The  excesses  here  spoken  of  have  constantly  ac- 
companied the  holy  discipline,  which  was  distinguished  at  these 
sacramental  meetings  by  the  spirit  and  practice  of  all  unclean- 
ness;  a  sure  and  certain  sign  that  the  discipline  cannot  be 
from  God,  for  the  devil  of  lust  generally  entered  into  them,  as 
the  devil  of  covetousness  entered  into  Judas,  and  filled  them 
full  of  the  works  of  the  flesh. 

On  the  28th  and  29th  of  July,  there  was  a  convention  of  the 
estates  held  in  Holyrood  House,  for  raising  a  tax,  at  which  the 
presbyterian  party,  agreeable  to  the  system  which  they  had 
adopted,  presented  a  petition  praying  for  a  redress  of  their 
grievances,  and  which  was  supported  by  the  noble  impropria- 
tors. It  was  referred  to  the  next  parliament,  which  would 
soon  be  called,  as  a  more  proper  channel  through  which  to 
bring  their  complaints  under  the  notice  of  his  majesty.  The 
ill  success  of  their  former  petition  did  not  deter  the  lord  Bal- 
merino  from  presenting  another  containing  an  entirely  new 
grievance,  which  they  had  now  discovered  existed  in  the  oaths 
of  supremacy  and  canonical  obedience  to  the  bishops.  This 
also  met  with  the  rejection  which  they  no  doubt  anticipated ; 
but  the  system  of  presenting  petitions  against  the  legal  and 
long-standing  customs  of  the  church  had  the  designed  effect 
of  keeping  the  unthinking  people  in  a  constant  agitation  2. 

'  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  i.  53,  56. 

2  Ibid.  p.  122. 

I,  A.  B.,  nominated  and  appointed  to  the  church  of ,  utterly 

testify  and  declare,  in  my  conscience,  that  the  right  excellent,  right  high  and 
mighty  prince,  Charles!.,  by  the  grace  of  God  king  of  Scots,  is  the  only  supreme 
governor  of  this  realm,  as  well  in  things  temporal  as  in  the  conservation  and  pur- 
gation of  religion.  And  that  no  foreign  prince,  &c. ;  and  therefore  I  utterly  re- 
nounce and  forsake  all  foreign  jurisdictions,  powers,  superiorities,  and  authorities, 
and  promise  that  from  this  time  forth  I  shall  and  will  bear  faith  and  true  allegiance 
to  his  highness,  his  heirs  and  lawful  successors,  and  to  my  power  shall  assist  and 
dt'feud  all  jurisdictions,  privileges,  pre-eminences,  and  authorities,  granted  and 
belonging  to  liis  highness,  his  heirs  and  lawful  successors,  or  united  and  annexed 
to  his  royal  crown.  And  further,  I  confess  to  have  and  hold  the  said  church  and 
possession  of  the  same  under  God,  only  of  his  majesty  and  crown  royal  of  this 


1631-32.]  CHITECII  OF  SCOTLAND.  525 

1631. — The  agitation  among  the  presbyterians  increased  ; 
but  their  young  aspirants  found  themselves  entirely  shut  out  by 
the  oaths  of  supremacy  and  canonical  obedience,  which  were 
altogether  fatal  to  their  designs.  In  consequence  many 
went  over  to  the  north  of  Ireland,  where  they  were  ordained 
in  their  own  way,  and  some  of  them  settled  there,  and  assisted 
to  agitate  that  kingdom. 

On  Friday,  the  4th  of  November,  the  Lady  Mary  was  born 
at  St.  James's,  between  five  and  six  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
She  was  afterwards  Princess  of  Orange,,  and  the  mother  of 
that  prince  who  ascended  her  brother's  throne  in  1688  ^ 

1632. — Of  this  year  Stevenson  says,  "  we  had  little  else  but 
famine,  death,  preferment  of  bishops,  and  intestine  commo- 
tions," caused  by  the  impropriators  of  tithes,  who  made  use  of 
the  discontented  presbyterians  to  rouse  the  prejudices  of  the 
ignorant  vulgar,  which  soon  after  ended  in  bloodshed  and  open 
rebellion. 

About  the  first  of  November,  James  Law,  archbishop  of 
Glasgow,  departed  this  life ;  and  on  the  8th  he  was  interred  in 

realm  :  and  for  the  said  possession,  I  do  homage  presently  to  his  majesty,  Lis 
heirs  and  lawful  successors,  and  shall  be  faitliful  and  true.     So  help  me 

Oath  of  Canonical  Obedience. 

I,  A.  B.,  now  admitted  to  the  kirk  of  C,  promise  and  swear  to  E.  F.,  bishop 
of  that  diocese,  obedience,  and  to  his  successors,  in  all  lawful  things.  So  help 
me 

I,  A.  B.,  to  be  admitted  to  the  ministry  of  the  kirk  of  C,  by  thir  presents 
solemnly  swear  and  faithfully  promise  to  observe  and  fulfil  the  articles  and 
conditions  following  : — 

That  I  shall  be  liel  and  true  to  our  most  gracious  sovereign  the  king's  ma- 
jesty, and  his  highness'  successors,  and  to  my  power  shall  maintain  his  high- 
ness' right  and  prerogative  in  causes  ecclesiastical. 

That  I  shall  be  obedient  to  my  ordinary  the  bishop  of  D.,  and  to  all  other  my 
superiors  in  the  church,  speak  of  them  reverently,  and  in  all  my  public  and  pri- 
vate prayers  commend  them  and  their  estate  to  God's  merciful  protection. 

That  I  shall  in  all  places  by  conference  maintain  the  present  government  of  the 
church  and  jurisdiction  episcopal ;  and  shall  by  reading  be  careful  to  inform  my- 
self of  the  true  and  lawful  grounds  thereof,  to  the  end  I  may  stand  for  it  against 
the  adversaries  of  the  same. 

That  I  shall  be  diligent  to  my  power  in  the  duties  of  my  calling,  and  not  desert 
therefrom  without  license  of  my  ordinary  the  bishop  of  D. 

That  I  shall  study  to  advance  the  state  of  the  church  in  general,  and  particu- 
larly the  estate  of  the  church  of  C.  whereto  I  am  to  be  received,  in  all  profits  and 
commodities  that  possibly  I  can. 

And  lastly,  that  I  shall  live  a  peaceable  minister  in  the  church,  subjecting  my- 
self to  the  orders  that  therein  are  or  shall  be  established,  and  by  all  means  that 
I  can  use,  to  procure  others  to  the  due  reverence  of  the  same.  Which  things,  if 
I  shall  contravene  (as  God  forbid),  I  am  content  upon  trial  and  cognition  taken 
by  my  said  ordinary,  without  all  reclamation  or  gainsaying,  to  be  deprived  of  my 
ministry,  and  to  be  reputed  and  held  one  perjured  and  infamous  for  ever.  In 
witness,  &c. 

1  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  IPL 


526  HISTOKY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XIII. 

St.  Mungo's  cathedral  at  Glasgow.  "  He  was  esteemed  a  man 
of  good  learning,  and  had  a  grave  and  venerable  aspect.  He 
left  behind  him  a  commentary  upon  several  places  of  Scripture, 
which  give  a  good  specimen  of  his  knowledge  both  in  the 
fathers  and  in  the  history  of  the  church."  This  prelate  com= 
pleted  the  leaden  roof  of  his  cathedral.  His  second  lady, 
Marion  Boyle,  of  the  family  of  Kelburn,  now  earls  of  Glasgow, 
erected  a  very  handsome  monument  over  his  gra\e.  He  was 
succeeded  by  Patrick  Lindsay,  bishop  of  Ross,  who  had  been 
consecrated  by  archbishop  Spottiswood  on  the  15th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1613 1. 

On  the  2d  of  December,  king  Charles  was  seized  slightly 
with  small-pox ;  but  the  disease  not  being  violent,  his  strength 
and  vigour  soon  restored  him  to  health  2. 

1633. — In  this  discontented  state  of  the  kingdom,  Charles 
determined  on  visiting  his  native  country,  which  he  had  never 
seen  since  he  left  it  at  two  years  of  age.  His  progress  through 
England  was  magnificent,  and  his  reception  in  Scotland  af- 
fectionate and  loyal.  The  Scottish  nobility  vied  with  the 
English  peers  in  the  most  profuse  hospitality,  which  they 
carried  to  such  excess,  that  Clarendon  ascribes  a  partial  cause 
of  their  future  rebellion  to  the  ruinous  waste  and  extravagance 
then  practised.  On  the  15th  of  June,  he  made  a  triumphal 
entry  into  Edinburgh  by  the  West  Port,  "  and  marching  through 
the  city  to  his  palace  of  Holyrood  House,  for  many  ages  this 
kingdom  had  not  seen  a  more  glorious  and  stately  entry,  the 
streets  being  all  railed  and  sanded  ;  the  chief  places  where  he 
passed  were  set  out  with  stately  triumphal  arches,  obelisks, 
pictures,  artificial  fountains,  adorned  with  choice  music,  and 
divers  other  costly  shows  ; then  came  the  king's  ma- 
jesty, riding  on  a  Barbary,  with  an  exceeding  rich  caparison 
and  foot-cloth  of  crimson  velvet,  embroidered  with  gold  and 
oriental  pearls,  the  bosses  of  bridle,  crupper,  and  tye,  being 
richly  set  with  emeralds,  rubies,  and  diamonds,  and  on  his 
head  a  panache  of  red  and  white  plumes 3." 

On  the  17th  of  June,  the  king  was  feasted  in  the  castle  by 
the  earl  of  Mar;  and  on  the  following  day  he  went  in  state  from 
the  castle  to  the  chapel  royal,  Holyrood  House.  Six  noble- 
men bore  the  canopy  of  state :  "  Rothes,  the  father  of  the 
future  covenant,  carried  the  sceptre ;  and  Lord  Lokn,  the  deeper 
and  more  deadly  promoter  of  the  rebellion,  assisted  to  bear  the 
train.     The  factious  insolency  of  the  Scottish  nobles,  whicli 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  192.— Keith's  Cat.  264.  "  Balfour. 

»  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  193—198. 


1633.]  CHURCH    OF  SCOTLAND.  527 

Charles  had  experienced  in  England,  he  now  met  with  in  more 
dangerous  and  personal  collision  at  home."  As  an  act  of  grace 
at  his  coronation,  the  king  created  Hay,  of  Dnpplin,  earl  of 
Kinnoul;  but  although  he  had  given  the  primate  precedency 
of  all  other  subjects,  yet  Kinnoul  would  not  yield  it  to  the  arch- 
bishop, even  on  that  occasion  and  at  the  request  of  the  king. 
"  Thus,"  says  Mr.  Napier,  "  even  the  royal  procession,  vvliich 
to  the  eyes  of  all  Scotland  betokened  gaiety  and  gladness,  was 
to  the  devoted  monarch  replete  with  vexation  and  bitterness^" 
"  And  because  this  was  the  most  glorious  and  magnificent  coro- 
nation that  ever  was  seen  in  this  kingdom,  and  the  first 
king  of  Great  Britain  that  ever  was  crowned  in  Scotland,  to 
behold  these  triumphs  and  ceremonies  many  straiigers  of  great 
quality  resorted  hither  from  divers  countries  2." 

The  coronation  was  performed  by  the  archbishop  of  St.  An- 
drews, assisted  by  the  bishops  of  Ross  and  Moray.  In  the 
coronation  oath,  the  following  clause  particularly  bound  Charles 
to  the  maintenance  of  the  church  as  then  established.  The 
archbishop  asked  his  majesty — 

"  Sire, — we  also  beseech  you  to  grant  and  preserve  to  us  of 
the  clergy,  and  to  the  church  committed  to  our  charge,  all 
canonical  privileges ;  and  that  you  will  defend  and  protect  us 
in  this  your  kingdom,  as  every  good  king  ought  to  defend  his 
bishops  and  the  church  under  their  government." 

The  king  answered, — "  With  a  willing  heart  I  grant  the 
same,  and  promise  to  maintain  you,  and  every  one  of  you,  with 
all  the  churches  committed  to  your  charge,  in  your  haill  rights 
and  privileges,  according  to  law  and  justice." 

Then  the  king,  rising  from  his  chair,  went  to  the  communion 
table,  where,  in  sight  of  all  the  people,  he  laid  his  hands  on 
the  Bible,  and  took  his  oath,  saying,  "  All  the  things  which 
before  1  have  promised,  I  shall  observe  and  keep.  So  help 
me  God,  and  by  the  contents  of  this  book." 

Stevenson  asserts  that  David  Lindsay,  bishop  of  Brechin, 
preached ;  but  Heylin  states  that  Dk.  Laud,  bishop  of  London, 
who  was  in  the  king's  suite,  preached  on  this  occasion.  The 
people  were  taught  by  the  sincerer  sort  to  esteem  the  decent 
religious  ceremonies  used  at  the  coronation  as  the  introduction 
of  the  Romish  mass,  and  to  ascribe  the  imposition  as  the  work 
of  Dr.  Laud :  "  a  man,"  says  the  late  bishop  Walker,  "  whom 
every  true  son  of  the  church  of  England  isbound  to  hold  in  vene- 
ration, both  as  a  man,  a  christian,  and  a  minister."  Much  abuse 
has  been  heaped  on  that  most  excellent  prelate  for  displacing 

'  Montrose  and  the  Covenanters,  i.  91,  92.         ^  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  199. 


528  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XIII. 

the  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  who  appeared  in  his  place,  at  the 
king's  left  hand  at  the  coronation,  in  his  ordinary  dress,  without 
his  robes,  which,  as  it  marked  a  leaning  in  the  archbishop 
towards  the  puritan  faction,  was  taken  up  by  them  as  a  fit  sub- 
ject of  clamour  against  bishop  Laud.  Yet  all  the  archbishop's 
compliances  with  that  faction  did  not  save  him  from  their  fury 
five  years  afterwards,  when  he  met  the  same  fate  and  the  same 
obloquy  as  the  other  bishops.  But  the  most  trivial  circum- 
stance was  seized  with  avidity  by  the  presbyterians  to  inflame 
the  uncharitable  passions  of  the  mob,  and  make  them  spy 
popery  in  the  most  trivial  accidents. 

On  June  the  20th  the  parliament  met,  and  granted  the  king 
the  largest  subsidy  that  had  ever  been  voted  to  any  of  his  pre- 
decessors. After  which,  the  lords  of  the  articles  presented 
two  acts  ;  the  one  entitled,  "  An  act  anent  his  majesty's  royal 
])rerogative,  and  apparel  of  kirkmen  ;"  the  other,  "  An  act  of 
ratification  of  the  acts  touching  religion  ^"  Great  opposition 
was  made  to  this  act  by  the  earl  of  Rothes,  who  desired  the 
acts  might  be  divided  ;  but  the  king  said  it  was  now  one  act, 
and  he  must  either  vote  for  it  or  against  it.  Those  attached  to 
the  presbyterian  party  were  displeased  at  having  the  act  for  the 
apparel  of  kirkmen  joined  to  the  prerogative,  being  alarmed 
lest,  under  its  cover,  the  king  should  introduce  the  surplice. 
With  the  view  of  making  himself  popular  with  the  presbyte- 
rians, the  earl  of  Rothes  said  he  was  for  the  prerogative  as 
much  as  any  man,  but  that  addition  was  contrary  to  the  liber- 
ties of  the  church,  and  he  thought  no  determination  ought  to 
be  made  without  their  being  heard  ;  and  he  voted,  not  content. 
The  clerk  of  the  register,  who  gathered  and  declared  the  votes, 
found  it  was  carried  in  the  affirmative^.  To  make  the  observa- 
tion of  these  two  acts  the  more  binding  on  the  subjects,  the 
king's  general  revocation  was  ratified  in  parliament,  and  which 
he  only  intended  as  a  brutum  fulmen,  to  awe  those  who  might 
attempt  any  opposition  to  these  acts.  "  But  it  proved  in  the  end 
a  forcible  rope  to  draw  the  aflections  of  the  subjects  from  the 
prince,  and  in  effect  they  were  the  very  ground-stones  of  all 
the  mischiefs  that  hath  since  followed  3." 

The  lords  Rothes  and  Loudon  were  the  leaders  of  a  very 
dangerous  rising  faction,  that  included  the  whole  presbyterian 
party,  and  which  acted  with  the  greatest  hypocrisy.  "  A  third 
bewraying  of  their  factious  humour,"  says  the  king,  "  ap- 
peared clearly  at  our  lastbeing  in  that  our  kingdom,  and  imme- 


Rushworth,  182.  -  Clarendon,  79.— Cruikshanks,  i.  24. 

3  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  p.  200. 


1G33.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  529 

diately  after  our  departure  from  thence.  For  some  six  years 
ago,  having  a  great  desire  to  visit  that  our  native  kingdom,  and 
being  willing  to  cheer  and  comfort  our  subjects  there  with 
our  presence,  and  honour  them  with  our  personal  coronation, 
all  which  they  did  most  humbly  and  heartily  solicit  us  for,  by 
their  earnest  and  affectionate  supplications  we  undertook  a 
journey  to  them,  and  according  to  our  expectation  were  most 
joyfully  received  by  them  ;  but  immediately  before,  and  at  the 
sitting  down  of  our  parliament,  W9  quickly  found  that  the  very 
same  persons  who  since  were  the  contrivers  of,  and  still  con- 
tinue the  sticklers  foi',  their  now  pretended  covenant,  began  to 
have  secret  meetings,  and  in  their  private  consultations  did 
vent  their  dislike  of  our  innocent  revocation,  and  our  most 
beneficial  commission  of  surrenders  :  but  knowing  that  these 
two  could  gain  them  no  party,  then  they  begun  to  suggest  great 
fears  that  many  and  dangerous  innovations  of  religion  were  to 
be  attempted  in  this  present  parliament :  not  that  they  them- 
selves thought  so,  but  because  they  knew  that  either  that  or 
nothing  would  soil  with  suspicious  jealousy,  or  interrupt  and 
relax  the  present  joy  and  contentment  which  did  overflow  in 
our  subjects'  hearts,  and  appeared  in  their  hearty  expressions 
for  our  presence  among  them. 

"  But  we  readily  confuted  all  these  suspicious  surmises  ; 
for  except  an  act  which  gave  us  power  to  appoint  such  ves- 
tures for  churchmen  which  we  should  hold  to  be  most  decent, 
nothing  concerning  religion  was  either  propounded  or  passed 
in  this  parliament,  but  that  which  every  king  doth  usually,  in 
that  and  all  other  christian  kingdoms,  pass  at  their  first  par- 
liament— viz.  an  act  of  ratification  of  all  other  acts  heretofore 
made,  and  then  standing  in  force,  concerning  the  religion  pre- 
sently professed  and  established,  and  concerning  the  church, 
her  liberties  and  privileges :  which  act  being  an  act  of  cowrse, 
though  it  passed  by  most  voices,  yet  was  it  dissented  from,  to 
our  great  admiration,  by  the  voices  of  many  of  those  who  are 
now  the  principal  pillars  of  their  covenant ;  which  made  all 
men  begin  to  suspect,  that  sure  there  was  some  great  distemper 
of  heat  at  the  heart,  when  it  boiled  over  so  at  their  lips,  by 
their  unnecessary  and  unprofitable  denying  of  assent  to  the 
laws  concerning  the  religion  and  church  already  established  ; 
this  first  act  passing  more  for  fonn  and  honour  of  religion 
than  for  any  use  or  necessity  of  it,  all  the  former  laws  still 
standing  in  force  and  vigour,  without  the  need  of  any  new  rati- 
fication ^" 

^  Large  Declaration  concerning  the  late  Tumults  in  Scotland,  pp.  10,  11. 
VL.  I.  3  Y 


530  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

A  base  calumny  was  circulated  against  the  king,  that  he  had 
caused  the  clerk-register  to  declare  the  act  passed,  when,  in 
fact,  they  said  it  was  rejected.  The  king  condescended  to 
clear  himself  of  this  malicious  assertion,  and  his  account  is 
corroborated  by  all  other  historians  except  bishop  Burnet,  who 
gives  it  a  turn  unfavourable  to  the  king.  Charles  says,  that  so 
many  made  suit  for  honours,  that  it  was  impossible  to  comply 
with  their  demands,  "  without  the  prostitution  of  honour  to 

a  just   and  open  contempt and  many  of  those  who 

were  then  passed  by,  and  are  now  principal  covenanters,  seeing 
others  advanced  to  degrees  of  honour  above  themselves,  be- 
gan then  presently  to  mutter,  but  not  to  mutiny  until  we  were 
gone  from  them.  But  scarcely  were  we  well  returned  into 
England,  when  the  discontent  of  these  men  resolved  itself  into 
a  plain  sedition ;  for  thence  they  had  the  impudence  to  give  it 
out,  that  voices  were  bought  and  packed  in  the  late  parlia- 
ment ;  nay,  that  the  voices  were  not  truly  numbered,  but  that 
some  acts  were  passed  without  plurality  of  suffrages  :  a 
calumny  so  foul  and  black,  as  that  they  themselves  did  know 
it  to  be  false  ;  for  had  there  been  the  least  suspicion  of  truth 
in  it,  they  might  have  made  trial  thereof  by  surveying  their 
own  papers  and  ths  papers  of  many  hundreds  present,  who 
took  notes  of  the  number  of  voices  which  were  given,  either  by 
assenting  to  or  dissenting  from  the  several  acts  read  and  pro- 
posed ;  by  which  papers,  if  they  had  found  but  the  weakest 
ground  for  this  their  strong  but  false  report,  we  have  no  reason 
to  think  that  either  their  mercy  or  modesty  was  such  that  they 
would  have  forborne  the  calling  of  the  clerk  of  our  register  in 
question  for  it ;  it  being  as  our  chancellor's  office  to  ask  the 
voices,  so  our  clerk  of  register's  office  to  take  them  and  record 
them,  and  according  to  his  own  and  his  clerk's  notes,  who  as- 
sist him,  to  pronounce  the  act  passed  or -stopped.  In  which 
it  is  impossible  that  he  should  deal  but  with  sincei'ity ;  for  else 
the  notes  taken  by  most  of  the  auditors,  being  a  present  and 
powerful  conviction  of  his  false  dealing,  must  presently  trans- 
mit him  to  the  highest  censure  and  punishment  ^" 

Balfour  found  it  necessary,  he  says,  to  make  a  digression, 
"  for  clearing  the  fountain  and  spring  from  whence  all  the  suc- 
ceeding great  alterations  and  changes  both  of  church  and 
state  did  seem  to  flow  (the  vulgar  being  made  believe  so)  as  a 
corollary  of  the  emergents  of  this  year,  and  to  present  to  pos- 
terity some  grievances  given  in  by  some  ministers,  and  pre- 
sented to  the  clerk  of  register.  Sir  John  Hay,  before  the  sitting 

*  Large  Declaration,  pp.  11,12. 


1633.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  531 

down  of  the  parliament."  On  the  king's  arrival,  Thomas 
Hogg,  one  of  the  ministers  in  the  presbyterian  interest,  was 
pitched  upon  by  the  factious  nobility  and  the  discontented 
ministers,  to  present  a  petition  to  the  clerk-register,  entitled, 
"  Grievances  and  petitions  concerning  the  disordered  estate 
of  the  reformed  kirk  within  the  realm  of  Scotland,  presented 
upon  the  28th  of  May,  1633,  by  Mr.  Thomas  Hogg,  minister 
of  the  Evangel,  to  be  presented  by  him  to  such  as  ought, 
according  to  the  order  appointed,  to  consider  them,  that  there- 
after they  may  be  presented  to  his  majesty  and  estates  which 
were  to  be  assembled  at  the  ensuing  parliament."  As  Sir 
John  Hay  declined  to  present  this  petition  to  his  majesty, 
Mr.  Hogg  presented  it  himself  to  the  king  at  Dalkeith,  the 
day  previous  to  his  majesty's  public  entry  into  the  capital. 
"  His  majesty  read  the  petition  all  over,  without  bewraying 
any  displeasure  at  it;  yet,  after  some  conference  with  the  earl 
of  Morton,  the  earl  came  to  Mr.  Hogg,  and  asked  his  name, 
and  said,  he  wished  the  petitioners  had  chosen  another  place 
than  his  house  for  presenting  their  application :  from  which 
the  petitioners  inferred  that  their  design  was  no  way  accep- 
table to  his  majesty,  and  feared  their  hopes  would  be  frustrated, 
and  their  desires  rejected,  which  they  soon  found  to  be  the 
case  :  their  grievances  were  suppressed,  and  they  never  heard 
more  of  them,  either  among  the  lords  of  the  articles,  or  in 
open  parliament  ^  J' 

But  this  petition  was  not  to  be  allowed  to  sink  into  obli- 
vion. William  Haig,  the  solicitor-general,  prepared  another 
petition  upon  the  basis  of  Hogg's,  which  had  been  rejected. 
"  This  precious  egg  of  sedition  the  solicitor  privately  conveyed 
to  Lord  Balmerino,  for  incubation  2."  This  nobleman  was 
the  "  treacherous  son  of  a  treacherous  father,"  who  was  con- 
demned to  suffer  death  for  stealing  the  royal  sign-manual  to  a 
state  paper,  for  his  owti  private  purposes  of  favouring  popery, 
but  who  was  pardoned  by  king  James.  The  son  inherited  his 
father's  treachery,  and  withal  a  spirit  of  revenge  which  was 
the  national  vice  of  the  time ;  consequently,  he  entered 
heartily  into  all  the  seditious  intrigues  which  were  then  hatch- 
ing. Haig  submitted  this  petition  to  Balmerino,  which  Mr. 
Napier  justly  calls  "  a  scheme  of  a  revolution,"  and  who 
shewed  it  to  lord  Rothes,  but  who  thought  it  not  fit  to  be 
presented  to  his  majesty.  "  It  is  not  surprising  that  even  their 
effrontery,  who  at  the  very  time  were  forcing  themselves  upon 

'  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  p.  137. 

-  Napier's  Montrose  and  the  Covenanters,  i.  102. 


53-2  HISTOUY  OF  THE  [cHAr.  xiir. 

the  king  in  his  progresses,  was  unequal  to  the  task  of  present- 
ing this  petition  ;  for  a  more  purely  insulting  document,  if 
offered  to  the  king,  and,  if  circulated  among  the  people,  a  more 
insidiously  seditious  one,  could  not  have  been  framed.  It  be- 
gan by  accusing  the  king  of  asserting  in  the  recent  parlia- 
ment a  secret  power  to  innovate  the  order  and  government  long 
continued  in  the  reformed  church  of  Scotland.  It  referred 
to  the  known  wish  of  Charles  to  have  a  liturgy  prepared  for 
Scotland,  as  '  reports  of  allowance  given  in  England  for  print- 
ing books  of  popery,^ — it  presumed  to  *  suspect  a  snare  in  the 
subtle  junction'  of  the  act  of  churchmen's  apparel  with  that 
of  the  prerogative, — 'to  call  it  '  a  sopliistical  artifice,'  and  to 
add  most  insultingly,  '  which  blessed  king  James  would  never 
have  confounded,' — it  complained  of  the  \mn\%\ex&^  grievances, 
and,  finally,  the  whole  drift  and  modest  purpose  of  this  pe- 
tition, full  of  such  impertinencies,  mixed  up  with  the  most 
contradictory  expressions  of  loyally  and  humility,  amounted 
to  this — that  Charles  should  give  up  the  established  church  to 
the  meaner  model  of  a  Scotch  faction  thirsting  for  democratic 
powei*.  This  ingenious  scheme,  concocted  by  a  single  lawyer 
out  of  some  conferences  he  had  held  with  sundry  of  a  disap- 
pointed minority  in  parliament,  was  entitled  '  the  humble 
supplication  of  a  great  number  of  the  nobility  and  other  com- 
missioners in  the  late  parliament.'  The  real  intention  never 
could  have  been  to  present  this  to  his  majesty,  at  least  with 
any  other  view  than  that  of  insulting  and  enraging  him.  It 
must  have  been  conceived  with  the  covert  view  of  agitating 
Scotland  against  the  king.  It  was  to  pass  for  the  suppressed 
voice  of  a  loyal  but  a  subjugated  people  against  a  tyrannical 
monarch  and  papistical  clergy  ;  and  if  the  ministers  joined 
heartily  in  the  scheme,  the  nation,  it  was  foreseen,  would  be 
revolutionised  from  the  pulpits.  In  short,  this  insidious  paper 
involved  one  of  the  most  dangerous  instances  of  the  statutory 
crime  of  leasing-raaking  that  could  well  be  imagined  ^" 

Hothes  undertook  to  present  this  insulting  petition,  but 
which  the  king  peremptorily  refused  to  receive  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  taxed  Rothes  with  his  disingenuous  conduct ; 
but  he  cleared  himself  of  the  charge,  and  took  great  credit  to 
himself  for  having  suppressed  all  improper  petitions.  And 
then,  says  Mr.  Napier,  "  with  ludicrous  effrontery,  added,  that 
he  had  one  of  these  5M;?/?re55ec?  petitions  in  his  pocket, '  if  your 
majesty  woidd  be  pleased  to  look  upon  it  ^' "  But  the  king  re- 
plied, "  No  more  of  this,  my  lord,  I  command  you ;"  and  nothing 

-  Napier's  Montrose  and  Covenanters,  i.  102,  103.  '  Ibid.  104. 


1633.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  533 

farther  was  heard  of  it  till  the  following  year,  when  lord  Bal- 
merino  was  prosecuted  for  leasing-making  ^ 

The  first  clause  of  this  petition  struck  directly  at  the  foun- 
dation of  the  church,  and,  if  it  had  been  received,  would  have 
introduced  the  small  end  of  the  wedge  for  her  entire  subversion  : 
"  Albeit  vote  in  parliament  was  not  absolutely  granted  to  minis- 
ters provided  to  prelacies,  but  only  upon  such  conditions  as 
his  highness,  of  happy  memory,  and  the  general  assemblies  of 
the  kirk  should  agree  upon  ....  some  ministers,  notwith- 
standing, have  been  and  are  admitted  to  vote  in  parliament,  in 
name  of  the  kirk,  as  absolutely  as  if  the  act  of  parliament  did 
contain  no  such  reference Therefore  our  humble  sup- 
plication is,  that  the  execution  of  the  acts  of  parliament,  of  mat- 
ters belonging  to  the  kirk,  to  which  they  have  voted  in  name  of 
the  kirk,  without  any  authority  or  allowance  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  kirk,  be  suspended  till  that  the  kirk  be  heard  ; 
and  that  in  time  coming  ministers  have  no  otherwise  vote  of 
parliament  but  according  to  the  provision  of  the  act  of  par- 
liament, and  the  order  of  their  entry  to  the  office  of  that  corn- 
missionary  and  limitation  aforesaid  agreed  on  as  said  is." 

The  second  clause  asserted  the  supremacy  of  the  deraocra- 
tical  part  of  the  General  Assembly  over  the  bishops,  and  also 
over  the  civil  government,  as  it  pleaded  for  "  the  subjection  of 
bishops  in  all  things  concerning  their  life,  conversation,  office, 
and  benefice,  to  the  censure  of  the  General  Assembly ;  and 
the  censure  of  the  bishops  in  case  they  stay  the  censure  of 
excommunication."  This  was  precisely  the  power  which  the 
Assembly  actually  assumed  to  themselves  in  the  year  1638  ; 
and  Mr.  Napier  very  justly  calls  this  petition  "  a  shadow  of 
the  coming  covenant." 

The  sincere  affection  with  which  the  people  had  at  first  wel 
comed  the  king,  by  the  vile  arts  of  Rothes  and  the  presbyterian 
party,  was  now  turned  into  distrust  and  hatred.  The  people 
were  now  led  to  believe  that  the  king  entertained  the  most 
despotic  intentions ;  and,  along  with  the  surplice,  that  he  in- 
tended to  introduce  the  mass.  Charles  observed  this  sullen 
discontent  of  the  people  towards  him,  and  expressing  his 
surprise  at  the  sudden  reverse  of  popular  favoui',  Leslie, 
bishop  of  the  Isles,  replied,  "  that  the  Scots  were  ready  to- 
morrow to  crucify  him,  whom  yesterday  they  had  saluted  with 
hosannahs^." 

Charles  was  conscientiously  attached  to  the  Anglican  Catho- 

'  Guthry's  Memoirs,  p.  9.  —  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  130. 
"  Clarendon,  i.  80. 


534  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

lie  church,  and  considered  it  the  best  adapted  for  the  propaga- 
tion and  advancement  of  Christianity,  of  any  church  in  the 
world ;  while  at  the  same  time  he  was  most  firmly  opposed  to 
the  Komish  church ;  and  no  man  better  understood  the  mo- 
tives of  the  separation  of  the  papists  from,  and  their  animosity 
against,  the  reformed  church.  In  Scotland  the  principle  of 
papal  insubordination  and  ambition  "  covered  the  whole  na- 
tion, so  that  though  there  were  bishops  in  name,  the  whole 
jurisdiction,  and  they  themselves  were  upon  the  matter,  sub- 
ject to  an  Assembly  which  was  purely  presbyterian ;  no  form 
of  religion  in  practice,  no  liturgy,  nor  the  least  appearance  of 
any  beauty  of  holiness :  the  clergy,  for  the  most  part  corrupted 
in  their  principles ;  at  least  none  countenanced  by  the  great  men, 
or  favoured  by  the  people,  but  such,  though  it  must  be  owned 
their  universities,  especially  Aberdeen,  flourished  under  many 
excellent  scholars  and  very  learned  men  ^"  The  daily  sacri- 
fice had  not  been  restored  in  any  of  the  churches  which  were 
occupied  as  cathedrals,  and  only  in  the  chapel  royal  had  any 
decency  of  public  worship  been  observed.  Tn  it  the  English 
liturgy  was  daily  used  with  all  the  decencies  of  cathedral 
service;  and  the  whole  Scoto-Catholic  church  was  happily 
disposed  towards  the  use  of  a  stated  national  liturgy  at  the 
period  of  king  James's  death.  The  establishment  of  the  An- 
glican liturgy  was  firmly  resolved  on  by  king  James,  and  lord 
Clarendon  says,  it  ^^'as  the  principal  object  he  had  in  view  in 
his  visit  to  his  native  kingdom  2.  Charles  inherited  his  father's 
love  of  country  and  of  religion,  and  resolved  to  unite  his  three 
kingdoms  in  one  form  of  public  devotions,  and  the  completion 
of  this  pious  resolution  was  one  of  the  chief  designs  of  his 
visit  at  this  time. 

For  the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose,  the  king  took  Dr. 
Laud,  then  bishop  of  London,  into  Scotland  with  him,  and 
made  him  a  privy  councillor.  Dr.  Laud  preached  in  the  chapel 
royal,  and  principally  recommended  the  benefit  of  conformity 
and  the  reverend  ceremonies  of  the  church, "  with  all  the  marks 
of  approbation  imaginable;"  and  there  is  little  doubt  that 
had  the  king  then  proposed  the  introduction  generally  of 
the  liturgy  (for  it  was  used  in  that  particular  chapel),  and  before 
the  lay  impropriators  and  the  discontented  presbyterians  had 
time  to  organize  an  opposition,  it  would  have  been  quietly 
adopted  without  any  obstruction  whatever.  It  is  easy  to  frame 
confessions  of  faith  which  may  be  vniexceptionable,  but  they 
do  not  prevent  the  utmost  latitude  of  opinion  in  the  formation 

'  Clarendon,  i.  «.  134-5.  -  Ibid.  i.  135. 


1633.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  535 

of  extempore  prayers,  which  being  the  work  of  each  indivi- 
dual of  the  ministry,  will  present  as  many  models  as  there  are 
composers.  In  a  stated  liturgy,  however,  there  is  no  latitude 
for  private  judgment;  and  the  Anglican  liturgy  preserves  the 
faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,  and  secures  the  benefit  of  an 
orthodox  creed  and  prayers  to  the  people,  whatever  may  be 
the  private  opinions  of  the  minister;  a  blessing  for  which  we 
of  the  laity  cannot  be  too  thankful. 

When  Laud  was  consulted  on  the  subject,  his  decided  ad- 
vice, strongly  and  repeatedly  enforced,  was  to  take  the  English 
liturgy,  without  any  variation  from  it,  that  so  the  service  book 
might  pass  through  all  his  majesty's  dominions  ^     To  this 
some  of  the  old  experienced  bishops  said, "  that  in  king  James' 
time  there  had  been  a  motion  made  for  it,  but  that  the  present- 
ing thereof  was  deferred  on  account  of  the  partial  opposition 
to  the  articles  of  Perth; — that  they  thought  it  neither  safe  nor 
fitting  at  that  time  to  venture  upon  any  farther  innovations; 
and  even  yet  they  wei'e  not  without  apprehensions  for  the  con- 
sequences 2."  Maxwell  (bishop  of  Ross),  Messrs.  Sydserf,  Mit- 
chell, and  some  others,  "  pressed  hard  that  it  might  be,  assuring 
the  king  that  there  was  no  kind  of  danger  in  it ;  whereupon 
bishop  Laud  (who  spake  as  he  would  have  it),  moved  the  king 
to  declare  it  to  be  his  will  that  there  should  be  a  liturgy  in  this 
church,  his  majesty  commanded  the  bishops  to  go  about  the 
foi-ming  of  it."    When  the  report  that  a  liturgy  was  to  be  com- 
piled came  to  be  generally  known,  it  was  applauded  to  the  echo 
by  both  parties :   the  churchmen  devoutly  wishing  such  a 
consummation,  while  the  presbyterian  party  thought  that  the 
attempt  would  startle  the  whole  nation,  alarm  their  prejudices, 
and  be  a  convenient  stalking-horse  for  embroiling  the  kingdom 
in  a  civil  war,  which  might  in  the  end  be  the  means  of  exter- 
minating episcopacy,  and  establishing  presbytery. 

The  king  was  as  jealous  of  the  liberties  and  privileges  of  his 
native  kingdom  as  any  man,  and  he  the  more  readily  acquiesced 
in  the  arguments  urged  by  the  Scottish  bishops  for  compiling 
one  entirely  new.  The  primate  and  some  of  the  bishops 
alleged,  "  that  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  generally  had  been 
long  jealous  that  by  the  king's  continued  absence  from  them 
they  should  be  by  degrees  reduced  to  be  but  as  a  province  of 
England,  and  subject  to  their  laws  and  government,  to  which 
they  would  never  submit,  nor  would  any  man  of  honour,  who 
loved  the  king  best  and  respected  England  most,  ever  consent 

■  Life  of  Laud,  in  Ep.  Mag. 
-  Guthry's  Memoirs,  pp.  16,  18. — Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  p.  145. 


536  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

to  bring  that  disbonour  on  bis  native  country;  and  tberefore  it 
migbt  look  too  like  an  arbitrary  imposition  from  England,  and 
a  designed  beginning  of  trampling  upon  all  the  laws  and  pri- 
vileges of  Scotland,  if  a  form  settled  in  parliament  at  West- 
minster should,  without  any  alteration  by  ourselves,  be  ten- 
dered, though  from  the  king's  own  hand,  to  be  immediately 
submitted  to,  and  observed  in  this  independent  church  and 
kingdom.  But  if  his  majesty  would  give  orders  for  preparing 
a  litui-gy,  with  a  few  alterations,  it  could  easily  be  done,  and 
in  the  meantime  they  would  so  dispose  the  minds  of  the  people 
for  its  reception,  that  they  should  even  desire  it."  Dr.  Laud 
was  exceedingly  averse  to  the  compilation  of  a  new  liturgy, 
or  of  making  any  alteration  on  the  English  Book  of  Common 
Prayer;  especially  as,  in  the  Assembly  at  Aberdeen,  in  king 
James's  time,  there  had  been  a  motion  made  for  the  English 
liturgy,  with  a  book  of  canons.  But  the  king's  national  pre- 
judices coinciding  with  those  of  the  bishops,  a  new  compilation 
was  decided  on;  and  the  framing  of  such  a  composition  as 
would  most  probably  be  acceptable  to  the  people  was  com- 
mitted to  a  select  number  of  the  bishops,  who  were  both  willing 
and  able  to  undertake  it,  and  who  were  commanded  to  submit 
the  result  of  their  labours  to  Dr.  Laud,  now  promoted  to  the 
see  of  Canterbury,  and  Dr.  Wren,  bishop  of  Norwich, — a  man 
particularly  learned  in  the  old  liturgies  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
churches^. 

The  compilation  of  the  Scottish  liturgy  forms  one  of  the 
gi'avest  accusations  against  Laud,  who,  it  is  maintained,  at 
length  endeavoured  to  impose  a  liturgy  of  his  own  formation 
on  the  church  of  Scotland,  carried  much  nearer  to  the  popish 
model,  as  it  is  pretended,  even  than  the  English.  This  calumny, 
with  all  its  connecting  circumstances,  Laud  has  himself 
triumphantly  confuted,  in  the  history  of  his  "  Troubles  and 
Trial;"  yet  it  is  continued  with  luiabated  pertinacity  both  m 
England  and  in  Scotland.  Whatever  be  the  merits  of  tlie 
work,  the  proof  is  incontestible  that  it  was  not  the  work  of 
Laud, — that  the  compilation  was  Scottish, — and  that  the 
bishops  by  whom,  and  under  whose  authority,  it  was  made, 
imder  the  model  generally  of  the  English  liturgy,  were,  in 
fact,  jealous  of  English  interference,  and  actually  resisted  that 
subserviency  of  which  they  were  accused  2. 

The  presbyteriau  party  heaped  the  most  unbounded  ca- 
lumnies on  archbishop  Laud,  and  accused  him  of  Arminianism 
and  popery  ;  to  which  he  was  strongly  opposed.     The  former 

1  Clarendon,  i.  138,  139.— Guthry,  18.         "  Life  of  Laud,  in  Scot.  Ep.  Mag. 


1634.]  CHURCH  OF  SCCTLANP.  537 

is  a  term  of  reproach  used  by  those  holding  Calvinistic  senti- 
ments, which  most  of  the  sincerer  sort,  and  the  English  puri- 
tans generally,  did.  During  the  JNIarian  persecution,  many 
of  the  English  clergy  fled  to  Geneva,  and  there  imbibed  the 
senseless  doctrine  of  rigid  predestination,  and  thence  imported 
it  into  England  on  their  return  in  Elizabeth's  reign.  But 
"  the  English  Cyprian,"  the  great  archbishop  Laud,  set  him- 
self to  stop  the  torrent  of  this  infection  ;  and  when  he  was 
chancellor  of  Oxford  he  turned  the  bent  of  the  studies  of  the 
young  Oxonians  from  these  modern  polemics,  and  the  Dutch 
and  German  systems  of  divinity,  to  learn  downwards  from  the 
first  beginning  of  Christianity,  and  to  acquaint  themselves 
with  ihe  fathers  in  their  several  ages,  to  their  own  times.  This 
system  enabled  them  better  to  judge  of  the  novel  disputes  of 
the  remonstrants,  anti-remonstrants,  supra  and  sublapsarians, 
which  then  tormented  the  protestants  in  Germany  and  Holland, 
and  wherein  the  Scottish  presbyterians  likewise  took  part. 
And  in  consequence,  these  two  famous  universities  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  reap  to  this  day  the  benefit  of  his  pious  in- 
stiiictions,  which  has  given  them  that  deserved  reputation  all 
over  Europe  for  their  great  knowledge  of  antiquity  and  the 
primitive  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  church,  —  teaching 
their  scholars  to  derive  their  faith  from  its  fountain  and  origi- 
nal, and  not  from  the  modem  dogmas  of  either  Luther  or  Calvin, 
but  to  go  higher  up  than  them^  The  "  sincerer  sort"  preached, 
that  our  Saviour  died  for  the  elect  alone,  and  that  all  others 
had  no  interest  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  death  of  Christ^.  The 
elect  were  those  "  godly"  people,  in  their  own  eyes,  who  che- 
rished the  doctrine  of  "  the  eternal  decree,"  whereby  they 
condemned  to  outer  darkness  and  gnashing  of  teeth,  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  "  of  all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and 
people,  and  tongues,"  who  have  done  justice,  loved  mercy,  and 
walked  humbly  before  God  in  their  several  generations.  When 
men  were  so  puffed  up  with  spiritual  pride,  it  is  not  smprising 
that  there  should  have  been  such  uncharitable  feelings  towards 
their  governors  both  in  church  and  state,  and  so  great  a  pro- 
pensity to  ascribe  to  them  the  most  malignant  motives  in  their 
most  innocent  and  necessary  acts  of  government. 

1634. — Previous  to  this  royal  visit,  Edinburgh  had  been  a 
part  of  the  diocese  of  St.  Andrews  ;  but  Charles,  willing  to 
leave  a  monument  of  his  piety  and  care  for  the  church,  erected 
Edinburgh  into  a  bishopric,  with  a  diocese  extending  from 
the  Forth  to  Berwick,  and  appointed  St.  Giles's  church  for  its 

1  Lesslie'a  Works.  '  Vide  post,  vol.  ii.  ch.  on  Westminster  Assembly. 

VOL.  I.  3  z 


538  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  XIII. 

cathedral.  Cliarles  purchased  some  lands  from  the  Lennox 
family,  and  settled  them  on  the  new  see  ;  and  appointed  Dr, 
William  Forbes,  a  man  second  to  none  in  private  worth  and 
public  respectability,  as  the  first  bishop.  Although  he  had 
been  elected  last  year,  yet  it  was  the  ■28th  of  January  before 
he  was  consecrated  by  archbishop  Spottiswood,  assisted  by 
five  other  bishops,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  archbishop  of 
Glasgow,  in  the  chapel  royal.  "  For  him,"  says  Stevenson, 
"  the  king  ordered  the  middle  wall  in  St.  Giles's,  which  di- 
vided the  little  kirk  from  the  greater,  to  be  taken  down,  and 
that  spacious  building  to  be  made  a  cathedral ;  and  though 
this  was  depriving  the  city  of  so  many  of  their  churches,  with- 
out making  any  provision  for  their  relief,  yet  the  obsequious 
council  of  the  town  gave  orders  to  take  down  that  partition ; 
and  it  was  done,  to  the  great  grief  of  the  numerous  inhabitants, 
who  were  already  too  poorly  provided  with  churches."  When 
a  consultation  was  held,  with  regard  to  filling  the  see,  the 
king  said  he  had  found  a  man  who  deserved  to  have  had  a 
bishopric  erected  for  him.  This  pious  and  learned  man  did  not 
long  enjoy  his  preferment:  he  died  the  following  year.  "  A 
person  he  was  indued  most  eminently  with  all  christian  vir- 
tues, insomuch,  that  a  very  worthy  man,  Robert  Burnet,  lord 
Crimond,  a  judge  of  the  session,  said  of  our  prelate,  that  he 
never  saw  him  but  he  thought  his  heart  was  in  heaven,  and  that 
he  was  never  alone  with  him  but  he  felt  within  himself  a  com- 
mentary on  these  words  of  the  apostle, — '  Did  not  our  hearts 
burn  within  us  while  he  talked  with  us,  and  opened  to  us  the 
Scriptures  ?'  Bishop  Forbes  had  been  twenty  years  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  holy  ministry  before  he  was  put  into  the  see 
of  Edinburgh,  where  he  only  appeared  long  enough  to  be 
known,  but  not  long  enough  to  do  what  might  have  been 
expected  ^" 

"  Edinburgh,"  says  Clarendon,  "  though  the  metropolis  of 
the  kingdom,  and  the  chief  seat  of  the  king's  own  residence, 
end  the  place  where  the  council  of  state  and  courts  of  justice 
still  remained,  was  but  a  borough  town  within  the  diocese  of 
St.  Andrews,  and  was  governed  in  all  church  affairs  by  the 
city  preachers,  who,  being  chosen  by  the  citizens  from  the  time 
of  Mr.  Knox  (who  had  a  principal  hand  in  the  suppression 
of  popery,  with  circumstances  not  very  commendable  to  this 
day),  had  been  the  most  turbulent  and  seditious  ministers 
of  confusion  that  could  be  found  in  the  kingdom ;  of  which 
king  Janjes  had  so  sad  experience  after  he  came  of  age,  as 

'  Keith's  Catalogue,  61. 


1634.]  CHUKCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  539 

well  as  in  his  minority, that  he  would  often  say,  that  his  access 
to  the  crown  of  England  was  the  more  valuable  to  him,  as  it 
redeemed  him  from  subjection  to  the  ill  manners  and  insolent 
practices  of  these  preachers,  which  he  could  never  shake  off 
before  ^"  The  king  piously  hoped  that  the  erection  of  this 
bishopric  would  have  been  the  means  of  restoring  that  love 
of  order  and  submission  to  authority,  which  the  factious,  tur- 
bulent spirit  of  presbytery  had  completely  extirpated  from  the 
minds  of  the  people.  In  this  good  intention,  however,  that 
benevolent  monarch  was  miserably  disappointed  ;  "  so  unfor- 
tunate was  his  majesty  with  that  subboni  nation,  that  this  was 
also  looked  upon  as  a  general  grievance,  and  must  be  thought  to 
aim  at  no  other  end  than  tyranny  and  popery  2." 

Bishop  Forbes  being  thus  settled,  he  preached  his  first  ser- 
mon as  bishop  of  the  new  diocese  on  the  first  Sunday  of 
February  ;  and  on  Wednesday,  the  5th  of  March,  at  the  meet- 
ing of  the  presbytery  of  Edinburgh,  their  moderator  read  to 
them  the  bishop's  charge. — "Beloved  brethren, — It  is  not 
unknown  to  you  what  evil  effects  this  long-continued  schism 
brings  forth  in  our  kirk.    All  good  christians  are  touched  there- 
with, and  so  they  should,  but  none  more  than  you,  whose 
calling  in  particular  is  to  keep  Christ's  body  from  renting,  and 
to  build  up  the  breaches  thereof:    Therefore,  I  desire  you 
earnestly  to  think  upon  all  good  means  for  bringing  back  our 
peace ;  and  being  persuaded  that,  for  the  present,  one  of  the 
most  powerful  means  will  be  your  conformity  in  your  own  per- 
sons to  the  laudable  acts  of  our  church  in  giving  the  sacra- 
ment, I  require  you,  by  thir  presents,  that  ye  all,  who  are  the 
brethren  of  the  exercise  of  Edinburgh,  fail  not  to  give  the 
communion  this  next  ensuing  Pasch  day  (which  will  be  the 
6th  April),  every  one  of  you  in  your  own  churches  ;  and.  that 
ye  take  it  yourselves  upon  your  knees,  giving  so  a  good  example 
to  the  people  ;  and  likewise,  that  ye  minister  the  elements  out 
of  your  own  hands  to  every  one  of  yom*  flocks.     I  have  de- 
sired the  moderator  to  cause  you  to  signify  your  consent  thereto, 
by  writ  in  a  paper,  which  he  shall  present  unto  you,  that  ye 
put  your  names  thereto,  and  report  to  me  an  answer  within 
fourteen  days,  certifying  you,  that  whose  names  I  find  not  in  the 
writ,  I  will  take  them  as  refusers  to  conform,  and  maintainers 
of  our  schism,  against  whom  I  shall  be  forced  to  proceed  with 
ecclesiastical  censures,  seeing  both  ye  had  so  long  time  to  in- 
form yourselves,  and  also  many  of  you  are  bound  to  confoi*mity 
by  your  promise  and  oath,  at  your  entry  into  the  ministry.     I 

1  Qarendon,  i.  13G.  -  Ilej'liu,  p.  227. 


540  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

desire  you,  likewise,  whenever  ye  administer  the  sacrament 
after  this,  to  admit  none  to  it  but  those  of  your  own  parochin 
[parish],  for  the  want  of  which  there  has  been  great  profanation 
of  that  holy  ministry ;  and  for  this  cause  1  have  willed  you  to 
give  it  altogether  at  one  time ;  and  I  pray  you  see  to  this,  for 
the  breach  of  it  I  account  as  worthy  of  censure  as  the  other. 
Arid  last  of  all,  I  require  you  to  preach  of  Jesus  Christ  his 
passion  for  our  redemption,  upon  the  Friday  before  Pasch,  and 
that  according  to  the  canon  of  our  church.  So,  expecting  your 
answer,  I  commit  you  to  God's  best  blessing  and  rest. 

"  GuLiELMDS,  Edinburgh." 

The  consent  required  in  the  above  letter  or  charge  was  as 
follows  : — "  The  within  written  letter  being  produced  from  the 
right  reverened  father  in  God,  William,  bishop  of  Edinburgh, 
we,  the  brethren  of  the  presbytery  thereof,  undersubscribe,  and 
oblige,  and  promise  to  obey  the  whole  contents  of  the  said 
letter,  by  thir  presents,  subscribed  with  our  hands,  this  5th 
of  March,  16341." 

Ten  of  the  clergy  immediately  signed  the  above  form  of  con- 
sent ;  four  requested  time  for  consideration ;  but  two,  William 
Arthur,  of  the  West  Kirk,  and  James  Thompson,  of  Colling- 
ton,  flatly  refused  to  sign  it,  and,  of  course,  to  celebrate  the 
anniversary  of  the  death  and  resurrection  of  our  Saviour.  The 
other  presbyteries  in  the  diocese  very  generally  refused  obe- 
dience to  their  bishop's  injunctions,  who  merely  required  the 
observance  of  an  act  of  a  General  Assembly,  which  had  been 
ratified  by  an  act  of  parliament.  Proclamation  was  made, 
that  every  one  should  conform  to  the  articles  agreed  on  in  the 
Perth  Assembly,  and  the  bishops  and  conforming  clergy  used 
both  arguments  and  persuasions  to  induce  the  sincerer  sort,  who 
were  very  obstinate,  to  comply.  Yet,  says  Stevenson,  "  this 
prevailed  only  ^vith  time-servers,  and  those  who  depended  on 
the  court ;"  as  if  there  could  be  no  honest  conscientious  men 
but  those  of  presbyteiian  principles  who  claimed  exclusive 
]yOssession  of  both  religion  and  patriotism  ; — "  only  Satan's 
design  was  so  far  gained,  that  it  produced  greater  division  be- 
twixt those  who  conformed  and  those  who  did  not,  made  the 
breach  still  wider  among  church  members,  and  laid  a  founda- 
tion for  new  rigour  against  the  recusants 2."  The  presbytery 
of  Greenlaw,  not  content  with  simple  disobedience  to  the 
bishop's  letter,  sent  reasons  subscribed  by  David  Hume,  their 
moderator,  why  they  would  not  obey.  In  the  conclusion  of 
which  they  warned  the  bishop  that  the  Lord's  wrath  woidd 

'  Steveusoa's  Chxirch  and  State,"  115,  146.  -  Ibid.  U6,  147. 


1634.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  541 

certainly  overtalie  him,  if  he  persisted  in  such  vehement  urging 
of  ministers  to  do  that  whereof  they  had  no  warrant,  they  said, 
from  God's  word  and  their  own  consciences,  but  were  suffi- 
ciently persuaded  to  the  contrary  ^ 

Bishop  Forbes  did  not  live  long  to  enjoy  his  elevation  to  the 
episcopate  ;  for  he  died  on  the  ISth  of  April,  having  ruptured 
a  blood-vessel  internally.  He  was  one  of  the  most  learned 
and  pious  men  of  the  age ;  but  his  enemies  allege  that  his 
death  was  a  judgment  upon  him,  so  uncharitable  were  they  at 
that  time,  and  of  course  he  is  vehemently  accused  of  popery 
and  Arminianism.  Dr.  Sydserf,  dean  of  the  chapel  royal, 
preached  his  funeral  sermon.  Whoever  taught  catholic  doc- 
trines were  accused  of  being  followers  of  Arminius,  and  were 
always  artfully  classed  with  the  votaries  of  the  pope.  The 
following  quotation  from  Stevenson  will  shew  the  doctrines 
which  were  at  that  time  taught  in  the  church : — "  In  the  Little 
Kirk  (for  as  yet  the  congregation  convened  there)  Mr.  David 
Mitchel  taught  the  principles  of  universal  redemption,  and 
supported  them  to  his  power ;  but  Mr.  Thomson  did  as  openly 
contradict  that  doctrine  in  the  Great  Kirk,  proving  from  Scrip- 
ture, and  the  unanimous  consent  of  ancient  fathers,  that  Christ 
suffered  for  the  elect  only  2." 

Bishop  Forbes  was  the  author  of  a  work  published  after  his 
death,  in  1658,  intituled,  Considerationes  modestcR  et  pacificcz 
controversiarum  de  justijicatione,  purgatorio,  invocatione  sanc- 
torum et  Christo  mediatore,  Eucharistia ;  which  his  successor, 
the  late  primate  Walker,  says,  "  deserves  to  be  better  known 
than  it  is.  But,  alas !  in  his  time  and  in  this  church,  modest  and 
pacific  considerations  were  little  regarded.  The  most  learned 
and  the  most  pious  ministers  were  equally  liable  to  insult,  de- 
gradation, and  persecution."  During  the  time  that  he  was 
principal  of  King's  College,  Aberdeen,  he  interspersed  several 
arguments  among  his  academical  prelections,  having  a  ten- 
dency to  cveaie  peace  among  the  contending  parties  of  Chris- 
tianity. He  wrote  also  elaborate  animadversions  on  the  works 
of  Cardinal  Bellarmine ;  and  after  his  death  the  MSS.  were 
given  to  Dr.  Barron  to  be  arranged  for  publication.  Dr. 
Barron  was  the  object  of  persecution  to  the  covenanters,  and 
when  he  fell  into  trouble,  and  quitted  the  kingdom,  bishop 
Forbes'  MSS.,  and  his  own  books  and  other  property,  were 
destroyed  by  them^. 

The  see  of  Edinburgh  was  at  first  designed  for  Dr.  Sydserf; 

'  Stevenson,  p.  146.  -  Church  and  State,  116,  117. 

^  Bishop  Walker's  Life  of  Laud. 


542  HISTORY  OF  THE  lCHAP.  XIII. 

but  Charles  unfortunately  changed  his  father's  laudable  cus- 
tom of  choosing  one  of  three  which  were  selected  by  the 
primate,  and  issued  his  conge  cVelire  for  those  recommended  at 
court.  He  therefore  translated  David  Lindsay  from  the  see  of 
Brechin  to  Edinburgh,  on  the  17th  September,  and  Dr.  Syd- 
serf  was  preferred  to  the  see  of  Brechin  ^  Keith  does  not 
give  Sydserf  in  the  succession  of  Brechin,  but  places  Walter 
Whitford,  of  that  ilk,  as  bishop  there  in  this  year,  and  who 
continued  there  till  the  revolution  in  1638  2.  Stevenson,  how- 
ever, who  was  a  contemporary,  asserts,  on  the  authority  of  cer- 
tain historical  collections,  that  Sydserf  was  preferred  to  Bre- 
chin, and  consecrated  in  Edinburgh  by  archbishop  Spottis- 
wood,  and  that  both  he  and  bishop  Lindsay  were  sumptuously 
entertained  at  dinner  by  the  magistrates.  Bishop  Guthry 
also  states,  under  this  year,  that  Dr.  Sydserf  was  "  by  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury's  moyen  [means]  made  bishop  of 
Brechin  ;  .  .  .  and  when  Sydserf  was  removed  from  Brechin 
to  Galloway,  Mr.  Walter  Whitford  was  made  bishop  of  Bre- 
chin by  the  moyen  of  the  earl  of  Stirling,  the  secretary  for 
Scotland  3." 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  a  certain  petition  was  suppressed, 
after  a  draught  of  it  had  been  shewn  to  the  king  at  Dalkeith  by 
the  earl  of  Rothes.  One  John  Dunmure,  a  writer  or  solicitor, 
["  a  common  scrivener,"]  at  Dundee,  having  been  with  lord 
Balmerino  at  his  house  at  Barnton,  entered  into  conversation 
on  the  patriotic  subject  of  the  corruptions  in  church  and  state. 
Dunmure  remarked,  that  it  was  a  pity  that  they  were  not  repre- 
sented to  the  king ;  to  which  his  lordship  replied,  "  that  they 
purposed  to  have  done  it,  and  had  a  petition  signed  for  that 
end,  which  the  earl  of  Rothes  having  shewn  him,  the  king  had 
commanded  there  should  be  no  more  of  it,  whereupon  it  was 
suppressed  ;"  adding,  "  that  as  the  framing  of  the  petition  had 
been  committed  to  him,  he  had  the  original  beside  him,  and 
would  shew  it  to  him."  He  produced  it,  and  Dunmure  took 
a  copy  of  it  when  he  retired  to  his  chamber.  On  his  return 
home, — Dunmure  lodged  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Peter  Hay,  of 
Naughton, — the  conversation  again  turned  on  the  corruptions 
of  the  times.  Mr.  Hay,  who  "  was  very  episcopal,"  expressed 
his  surprise  at  Dumnure's  deep  knowledge  of  state  affairs,  and 
said  he  supposed  he  had  been  instructed  by  lord  Balmerino. 
Dunmure  answered,  "  You  have  guessed  it,  Balmerino  is  in- 
deed my  informer ;  and,  moreover,  showed  me  a  petition,"  a 

1  Church  and  State,  147.  ^    Keith's  Catalogue. 

^  Guthry's  Memoirs,  14. 


1634.]  CHURCH  of  Scotland.  548 

copy  of  which  he  then  showed  to  Hay,  who  contrived  to  get  the 
petition  from  his  guest,  and,  after  some  days,  delivered  it  to  the 
archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  with  an  account  of  his  conversation 
with  Dunmure.  The  archbishop  considered  it  necessary  to 
acquaint  the  king  with  what  was  passing ;  when  an  order 
came  from  court  to  the  council,  to  summon  lord  Balmerino  and 
Dunmure  before  them  for  a  breach  of  the  10th  act  of  the  tenth 
parliament  of  James  VI.,  in  which  the  spreading  of  lies  of  his 
majesty  and  his  government,  with  the  intention  of  alienating 
his  subjects,  is  declared  capital.  Many  copies  of  this  petition 
were  most  industriously,  though  privately,  circulated ;  and  it  was 
ascertained  that  it  had  been  the  means  of  exciting  a  great  deal 
©f  opposition  to  the  clerical  habits,  and  the  Articles  of  Perth, 
which  otherwise  might  have  been  peaceably  accommodated. 
Dunmure  acknowledged  the  share  which  he  had  in  the  transac- 
tion, and  lord  Balmerino  produced  the  original  draught,  but 
denied  that  he  had  given  any  permission  to^copy  it.  Dunmure 
was  dismissed,  but  his  lordship  was  committed  a  prisoner  to 
the  castle,  and,  in  the  month  of  June,  was  brought  to  trial  be- 
fore the  earl  of  Erroll,  lord  high -constable,  made  lord  justice- 
general  for  the  time  being,  and  a  jury  of  his  peers, — Haig,  the 
original  offender,  having,  in  the  meantime,  made  his  escape 
to  Holland.  The  trial  was  put  off  first  till  July,  and  afterw^ards 
till  the  10th  of  November  following,  when  Sir  Robert  Spottis- 
wood,  lord  president  of  the  college  of  justice,  Sir  John  Hay, 
clerk -register,  Sir  James  Learmonth,  and  another  judge,  were 
associated  with  the  earl  of  Erroll ;  and  four  of  the  most  eminent 
advocates  at  the  bar  were  appointed  his  counsel  He  was  con- 
victed of — 1st,  In  keeping  and  concealing  the  said  libel,  contrary 
to  acts  of  parliament  and  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  not  reveal- 
ing the  same.  2d,  In  not  apprehending  the  libeller,  he  being 
in  his  power,  but  furthering  his  escape.  3d,  In  being  art  and 
part  in  the  said  libel ;  as  evidently  appeared,  by  the  production 
of  a  copy  of  the  same  interlined  with  the  said  lord's  hand. 
Balmerino  was  condemned  to  death,  but  was  first  reprieved, 
and  afterwards  pardoned  by  the  king :  for  whose  mercy  he 
made  ample  acknowledgments,  and  the  most  solemn  pro- 
mises of  future  exemplary  loyalty,  "  which  how  he  performed 
his  actings  in  the  troubles  that  ensued  do  testify  ^"  The  lord 
justice-general,  in  pronouncing  sentence,  declared,  "  that  the 
said  John,  lord  Balmerino,  has  therethrough  incurred  the  pain 
of  death  contained  in  the  acts  of  parliament,  suspending  always 

1  Guthry's  Memoirs,  p.  10, 11. — Bolfour's  Annals,  ii.  220,221. — Stevenson's 
Church  and  State,  147,  148. — Napier's  Montrose  and  Covenanters. 


544  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

the  execution  thereof  until  the  time  his  majesty's  will  and 
pleasure  be  known  and  declared  thereanent ;  to  whose  sacred 
majesty  the  manner,  time,  and  place  of  the  execution  of  the 
said  sentence  is  remitted." 

"  To  overawe,"  says  Mr.  Napier, "  the  justice  of  the  king,  or 
to  rob  him  of  the  attribute  of  his  mercy,  the  senseless  mob  had 
been  agitated  throughout  to  a  pitch  of  audacity  that  now 
threatened  the  lives  of  both  the  judges  and  the  jury.  But  the 
desire  of  Charles,  at  no  time,  was  the  death  of  a  human  being. 
Into  this  present  prosecution  his  long-sufferance  had  been 
forced  by  the  political  iniquity  of  Scotland,  and  the  selection 
made  was  indicative  of  a  lofty  sense  of  justice,  but  at  the  same 
time  an  extreme  moderation  in  the  desire  of  examples.  Had 
he  been  the  king  to  carry  that  example  to  extremity,— the  jus- 
tice of  which  must  have  been  acknowledged  by  civilized 
Europe, — it  could  not  have  been  his  fate  to  have  been  led  to 
the  block  by  his  own  subjects,  who  usurped  the  sword  of  jus- 
tice, and  drove  away  mercy  ^" 

George  Abbot,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  died  on  the  4th  of 
August,  1633  ;  and,  two  days  afterwards,  the  primacy  was 
conferred  on  Dr.  Laud,  who  succeeded  in  circumstances  of 
peculiar  difficulty  and  extreme  danger.  Abbot  was  weak,  ob- 
stinate, and  prejudiced;  too  easy  and  fond  of  popularity  to 
enforce  the  rules  of  the  church ;  and  it  has  been  said, "  that  his 
extraordinary  remissness  in  not  exacting  strict  conformity  to 
the  prescribed  orders  of  the  church  in  point  of  ceremony,  seemed 
to  resolve  those  legal  determinations  into  their  first  principle 
of  indifferency,  and  to  lead  to  such  a  habit  of  inconformity  as 
the  future  reduction  of  those  tender-conscienced  men  to  long- 
continued  disobedience  was  interpreted  an  innovation.'''  And 
Clarendon  says  of  him,  that  "  he  considered  the  christian  reli- 
gion no  otherwise  than  as  it  abhorred  and  reviled  popery,  and 
he  valued  those  men  most  who  did  that  most  furiously." 

George  Hay,  earl  of  Kinnoul,  lord  chancellor  of  Scotland, 
died  suddenly  at  London,  of  apoplexy,  on  the  16th  December  of 
this  year. 

1635. — The  great  seal  had  not  been  intrusted  to  a  churchman 
since  the  Reformation  ;  but,  on  the  death  of  the  eari  of  Kin- 
noul, it  was  conferred  on  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  to  the 
disappointment  of  the  lord  Lorn,  which  caused  in  him  a  deep- 
rooted  hatred,  not  only  at  his  successful  rival,  but  at  the  whole 
order  of  bishops.  This  promotion  did  not  give  general  satis- 
faction; although  Spottiswood  was  a  man  of  great  justice  and 

'  Montrose  and  the  Covenanters,  110.— Large  Declaration,  12,  13,  14. 


1G35.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  Ci5 

moderation,  and  one  of  tne  most  illustrious  and  pious  charac- 
ters that  ever  filled  the  see  of  St.  Andrews. 

Four  of  the  other  bishops  were  introduced,  and  sworn  of  the 
privy  council,  which  tlie  king  hoped  would  have  rendered  them 
the  more  respected,  and  have  better  enabled  them  to  settle  the 
affairs  of  the  church,  but  which  had  the  contrary  effect.  This 
accumulation  of  honours  exposed  them  to  the  envy  of  the  whole 
nobility,  who  in  general  wished  them  well  with  respect  to  their 
spiritual  functions,  but  could  not  endure  to  see  them  possessed 
of  those  offices  which  they  considered  as  their  hereditary  right; 
so  that,  instead  of  facilitating  the  king's  good  intentions  in 
settling  the  order  and  government  of  the  church,  it  increased 
the  prejudice  against  it^  The  lord  treasurer  Traquair  was 
secretly  most  inimical  to  the  bishops,  whom  he  suspected  of 
endeavouring  to  supplant  him ;  and,  in  order  to  circumvent 
them,  he  carried  on  an  underhand  correspondence  with  the 
Presbyterian  party.  It  is  to  be  regretted,  that  a  feeling  of 
jealousy  subsisted  among  the  bishops  themselves,  which  gave 
their  adversaries  great  advantage  over  them.  On  account  of 
the  scramble  for  office,  the  nobility  were  enemies  to  the 
bishops ;  who,  being  men  on  whose  fidelity  the  king  could 
depend,  were  preferred  to  offices  incompatible  with  tlie  duties 
of  their  sacred  calling,  and  whose  promotion  seems  to  have 
been  regulated  in  some  measure  by  court  intrigue. 

On  the  28th  of  March,  being  Easter-eve,  Patrick  Forbes, 
bishop  of  Aberdeen,  died,  in  the  seventy -first  year  of  his  age, 
and  was  interred  in  the  south  aisle  of  his  cathedral.  He  wrote 
a  commentary  upon  the  Book  of  Revelations.  "  He  was  wont 
to  visit  his  diocese  in  a  very  singular  retinue,  scarce  any  per- 
son hearing  of  him  until  he  came  into  the  church  on  the  Lord's 
Day ;  and  according  as  he  perceived  the  respective  ministers 
to  behave  themselves,  he  gave  his  instructions  to  them."  Adam 
Bellenden,  bishop  of  Dunblane,  was  translated  to  Aberdeen ; 
and  James  Wedderburn,  Professor  of  Divinity  at  St.  Andrews, 
was  preferred  to  the  see  of  Dunblane,  but  w^as  not  consecrated 
till  the  1 1th  of  February  next  year.  He  was  born  at  Dundee, 
and  studied  at  Oxford ;  he  was  ordained  in  England,  and  be- 
came prebendary  of  Whitechurch,  in  the  diocese  of  Wells, 
in  1631.  Being  deprived  in  1638,  he  fled  to  England,  died 
the  following  year,  aged  fifty-four,  and  was  buried  in  the 
cathedral  church  of  Canterbury,  in  the  chapel  of  the  Virgin 
Mary.  Andrew  Lamb  also,  bishop  of  Galloway,  died  this 
year ;  and  Thomas  Sydserf,  bishop  of  Brechin,  was  translated 

'  Clarendon,  i.  187. 
VOL.   I.  4  A 


546  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.   XIII. 

to  Galloway.  Walter  Whitford,  son  of  James  Whitford  of 
that  ilk,  and  who,  Stevenson  says, had  aliving  in  England,  but 
who  was  then  rector  of  Moffat,  and  sub-dean  of  Glasgow,  was 
consecrated  most  likely  by  archbishop  Spottiswood  to  the 
see  of  Brechin  ^ 

1636. — Traquair  was  the  most  deadly  and  most  insidious  foe 
with  whom  the  prelates  had  to  contend;  and  Principal  Baillie 
calls  him  a  "  thorn  in  their  side."  He  was  also  a  most  con- 
summate hypocrite.  In  order  to  keep  his  place,  he  pretended 
to  Charles  the  most  enthusiastic  zeal  for  the  ad\'ancement  of 
the  liturgy,  and  the  aggrandisement  of  the  church.  He  tricked 
the  archbishop  of  Glasgow  out  of  the  annuities  of  his  diocese, 
which  the  king  had  conferred  on  him,  and  put  them  into  his 
own  pocket  2.  He  so  effectually  insinuated  himself  into  the 
esteem  of  the  younger  bishops,  that  they  represented  him  to 
archbishop  Laud  as  the  only  man  in  Scotland  fit  to  manage 
ecclesiastical  affairs.  Unfortunately,  the  bishops  began  at  the 
wrong  end  of  their  work :  instead  of  first  composing  the  liturgy, 
they  collected  the  canons  which  authorized  and  sanctioneri  a 
liturgy  that  had  not  then  been  begun  to  be  compiled.  Max- 
well, bishop  of  Ross,  carried  the  book  of  canons  up  to  London, 
and  the  king,  who  was  impatient  to  see  the  good  work  begun, 
issued  a  proclamation  for  the  due  observation  of  them  in  his 
kingdom  of  Scotland  forthwith,  but,  unhappily,  without  first 
having  submitted  them  to  the  approbation  of  a  General 
Assembly. 

When  the  canons  were  published,  they  were  objected  to  and 
disclaimed  by  many  of  the  clergy,  as  well  as  the  whole  body  of 
the  non-conformists,  both  with  respect  to  the  subject-matter 
comprehended  in  them,  and  because  they  had  not  been  consulted 
in  their  adoption.  They  alleged  that  this  procedure  sub- 
jected the  Scoto-catholic  church  to  the  power  of  the  king; 
the  clergy  to  the  command  of  the  bishops ;  and  the  whole 
nation  to  the  discipline  of  a  foreign  church  ;  and  altogether 
eventually,  by  degrees,  to  the  idolatries  and  tyranny  of  the  pope. 
But  they  had  more  just  cause  of  offence,  in  that,  contrary  to 
ecclesiastical  custom,  they  had  not  been  consulted  in  the  for- 
mation of  these  canons,  which  were  imposed  on  them  by  the 
king's  prerogative 3,  Archbishop  Laud  seriously  advised  the 
Scottish  bishops  "  not  to  propose  any  business  connected  with 
the  church  to  the  king  which  was  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the 

'  Keith's  Catalogue.— Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  p.  151-152.— Guthry's 
Memoirs,  p.  14. 

Stevenson,  i.  148.  Heylin's  Life  of  Laud   p.  279-284 


1636.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  547 

country,  which  he  [Laud]  could  not  be  supposed  to  under- 
stand ;  and  not  to  put  any  thing  in  execution  without  the  con 
sent  and  approbation  of  the  privy  council  ^ 

The  return  of  bishop  Maxwell  from  court,  and  the  publica- 
tion of  the  book  of  canons,  gave  an  opportunity  for  the  presby- 
terian  party  to  excite  a  clamour  throughout  the  nation  that  reli- 
gion was  undermined  by  a  conspiracy  betwixt  the  archbishop 
of  Canterbury  and  the  Scottish  bishops,  suborned,  as  they  said, 
by  him  to  bring  in  the  mass  book.  The  older  bishops  became 
alarmed  at  the  ferment  among  the  sincerer  sort,  which  their 
experience  taught  them  would  not  be  confined  to  mere  grumb- 
ling; and  they  wrote  to  Dr.  Laud,  requesting  him  to  advise 
the  king  to  defer  the  liturgy  for  some  time.  But  Traquair, 
anxious  to  ruin  the  bishops  and  their  cause,  which  he  thought 
would  be  most  easily  accomplished  by  precipitating  the  intro- 
duction of  the  liturgy,  while  the  nation  was  in  a  state  of  alarm 
and  agitation  on  its  account,  procured  the  signatures  of  several 
of  the  bishops  that  had  been  most  recently  promoted,  to  arch- 
bishop Laudj  recommending  him  to  proceed  with  the  liturgy. 
With  this  Traquair  posted  up  to  court,  and  suggested  to  Laud, 
and  through  him  to  the  king,  that  there  was  no  danger  to  be 
apprehended,  and  represented  the  elder  bishops  as  timorous, 
procrastinating  men,  who  feared  danger  where  none  existed, 
protesting  that  if  his  grace  would  move  the  king  to  lay  his  com- 
mands on  him,  he  should,  on  his  /j/e,  carry  through  the  business 
without  any  opposition.  Dr.  Laud  was  completely  deceived 
by  Traquair's  dissimulation,  and  never  suspected  him  of  the 
treachery  which  he  meditated ;  yet  objecting  that  a  layman 
should  be  the  principal  instrument  in  a  work  of  this  nature,  he 
procured  a  warrant  from  the  king,  commanding  the  bishops 
without  any  delay  to  proceed  2.  On  the  receipt  of  this  pe- 
remptory command,  some  of  the  bishops  were  somewhat  dis- 
concerted ;  but  others  were  rejoiced,  and  considered  the 
treacherous  Traquair  as  their  best  friend.  There  was  now, 
however,  no  alternative,  and,  relying  on  Traquair's  ample  pro- 
mises of  assistance  and  support,  they  took  courage  and  began 
the  work.  The  liturgy  was  sanctioned  by  an  act  of  council, 
and  they  resolved  to  introduce  it  first  in  Edinburgh.  It  had 
been  deliberately  compiled  and  examined  by  churchmen,  and 
it  had  been  approved  of  by  episcopal  authority,  and  its  practice 
was  warranted  by  the  king  and  privy  council.  The  king's  pro- 
clamation for  its  immediate  use  presupposed  its  ecclesiastical 
sanction  by  the  governors  of  the  church,  which,  in  the  primi- 

'  Clarendon.  '^  Guthry's  Memoirs,  p.  19. 


548  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII 

tive  chueh,  would  have  been  held  sufficient.  But  this  did 
not  satisfy  the  democratic  party,  and  it  was  eagerly  assumed 
by  the  agitators  as  a  cause  of  national  complaint  and  tumult. 
"  And  what  was  that  ecclesiastical  sanction,"  inquires  Mr. 
Skinner,  "  which  it  seems  it  should  have  got  ?  Was  every 
individual  minister  to  be  consulted,  and  his  vote  obtained,  to 
ratify  the  decision  of  the  king  and  the  bishops  ?  If  so,  why 
not  every  individual  of  the  laity  be  indulged  the  same  autho- 
ritative privilege,  from  the  great  earl  of  Rothes  down  to  tlie 
meanest  cobbler  in  the  kingdom  ?  And  when  or  how  would 
this  have  ended  ^'"' 

The  violent  presbyterians  made  every  effort  to  excite  a 
spirit  of  resistance  to  the  clergy  throughout  the  nation,  jealous 
fears  of  the  supremacy  of  the  English  church  over  that  of 
Scotland,  and  of  the  danger  of  relapsing  into  popery.  It  was 
alleged,  that  the  bishops  had  a  design  of  subjecting  the  church  to 
their  own  caprice,  and  of  changing  the  laws  at  their  own  plea- 
sure. However  unfounded  these  accusations  were,  they  served 
to  keep  up  that  spirit  of  agitation  which  the  party  had  enjoyed 
so  few  opportunities  of  putting  in  practice  since  the  restoration 
of  regular  government,  and  it  operated  as  a  stimulus  for  greater 
opposition  to  the  liturgy  when  it  should  make  its  appearance. 
"  Yet  they  [the  presbyterian  party]  would  not  suffer  (which 
showed  wonderful  power  and  wonderful  dexterity)  any  disorder 
to  break  out  upon  all  this  occasion,  but  all  was  quiet,  except 
.spreading  of  libels  against  the  bishops,  and  propagating  that 
spirit  as  much  as  they  could  by  their  correspondence  in  Eng- 
land, where  they  found  too  many  every  day  transported  by  the 
same  jealousies,  in  expectation  that  those  seeds  of  jealousy  from 
the  canons  would  grow  apace,  and  produce  such  a  reception 
for  the  liturgy  as  they  wished  2." 

The  liturgy  was  at  last  published ;  it  varied  in  a  very  trifling 
degree  from  the  English  book,  and  that  chiefly  in  the  commu- 
nion service,  which  was  taken  from  the  iirstbook  of  Edward  VI. 
and  it  was  the  identical  book  which  was  first  used  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Scottish  reformation,  and  at  that  time  sanctioned 
by  an  act  of  parliament^.     It  appears  that  Cardinal  Richlieu 

'  Skinner's  Eccl.  Hist.  i.  305.  "  Clarendon. 

^  Tliere  is  a  little  difference  in  the  arrangement  of  the  Scripture  Lessons ;  and 
the  Apocryphal  books  are  entirely  excluded — a  sure  refutation  of  its  popish  origin 
and  tendency.  The  Epistles  and  Gospels  are  the  same,  and  also  the  Collects,  except 
on  the  third  Sunday  in  Advent,  when  the  Scotch  Collect  is,  "  Lord,  we  beseech 
tliee,  give  ear  to  our  prayers,  and  by  thy  gracious  visitation  lighten  the  darkness 
of  our  hearts  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Amen."  The  prefatory  sentences  are 
taken  from  Ezek.  xviii.  31,  32  ;  Prov.  xxviii.  13,  which  displace  Ezek.  xviii.  27  ; 
and  .St.  Luke,  xv.  18,  19,  in  tli    English  Book.     The  office  of  public  baptism  is 


1636.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  549 

fomented  the  distractions  in  Scotland:  he  had  agents  who  in- 
sinuated themselves,  under  different  appearances,  with  all  par- 
ties, both  in  Scotland  and  in  England ; — some  of  them  in  the 
shape  of  violent  admirers  of  archbishop  Laud,  and  others,  of 
furious  presbyterians ;  but  all  of  them  employed  to  widen  the 
differences  between  Charles  and  his  people.  The  nation  was 
divided  into  three  parties :  the  first  consisted  of  the  remains  of 
the  Roman  Catholics,  among  whom  were  several  noble  families, 
and  also  men  of  desperate  fortunes,  who  were  easily  gained 
over  to  Richlieu's  views ;  the  second  were  the  most  numerous, 
who  were  possessed  of  the  greatest  share  of  property,  and 
attached  to  episcopacy  and  monarchy ;  the  third  consisted  of 
the  furious  presbyterians,  blind  followers  of  their  godly  minis- 
ters, ignorant,  bold,  and  enthusiastic,  who  were  in  close  cor- 
respondence with  the  English  puritans,  (a  sect  planted  by  the 
Jesuits),  through  the  medium  of  one  Borthwick,  whom  they  had 
sent  down  as  their  agent  into  -Scotland,  to  encourage  the  pres- 
byterians with  the  promise  of  ample  assistance  in  resisting 
the  use  of  the  liturgy,  and  eventually  of  exterminating  epis- 
copacy ■•  "  Scotland  was  swarming  with  poor  clergymen, 
who,  for  the  most  part,  uncouth,  unlearned,  and  unen- 
lightened, and  hopeless  of  becoming  bishops,  yet  felt  their 

word  for  word  the  same,  except  that  the  exhortation  to  the  sponsors,  at  the  con- 
clusion of  the  English  office,  is  omitted  in  the  Scottish.  The  greatest  difference 
is  in  the  communion  office,  and  which  is  stUl  used  in  many  rural  congregations  to 
this  day.  Different  verses  of  Scripture  were  selected  for  the  sentences  at  the  offer- 
tory ;  then  follows  the  prayer  for  the  church  militant,  which  is  the  same  as  in  the 
English  service,  down  to  the  words  "  any  other  adversity,"  when  it  closes  with  the 
following  sublime  and  beautiful  words :  — ' '  And  we  also  bless  thy  holy  name  for  all 
those  thy  servants  who,  having  finished  their  course  in  faith,  do  now  rest  from  their 
labours.  And  we  yield  unto  thee  most  high  praise  and  hearty  thanks  for  the  wonder- 
ful grace  and  virtue  declared  in  all  thy  saints,  who  have  been  the  choice  vessels  of 
thy  grace,  and  the  lights  of  the  world  in  their  several  generations  :  most  humbly 
beseeching  thee,  that  we  may  have  grace  to  follow  the  example  of  their  steadfast- 
ness in  thy  faith  and  obedience  to  thy  holy  commandments,  that  at  the  day  of  the 
general  resurrection,  we,  and  all  they  which  are  of  the  mystical  body  of  thy  Son, 
may  be  set  on  his  right  hand,  and  hear  that  his  most  joyful  voice,  '  Come,  ye 
blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world.'  Grant  this,  O  Father,  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake,  our  only  mediator 
and  advocate.  Amen."  Then  follows  the  exhortation  and  other  prayers  to  the 
consecration,  at  the  end  of  which  there  is  a  "  Memorial  or  Prayer  of  Oblation," 
which  embodies  the  first  of  the  two  prayers  in  the  post-communion  of  the  Eng- 
lish service,  with  this  sentence  prefixed: — "Wherefore,  O  Lord  and  heavenly 
Father,  according  to  the  institution  of  thy  dearly  beloved  Son,  our  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  we  thy  humble  servants  do  celebrate  and  make  here  before  thy  divine  ma- 
jesty, with  these  thy  holy  gifts,  the  memorial  which  thy  Son  hath  willed  us  to 
make,  having  in  remembrance  his  blessed  passion,  mighty  resurrection,  and  glo- 
rious ascension  ;  reiulering  unto  thee  most  hearty  thanks  for  the  innumerable  be- 
nefits proc\ired  unto  us  by  the  same.  And  we  entirely  desire  thy  Fatherly  good- 
ness," &c. 

'  Guthrv's  Gi-'ii.  ITist.  ix.  22-";. 


550  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XIII. 

passions  and  their  lungs  strong  enough  to  afford  them  a  chance, 
ivhen  the  waters  were  trouhlecl.  of  emulating  the  popularity  of 
Knoxi." 

1()37. — The  presbjterian  party  declaimed  incessantly  against 
the  liturgy,  imputing  idolatry  to  the  most  innocent,  and  super- 
stition to  the  most  indifferent  actions.  From  their  pulpits,  in 
their  ordinary  conversation,  and  in  pamphlets  silently  but  in- 
dustriously dispersed  through  the  nation,  they  clamoured  in- 
dignantly against  it,  as  being  worse,  they  said,  than  the  mass 
itself.  Those  who  complied  incurred  the  reproach  of  idolatry 
from  the  presbyterians,  and  those  who  refused  to  conform  were 
reputed,  by  the  church  party,  seditious  and  dangerous  sectaries, 
not  less  hostile  to  the  church  than  disaffected  to  government. 
Such  uncharitable  antipathies  on  both  sides  were  mistaken  for 
zeal  for  religion,  and  gave  dreadful  note  of  the  convulsions 
that  followed  2. 

Andrew  Boyd,  bishop  of  Argyle,  died  on  the  22d  of  De- 
cember of  the  preceding  year,  aged  seventy.  "  He  was  a 
good  man,  and  did  much  good  in  his  diocese,  where  he  al- 
ways resided."  The  king  appointed  James  Fairly,  one  of  the 
ministers  of  Edinburgh,  to  this  see,  at  the  recommendation  of 
lord  Traquair,  to  whom  he  had  been  formerly  tutor.  He  was 
consecrated  on  the  15th  of  August,  iwo  days  before  the  riots 
about  the  liturgy  began.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  most  un- 
worthy son  of  the  church,  which  may  account  for  Traquair's 
patronage  ;  for  after  his  deprivation  by  the  rebels  the  following 
3'ear,  he  made  application  to  be  appointed  minister,  on  the 
presbyterian  model,  of  the  parish  of  Laswade,  in  Mid- 
Lothian  3. 

The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  deliberately  compiled  by 
the  Scottish  bishops,  men  of  undoubted  piety  and  abilities ;  and 
it  was  afterwards  subjected  to  the  revisal  of  the  two  English 
bishops  already  mentioned.  Having  been  sanctioned  by  the 
king  and  authorised  by  the  privy  council,  it  was  ordered,  by 
proclamation  at  the  market-crosses  of  all  the  burghs  in  the 
kingdom,  to  be  forthwith  used  in  the  churches;  and  every  parish 
was  ordered  to  provide  at  least  two  books,  under  pain  of  the 
minister  being  declared  a  rebel*.  The  primate  instructed  the 
bishops  to  make  their  clergy  intimate  to  their  congregations 
that  the  Liturgy  would  be  read  on  the  following  Sunday.  In 
Edinburgh,  the  clergy,  with  the  exception  of  Andrew  Ramsay, 


^  Montrose  and  the  Covenanters,  i.  100.  -  Baillie's  Letters,  i.  2. 

•*  Keith's  Catalogue. — Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  157. 
Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  224. 


1637.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  551 

obeyed  and  read  the  intimation  from  their  several  pulpits. 
The  whole  city  was  agitated  by  the  arts  and  declamation  of" 
the  presbyterian  party, — a  sure  presage  of  the  infamous  course 
which  they  had  determined  to  pursue,  and  of  the  ungovernable 
opposition  which  they  had  excited  in  the  mob.  Charles  had  in- 
tended that  the  reading  of  the  Liturgy  shouM  have  commenced 
on  Easter-day ;  and  it  was  read  on  that  day  in  the  dioceses  of 
Ross,  Dunblane,  and  Brechin ;  where  there  was  neither  dis- 
turbance nor  opposition.  But  on  the  treacherous  representa- 
tion of  some  of  the  privy  council,  the  king  permitted  it  to  be 
postponed  till  July,  in  Edinburgh  ;  "  but  the  delay  was  pro- 
cured by  Hope,  the  king's  advocate,  who  knew  that  the  party 
of  the  presbyterians  were  not  yet  ripe  for  action^. ^^ 

The  presbyterian  party  had  been  joined  by  those  of  the  no- 
bility that  were  likely  to  be  sufferers  by  the  surrendry  of  the 
ecclesiastical  property,  to  which  they  had  no  other  or  better 
title  than  robbery  and  usurpation.  They  had  inflamed  the 
minds  of  such  of  the  clergy  and  ministers  as  were  averse  to  a 
liturgy,  because  it  curbed  the  licentious  liberties  which  they  took 
in  their  extemporary  prayers,  and  they  in  turn  had  preached 
their  hearers  into  a  state  fit  for  rebellion.  The  liturgy  and 
book  of  canons  were  therefore  made  the  plausible  excuse  for 
sedition  in  the  first  place,  and  eventually  for  rebellion.  But 
the  liturgy  and  canons  were  not  novelties  ;  for  it  was  agreed, 
in  an  Assembly  in  king  James's  time,  to  compile  and  use  a 
liturgy,  and  the  five  articles  of  Perth  were  agreed  to  in  a  full 
Assembly,  and  had  been  in  use  for  several  years.  But  now 
that  these  articles  were  embodied  in  the  liturgy,  they  became 
still  more  the  objects  of  party  antipathy,  as  innovations  upon 
religion.  But,  says  Heylin,  "  it  was  rather  ffain  than  godliness 
which  brought  the  great  men  of  the  realm  to  espouse  this 
quarrel ;  who,  by  the  commission  of  surrendries,  began  to  fear 
the  losing  of  their  tithes  and  superiorities,  to  which  they 
could  pretend  no  other  title  than  plain  usurpation.  And,  on 
the  other  side,  it  was  ambition,  and  not  zeal,  which  inflamed 
the  presbyters  ;  who  had  no  other  way  to  invade  that  power 
which  was  conferred  upon  the  bishops  by  divine  institution, 
and  countenanced  by  many  acts  of  parliament  in  the  reign  of 
king  James,  than  by  embracing  that  occasion  to  incense  the 
people,  to  put  the  whole  nation  into  tumult,  and  thereby  to 
compel  the  bishops  and  the  regular  clergy  to  forsake  the  king- 
dom. So  the  Genevans  dealt  before  with  their  bishop  and 
clergy,  when  the  reforming  humour  first  came  upon  them  j  and 

1  Guthry's  Gen.  Hist.  ix.  226. 


552  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

what  could  they  do  less  in  Scotland  than  follow  the  example 
of  their  mother  city '  ?" 

Sunday,  the  23d  of  July,  was  the  day  appointed  for  reading 
the  liturgy  in  the  cathedral  church  of  St.  Giles.  There  were 
present,  besides  the  ordinary  congregation,  archbishop  Spottis- 
wood,  primate  and  chancellor  of  the  kingdom,  the  whole  privy 
council,  the  lords  of  session,  and  the  city  magistrates,  the  arch- 
bishop of  Glasgow,  and  several  other  bishops.  Hannah,  dean 
of  Edinburgh,  was  appointed  to  read  the  prayers,  and  Dr. 
Lindsay,  the  bishoj)  of  Edinburgh,  was  afterwards  to  preach. 
No  sooner  had  the  dean  in  his  surplice  commenced,  than  the 
"  rascal  multitude"  created  such  a  noise  and  clamour  through- 
out the  church,  that  not  a  word  could  be  heard ;  and  then  a 
shower  of  sticks,  stones,  bludgeons,  and  joint-stools,  were 
thrown  at  the  dean's  head.  "  All  was  confusion  worse  con- 
founded," when  the  bishop  entered  the  pulpit,  hoping  to  ap- 
pease the  madness  of  the  people,  by  reminding  the  rioters  of 
the  sacredness  of  the  place,  and  of  their  duty  to  God  and  the 
king.  But,  instead  of  allaying  the  tumult,  the  bishop's  pre- 
sence only  served  to  increase  their  ferocity  and  rage,  and  to  add 
blasphemy  to  sacrilege.  A  poor  woman,  Jenny  Geddes  by 
name,  ushered  in  the  future  war,  by  throwing  a  stool  at  the 
bishop's  head,  to  the  imminent  danger  of  his  life.  At  this  stage 
of  the  riot,  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  being  also  the  lord 
chancellor,  from  his  seat  in  the  gallery  commanded  the  provost 
and  magistrates  to  suppress  the  riot ;  which  at  last,  with  diffi- 
culty, they  accomplished,  thrusting  out  the  rioters  by  main 
force,  who  had  been  sent  there  by  the  presbyterian  brethren 
for  the  express  purpose  of  exciting  a  tumult  and  sedition. 
After  which,  the  dean  proceeded  in  the  service,  in  dumb  show  ; 
for  the  clamour  and  noise  and  breaking  of  windows  by  the 
rioters  without,  actuated  by  the  malignant  spirit  of  the  party, 
created  such  distraction  that  no  attention  could  be  paid  to  the 
service.  Fairly,  bishop  of  Argyle,  read  the  liturgy  on  the 
same  day,  in  the  Grey  friars  church,  where  he  met  with  some 
opposition :  "  upon  which  sudden  disorderly  and  fearful 
change  of  God's  public  worship,  the  grievous  terrors  and  cries 
of  poor  common  people  [who  had  been  taught  to  set  up  a 
howl]  were  so  great,  that  the  service  was  stopped  at  that  timeV 
When  the  council  and  magistrates  returned  home,  the  rage 
and  violence  of  the  mob  knew  no  bounds :  they  pursued  the 
bishops  with  themost  opprobrious  and  indecentinvectives,and 

'  History  of  the  Presbyterians,  lib.  xiii.  247. 
^  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  p.  IfiS. 


1G37.]  CHURCH  of  Scotland.  553 

with  cries  of  bringing  in  superstition  and  popery,  and  of  en- 
slaving the  people.  But  not  contented  with  abusing  the 
bishops  with  their  tongues,  they  pelted  them  with  filth  and 
stones,  to  the  hazard  of  their  lives.  Dr.  Lindsay,  the  bishop 
of  Edinburgh,  was  especially  the  object  of  their  savage  bar- 
barity ;  whose  episcopal  robe  they  tore,  assaulted  his  person, 
knocked  him  down,  and  trampled  him  under  foot  on  the  street; 
and  he  would  have  been  killed  on  the  spot,  but  for  the  prompt 
interference  of  the  earl  of  Weyrass,  who  despatched  an  armed 
party  for  his  protection.  The  popular  fury  was  so  violently 
directed  against  that  prelate,  that  it  was  with  the  utmost  diffi- 
culty that  the  magistrates  had  preserved  him  from  being  mur- 
dered in  the  church,  and  at  his  own  altar,  during  the  riot. 

The  liturgy  met  with  the  same  reception  in  the  other 
churches  of  the  city;  the  same  tumult,  execrations,  and  cla- 
mour of  superstition  and  popery,  and  murderous  threats  against 
the  bishops,  attended  the  other  clergy,  who,  with  doubtful  sin- 
cerity, began  to  read  it.  Some  of  them  did  not  make  the  at- 
tempt. In  the  interval,  the  privy  council  met,  at  which  the  lord 
provost  and  magistrates  appeared,  and,  as  they  engaged  to  exert 
their  utmost  energy  to  maintain  order  and  quietness,  the  liturgy 
was  again  read  in  the  afternoon  in  St.  Giles',  and  also  in 
some  other  churches.  Still  the  mob  kept  possession  of  the 
streets,  shouting,  "  A  pope,  a  pope  !  Antichrist !  The  sword 
of  the  Lord  and  of  Gideon  !"  They  again  attacked  the  bishop 
returning  from  church,  who  was  then  saved  from  being  mur- 
dered on  the  street,  by  the  earl  of  Roxburgh,  who  received  him 
into  his  coach,  and  drove  off  quickly.  The  mob  pursued  and 
pelted  the  coach  with  stones  and  other  missiles  ;  and  they  were 
only  preserved  by  the  footmen,  who  drew  their  swords  and 
kept  them  off".  Baillie,  a  presbyterian,  admits  "  that  such  a 
tumult  was  never  heard  of  since  the  reformation ;"  and  this 
day,  he  says,  was  distinguished  in  the  annals  of  sacrilege,  by 
the  appellation  of  the  "  Stony  Sunday  i." 

"  This  tumult,"  says  bishop  Guthry,  "  was  taken  to  be  but 
a  rash  emergent,  wi^out  any  pre-deliberation  ;  whereas,  the 
truth  is,  it  was  the  result  of  a  consultation  at  Edinburgh  in 
April,  at  which  time  Mr.  Alexander  Henderson  came  thi- 
ther from  his  brethren  in  Fife,  and  Mr.  David  Dickson  from 
those  in  the  West  country.  And  these  two  having  communi- 
cated to  my  lord  Balmerino  and  sir  Thomas  Hope,  the  minds 
of  those  they  came  from,  and  gotten  their  approbation  thereto, 

Guthry's  Mem.  22. — Clarendon's  Hist. — Baillie's  Lett.  i.  5. — Cruikshank'« 
Hist.  26. — Arnot's  Hist,  of  Edin.— Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  168,  169.— 
Large  Declaration.  23-25. 

VOL.  I.  4  B 


554  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

did  afterwards  meet  at  the  house  of"  Nicolas  Balfour,  in  the 
Cowgate  with  Nicolas,  Eupham  Henderson, Bethia  and  Elspa 
Craig,  and  several  other  matrons,  and  recommended  to 
them  that  they  and  their  adherents  might  give  the  first  affront 
to  the  book, — assuring  them,  that  men  should  afterwards  take 
the  business  out  of  their  hands.  The  matrons  having  under- 
taken so  to  do,  Henderson  and  Dickson  returned  home  ^ 

Traquair,  who  offered  to  guarantee  with  his  life  that  the  litur- 
gy should  be  peaceably  read,  was  treacherously  absent,  which 
gives  reason  to  conclude  that  he  washed  well  to  the  plans  of 
the  godly  brethren.  Lest  he  should  be  compelled,  as  one  of 
the  king's  ministers,  to  interrupt  the  sacrilegious  work,  he  re- 
mained at  Dalkeith.  On  the  following  day,  the  chancellor, 
with  the  other  bishops,  despatched  an  express  to  the  king,  giv- 
ing an  account  of  the  riot,  and  of  the  treasurer's  absence 
from  his  post.  The  privy  council  were  dissatisfied  at  this,  and 
issued  a  proclamation,  commanding  that  the  reading  of  the 
liturgy  should  be  continued  ;  that  the  inhabitants  should  re- 
main tranquil,  and  not  offer  any  injury,  by  word  or  deed,  to 
any  of  the  ecclesiastical  or  civil  estate,  on  pain  of  death  ; 
and  to  keep  up  appearances,  they  committed  two  or  three  ser- 
vants. Traquair  w^rote  to  the  king,  excusing  the  city,  but 
blaming  the  rabble  for  the  late  atrocious  riot ;  but,  at  the 
same  time,  he  wrote  privately  to  the  marquis  of  Hamil- 
ton, and  directly  accused  the  bishops  as  the  cause  of  all 
the  disturbance  and  sedition  which  had  happened.  The  ma- 
gistrates, apprehensive  of  the  royal  displeasure,  wrote  a  fawn- 
ing letter  to  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  excusing  them- 
selves, and  begging  his  good  offices  with  his  majesty,  to  per- 
suade him  of  their  and  the  citizens'  innocence  in  the  late 
tumult,  and  of  their  obsequiousness  to  obey  his  majesty's 
commands.  They  even  carried  their  hypocrisy  so  far  as  to 
promise  an  addition  of  stipend  to  those  ministers  who  should 
read  the  book,  and,  moreover,  they  offered  to  protect  the  per- 
sons of  the  clergy  2. 

On  the  25th  of  August  the  lords  of  the  council  wrote  to  the 
king,  with  an  account  of  the  late  riot,  and  he  returned  the  fol- 
lowing answer.  But  Baillie  says,  that  the  lords  of  the  council 
were  offended  at  the  archbishop  for  having  written  imme- 
diately after  the  riot  to  the  king,  and  therefore  they  deferred 
writing  till  Friday,  when  they  extenuated  the  affair  as  much  as 
possible ;  but  took  care  to  throw  all  the  blame  on  the  bishops. 

1  Guthry'sMem.  20.     This  account  is  corroborated  by  lord  Clarendon. 
-  Stevenson's  Cli.  and  State,  ii.  188. 


1637.]  church  of  scotland.  555 

"  Charles  R. 

"  Right  trusty,  &c. — We  have  considered  your  "letter, 
and  we  find  that  our  former  directions  have  produced  very 
shallow  effects;  neither  do  you  hereby  propose  any  new  ex- 
pedient, but  only  you  desire  some  of  the  clergy  and  laity 
should  be  sent  for  to  deal  with  us  therein,  which  we  conceive 
not  to  be  fit;  and  by  a  needless  noise  make  it  appear,  that 
either  we  have  a  very  slack  council  or  bad  subjects,  which  we 
will  never  believe,  having  had  so  good  a  proof  of  their  affec- 
tion heretofore ;  but  rather  will  that  a  sufficient  number  of 
you  attend  still  at  Edinburgh,  or  near  thereabouts,  during  the 
vacation,  till  the  service-book  be  settled.  And  we  are  not  well 
satisfied,  neither  with  you  nor  our  city  of  Edinburgh,  that 
after  the  service  was  read  upon  Sunday  afternoon,  it  should 
have  been  intermitted  immediately  thereafter;  and  that  no 
delinquents  that  were  actors  and  accessories  to  that  insolence 
and  riot  committed  in  the  tumult  that  day,  were  anyways  cen- 
sured for  terrifying  of  others  from  attempting  the  like ;  and  it 
doth  likewise  seem  very  strange  unto  us,  that  the  ministers  of 
Edinburgh  having  ofiered  to  begin  the  reading  of  the  service- 
book,  providing  they  were  secured  from  injury,  and  relieved  by 
our  said  city  of  the  said  charge  within  a  month  thereafter,  that 
the  said  offer  was  not  accepted  and  performed ;  and  it  is  our 
pleasure  that  every  bishop  cause  to  read  the  said  service-book 
within  his  own  diocese,  as  the  bishops  of  Ross  and  Dunblaine 
have  already  done.  As  likewise  you  cause  warn  our  burghs 
particularly,  that  none  of  them  make  choice  of  any  magistrates 
but  such  as  will  answer  for  their  conformity.  So  expecting 
that  you  will  extend  the  uttermost  of  your  endeavours,  by  do- 
ing what  is  necessary,  and  preventing  any  inconvenience  that 
may  occur,  that  we  may  have  a  good  account  with  diligence, 
we  bid  you  farewell. — From  our  Court  at  Oatlands,  the  10th 
of  September,  l(j37  i." 

The  synod  of  Glasgow  met  on  the  last  Wednesday  of 
August.  At  the  opening  of  the  synodical  meetings  it  was  the 
custom  for  some  one  to  preach  ad  cJerum.  The  archbishop 
accordingly  appointed  Mr.Baillie  to  address  his  brethren,  and 
"  to  incite  all  his  hearers  to  obey  the  church  canons,  and  to 
practice  the  service."  He  replied  to  the  archbishop,  and  gave 
"  a  flat  refusal,  shewing  the  irresolution  of  his  own  mind." 
He  was  again  commanded  to  preach,  but  he  again  refused, 
when  Mr.  Annan,  rector  of  Ayr,  was  appointed  to  preach  at 

'  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  232-233. 


556  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII, 

the  opening  of  the  synod  in  Glasgow.  Mr.  Annan  took  for  his 
text,  1  Tim.  ii.  1,  2,  and,  says  Baillie,  "  in  the  last  half  of  his 
sermon,  from  the  making  of  prayers,  ran  out  upon  the  liturgy, 
and  spake  for  defence  of  it  in  whole,  and  sundry  most  plau- 
sible parts  of  it,  as  well,  in  my  poor  judgment,  as  any  in  the 
isle  of  Britain  could  have  done,  considering  all  circumstances; 
howsoever,  he  did  maintain  to  the  dislike  of  all  in  an  unfit  time, 
that  which  was  hanging  in  suspense  betwixt  the  king  and  the 
country.  Of  his  sermon  among  us  in  the  synod,  not  a  word ; 
but  in  the  town,  among  the  women,  a  great  din."  On  the  fol- 
lowing day,  Mr.  Lindsay,  minister  of  Lanark,  preached,  and 
as  he  was  entering  the  pulpit,  "  some  of  the  women  in  his  ear 
assured  him,  that  if  he  should  twitch  (touch)  the  service- 
book  in  his  sermon,  he  should  be  rent  out  of  his  pulpit :  he 
took  the  advice,  and  let  the  matter  alone."  During  the  day 
the  women  contented  themselves  with  railing  and  invectives  ; 
and  "  about  thirty  or  forty  of  our  honestest  women,  in  one  voice, 
before  the  bishop  and  magistrates,  did  fall  in  railing,  cursing, 
scolding,  with  clamours  on  Mr.  Annan :  some  two  of  the 
meanest  were  taken  to  the  tolbooth."  Late  in  the  evening  Mr. 
Annan  went  out  with  three  or  four  of  the  clergy,  when  he  was 
immediately  assaulted  by  some  hundreds  of  enraged  women 
"  of  all  qualities j''  w^ho  beat  him  with  their  fists  and  staves: 
"  they  beat  him  sore;  his  cloake,  ruff,  hatt,  were  rent.  How- 
ever, upon  his  cries,  and  candles  set  out  from  many  windows 
(it  was  a  dark  night),  he  escaped  all  bloody  wounds ;  yet  he 
was  in  great  danger  even  of  killing ^  So  many  "  of  the  best 
quality''^  were  engaged  in  this  disgraceful  riot,  that  it  was  found 
advisable  not  to  make  any  inquiry  after  the  rioters.  The  fol- 
lowing day  the  magistrates  accompanied  him  to  the  outskirts 
of  the  town,  to  prevent  farther  molestation,  because  many  in- 
tended to  have  renewed  the  tumult,  and 'were  collecting  for 
that  purpose^. 

Henderson  and  Bruce  were  charged  to  purchase  two  books 
each,  and  read  the  liturgy  in  their  churches,  under  pain  of 
horning.  These,  in  their  turn,  at  the  suggestion  of  lord  Bal- 
merino  and  sir  Thomas  Hope,  petitioned  the  privy  council  for 
a  suspension  of  the  charge,  as  the  safest  method  of  eluding  the 
order,  gaining  time,  and  of  perplexing  their  superiors.  Their 
petition  was  received  with  marks  of  encouragement  by  their 
secret  friends  in  the  privy  council,  who  in  reality  and  under- 
hand were  fomenting  the  opposition  to  the  l-itm*gy  2.     Had 

'  Baillie's  Letters  and  Journals,  ed,  1841,  vol.  i.  pp.  20,  21. 
-  Balfour's  Annals,  vol.  ii.  227. 


1637.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  557 

they  done  their  duty  it  would  have  been  cheerfully  accepted; 
but  their  jealousy  and  secret  hostility  to  the  bishops,  and  their 
avaricious  desire  to  retain  the  plunder  of  the  church,  were  so 
great,  that  they  embroiled  their  country  in  all  the  exasperations 
of  religious  animosity,  for  the  purpose  of  degi'ading  them,  and 
retaining  their  property.  The  council  suspended  the  order 
for  reading  the  liturgy  till  his  majesty's  pleasure  was  known, 
to  whom  they  wrote,  desiring  to  know  his  mind  against  the 
20th  of  September,  to  which  day  the  petitioners  were  referred 
for  an  answer  ^  "  Presbyterians  at  this  time  did  generally  stir 
up  themselves  and  one  another  to  take  hold  on  God,  and 
seemed  resolved  to  give  Him  no  rest  until  he  made  his  church  a 
praise  in  the  midst  of  them !  2"  Mr,  Henderson  was  at  the  head 
of  the  anti-liturgical  faction,  and  of  the  presbyterian  interest. 
Bishop  Guthry  says  of  him,  that  "  he  had  been  in  his  youth 
very  episcopal,"  for  which  archbishop  Gladstanes  confeiTed  on 
him  the  church  of  Leuchars,  near  St.  Andrews ;  "  and  before 
he  had  been  many  years  there,  he  fell  into  intimate  acquain- 
tance witlr  Mr.  William  Scott,  in  his  declining  days.  Upon 
Mr.  Henderson  all  the  ministry  of  that  judgment  depended ; 
and  no  wonder,  for  in  gravity,  learning,  wisdom,  and  state 
policy,  he  far  exceeded  any  of  them  3." 

The  bishops  expected  that  the  council  would  have  rejected 
Henderson's  petition,  and  have  inflicted  some  exemplary 
punishment  on  the  rioters.  They  knew  Traquair's  power  in  the 
council  to  be  absolute,  and  when,  notwithstanding  his  profes- 
sions, he  received  the  petitions,  and  made  no  inquiry  after  the 
rioters,  they  began  to  suspect  his  sincerity  when  it  was  too 
late. 

The  secret  encouragement  that  was  given  to  Henderson  by  the 
members  of  the  privy  council  was  communicated  by  him  to  his 
friends  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  who,  ministers  as  well 
as  laity,  hastened  to  assemble  in  Edinburgh;  and  by  the  ap- 
pointed day,  the  earls  of  Rothes,  Cassillis,  Eglinton,  Home, 
Lothian,  and  Wymess  ;  the  lords  Lindsay,  Yester,  Balmerino, 
Cranstoun,  and  Loudon,  and  a  multitude  of  ministers  and 
burgesses  from  Fife  and  the  western  shires,  had  arrived.  Sir 
Thomas  Hope,  his  majesty's  advocate,  secretly  advised  the 
malcontents  how  to  act,  to  avoid  incurring  the  pains  of  law, 
and  yet  so  as  to  defeat  his  majesty's  intentions.  To  prevent 
suspicion,  he  pitched  on  lord  Balmerino  (who  made  this  return 
for  the  king's  clemency  in  pardoning  him)  and  the  noted  Hen- 

1  Guthry's  Memoirs,  20. — Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  227. 
2  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  173.  *  Memoirs,  21. 


558  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

derson, — a  man  of  gieat  abilities,  and  a  second  Melville, — 
to  come  to  him  secretly,  from  time  to  time,  and  receive  instruc- 
tions. Traquair  also  privately  encom-aged  the  seditious  party, 
although  to  all  appearance  he  affected  the  most  enthusiastic 
zeal  in  the  king's  service  ;  and  it  was  not  till  too  late  that  he 
was  suspected  by  the  bishops  of  that  duplicity  and  treachery 
which  he  had  practised  all  along,  but  to  whom  they  had 
hitherto  fatally  trusted.  Nearly  all  the  parishes  in  Ayr,  Fife, 
Lothian,  Clydesdale,  Stirling,  and  Strathearn,  sent  in  petitions, 
"  to  beseech  the  council  to  deprecate  the  king,  that  he  \Aould 
not  urge  the  heavy  burden  of  the  liturgy  ^"  Henderson, 
Dickson,  Kerr,  and  other  ministers  who  had  brought  up  these 
petitions,  concerted  a  plan  for  securing  the  concurrence  of  the 
clergy  throughout  the  kingdom  :  they  despatched  Mr.  Henry 
Rollock  into  Lothian,  Merse,  and  Teviotdale ;  Mr.  Andrew 
Ramsay  to  Angus  and  Mearns ;  and  Mr.  Robert  Murray  to 
Perth  and  Stirlingshire  ;  to  solicit  the  clergy  in  those  parts  to 
join  with  them  in  opposing  the  farther  use  of  the  liturgy. 
They  sent  instructions  also  to  Mr.  Andrew  Cant  to  use  the 
like  diligence  in  the  norths- 
Had  Charles  been  honestly  and  faithfully  served  by  the 
privy  council,  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  liturgy  would 
have  been  introduced  without  any  serious  opposition.  But  the 
traitors  by  whom  the  unhappy  king  was  served  lighted  up  the 
train,  instead  of  vigorously  quenching  it ;  they  secretly  en- 
couraged the  mob  in  their  lawless  proceedings,  and  insulted 
the  bishops  whom  they  appeared  to  support.  On  the  17th  of 
October,  to  which  day  the  council  had  deferred  giving  the 
king's  answer  to  the  petitions,  a  proclamation  was  read  at  the 
market-cross,  commanding  the  liturgy  to  be  read  in  Edin- 
burgh and  other  places  adjacent ;  the  council  and  session  to 
remove  first  to  Linlithgow,  and  thereafter  to  Stirling  ;  and  the 
whole  petitioners  to  retire  from  Edinburgh  to  their  o\^Tl  houses 
within  twenty-four  hours,  under  pain  of  rebellion.  This 
roused  the  furious  passions  of  the  mob :  the  pious  women 
assembled  in  great  numbers  on  the  High  Street,  and  signa- 
lized their  superstitious  zeal,  by  attacking  the  bishop  of  Gal- 
loway, who  was  quietly  going  to  the  council  chamber  in  com- 
pany with  some  friends,  who  with  much  difficulty  prevented 
him  from  being  murdered.  These  heroines  next  beleaguered 
the  city  council,  threatening  to  burn  the  house  about  the  ears 
of  tlie  provost  and  bailies,  unless  they  would  send  two  com- 

^  Stevenson's  Ch.  and  State,  179. 

*  Guthry's  Mem.  27. — Stevenson's  Ch.  aud  State. 


1637.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  559 

missioners  to  join  the  rebels  in  petitioning ;  which,  to  appease 
these  viragos,  they  promised  to  do.  These  outrageous  ama- 
zons  had  been  collected  and  instructed  by  agents  from  the 
secret  traitors  in  his  majesty's  council,  and  the  presbyterian 
brethren :  their  war  cry  was — "  God  defend  those  who  will 
defend  God's  cause,  and  confound  the  service-book  and  all  its 
maintainers  !" 

The  anti-liturgical  ministers  and  nobles  arranged  themselves 
into  Tables,  or  Committees,  and  conducted  their  opposition 
with  order;  the  result  of  the  connivance  and  secret  encourage- 
ment they  met  with  from  the  members  of  the  privy  council. 
They  despatched  emissaries  to  spread  the  flames  of  religious 
anarchy  and  discord  throughout  the  kingdom,  and  collect  ad- 
ditional numbers  to  their  cause.  Notwithstanding  the  pro- 
clamation, commanding  strangers  to  leave  the  capital,  they  re- 
mained, and  met  the  next  day  at  their  several  Tables.  Lest  the 
uninitiated  ministers  should  obey  the  proclamation,  and  retire 
from  the  city,  the  noble  conspirators  were  obliged  to  let  them 
so  far  into  their  secret  as  to  divulge  the  double  dealing  of  the 
earl  of  Traquair,  who,  they  said,  would  wink  at  their  remain- 
ing in  town,  provided  they  kept  within  doors.  They  contrived 
to  hold  secret  meetings,  and  were  met  by  Balmei-ino  and  Hen- 
derson, who  secretly  received  instructions  from  Sir  Thomas 
Hope.  Those  factious  firebrands,  who  had  been  driven  into 
exile  on  account  of  their  seditious  opposition  to  the  Perth  Ar- 
ticles, now  returned  to  aid  the  good  old  cause  of  opposition  ; 
and  from  the  puritans  of  England  they  received  the  most  com- 
fortable assurances  of  co-operation  and  support,  in  extirpating- 
episcopacy  from  the  three  kingdoms. 

With  so  much  open  and  secret  encouragement,  Henderson, 
at  the  instigation  of  the  traitor  Hope,  proposed  to  the  ministers, 
that  "  whereas  they  had  formerly  supplicated  to  be  freed  from 
the  service-book,  they  might  now  tax  the  bishops  for  their  con- 
trary party,  complain  of  them  as  underminers  of  religion,  and 
crave  justice  to  be  done  on  them."  The  ministers  were  startled 
at  this  proposition  ;  they  were  not  yet  prepared  for  such  deci- 
sive measures,  that  canied  all  the  appearance  of  being  ended  in 
blood.  They  accordingly  demurred  ;  and  professed  that  their 
only  object  was  to  be  freed  from  the  obnoxious  service-book, 
for  otherwise  they  had  no  hostility  to  the  bishops.  Henderson 
reported  this  unexpected  moderation  on  the  part  of  the  ministers 
to  the  lords  composing  the  Tables,  who  sent  the  earl  of'Rothes 
and  lord  Loudon  to  persuade  them.  These,  by  threats  and 
promises,  soon  prevailed  on  them  to  challenge  the  bishops. 
This  challenge  they  had  prepared  beforehand  and  carried  with 


560  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIIII. 

them ;  and,  before  leaving,  they  procured  the  subscriptions  of 
the  whole  of  the  ministers.  This  instrument  was  delivered  to 
the  clerk  of  council,  and  copies  given  to  each  of  the  ministers, 
who  carried  them  to  their  respective  parishes  to  be  subscribed 
by  all  ranks,  and  to  be  returned  to  the  council  against  the  next 
meeting,  on  the  15thNovember^  On  their  return  to  their  homes, 
the  ministers  in  the  presbyterian  interest  thundered  from  their 
pulpits  the  most  dreadful  curses  and  execrations  against  all 
who  should  refuse  to  sign  these  documents,  which  greatly  in- 
creased the  number  of  petitioners,  and  among  others  was  added 
the  name  of  the  illustrious  earl  of  Montrose. 

The  multitudes  of  people  who  had  been  collected  in  Edin- 
burgh, and  who  were  unacquainted  with  the  real  motives  of 
the  movement,  rather  embarrassed  the  leaders;  and,  therefore, 
it  was  proposed  that  they  should  all  return  to  their  homes,  leav- 
ing a  certain  number  of  delegates  from  each  class,  who  were  to 
remain  in  Edinburgh,  and  watch  the  movements  of  the  privy 
council  which  sat  at  Dalkeith.  It  met  there  on  the  1 9th  De- 
cember, when  the  insurgent  noblemen  in  the  presbyterian  in- 
terest presented  a  "  declinature  against  the  bishops,  that  they, 
being  now  made  a  partij,  might  not  sit  and  vote  in  that  judica- 
ture.'''' Lord  Loudon,  in  a  long  speech,  said,  among  other  things, 
they  complained  against  "  the  innovations  introduced,  [which] 
are  chiefly  the  service-book,  the  book  of  canons  and  constitu- 
tions, and  high  commission ;  in  which  service-book  are  sown 
the  seeds  of  divers  superstitions  and  heresies,  and  that  the 
Roman  mass,  in  many  and  substantial  points,  is  made  up 
therein ;  which  service-book  and  other  novations,  moreover, 
have  neither  warrant  of  General  Assembly  nor  of  act  of  par- 
liament, but,  contrary  to  both,  are  introduced  by  the  bishops, 
who  have  caused  set  forth  a  book  of  canons  wherein  it  is  or- 
dained, whosoever  shall  affirm  that  the  service-book  contains 
any  thing  erroneous  shall  be  excommunicate;  which  book  is 
the  usher  and  forerunner  of  the  service-book  printed  thereafter, 
which,  by  the  bishops'  conveyance,  was  ratified  by  act  of  par- 
liament, and  confirmed  long  before  it  was  seen  and  printed; 
the  bishops  for  the  time  making  up  the  council,  no  nobleman 
being  present  there  who  did  oppose  it,  and  thereafter  by  public 
proclamation  did  come  forth,  charging  all  his  majesty's  sub- 
ects  to  conform  thereto,  as  the  only  form  of  God's  public  wor- 
ship to  be  used  within  the  kingdom;  .  .  .  that  our  desires  tend 
to  no  other  end  but  the  preservation  of  true  religion,  the  lawful 
liberties  of  the  subject,  and  the  bishops  and  prelates  delinquent 

1  Guthry's  Memoirs,  26.— Stevensoa'e  Church  and  State,  181,  182. 


1637.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  561 

taken  order  with  according  to  justice.  We  crave  neitlier  their 
blood  nor  any  harm  to  their  persons ;  but  that  the  wrongs 
and  abuses  done  by  them  may  be  truly  remonstrated  to  his 
majesty,  that,  after  due  trial,  such  order  may  be  taken  as 
mav  effectually  restrain  their  exorbitant  power  for  the  time 
to  corned"  On  the  conclusion  of  the  speech,  Traquair,  who 
presided  in  council,  "  acknowledged  the  truth  of  the  relation, 
and  equity  of  the  petition,  and  so  removed  the  parties  com- 
plainers.  It  passed  to  interlocutor,  and  thereafter  in  an  act." 
The  result  of  this  council  was,  that  Traquair  was  despatched 
to  London  to  communicate  to  the  king  the  state  of  affairs. 

The  bishops  strenuously  objected  to  his  being  sent  on 
such  a  mission,  having  now  discovered  his  duplicity ;  but 
they  were  now  set  aside  by  this  act  of  the  council,  that,  as  ihey 
were  a  party  concerned,  they  should  neither  sit  nor  vote  in  the 
council.  Every  member  of  the  privy  council,  with  the  solitary 
exception  of  Sir  John  Hay,  clerk-register,  were  abettors  and 
instigators  of  the  petitioners,  and  enemies  of  the  bishops  2. 

When  information  of  the  rebellious  state  of  the  Scottish 
affairs  reached  Charles,  he  was  struggling  against  an  infinity 
of  troubles  and  difficulties  in  the  conduct  of  the  government  of 
England.  His  Scottish  privy  council  had  betrayed  him;  they 
gave  him  false  information,  and  withheld  a  true  statement  of 
the  extent  and  formidable  nature  of  the  opposition  till  it  was 
too  late  to  retreat  with  dignity.  Hope,  the  king's  advocate, 
precipitated  the  fanatics  into  all  the  guilt  of  rebellion,  by  the 
advice  which  he  gave  them  how  to  act  so  as  to  counteract 
Charles's  benevolent  designs  without  incun-ing  the  penalties 
of  law.  Charles  had  assumed  no  powers  but  what  were  per- 
fectly compatible  with  law  and  justice;  and  in  introducing  a 
liturgy,  he  only  complied  with  the  petition  of  a  General  Assem- 
bly in  the  latter  part  of  the  late  king's  reign,  that  a  liturgy  raig-ht 
be  composed  for  the  use  of  the  national  church.  In  fact,  he  only 
restored  what  had  been  practised  in  the  beginning  of  the  Re- 
foi-mation,  both  before  and  after  the  legal  establishment  of  the 
titular  episcopacy  in  the  year  1560.  In  the  preface  to  the 
Directory  agreed  on  by  the  Westminster  divines,  it  is  acknow- 
ledged, that,  "  in  the  beginning  of  the  blessed  Reformation, 
our  wise  and  pious  ancestors  took  care  to  set  forth  an  order  for 
redress  of  many  things,which  they  then,  by  the  word  discovered 
to  be  vain,  erroneous,  superstitious,  and  idolatrous,  in  the  pub- 


Lord  Loudon's  Speech  before  the  Privy  Council,  cited  in  Balfour's  Annals,  ii 
240—249. 

-  Guthry's  Memoirs,  31. — BaUie's  Letters. 

VOL.  I.  4  C 


562  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIII. 

lie  worship  of  God.  This  occasioned  many  godly  and  leanied 
men  to  rejoice  much  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  at  that 
time  set  forth ;  because  the  mass  and  the  rest  of  the  Latin  ser- 
vice being  removed,  the  public  worship  was  celebrated  in  our 
own  tongue :  many  of  the  common  people,  also,  received  bene- 
fit by  hearing  the  Scriptures  read  in  their  owti  language, 
which  formerly  were  unto  them  as  a  book  that  is  sealed  ^  J' 

In  the  preface  to  the  liturgy,  the  compilers  have  the  follow- 
ing remarks,  and  some  of  them  were  in  active  life  very  soon  after 
the  Reformation,  and  had  the  best  opportunities  of  ascertain- 
ing the  truth : — "  Our  first  reformers  were  of  the  same  mind 
with  us,  as  appears  from  the  ordinance  they  made,  that  in  all 
the  parishes  of  the  realm  the  Common  Prayer  should  be  read 
weekly,  on  Sundays  and  other  festival  days,  with  the  lessons 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  conform  to  the  order  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer :  meaning  that  of  England  ;  for  it  is 
known  that  divers  years  after  we  had  no  other  order 
for  Common  Prayer.  This  is  recorded  to  have  been  the 
first  head  concluded  in  a  frequent  council  of  the  lords 
and  barons  professing  Jesus  Christ.  We  keep  the  words  of 
the  history  2.  Religion  was  not  then  placed  in  rites  and 
gestui'es,  nor  men  taken  with  the  fancy  of  extemporary  prayer. 
Sure,  the  public  worship  of  God  in  his  church,  being  the  most 
solemn  action  of  us  his  poor  creatiu-es  here  below,  ought  to  be 
performed  by  a  liturgy  advisedly  set  and  framed,  and  not  ac- 
cording to  the  sudden  and  various  fancies  of  men.  This  shall 
suffice  for  the  present  to  have  said.  The  God  of  mercy  con- 
firm our  liearts  in  his  truth,  and  preserve  us  alike  from  pro- 
faneness  and  su]5erstition.     Amen^." 

While  the  course  of  events  in  Scotland  was  fast  drawing  to 
a  crisis,  the  church  and  people  of  Englanjl  sat  still  with  the 
utmost  indiiference,  and  beheld  their  neighbour's  house  on  fire 
without  making  any  effort  to  prevent  the  flames  from  reaching 
their  own  dwelling.  And  the  black  cloud  which  at  first  was  no 
bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  was  spreading  over  the  whole 
northern  horizon,  and  the  heavens  were  black  with  treason  and 
rebellion.  Yet  it  excited  no  notice  in  England  then,  as  the 
same  course  of  agitation  creates  little  apprehension  at  the  pre- 
sent day  that  the  same  calamities  may  again  arise  to  the  church 
of  England.  "  But  the  truth  is,"  says  Clarendon,  "  there  was 
so  little  curiosity  in  the  court  or  the  country  to  know  any  thing 

'  Preface  to  the  Directory  for  Public  Worship,  agreed  on  by  the  Assembly  of 
Divines,  at  Westminster,  1645,  in  the  Confession  of  Faith. 
-  History  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  p.  218. 
^  Preface  to  the  Common  Prayer  of  the  Church  of  Scotland. 


1637.]  CHURCH  of  Scotland.  563 

of  Scotland,  or  what  was  done  there,  that,  when  the  whole 
nation  was  solicitous  to  know  what  passed  weekly  in  Germany 
and  Poland,  and  all  other  parts  of  Europe,  no  man  ever  in- 
quired what  w^as  doing  in  Scotland,  nor  had  that  kingdom  a 
place  or  mention  in  one  page  of  any  Gazette  ;  and  even  after 
the  advertisement  of  this  preamble  to  rebellion,  no  mention 
was  made  of  it  at  the  council  board,  but  such  a  dispatch  made 
into  Scotland  upon  it  as  expressed  the  king's  dislike  and  dis- 
pleasure, and  obliged  the  lords  of  the  council  there  to  appear 
more  vigorously  in  the  vindication  of  his  authority  and  sup- 
pression of  those  tumults.  But  all  was  too  little.  That  peo- 
ple, after  they  had  once  begun,  pursued  the  business  vigorously, 
with  all  imaginable  contempt  of  the  government ;  and  though  in 
the  hubbub  on  the  first  day  there  appeared  no  body  of  name  or 
reckoning,  but  the  actors  w^ere  really  of  the  dregs  of  the  peo]>]c, 
yet  they  discovered,  by  the  countenance  of  that  day,  that  few 
men  of  rank  were  forward  to  engage  themselves  in  the  quarrel 
on  behalf  of  the  bishops ;  w^hereupon  more  considerable  per- 
sons every  day  appeared  against  them,  and  (as  heretofore  in 
the  case  of  St.  Paul,  the  Jews  stirred  up  the  devout  and  honour- 
able women),  the  women  and  ladies  of  the  best  quality  de- 
clared themselves  of  the  party,  and  with  all  the  reproaches 
imaginable,  made  war  upon  the  bishops,  as  introducers  of 
popery  and  superstition,  against  which  they  avowed  themselves 
to  be  irreconcileable  enemies  :  and  their  husbands  did  not 
long  defer  the  owning  the  same  spirit ;  insomuch  as  within  a 
few  days  the  bishops  durst  not  appear  in  the  streets,  nor  in  any 
courts  or  houses,  but  were  in  danger  of  their  lives ;  and  such 
of  the  lords  as  durst  be  in  their  company,  or  seemed  to  desire 
to  rescue  them  from  violence,  had  their  coaches  torn  in  pieces, 
and  their  persons  assaulted,  insomuch  as  they  were  glad  to 
send  for  some  of  those  great  men,  who  did  indeed  govern  the 
rabble,  though  they  appeared  not  in  it,  who  readily  came  and 
redeemed  them  out  of  their  hands :  so  that  by  the  time  new 
orders  came  from  England,  there  was  scarce  a  bishop  left  in 
Edinbm-gh,  and  not  a  minister  who  durst  read  the  liturgy  in 
any  church  '^ ." 

Some  few  simple  people  might  have  been  really  actuated  by 
religions  motives  ;  but  the  noble  leaders,  and  the  great  bulk 
of  the  disaffected,  had  other  and  more  selfish  ends  in  view" 
than  the  cause  of  religion.  The  higher  orders  were  spurred 
on  by  covetousness,  which  is  idolatry,  and  the  root  of  all  evil ; 
while  the  inferior  were  inflamed  with  hatred  of  popery  and 

1  Clarendon's  Rebellion,  i.  180,  181. 


564  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.    [cflAP.  XIII. 

the  dread  of  its  near  approach ;  and  a  strong  delusion  to  believe 
a  lie,  had  been  sent  upon  them  as  a  punishment  that  Charles 
intended  to  bring  in  the  mass  by  means  of  tlie  liturgy.  That 
mental  delusion  still  unhappily  continues  to  this  day ;  for  pres- 
byterians  glory  in  those  atrocities  of  their  ancestors,  which 
ought  to  be  subjects  of  their  greatest  shame  and  humiliation. 
"  What,"  says  Baillie,  a  presbyterian  !  "  shall  be  the  event, 
God  knows  ;  there  was  in  our  land  never  such  an  appearance 
of  a  stir ;  the  whole  people  think  popery  at  the  doors ;  the 
scandalous  pamphlets  which  come  daily  new  from  England 
add  fuel  to  this  flame  ;  no  man  may  speak  any  thing  in  public 
for  the  king's  part^  except  he  would  have  himself  marked  for 
a  sacrifice  to  be  killed  one  day.  I  think  our  people  possessed 
with  a  bloody  devil,  far  above  any  thing  that  ever  I  could  have 
imagined,  though  the  mass  in  Latin  had  been  presented.  The 
ministers  who  have  command  of  their  mind,  do  disavow  their 
unchristian  humour,  but  are  no  ways  so  zealous  against  the 
devil  of  their  fury  as  they  are  against  the  seducing  spiiit  of 
the  bishops.  For  myself,  1  think  God,  to  revenge  the  crying 
sins  of  all  estates  and  professions  (which  no  example  of  our 
neighbours'  calamities  would  move  us  to  repent),  is  going  to 
execute  his  long  denounced  threatenings,  and  to  give  us  over 
unto  madness,  that  we  may  every  one  shoot  his  sword  in  our 
neighbour's  heart  ^." 

'  Baillie's  Letters  and  Journals,  i.  23 , 


5G6 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


PRIMACY  OF  ARCHBISHOP  SPOTTISWOOD. 

THE  TABLES,  THE  COVENANT,  THE  GLASGOW  ASSEMBLY,  AND  THE 
DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  CHUBCH. 

1638. — The  Tables. — Traquair  gives  secret  information  to  the  rebels. — Council 
assemble  at  Stirling. — King's  proclamation — met  by  a  protest. — Bishop  of  Gal- 
loway assaulted. — Proposal  to  murder  archbishop  Spottiswood. — The  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant — its  origin — its  objects  and  obligations. — Motives 
that  induced  the  king  to  appoint  the  marquis  of  Hamilton  lord  High  Com- 
missioner—  his  arrival — his  first  measures. —  Multitude  congregated  in  the 
coital. — The  brethren  offer  to  harangue  before  his  grace. — The  liturgy  de- 
nounced.— A  proclamation  and  protest. — Suspension  of  the  canons  and  liturgy. 
- — Commissioner  returns  to  London — comes  back. — Demands  of  the  covenanted 
lords. — Hamilton  recommends  king  James's  covenant  or  bond  to  be  renewed 
— empowered  to  summon  an  Assembly. — Activity  of  the  covenanters. — Com- 
missioners sent  to  Aberdeen — cold  reception. — Citizens  generally  hostile  to 
the  covenant. — Drs.  Forbes  and  Barron. — Commissioner  empowered  to  sum- 
mon a  parliament  and  an  Assembly — the  conditions  not  agreeable  to  the 
covenanting  chiefs — Hamilton  takes  another  journey  to  London. — The  cove- 
nant of  1580  renewed — covenanters  rail  at  it — their  inconsistency — clamom- 
for  an  Assembly — Commissioner  proclaims  one — discharges  sundry  acts  of 
parliament  and  Assembly. — An  Assembly  and  parliament  summoned. — The 
proclamation. — The  Tables  protest. — Artful  conduct  of  the  covenanters. — 
Glasgow  address  to  the  king. — The  official  opinion  of  the  lord  advocate. — 
The  Assembly  is  packed  by  the  Tables. — Charges  produced  against  the 
bishops. — Orders  issued  for  the  elections. — Libel  on  the  bishops. — A  prophetess. 
— The  ^industry  of  the  Jesuits — assert  that  the  liturgy  was  examined  and 
approved  at  Rome. — Abemethy's  story. — The  commissioner's  activity. — The 
mode  ofelection. — Meeting  of  the  Assembly. — Marquis  of  Huntly's  exer- 
tions.— Protest  by  the  bishop  of  Aberdeen  and  his  clergy. — Opening  of  the 
Assembly — first  session — difficulties  of  the  meeting — many  unconstitutionally 
present — ^none  admitted  but  by  ticket — Baillie's  account  of  them — first  pro- 
ceedings— refuse  to  read  the  bishop's  declinature. — Second  session — the  king's 
letter  read — declinature  again  urged  and  rejected — Henderson  elected  moderator. 
— Third  session — election  of  the  clerk — Johnston,  of  Warriston,  chosen — new 
registers  produced — bishops'  protest  again  refused. — The  fourth  session. — 
Fifth  session  —  protest  against  lay  elders  —  rejected. —  Sixth  session  —  the 
bishop's  protest  read — other  protests  from  inferior  clergy. — Seventh  session — 


566  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XVI. 

spurious  registers — replies  to  the  bishop's  declinature — perplexity  of  the  com- 
missioner— his  speech  before  dissolving  the  Assembly — moderator's  reply — the 
commissioner's  answer — private  instructions  from  the  Tables — commissioner 
dissolves  the  Assembly — protests  against  it — the  moderator  puts  it  to  the  vote 
whether  or  not  the  Assembly  will  dissolve. — Covenanting  nobles  protest. — The 
Assembly  constitute  themselves  judges  of  the  bishops. — The  proclamation  for  the 
dissolution  of  the  Assembly. — Rothes  protests. — Argyle  joins  the  Assembly — 
his  declaration. — The  commissioner  retires. — Accession  of  lord  Erskine  and 
others  to  the  covenanters. — First  session — proclamation  for  dissolution  met  by 
a  protest. — Second  session — several  preceding  Assemblies  condemned. — Third 
session — Dr.  Panther  deposed. — Fourth  session — Mr.  Mitchel — deprived — 
bishop  of  Orkney's  letter — submits,  and  is  deposed. — Fifth  session — more  ie- 
positions — six  Assemblies  condemned. — Sixth  session — absolved  from  their 
oaths — Dr.  Hamilton  deposed  and  deprived. — Seventh  session — some  acts 
passed. — Eighth  session — bishop  of  Dunkeld  abjures  episcopacy — the  bishops 
censured. — Ninth  session — the  lawfulness  of  episcopacy  discussed — abjured — 
superintendents  declared  to  be  bishops. — Tenth  session — Perth  articles  abjured 
— more  bishops  deposed. — Eleventh  session — more  bishops  deposed — clergy 
deprived  of  their  benefices. — Twelfth  session — the  apostacy  of  some  of  the 
bishops. — Thirteenth  session — Henderson's  sermon — bishops  formally  excom- 
municated— the  sentence  of  excommunication. — Fourteenth  session. — Fifteenth 
session — presbyterial  courts  of  jurisdiction  restored. — Sixteenth  session — visi- 
tation of  the  universities. — Seventeenth  session. — Eighteenth  session. — Nine- 
teenth session — moderator's  congratulation  at  success. — The  press  fettered. — 
Rising  of  the  Assembly. — A  curse  denounced  on  churchmen. — Some  reflections. 
— Henderson's  disclaimer. — Reflections. — Charge  of  immorality  against  the 
bishops. 

1638. — From  the  prodigious  influx  of  strangers  to  Edin- 
burgh, the  neighbouring  country  was  unable  to  supply  them 
Avith  provisions ;  and  they  were  therefore  obliged  to  return  to 
their  own  homes.  But  that  their  rebelHon,  under  whatsoever 
name  its  atrocious  guilt  may  be  covered,  might  not  suffer  any 
diminution,  four  noblemen,  four  barons,  four  burgesses,  and 
four  ministers,  were  selected  as  committees,  or,  as  tliey  were 
denominated.  Tables,  to  treat  as  if  they  had  been  a  lawful 
body  with  the  privy  council.  Their  numbers  were  afterwards 
doubled.  Each  of  these  orders  sat  at  a  table  by  themselves ; 
and  they  formed  a  general  table,  at  which  their  proceedings 
were  debated  before  they  were  put  in  execution.  There  can- 
not be  a  doubt  of  the  treachery  of  the  privy  council,  which 
not  only  permitted  this  rebel  government  to  start  up,  but  ac- 
tually entered  into  negociations  with  it,  as  if  it  had  been  an 
independent  legal  body. 

Immediately  on  lord  Traquair's  return  from  court,  contrary 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  567 

to  his  duty  as  a  privy  councillor,  he  made  known  to  the  Tables 
the  result  of  his  communication  with  the  king,  and  of  his  ma- 
jesty's intentions  towards  the  rebel  government ;  by  which 
means  the  Tables  were  enabled,  without  loss  of  time,  eftectually 
to  counteract  whatever  measures  the  king  might  adopt.  The 
archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  lord  chancellor  of  the  kingdom, 
assembled  the  privy  council  at  Stirling  ;  and  on  the  same  day, 
at  ten  o'clock,  read  the  king's  proclamation  at  the  market-cross, 
expressive  of  his  majesty's  pious  intentions  in  the  matter  oi 
the  Liturgy  and  Book  of  Canons,  promising  a  full  pardon 
of  all  past  offences,  enjoining  peaceable  behaviour,  and 
commanding  all  strangers  to  quit  Stirling  on  six  hours'  notice, 
under  pain  of  rebellion  ; — benevolently  concluding,  "  that  he 
would  not  shut  his  ears  against  any  petition  on  that,  or  any 
other  subject,  provided  that  its  matter  and  form  be  no  way  pre- 
judicial to  his  royal  authority."  Here  the  deceived  and  be- 
trayed monarch  experienced  an  act  of  deliberate  rebellion. 
The  earls  of  Home  and  Lindsay,  from  the  information  pre- 
viously communicated  by  Traquair  to  the  Tables,  had  arrived 
in  time  to  present  a  protest ;  in  which,  after  denouncing  the 
Liturgy  and  Canons  as  containing  the  seeds  of  superstition 
and  popery,  they  ostentatiously  exhibited  their  pretended 
grievances,  and  protested  that  "  they  would  not  be  held  liable 
in  any  pains,  or  penalties,  or  forfeitures,  resulting  from  disobe- 
dience to  any  orders  or  proclamations  in  favour  of  the  Book 
of  Canons  or  Liturgy  ;  that  they  would  not  be  answerable  for 
any  consequences  that  might  happen  in  enforcing  these  inno- 
vations ;  that  they  rejected  the  bishops  as  unjust  judges,  and 
that  all  their  meetings  and  their  petitions  to  the  council  are 
designed  for  no  other  end  but  to  defend  the  purity  of  divine 
worship  hitherto  received,  against  the  obtrusion  of  innova- 
tions, and  the  liberty  of  the  church  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
bishops  ;  and  that  they  have  determined  for  prosecuting  those 
sacred  purposes  to  attend  sober  meetings  of  that  kind ;  nor  can 
they  with  a  good  conscience  desist  from  them,  unless  they 
would  be  esteemed  betrayers  of  the  glory  of  God,  the  honour 
of  the  king,  and  the  liberty  of  both  church  and  state." 

This  protest  was  affixed  to  the  market-cross,  beside  the 
royal  proclamation.  At  Linlithgow  and  Edinburgh,  where 
the  king's  proclamation  was  published,  it  was  met  by  a  counter 
protest ;  and  a  regular  combination  was  now  fonned  to  oppose 
the  king's  government.  "  By  this  protestation,"  says  Stevenson, 
"  the  supplicants  did  convince  the  king  and  his  council  in 
earnest, /Aa^  they  loere  too  poiverful,im(\.  had  more  right  [query, 


6()8  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

might]  on  their  side  than  to  be  compelled  by  ai'bitrary  procla 
mations  and  orders  of  council;  and  as  they  were  persuaded  the 
king  intended  to  surprise  them,  they  were  the  more  persuaded 
of  the  necessity  of  xmion  among  themselves,  and  therefore  they 
resolved  to  renew  the  national  covenant."  Before  night-fall 
Stirling  was  full  of  armed  men,  breathing  defiance  to  the  laws, 
and  ready  for  any  deed  of  violence  in  support  of  the  rebellion. 
The  bishop  of  Galloway  was  assaulted  by  the  rabble  in  Sdrling ; 
and  but  for  the  intervention  of  the  magistrates,  would  have 
been  murdered.  In  passing  Falkirk,  he  was  attacked  by  the 
pious  women  with  stones  and  filth,  to  the  danger  of  his  life. 
In  Dalkeith  he  met  with  the  same  cruel  usage.  There  two  of 
the  rioters  were  imprisoned,  "  so  that  the  poor  bishop  was  glad 
to  become  a  kind  of  recluse,  and  shewed  little  of  his  old  desire 
of  martyrdom  in  this  so  good  a  caused" 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  politic  caution  of  the  chiefs,  the 
infuriated  rabble  would  have  murdered  good  old  archbishop 
Spottiswood ; — it  was  certainly  their  intention  to  have  done 
so.  The  proposal  to  imitate  the  murder  of  his  predecessor 
Hamilton,  was  actually  made,  who,  to  the  disgrace  of  the  re- 
gent Lennox,  was  hanged  in  his  episcopal  robes  in  that  same 
town. 

After  protesting,  the  noblemen  and  their  followers,  amount- 
ing to  upwards  of  two  thousand  amned  men,  returned  to  Edin- 
burgh, and  consulted  with  Hope,  the  lord  advocate.  The 
Tables  conducted  their  affairs  with  as  much  formality  and 
authority  as  if  the  whole  government  of  the  kingdom  had  been 
legally  in  their  possession.  They  issued  orders  and  decrees, 
which  were  obeyed  everywhere  throughout  the  kingdom  with 
more  implicit  submission  and  passive  obedience  than  had  ever 
been  yielded  to  the  lawful  government  of  the  sovereign  ;  and 
they  exercised  a  more  intolerable  tyranny  over  the  loyal  rem- 
nant than  the  most  severe  measures  of  which  they  themselves 
had  ever  had  cause  to  complain  2. 

Still  acting  on  the  advice  of  the  lord  advocate,  the  rebel 
Table  chiefs  framed  their  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  on 
the  model  of  the  French  Holy  League.  Cardinal  Richlieu  was 
the  constant  correspondent  and  supporter  of  these  rebels,  to 
whom  he  sent  a  copy  of  the  Holy  League  ;  and  his  agents  re- 
commended it  as  the  model  for  the  Solemn  League,  which  is 


Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  204,  205. 
2  Aiuot's  Hist    of  Edinb.   111.— Guthry's   Mem.  33.— Clarendon,  i.  3.— 
Stevenson. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  569 

almost  verbcalim  me  same,  changing  only  names  and  circum- 
stances. The  framers  cunningly  added  tlie  new  League  to  the 
old  covenant  or  confession  of  faidi,  sworn  to  by  king  James 
and  his  household,  which,  with  its  "  abrenunciations  and  ab- 
homngs,  did  so  amaze"  the  rebels,  and  deceive  the  loyal  and 
unwary,  that  they  signed  this  most  atrocious  instrument  of 
t>  ranny,  in  the  opinion  that  it  was  merely  a  republication  of 
tiie  latter.  "  On  the  Sunday  following,  th«  whole  strain  of 
the  ministers'  discourses  was  calculated  for  convincing  their 
hearers  that  the  breach  of  king  James's  covenant  had  been  a 
special  cause  of  all  the  evils  that  were  brought  on  them ;  and 
that  the  renovation  of  the  same  was  a  good  mean  for  obtaining 
the  Lord's  special  favour ;  and  that  for  this  they  had  many 
precedents  in  holy  writ, — and  to  speak  in  the  language  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  1640,  The  remembrance  of  their  breach 
of  covenant  did  sting,  wound,  and  pierce  through  their  con- 
sciences; wherefore, being  moved  with  serious  repentance,  they 
resolved  to  renew  their  covenant  or  national  confession  ^"  To 
deceive  the  people  they  prefaced  it  with  the  bond,  covenant, 
or  negative  confession,  made  in  the  late  king's  time  against 
popery.  To  this  they  added  a  long  and  imposing  aiTay  of 
acts  of  parliament,  for  the  ratification  of  the  protestant  religion. 
Contrary  to  fact,  they  maintained  that  in  that  confession,  the 
late  changes  in  religion,  caused  by  the  Perth  articles  and 
liturgy,  were  abjured  in  that  covenant  as  formally  as  if  they 
had  been  expressly  named  in  it. 

This  intolerant  and  persecuting  covenant  was  prepared 
by  Henderson  and  Johnston  of  Warriston,  and  revised  by 
Balmerino,  Loudon,  and  Rothes,  from  a  copy  of  the  French 
Holy  League,  furnished  them  by  Cardinal  Richlieu ;  wliich 
raised  a  terrible  rebellion  in  France,  under  pretence  of  preserv- 
ing religion,  which  desolated  that  whole  kingdom.  "  And  as 
that  Holy  League,  which  was  worded  for  the  preservation  of 
the  king's  majesty's  person  and  authority,  in  the  preservation 
and  defence  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  did  murder  their 
king  Henry  III.  who  lived  and  died  a  zealous  Roman  Catholic, 
so  the  Scottish  Solemn  League,  which  was  worded  in  the  same 
manner,  in  defence  of  the  king  and  the  protestant  religion, 
did  murder  king  Charles  I.  who  lived  and  died  a  most  zealous 
protestant."  These  pious  rebels  called  God  to  witness  the 
sincerity  of  their  loyalty  to  king  Charles,  at  the  very  time  when 

^  Stevenson's  Church  and  State. 
VOL.  I.  4  D 


570  HISTOKY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XIV. 

they  were  in  actual  rebellion  against  him,  and  were  correspond- 
ing with  the  French  king  for  assistance  to  dethrone  him. 

The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  is  a  most  uncharitable, 
persecuting  code — it  sears  the  heart,  and  eradicates  its  gene- 
rous emotions.  With  professions  of  loyalty  ever  on  the  lips, 
it  inculcates  rebellion,  and  that  traitorous  position  "  of  dis- 
tinguishing the  authoiity  and  the  persons  of  those  placed  in 
authority,  as  first  principles :"  yet,  nevertheless,  the  author  of 
The  Hind  let  Loose  calls  it  "  our  magna  charta  of  religion  and 
righteousness — our  greatest  security  for  all  our  interests."  Its 
persecuting  spirit  is  easily  perceptible  in  the  second  and  fourth 
sections,  which  are  directed  against  the  clergy ;  and,  notwith- 
standing the  liberality  of  the  present  day,  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant  stands,  in  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith, 
a  monument  of  a  persecuting  spirit.  The  fourth  section, 
levelled  at  the  laity,  is  equally  of  a  persecuting  nature,  and  de- 
cidedly establishes  an  inquisition ;  and,  like  the  church  from 
which  they  have  copied  so  many  of  their  worst  principles,  the 
malignants  (that  is,  a  loyal  subject  and  an  episcopalian)  were 
first  hunted  out,  and  then  handed  over  to  the  secular  arm  for 
condign  punishment.  The  other  publications  of  that  time 
assert  and  maintain  that  rebellion  was  the  avowed  design  of 
the  Covenant ;  and  the  Solemn  and  Seasonable  Warning  to  all 
Ranks  says,  that  "  the  presbytery  alone  knows,  and  it  only  can 
determine,  what  the  cause  of  God  is ;  the  king  and  parliament 
are  not  to  be  complied  with  but  in  subordination  to  the  Cove- 
nant  The  presbytery  can  counteract  the  acts  of  the 

estates  of  parliament,  and  discharge  the  subjects  fi-om  obeying 
such  acts  as  are  imposed  without  the  consent  of  the  presby- 
tery." This  is  exactly  the  language  that  the  church  of  Rome 
applies  to  an  heretical  prince ;  and  a  celebrated  authority  of 
that  church  says,  "  If  the  civil  laws  infringe  ecclesiastical  im- 
munity, or  if  they  ai-e  in  a  matter  in  which  the  clergy  are  exempt 
from  secular  power,  the  clergy  are  not  bound  by  such  laws, 
either  in  their  directive  or  in  their  compulsory  forced"  It 
then  goes  on  to  say,  that  "  though  our  Saviour  told  his  dis- 
ciples that  his  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world,  and  therefore 
they  ought  not  to  fight  for  him,  yet  that  doctrine  does  not  now 
oblige  covenanted  christians,  for  they  may  fight  without,  yea, 
and  against,  the  consent  of  the  supreme  magistrate  for  the  cause 
of  God;  and  a  probable  capacity  to  effectuate  their  designs  is 
the  call  of  God  to  do  it"     One  of  the  alleged  causes  of  opposi- 

'  Den's  Theology,  ii.  292. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  571 

lion  to  tlie  Liturgy  was,  lliat  it  had  been  imposed  by  the  royal 
prerogative  without  the  previous  formality  of  an  act  of  Assem- 
bly ;  but  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was /orcec?  on  the 
nation,  at  the  instigation  of  a  foreign  Jesuit,  by  a  set  of  men 
who  were  in  actual  rebellion,  and  without  the  slightest  sanc- 
tion or  authority  of  either  the  Assembly  or  the  parliament. 

On  the  1st  of  March,  the  National  Band  or  Covenant^  was 
read  publicly  with  great  solemnity,  and  afterwards  signed  in  the 
Greyfriars'  churchyard,  with  uplifted  hands,  by  the  rebel  nobi- 
lity, gentry,  presbyterian  brethren,  and  commonalty.  Hen- 
derson, who  was  formerly  an  episcoj)al  clergyman,  but  who  was 
now  the  leading  man  in  the  presbyterian  paity,had  the  audacity 
to  offer  up  a  prayer  to  Almighty  God,  that  he  would  bless  their 
rebellion  (which  He  has  declared  to  be  as  the  sin  of  witchcraft) 
with  success,  and  to  prosper  their  crusade  against  His  own  insti- 
tutions. The  intolerant  spirit  of  the  Covenanters,  as  the 
rebels  were  now  denominated,  would  admit  of  no  refusal  or  eva- 
sion ;  they  were  all  furnished  with  a  copy  of  the  Covenant,  and 
empowered  to  administer  it,  and  which  they  obliged  every  one 
they  met  to  sign.  In  consequence  of  this  violent  zeal,  many 
signed  it  without  reflection  :  and,  such  was  the  frantic  enthu- 
siasm of  some  of  the  zealots,  that  they  subscribed  it  with  their 
own  blood  instead  of  ink.  The  city  of  Aberdeen  alone, 
honourably,  and  so  successfully,  resisted  this  covenant,  tliat  the 
ftimous  Samuel  flutherford,  (who  says  "  he  got  a  full  answer 
of  his  Lord,  to  be  a  graced  minister,  and  a  chosen  arrow  hid  in 
his  quiver,")  acknowledged,  in  his  letter  from  that  city  to 
David  Dickson, — "  I  cannot  get  a  house  in  Aberdeen  wherein 
to  leave  drink-siller  in  my  Master's  name  save  one  only.  There 
is  no  sale  for  Christ  in  the  north  ;  he  is  like  to  lay  long  on  my 
hands  ere  any  accept  of  him."  Messrs.  Boyd,  Maxwell,  and 
Bell,  three  of  the  clergy  of  Glasgow,  had  the  courage  also  to 
resist  the  covenant,  and  to  maintain  the  Perth  articles.  A  de- 
putation of  covenanting  ministers  was  sent  to  compel  them  to 
subscribe ;  "  but  no  reasoning  could  move  either  of  them  from 
their  opposition  to  the  covenant,  and  so  remove  the  stumbling- 
block  out  of  the  way  of  that  people  2." 

Mr.  Napier  cites  the  following  sentences  of  a  letter  from  Mr. 
David  Mitchell,  one  of  the  persecuted  ministers  of  Edinburgh, 
to  Dr.  John  Lesly,  bishop  of  Kaphoe,  as  affording  a  curious 
confirmation  of  the  secret  manner  in  which  the  covenant  had 
been  got  up  : — "  The  greater  part  of  the  kiuj^dom  have  sub- 
scribed, and  the  rest  are  daily  subscribing,  a  covenant.     It  is 

^  Vide  post.  '"'  'U  Sfpvensoa's  Church  and  State. 


572  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIT. 

the  oath  of  the  king's  house  1580,  with  strange  additions ;  a 
mutual  combination  for  resistance  of  all  novations  in  religion, 
doctrine,  discipline,  and  rites  of  worship,  that  have  been 
brought  in  since  that  time ;  so  as  if  the  least  of  the  sub- 
scribers be  touched, — and  there  be  some  of  them  not  ten 
years  of  age,  and  some  not  worth  twopence, — that  all  shall 
concur  for  their  defence,  and  for  the  expulsion  of  all  papists 
and  adversaries  (that  is,  all  that  will  not  subscribe)  out  of  the 
church  and  kingdom,  according  to  the  laws,  whereof  an  hun- 
dred are  cited  in  the  charter.  This  goes  on  apace.  The  [so- 
called]  true  pastors  are  brought  into  Edinburgh  to  cry  out 
against  us  wolves ;  and  they,  with  our  brethren  here,  Mr.  An- 
drew Ramsay,  Mr.  Henry  Rollock,  and  your  whilom  friend 
the  Principal  [Adamson],  crying  out,  that  they  are  neither 
good  christians,  nor  good  subjects,  that  do  not  subscribe,  nay, 
nor  in  covenant  with  God,  have  made  us  so  odious,  that  we  dare 
not  go  on  the  streets.  1  have  been  doggedhj  some  gentlemen, 
and  followed  with  many  mumbled  threatenings  behind  my 
back  ;  and  then,  when  in  stairs,  swords  drawn,  and  '  If  I  had 
the  papist  villain,  oh  /' — Yet,  I  thank  God,  I  am  living  to  serve 
God,  and  the  king,  and  the  church,  and  your  lordship.  Your 
chief  [Rothes,  whose  family  name  is  Lesly]  is  chief  in  this 
business.     There  is  nothing  expected  here  but  civil  war^" 

Civil  war  did  certainly  very  soon  follow  this  unhappy  co- 
venant ;  and  in  the  meantime  it  divided  the  nation  into  two 
parties — the  rebels,  who  were  to  a  man  covenanters  ;  and  the 
loyal  and  gallant  few  who,  in  the  midst  of  such  universal  re- 
bellion, still  clung  to  the  throne  and  the  altar.  "  Such," 
says  the  presbyterian  Heron,"  was  the  enthusiasm  and  frontless 
wickedness  ofthe  lawyers,  that  none  of  them  could  be  persuaded 
to  pronounce  a  covenant  illegal,  which  had  been  framed  in 
defiance  of  the  executive  government,  and 'in  violation  of  the 
existing  laws,  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  an  ecclesiastical 
anarchy  utterly  incomjjatible  with  all  civil  order.  From  the 
north  of  Ireland  they  invited  home  a  reinforcement  of  zealous 
puritan  divines,  who  proved  afterwards  the  ablest  and  most 
active  agitators  in  the  cause  of  the  Covenanters ;  for  only  an 
inferior  proportion,  and  these  the  weakest  and  most  ignorant  of 
the  established  clergy  of  the  Scottish  Church,  had  espoused  the 
covenant  with  a  zeal  sufficiently  forward  to  win  the  confidence 
of  the  leaders  of  their  party.  Bands  of  missionaries  were  sent 
out  through  all  parts  of  the  kingdom,  to  win  by  persuasion 
and  menaces  new  subscriptions  to  the  covenant.    The  loyalty 

'  Montrose  and  the  Covenanters,  i.  157,  158. 


1638.]  CHTTRCH  OF  SCOTLAND,  573 

and  episcopal  firmness  of  the  members  of  the  university  of 
Aberdeen  were  alone  assailed  in  vain.  Henderson,  Dickson, 
and  Cant,  with  the  earls  of  Montrose  and  Kinghom,  and  the 
lord  Cupar,  had  been  sent  against  them.  The  logic  of  these 
missionaries  of  the  covenant  was  readily  baffled ;  their  groan- 
ing, whining  eloquence,  was  without  difficulty  withstood. 
The  train  of  their  measures  was  evinced  to  be  insurrection  and 
conspiracy  against  the  king's  authority.  Their  covenant  was 
proved  to  be  without  obligation ;  because  it  was  illegal,  and 
aimed  at  ends  incompatible  with  orderly  government.  Epis- 
copacy was  shown  to  be  founded  as  strongly  as  presbytery 
upon  the  maxims  of  revelation,  the  practice  of  the  primitive 
church,  and  the  expediency  of  civil  society.  But  the  doctors 
of  Aberdeen  found  that  it  was  more  easy  to  confute  than  to 
convince  or  silence  the  high  priests  of  the  covenant  ^" 

When  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  heard  what  was  done, 
he  said,  "  Now  all  that  we  have  been  doing  these  thirty  years 
past  is  thrown  down  at  once;''  and  justly  fearing  violence  to 
his  person  from  the  atrocious  fury  of  the  rabble,  he  fled  to 
London,  where  he  soon  after  died. 

Copies  of  the  league  were  sent  to  all  the  presbyteries  for 
signature,  "  few  daring^''  says  the  covenanter  Stevenson,  "  to 
shew  their  disinclination,  and  if  any  were  so  hardy,  they  were 
compelled  by  menaces  and  various  injuries  to  embrace  it,  or 
other\^'ise  were  turned  out  of  their  pastoral  cures,  or  other 
offices  which  they  enjoyed."  In  consequence  of  the  oath  en- 
joined by  the  covenant  for  the  extirpation  of  episcopacy,  seve- 
ral of  the  presbyteries  took  upon  them  to  ordain  ministers, 
without  the  knowledge  or  consent  of  their  respective  bishops  ; 
and  in  those  presbyteries  where  the  covenanting  mania  was  do- 
minant, they  removed  their  constant  moderators.  Many  of  the 
clergy  saved  their  lives  by  flight  from  the  fury  of  the  cove- 
nanted rabble,  and  abandoned  a  country  where  neither  their 
lives  nor  property  were  any  longer  safe-  The  whole  kingdom 
was  in  a  most  fearful  state  of  anarchy.  The  courts  of  justice 
had  been  closed  for  twelve  months ;  many  of  the  highland 
clans,  taking  advantage  of  this  suspension  of  the  laws,  began 
to  arm,  and  to  plunder  and  oppress  the  peaceably  inclined,  and 
many  murders  were  committed.  The  covenanters,  especially 
the  women,  committed  violent  outrages  against  the  loyal 
clergy  for  refusing  to  sign  the  covenant.  Dr.  Ogston,  of  Col- 
linton,  was  furiously  attacked  in  Edinburgh,  by  the  covenant-, 
ing  amazons,  because,  having  been  translated  from  Aberdeen 

1  Heron's  Histoiv  of  Scotland,  v.  420,  and  425,  42G. 


574  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XIV. 

by  bishop  Forbes,  his  orthodoxy  was  suspected,  and  also  be- 
cause it  was  suspected  he  had  spoken  somewhat  in  favour 
of  the  Virgin  Mary.  Many  others  were  attacked,  whose  lives 
were  endangered  by  the  ferocious  zeal  of  the  multitude  m- 
flamed  by  the  persecuting  tendency  of  the  solemn  league  and 
covenant.  These  facts  are  confessed  by  one  of  the  most  de- 
voted of  the  presbyterian  authors  ^ 

The  covenanters  added  the  most  disgusting  hypocrisy  to 
their  tyranny.  "  All  presbyterians,"  says  Stevenson,  "  whose 
writings  of  that  time  we  have  seen,  do  bear  witness,  that  a  great 
measure  of  the  Divine  presence  did  remarkably  accompany 
that  solemn  action,  and  that  its  happy  influences  were  every 
where  signally  felt  and  seen  ;  the  covenanting  work  was  ac- 
companied with  covenanting  grace  !"  The  Tables  again  went 
a  little  farther,  and  said,  "  That  the  Lord  from  heaven  did 
tastify  his  acceptance  of  that  covenant,  by  the  wonderful 
workings  of  his  Spirit  in  the  hearts  of  both  pastors  and  peo- 
ple, to  their  great  comfort  and  strengthening  in  every  duty, 
above  any  measure  that  ever  hath  been  hoard  of  in  this  land^ !"' 

The  Tables  exerted  their  whole  influence  and  ingenuity  to 
prevent  the  peaceable  accommodation  of  their  imaginary  com- 
plaints.    The  factious  brethren  thundered  from  the  pulpits  the 
most  uncharitable  accusations  against  Charles's  sincerity,  and 
denunciations  of  the  wrath  of  heaven  against  whosoever  should 
listen  to  his  majesty's  proposals,  or  renounce  the  covenant, 
which  they  reckoned  peijury  :  but  a  false  oath  is  not  to  be  kept ; 
it  is  to  be  repented  of.     The  style  of  the  popular  oratory  of  the 
pulpits  may  be  gathered  from  Samuel  Rutherford's  Letters, 
\\  liich  speak  out,  in  their  own  dialect,  the  spirit  of  the  cove- 
nanters.    "  Go  on,"  says  he,  "  as  ye  have  worthily  begun,  in 
})urging  of  the  Lord's  house  in  this  land,  and  pulling  down 
the  sticks  of  antichrist's  foul  nest :  this  wrefched  prelacy,  and 
that  black  kingdom,  whose  wicked  aims  have  ever  been,  and 
still  are,  to  make  this  fat  world  the  only  compass  they  would 
have  of  faith  and  religion,  to  sail  by,  and  to  mount  up  the  man 
of  sin,  their  godfather,  the  pope  of  Rome,  upon  the  highest 
stair  of  Christ's  throne,  and  to  make  a  velvet  church.     These 
men  mind  nothing  else  but  that,  by  bringing  in  the  pope's  foul 
tail  first  upon  us,  their  wretched  and  beggarly  ceremonies, 
they  may  thrust  in  after  them  antichrist's  legs,  thighs,  and  his 
belly,  head  and  shoulders  ;  and  then  cry  down  Christ  and  his 
gospel,  and  put  up  the  merchandise  and  wares  of  the   great 
w .     Christ  shall  never  be  content  with  this  land,  neither 

J  Stevenson,  21G,  217.  2  Stevenson's  Hist.  210. 


103s.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  570 

shall  his  hot  fiery  indignation  be  turned  away,  so  long  as  the 
prelate  (the  man  that  lay  in  antichrist's  foul  womb,  and  the  an- 
tichrist's lord  bailiff)  shall  sit  lord  carver  in  Lord  Jesus'  courts. 
The  prelate  is  both  the  egg  and  the  nest  to  deck  and  bring 
forth  popery  in ;  plead  therefore  for  the  pulling  down  of  the 
nest,  and  crushing  the  egg.  Let  us  not  fear,  he  shall  have  his 
gospel  once  again  exposed  to  sale  in  Scotland,  and  the  matter 
go  to  voices,  to  see  who  will  say,  Let  Christ  be  crowned  king 
of  Scotland  !  It  is  true,  antichrist  stirreth  his  tail ;  but  I  love 
a  rumbling  and  a  raging  devil  in  the  kirk,  rather  than  a  subtle 
or  a  sleeping  devil  ^ !"  This  inflammatory,  rebellious  pulpit 
oratory  was  assisted  by  pamphlets  and  resolutions,  con- 
veyed with  industry  to  the  most  remote  parts  of  the  kingdom  ; 
arms  and  provisions  were  collected  ancl  stored  for  the  bloody 
emergency  which  they  contemplated,  in  their  ferocious  zeal 
for  the  "  crowning  king  Jesus." 

The  council  again  met  at  Stirling,  on  the  10th  of  March, 
and  sent  up  sir  John  Hamilton,  lord  justice  clerk,  to  inform 
his  majesty  of  the  state  of  the  kingdom.  Justly  alarmed  at  a 
rebellion  and  confederacy  so  general  and  extensive,  the  king 
resolved  to  send  down  the  marquis  of  Hamilton  as  high  com- 
missioner, with  full  powers.  Sir  John  Hamilton  was  sent 
down  before  him,  with  a  letter  to  the  council,  requiring  the 
lord  treasurer,  the  lord  privy  seal,  and  the  lord  Lorn,  to  repair 
to  court  to  give  their  advice.  The  two  former  remained  at 
court,  and  came  down  with  the  commissioner,  but  lord  Lorn 
returned  hastily  on  the  20th  of  May,  on  account  of  advice 
tendered  to  the  king  by  his  father  the  earl  of  Argyle.  The 
old  earl  recommended  to  his  majesty  to  detain  lord  Lorn,  and 
not  suffer  him  to  return  to  Scotland  ;  for  from  his  principles 
he  assured  the  king  that  "  he  would  wind  him  a  pini."  The 
king  thanked  Argyle  for  his  advice,  but  said,  "  he  behoved  to 
be  a  king  of  his  word,  and  therefore  having  called  him  up  by 
his  warrant,  he  would  not  detain  him  2." 

Rebellion  was  now  so  open  and  undisguised,  that  the  king 
was  advised  to  reduce  the  covenanters  to  obedience  by  the 
sword;  but  he  determined  on  first  trying  the  effects  of  an  ami- 
cable negociation,  and  to  send  a  commissioner  with  ample 
powers.  His  loyal  advisers  recommended  the  marquis  of 
Huntly ;  but  the  faction  with  which  he  was  surrounded  suc- 
ceeded in  procuring  the  appointment  of  the  marquis  of  Hamil- 
ton, "  whose  head,"  says  Heylin,  "  was  better  than  his  heart, — 

'  Samuel  Rutherford's  Letters. 
-  Guthry's  Memoirs,  31. 


576  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XtV, 

a  notable  dissembler,  true  only  to  his  own  ends,  and  a  most 
excellent  master  in  the  art  of  insinuation ;  by  which  he 
screwed  himself  so  far  into  his  majesty's  good  opinion,  that 
whosoever  midertook  the  unrivetting  of  him,  made  him  faster 
in  it."  ....."  This  man,  considering  with  himself  that  he 
was"  [illegitimately]  "  descended  from  a  daughter  of  king 
James  II.  (but  without  taking  notice  of  any  intervenient  flaws 
which  occurred  in  the  pedigree),  conceived  by  little  and  little 
that  the  crown  would  look  as  lovely  upon  his  head  as  on  the 
heads  of  any  which  descended  from  a  daughter  of  James  V." 
He  conceived  hopes  for  his  ambition  from  the  discontent  of  the 
nobility  about  the  revocation  of  the  grants  of  the  church  lands, 
and  the  factious  conduct  of  the  presbyterians  and  puritans  in 
both  kingdoms.  He  had  spoken  so  imprudently  of  his  pi'O- 
piuquity  to  the  crown,  that  one  Ramsay  openly  drank  his 
health  as  James  the  Seventh.  Hamilton  was  jealous  of  the 
rising  merits  of  Montrose  and  Huntly,  and  used  some  very 
disingenuous  arts  to  prejudice  Charles  against  both  of  these 
worthy  noblemen.  He  assured  Montrose,  in  order  to  excite 
his  indignation,  that  the  king  was  resolved  to  reduce  Scotland 
to  the  form  of  a  province  ;  and  he  imposed  on  the  king,  by  in- 
forming him  that  Montrose  "proudly  looked  upon  the  crown," 
by  reason  of  a  family  descent,  and  ought  to  be  "  nipped  in 
the  bud."  This  double  dealing  mutually  estranged  two  gene- 
rous hearts  from  each  other  for  a  brief  period.  But  Huntly 
now  stood  in  his  way,  and  his  friend,  the  duke  of  Lennox,  re- 
commended Hamilton  so  strongly  (although  he  was  "  gene- 
rally suspected  to  betray  his  master,")  that  Charles  unfortu- 
nately appointed  him  lord  high  commissioner  to  represent 
his  person  in  Scotland^. 

On  Saturda}^,  the  26th   of  May,  Hamilton  proceeded  for 

Scotland,  "  and  in  a  short  time  came  to  Dalkeith 

where  he  reposed  himself  a  while,  and  that  he  might  make  his 
entry  into  the  city  with  the  greater  honour.  After  some 
seeming  diffidences  betwixt  him  and  the  covenanters,  he  puts 
himself  into  Holyrood  House,  where  the  first  thing  he  did  was 
the  waving  of  his  attendance  at  the  reading  of  the  English 
liturgy,  which  had  been  settled  in  the  chapel-royal  of  that 
house  by  the  late  king  James,  anno  1617,  and^  after  some 
neglects  and  intermissions,  restored  by  the  piety  of  king 
Charles,  anno  1633,  as  before  was  signified.  It  was  no  hard 
matter  to  discern  by  his  acts  in  this,  whose  game  it  was  he 

'  Nalson's  Collections. — Heylin's  Life,  of  Laud,  pp.  347-350. — 
Vide  ante,  chap.  ii.  pp.  23,  24. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  577 

meant  to  play,  for  what  it  was  that  he  had  held  the  shuffling 
of  the  cards  so  long,  and  who  was  like  to  win  the  set,  when 
none  but  he  had  the  dealing  of  them :  for  he  so  plied  the  king 
from  one  time  to  another,  sometimes  by  representing  the  ex- 
treme difficulties,  and  sometimes  the  apparent  dangers,  in 
which  his  affairs  there  stood  involved,  that  he  drew  him  to 
throw  up  all,  in  less  than  three  months,  which  king  James  and 
he  had  been  projecting  above  thirteen  years  ^" 

The  marquis  of  Hamilton  arrived  at  Berwick  on  the  3d  of 
June,  where  he  was  met  by  the  earl  of  Roxburgh,  who  informed 
him  in  what  a  state  of  agitation  the  people  were.  The  next 
day  the  earl  of  Lauderdale  and  lord  Lindsay  waited  on  him. 
The  latter  informed  him  that  they  would  never  give  up  the 
covenant,  but  would  have  the  Perth  Articles  abolished,  and 
episcopacy  limited  to  little  more  than  a  name.  "  If  these 
points  were  not  granted  them,  and  a  General  Assembly  and 
parliament  not  called  quickly,  they  would  call  them  them- 
selves before  the  great  crowds  of  Edinburgh  were  scattered." 
He  also  learnt  that  the  covenanters  were  providing  themselves 
with  arms,  and  preparing  to  support  their  demands  by  force  ; 
of  which  he  informed  the  king,  and  recommended  him  to  be 
prepared  for  open  rebellion  2. 

A  gi-eat  multitude  had  assembled  tumultuously  in  the  capi- 
tal, where  all  public  and  private  business  was  entirely  at  a 
stand.  Their  appearance  and  attitude  deterred  the  commis- 
sioner from  entering  Edinburgh,  and  in  consequence  he  took 
up  his  residence  at  Dalkeith  ;  but  being  entreated  by  the 
"  Table"  chiefs  to  remove  to  Holyrood  House,  he  set  out,  ac- 
companied by  the  privy  council  and  such  of  the  nobility  as 
were  still  ostensibly  faithful  to  their  betrayed  sovereign.  He 
was  met  half  way  by  the  covenanters,  on  foot  and  on  horse- 
back, making  an  ostentatious  display  of  their  numbers.  In  this 
multitude  there  were  a  great  number  of  the  brethren,  who  had 
neglected  the  spiritual  duties  of  their  parishes,  in  their  zeal 
for  rebellion  and  "  crowTiing  of  King  Jesus  f  one  of  whom 
offered  to  entertain  the  commissioner  with  a  speech ;  but  being 
well  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  their  harangues,  his  grace 
declined  their  civility.  After  mutual  compliments,  the  com- 
missioner demanded  in  the  king's  name  what  they  expected 
from  his  majesty  in  satisfaction  of  their  complaints  ;  at  same 
time,  he  insisted  that  they  should  return  to  their  obedience, 

1  Heylin's  Life  of  Laud,  357. 

-  Burnet's  Memoirs  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  52 — 54. 

VOL.  I.  4  E 


578  HISTORY  OF   THE  [cHAP.  XI^. 

and  renounce  the  covenant.  In  reply,  the  rebels  demanded 
that  a  free  General  Assembly  and  parliament  should  be  called. 
"  It  was  absurd,"  they  said,  "  to  require  a  people  to  return  to 
their  obedience  who  had  never  departed  from  it,  and  they 
would  sooner  renounce  their  baptism  than  abate  one  syllable  of 
the  covenant .'"  Nay,  so  far  were  they  from  renouncing  this 
engine  of  rebellion  and  blood,  that  they  invited  the  king's  re- 
presentative to  sign  it !  and  to  such  a  fury  had  they  lashed  up 
the  sectarian  and  vicious  passions  of  the  people,  that,  although 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  had  been  read  constantly  in  the 
chapel-royal  for  upwards  of  twenty  years,  they  notified  to  the 
commissioner,  that  if  it  should  be  read  there  for  the  time  to 
come,  the  officiating  clergyman  should  suffer  death  at  their 
hands, — a  convincing  proof  of  covenanting  intolerance  ! 

The  commissioner  recalled  the  court  of  session  to  Edin- 
burgh ;  but  it  was  immediately  demanded  that  he  should  dis- 
charge sir  Robert  Spottiswood  the  president,  and  sir  John 
Hay  the  lord-register,  on  account  of  their  fidelity  to  the  king 
and  attachment  to  the  church.  The  commissioner,  however, 
refused  to  grant  this  unreasonable  demand.  On  the  4th  of 
July  he  published  his  majesty's  proclamation  at  the  Cross,  in 
which  he  declared  the  king's  "  resolution  to  maintain  the  true 
protestant  religion,  and  that  he  never  intended  to  press  the 
canons  and  service-book,  but  in  such  a  legal  way  as  might  be 
agreeable  to  all  his  loving  subjects,  and  therefore  warned  them 
all  to  beware  of  disobedience."  The  proclamation  was  imme- 
diately met  by  a  protest,  which  was  read  by  Archibald  John- 
ston, OF  Warriston,  in  the  name  of  the  associated  lords  ^  On 
the  28th  June,  Hamilton  suspended  the  execution  of  the  canons 
and  liturgy,  discharged  all  the  acts  of  council  made  for  their 
establishment,  and  promised  to  regulate  the.high  commission 
in  such  a  manner  as  that  the  captious  covenanters  should  not 
have  any  cause  to  complain. 

In  this  outrageous  state  of  popular  excitement,  the  com- 
missioner did  not  think  it  safe  to  remain ;  he  therefore  posted 
back  to  London  for  fresh  instructions,  and  returned  to  Edin- 
burgh with  as  little  effect  as  formerly,  for  the  more  the  king 
conceded,  the  higher  the  rebels  rose  in  their  demands.  He  re- 
turned a  second  time  to  London,  and  came  back  empowered 
to  make  still  more  ample  concessions,  which  only  served  to 
increase  the  demands  of  the  covenanters,  who  evidently  aimed 

^  Memoirs  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  54. — Stevenson's  Ch.  and  State,  234. — 
Balfour's  Annals,  276. 


1638.]  CHUECH  OF  SCOTLAND.  579 

at  wresting  the  whole  power  out  of  Charles's  hands  ^  The 
earls  of  Rothes,  Cassillis,  and  some  others,  wrote  to  the  noble- 
men at  court,  who  were  in  their  interest,  and  enclosed  a  copy 
of  "  Articles  for  the  present  peace  of  the  kirk  and  kingdom  of 
Scotland,"  wherein  they  demand  that  the  service-book,  book 
of  canons,  and  court  of  high  commission,  the  Perth  articles, 
and  the  bishops'  vote  in  parliament,  should  be  discharged ;  that 
all  presentations  to  benefices  be  directed  to  presbyteries  in  all 
time  coming,  with  full  power  to  give  collation  thereupon,  they 
being  the  lawful  office-bearers  in  the  kirk  :  that  a  lawful  and 
free  national  Assembly  of  this  kirk,  warranted  by  divine  autho- 
rity, be  called :  and,  lastly,  that  a  parliament  be  summoned  for 
redress  of  grievances!  ^  On  his  anival  at  court,  Bumet  says 
that  the  marquis  gave  his  majesty  a  full  account  of  the  strength 
and  fury  of  the  covenanters,  and  of  the  suspicious  conduct  of  the 
privy  council.  He  also  assured  his  majesty  that  the  people's 
credulity  was  abused,  and  their  prejudices  excited,  by  the  in- 
sinuations of  their  leaders  that  his  majesty  was  prepared  to 
embrace  the  popish  religion.  As  an  antidote  he  advised  him 
to  renew  the  Confession  of  Faith,  which  was  established  at  the 
reformation,  and  ratified  in  parliament  in  1567;  to  which  the 
king  readily  consented^.  His  grace  returned  to  Dalkeith  with 
instructions  to  command  the  council  and  officers  of  government 
to  sign  it ;  and  if  they  signed  it,  he  was  empowered  to  call  a 
General  Assembly,  but  with  the  express  proviso  that  the 
bishops  should  sit  and  vote  in  it,  and  that  the  moderator  should 
be  a  bishop.  He  agreed  that  the  Perth  articles  be  held  as  in- 
different; that  ministers  be  admitted  as  before  the  late  commo- 
tions, and  that  no  other  oaths  be  imposed  upon  them  than  were 
warranted  by  act  of  parliament ;  that  he  should  protest  against 
abolishing  the  bishops,  and  give  way  to  as  few  restrictions  on 
their  power  as  possible  ;  that  he  might  yield  to  their  being  ac- 
countable to  the  Assembly,  but  not  to  pennit  the  Assembly  to 
challenge  their  precedence. 

During  the  marquis's  absence  at  court,  the  covenanters  were 
remarkably  active  in  traversing  the  kingdom,  and  procuring 
subscriptions  to  the  covenant.  Aberdeenshire,  and  the  northern 
parts  generally,  continued  finn  in  their  religious  and  political 
allegiance  ;  and  it  became  therefore  necessary  to  indoctrinate 
the  people  in  those  parts  with  the  anti-church  and  anti-monar- 
chical principles  of  the  covenant.     Henderson,  Dickson,  and 


1  Burnet's  Mem. — Baillie. — Amot's  Hist,  of  Ed.—Guthry's  Mem. 

'  Stevenson's  Church  and  State. 

^  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton,  65. 


580  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

Cant,  were  therefore  sent  to  Aberdeen,  and  arrived  there  on 
the  23d  of  July  ;  where,  says  Bumet,  "  there  was  a  company  of 
worthy  and  learned  doctors."  But  their  welcome  there  was  so 
indifferent,  that  they  were  not  permitted  to  preach  in  any  of 
the  churches,  and  they  were  obliged  to  deliver  their  discourses 
in  the  square  of  Marischal  College.  They  only  gained  about 
nineteen  subscriptions,  and  found  the  people  generally  hostile 
to  the  object  of  their  mission  ;  and  they  went  away  full  of 
threats  and  fury  against  the  city  of  Aberdeen.  There  was  a 
public  disputation  between  the  doctors  of  Aberdeen  and  the 
missionaries  of  the  covenant,  which  resulted  in  the  utter  over- 
throw of  the  latter. 

On  the  8th  of  August,  the  commissioner  returned  from  court, 
and  declared  in  council,  that  he  had  obtained  his  majesty's 
permission  to  summon  a  parliament  and  an  Assembly,  provided 
the  covenanters  would  agree  to  some  reasonable  terms  of  com - 
pi'omise ;  and  negociations  were  entered  into  with  them  to 
dispose  them  for  some  concessions,  but  all  in  vain.  The  cove- 
nanters claimed  every  thing,  but  ivould  yield  nothing.  They 
would  not  admit  that  the  king  and  the  loyalists  could  possess 
either  honour  or  conscience,  and  every  thing  must  yield  to 
their  bigotry  and  intolerance  ;  but  the  audacity  of  their  claims 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  when  it  is  now  ascertained  that  they 
were  secretly  encouraged  by  those  very  councillors  by  whom 
his  majesty  was  served. 

As  the  rebels  would  not  yield  one  jot  of  their  pretensions, 
the  commissioner  informed  the  Tables,  that  his  instnictions 
did  not  permit  him  to  call  a  parliament  or  Assembly  till  the 
king  was  farther  advised,  and  therefore  desired  till  the  20th 
of  September  to  go  to  London  and  consult  the  king's  pleasure. 
The  Tables  condescended  to  allow  his  grace  the  necessary  time, 
on  condition  that  there  should  be  no  more  delays !  which 
shows  that  they  exercised  an  independent  sovereign  power. 
That  the  privy  council  peimitted  these  Tablers  to  grow  up  with 
impunity,  and  to  treat  with,  and  dictate  to,  their  sovereign, 
is  an  undeniable  evidence  of  the  traitorous  materials  of  which 
it  was  composed.  In  the  interval,  pamphlets  were  pub- 
lished, asserting  the  independence  of  the  General  Assembly 
on  the  sovereign,  and  of  their  power  of  meeting  and  legislating 
without  his  permission,  with  the  view  of  preparing  the  godly 
brethren,  who,  after  all,  were  mere  tools  in  the  hands  of  the 
lords  of  the  Tables,  to  meet  in  Assembly  against  the  sovereign's 
will,  in  case  he  should  refuse. 

The  commissioner  returned  on  the  17th  of  September,  and 
having  by  his  majesty's  command  signed  the  original  covenant 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  581 

and  band  of  1580,  the  privy  council  were  enjoined  to  do  the 
same,  and  all  loyal  subjects  were  required  to  do  so  likewise.  On 
his  journey  down,  he  met  some  of  the  Scottish  bishops  at  Ferry- 
bridge, to  whom  he  communicated  his  majesty's  intentions ; 
which  gave  them  much  uneasiness,  and  against  which  they 
vehemently  objected.     They  determined,  however,  to  attend 
the  Assembly,  and  in  the  interim  to  send  one  of  their  number 
to  court.     The  covenanters  used  every  effort  to  counteract  his 
majesty's  intentions ;  and  railed  incessantly  on  the  negative 
confession,  as  tending  to  subvert  the  religion  and  liberty  of  the 
nation,  and  to  introduce  popery.    Now,  their  forefathers  signed 
it  as  an  antidote  to  popery ;  yet,  with  a  strange  inconsistency, 
they  found  it  convenient  to  prefix  this  very  covenant  or  con- 
fession to  their  own  Solemn  League,  which,  they  said,  they  pre- 
ferred to  the   regenerating  sacrament  of  baptism !      On  his 
an-ival,  the  marquis  discovered  the  commencement  of  jea- 
lousies betwixt  some  of  the  moderate  ministers  and  the  lords 
of  the  covenant,  respecting  the  lay  elders.     Burnet  says,  he 
endeavoured  by  all  means  to  increase  the  division,  and  repre- 
sented to  the  ministers  the  danger  which  they  incurred  from 
the  inordinate  ambition  of  the  lay  elders,  who  would  in  the 
end  reduce  the  ministers  to  a  greater  slavery  than  they  had 
any  reason  to  fear  from  either  the  king  or  the  bishops.     He 
found  that  the  covenanters  were  ready  to  have  convened  an 
Assembly  of  their  own  authority,  if  he  had  procrastinated  any 
longer ;  and  therefore  he  thought  it  expedient  to  summon  one 
himself  immediately  on  the  royal  authority ^    He,  therefore,  on 
the  9th  of  September,  made  a  proclamation  at  the  market-cross, 
discharging  the  use  of  the  liturgy,  the  book  of  canons,  and  the 
court  of  high  commission,  the  Perth  articles,  and  generally  re- 
scinding all  deeds  whatsoever  that  had  been  made  for  establish- 
ing them,  although  they  had  been  ratified  both  by  acts  of 
Assembly  and  paiiiament.     At  the  same  time  he  summoned  a 
General  Assembly  to  meet  at  Glasgow,  on  the  21st  of  Novem- 
ber, and  a  parliament  to  sit  at  Edinburgh,  on  the  15th  of  May 
next  year  2. 

"  Charles,  &c. 

"  Forasmuch  as  the  cause  of  all  the  distractions  which 
have  happened  of  late,  both  in  church  and  commonwealth, 
have  proceeded  from  the  conceived  fears  of  innovation  of  re- 
ligion and  laws,  to  free  all  our  good  subjects  of  the  least  sus- 
picion of  such  intention  in  us,  and  to  satisfy  not  only  their 

'  Burnet's  Memoirs,  &c.  lib.  ii.  29.  =  Heylln's  Life  of  Laud,  p.  351. 


582  HISTOKY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

desires  but  even  their  doubts,  we,  by  tliese  presents,  do  dis- 
charge the  service-book,  book  of  canons,  and  high  commission, 
and  the  practice  of  these  ;  and  by  these  presents  rescind  all 
acts  of  council,  proclamation,  and  other  acts  and  deeds  that 
have  been  made  or  published  for  establishing  any  of  them,  and 
declare  the  same  to  have  no  force  in  time  coming.     And  being 
informed  that  the  urging  of  the  five  articles  of  the  Perth  Assem- 
bly hath  bred  great  distraction  in  the  church  and  state,  we  have 
been  graciously  pleased  to  take  the  same  into  our  considera- 
tion ;  and  for  the  quiet  and  peace  of  the  church  and  state,  do 
not  only  dispense  with  the  practice  of  the  said  articles,  but 
also  discharge  all  persons  from  urging  the  practice  thereof  upon 
either  laic  or  ecclesiastical  person  ;  and  we  do  hereby  free  all 
our  subjects  from  censure  or  pain,  ecclesiastical  or  secular,  for 
not  urging,  practising,  or  obeying  the  same.     And  because  it 
hath,  to  the  disgrace  of  government,  been  surmised,  that  some  of 
our  subjects  have  exercised  unwaiTanted  power,  and  held  them- 
selves eximed  from  censure  and  punishment,  to  which  others 
are  liable,  we  declare,  that  if  any  of  our  subjects  have,  or  shall 
at  any  time  presume  to  do  any  such  act,  or  assume  to  them- 
selves any  such  exemption  or  power,  that  they  shall  be  liable 
to  the  trial  and  censure  of  any  judicatory  competent,  accord- 
ing to  the  quality  and  nature  of  the  offence.  For  the  free  entry 
of  the  ministers,  it  is  our  will  that  no  other  oath  be  adminis- 
trate to  them  than  that  which  is  contained  in  the  act  of  parlia- 
ment.    And  to  give  our  subjects  full  assurance  that  we  never 
intend  to   admit  of  any  change  in  the  true  religion  already 
established  and  professed  in  this  our  kingdom  ;  and  that  all  our 
good  people  may  be  fully  satisfied  of  our  intention  towards 
the  maintenance  of  the  said  religion;  we, by  these  presents, 
command  all  the  lords  of  our  privy  council,  senators  of  the 
College  of  Justice,  judges,  and  magistrates  in  burgh  and  land, 
and  all  our  other  subjects  whatsoever,  to  subscribe  and  renew 
the  Confession  of  Faith,  subscribed  at  first  by  our  dear  father 
and  his  household  in  the  year  1580,  thereafter  by  persons  of 
all  ranks  in  the  year  1581,  by  ordinance  of  the  secret  council 
and  acts  of  the  General  Assembly  ;  subscribed  again  by  all 
sorts  of  persons  in  the  year  1590,  by  a  new  ordinance  of  coun- 
cil, at  the  desire  of  the  General  Assembly,  with  a  general  band 
for  maintenance  of  the  tnie  religion  and  the  king's  person. 
And  for  that  effect  we  do  require  the  lords  of  council  to  take 
such  course  concerning  the  foresaid  confession  and  general 
band,  that  it  may  be  subscribed  and  renewed  through  the 
whole  kingdom  with  all  possible  diligence.     And  because  we 
will  not  leave  in  our  subjects'  minds  the  least  doubt  of  our  real 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND  583 

resolutions,  we  have  given  warrant  to  our  commissioner  to  indict 
a  free  General  Assembly,  to  be  holden  at  Glasgow,  the  21st 
day  of  November  in  this  present  year  1638,  and  thereafter  a 
parliament,  to  be  holden  at  Edinburgh  the  15th  day  of  May, 
1639,  for  settling  a  perfect  peace  in  the  church  and  kingdom. 
And  because  it  is  likely  that  the  distractions  that  hap- 
pened of  late  have  been  occasioned  through  the  conceived 
fears  of  innovation  of  religion  and  laws,  and  not  out  of  any 
disloyalty  or  disaffection  to  sovereignty,  we  are  graciously 
pleased,  absolutely  to  forget  and  forgive  all  bygones  to  all  such 
as  shall  acquiesce  in  this  our  gracious  pleasure,  and  carry  them- 
selves peaceably,  and  shall  ratify  the  same  in  our  ensuing  pai'- 
liament.  And,  that  this  Assembly  may  have  the  better  success 
and  more  happy  conclusion,  our  will  is,  that  there  be  a  solemn 
fast  proclaimed,  and  kept  by  all  our  good  subjects  of  this 
kingdom,  fourteen  days  before  the  said  Assembly,  for  begging 
a  blessing  on  that  Assembly,  and  a  peaceable  end  to  the  dis- 
tractions of  this  church  and  kingdom,  with  the  aversion  of 
God's  heavy  judgment  from  both." 

The  religious  and  moderate  among  the  covenanters  were  re- 
joiced at  Charles's  gracious  intentions,  which,  in  fact,  deprived 
them  of  all  real  cause  of  complaint,  and  brought  all  their  diffe- 
rences to  a  point.  But  the  Table  lords  were  of  a  different 
mind.  They  met  the  proclamation,  as  usual,  with  a  protest, 
denouncing  the  king's  concessions  as  full  of  deceit,  and  otherwise 
unsatisfactory ;  and  it  is  painful  to  see  the  illustrious  name  of 
Montrose  appended  to  this  protest.  The  covenanters  advised 
their  confidants  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  with  all  possible  ex- 
pedition to  wani  every  presbytery  and  congregation  within  their 
bounds  to  abstain  from  subscribing  the  new  confession ;  and 
that  wherever  the  king's  proclamation  should  be  read,  as  many 
covenanters  as  could  be  collected  should  meet  and  protest 
against  it.  The  whole  nation,  however,  was  not  so  besotted 
with  covenanting  fanaticism,  but  that, in  spite  of  theirmalignant 
arts  and  menaces,  28,000  persons  in  Edinburgh,  who  had  not 
bowed  the  knee  to  the  Solemn  League,  signed  the  covenant 
promulgated  by  the  court.  On  the  following  Sunday,  the  pul- 
pits in  the  presbyterian  interest  resounded  with  virulent  invec- 
tives against  the  king's  proclamation  and  the  subscription  of 
the  old  covenant.  They  denounced  it  as  "  the  depth  and  policy 
of  the  devil ;"  while,  in  their  prayers,  they  begged  of  God  "  to 

^  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  256. — Burnet's  Memoirs,  lib.  ii,  81. — Bal- 
four's Annals,  ii.  293. — Guthry's  Memoirs,  37. 


£84  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

scatter  them  in  Jacob,  and  divide  them  in  Israel,  who  had  been 
the  authors  of  that  scattering  and  divisive  counsel."  Wherever 
the  proclamation  was  published  before  the  Edinburgh  club 
of  seditious  covenanters  had  time  to  poison  the  minds  of  the 
people  against  it,  it  was  generally  received  with  all  joy  and 
thanksgiving.  At  Glasgow,  in  particular,  it  met  with  such  a 
cordial  reception,  that  the  provost  and  town  council,  and  the 
principal  and  professors  of  the  university,  with  the  city  clergy, 
wrote  letters  to  the  council  expressive  of  their  highest  satis- 
faction at  his  majesty's  clemency  and  fatherly  care  of  his 
people.  In  his  perplexity  the  king  required  the  opinions  of 
the  law  officers  of  the  crown  respecting  the  legality  of  the 
covenanters'  proceedings,  of  their  convening  without  the 
royal  authority,  protesting  against  his  proclamations,  and  en- 
tering into  a  combination  or  covenant  without  his  knowledge 
or  concurrence.  Sir  Thomas  Hope,  the  lord  advocate,  and 
Sir  Lewis  Stevi^art,  gave  their  opinions, "  that  the  most  part  of 
the  covenanters'  proceedings  were  warranted  by  law  :  and  that, 
though  in  some  things  they  seem  to  have  exceeded,  yet  there 
was  no  express  law  against  them  ;"  "  an  opinion,"  says  Steven- 
son, "  that  could  give  no  satisfaction  to  his  majesty,  and  in 
which  it  was  not  doubted  the  two  last  had  crossed  their  incli- 
nation :  but  their  solid  judgment,  and  deep  knowledge  of  the 
law,  would  not  allow  them  to  say  otherwise  ;  and  for  the  for- 
mer, it  was  shrewdly  suspected  that  the  covenanters  haa 
hitherto  acted  by  his  advice  in  the  most  intricate  steps  of  their 
management^.'''' 

The  Tablers  determined  to  pack  the  Assembly  with  their  own 
partizans,  and  they  took  the  utmost  pains  to  exclude  the  mode- 
rate clergy  who  were  inclined  to  peace,  and  willing  to  be  satisfied 
with  his  majesty's  late  concessions.  To  prevent  the  bishops, 
who  were  constitutional  members,  from  attending  in  their  places, 
the  Table  chiefs  appointed  the  several  presbyteries  to  summon 
them  to  answer  to  criminal  charges  that  were  got  up  for  that  espe- 
cial occasion,  but  which  had  no  foundation  whatever  in  truth. 

They  issued  mandates  to  the  presbyteries,  to  return  two  or 
at  most  three  ministers  each,  and  to  take  especial  care  that 
these  should  be  of  the  "  sincerer  sort ;"  and,  as  for  the  ruling 
elders,  to  return  only  one  for  each  presbytery,  with  peremptory 
orders  that  he  should  be  some  "  well  affected"  nobleman  or 
gentleman  on  whom  they  could  rely,  and  who  was  to  have  an 
equal  vote  with  the  ministers  in  the  choice  of  their  member  for 
the  Assembly.  The  ministers,  even  those  who  were  thorouglily 

'"Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  p.  213, 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  585 

imbued  with  covenant  pnnciples,  at  first  strongly  opposed  this 
step,  which  would  bring  them  more  completely  under  sub- 
jection to  the  lay  elders  than  ever  they  had  been  to  the  bishops. 
But  they  were  persuaded  by  the  plausible  argument,  that 
the  noble  lay  elders,  being  hereditary  members  of  parliament, 
would  more  readily  agree  to  ratify  those  acts  of  Assembly  in  par- 
liament, which  they  themselves  had  assisted  to  pass  in  the 
Assembly.  The  necessity  of  unity  was  also  urged  ;  but  where 
the  ministers  stood  out  against  these  arguments,  then  the  lay 
elders  forced  themselves  into  the  presbyteries,  and  gave  their 
votes  as  they  had  been  instructed  by  the  Tables  at  Edinburgh. 
The  greater  part  of  the  Assembly,  therefore,  consisted  of  those 
who  were  irregularly  chosen  by  the  overwhelming  voice  of  the 
lay-elders  which  were  thrust  upon  them,  or  else  of  those  who 
were  not  capable  of  being  elected,being  then  under  the  censures 
of  the  church  of  Scotland  or  of  Ireland,  or  who  had  not  taken 
the  oath  of  supremacy  according  to  law.  In  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  the  presbyteries  the  lay-elders,  according  to  instructions 
from  the  Tablers,  chose  the  members  for  the  Assembly,  and 
thereby  procured  a  considerable  majority  of  the  fiercest  and 
most  rigid  Covenanters  ^.  At  no  period  had  either  the  king  or 
the  bishops  ever  attempted  such  a  tyrannical  thraldom  on  the 
presbyteries  as  this  despotism  that  was  now  exercised  by  the 
Tables,  but  with  which  the  presbyterians  now  cheerfully 
complied. 

In  consequence  of  these  arts,  the  most  furious  and  bigoted 
lay-elders  and  ministers  were  sent  up  to  the  Assembly;  and  to 
call  '\\,free  is  an  absolute  mockery,  and  shows  the  revolution  of 
opinions  that  circumstances  had  effected.  This  Assembly 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  presbyterian  establishment,  and, 
therefore,  it  has  been  lauded  and  magnified  as  the  basis  of  civil 
and  religious  freedom,  although  no  author  has  ever  had  the 
hardihood  to  deny  the  unconstitutional  arts  to  which  the  Tablers 
resorted,  in  order  to  pack  this  Assembly  to  serve  their  own  re- 
volutionary views.  To  cast  a  note  of  infamy  on  the  bishops, 
and  so  to  exclude  them  from  their  seats  in  the  Assembly,  the 
Tablers  accused  each  individual  bishop  of  being  guilty  of  "ex- 
cessive drinking,  whoring,  gaming,  profanation  of  the  Lord's 
day,  contempt  of  public  ordinances  and  family-worship,  mock- 
ing at  preaching,  prayer,  and  spiritual  conference ;  as  also  of 
bribery,  simony,  dishonest}^,  peijury,  oppression,  adultery,  and 
incest,  and  suspicion  of  Arminianism,  popery,  and  card- 
playing  2."  This  sweeping  and  improbable  charge  was  read  in 

1  Skinner's  Eccles.  Hist,  ii.  324.  ^  Stevenson.— Guthry's  Memoirs. 

VOL.   I.  4    F 


586  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.   XIV. 

all  the  churches  in  Edinburgh  immediately  after  the  celebration 
of  the  communion ;  and  the  prayers  and  thanksgivings  usual 
after  it  were  omitted,  to  make  way  for  the  above  indecent  and 
calumnious  libel.  This  proceeding  shows  the  malignity  that  ac- 
tuated their  hearts,  when  they  would  rather  dispense  with  the 
service  of  God  than  not  glut  their  own  malice,  and  inflame  the 
sectarian  and  seditious  spirit  of  the  wretched  people.  All  the 
presbyteries,  by  instructions  from  the  Tables,  served  the  above 
libel  upon  the  bishops,  and  cited  them  to  appear  at  the  General 
Assembly,  to  undergo  trial  and  censure.  The  Tables  sent  or- 
ders throughout  the  whole  kingdom  to  search  into  the  bishops' 
conversations  ;  so  that  all  their  frailties  and  infirmities  of  tem- 
per being  collected,  and  witnesses  cited  to  the  Assembly,  they 
might  find  pretexts  of  justice  to  execute  their  vengeance  on 
them.  It  was  late  on  Saturday  before  the  marquis  heard  that 
this  calumnious  libel  was  to  be  read  the  following  day.  He 
immediately  issued  an  order  to  forbid  the  reading  of  it  under 
the  pain  of  treason  ;  but  this  pain  had  now  lost  its  terror,  and 
besides  the  king  was  now  unable  to  put  it  in  execution  ^ 

The  chief  effort  of  their  malignity  was  directed  against  that 
eminent  father  of  the  church,  archbishop  Spottiswood ;  and  they 
directed  the  infamous  libels  against  him  and  the  other  bishops 
to  be  read  publicly  in  all  the  churches  throughout  the  king- 
dom. One  instance  may  serve  for  the  whole.  Colin  Adams, 
minister  of  Kilrenny,  in  the  county  of  Fife,  read  the  libel  from 
his  pulpit.  Mr.  Beaton,  of  Balfour,  who  was  present,  was  asto- 
nished to  hear  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  accused  so  sum- 
marily of  the  crimes  of  adultery,  incest,  drunkenness,  sabbath- 
breaking,  murder,  infanticide,  and  a  multitude  of  other  crimes 
and  misdemeanors.  He  had  lived  many  years  in  his  imme- 
diate neighbourhood,  and  had  been  admitted  to  much  of  his 
society  and  intimacy,  yet  he  had  never  been  able  to  discover 
that  he  was  addicted  to  any  of  those  crimes  now  laid  to  his 
charge.  But  his  surprise  and  indignation  were  immeasurably 
increased  when,  as  the  minister  read  on,  Beaton  heard  himself 
named  as  one  of  the  witnesses  who,  it  was  said,  had  been  exa- 
mined on  oath  before  the  privy  council,  and  had  deposed  to  these 
crimes ;  and  that,  upon  his  sworn  information,  these  charges 
had  been  made  against  the  archbishop.  It  was  notorious  to 
all  present,  that  Beaton  had  never  been  out  of  the  parish,  far 
less  to  have  been  at  Edinburgh,  and  to  have  given  evidence 
before  the  privy  council.  After  the  service  he  challenged 
Adams  for  having  proclaimed  what  he  himself  must  have  known 

^  Burnet's  Memoirs,  lib.  ii.  88,  89. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  587 

was  a  notorious  falsehood.  Adams  acknowledged  that  he 
knew  both  to  be  altogether  untrue ;  but  that  he  was  obliged  to 
read  the  charges  in  obedience  to  the  authority  of  the  privy 
council,  who  would  have  visited  his  disobedience  with  sum- 
mary vengeance  ^  From  this  one  sample  may  be  seen  how 
much  the  history  of  that  period  has  been  falsified  to  serve  a 
particular  purpose  ;  and  the  truth  of  king  Charles's  assertion 
cannot  be  denied,  wherein  he  desires  "  to  observe  their  pro- 
ceedings in  one  process,  which  we  are  confident  was  framed 
and  pursued  with  such  malice,  injustice,  falsehood,  and  scan- 
dal, not  only  to  the  reformed  religion  in  particular,  but  to  the 
Christian  religion  in  general,  as  it  cannot  be  paralleled  for  any 
precedent  of  injustice  in  preceding  ages,  nor  (we  hope)  shall 
ever  be  followed  in  future  ;  and  which,  if  it  were  known  among 
Turks,  pagans,  or  infidels,  would  make  them  abhor  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  if  they  did  think  it  would  either  countenance  or 
could  consort  with  such  abominable  impiety  and  injustice^." 

Advantage  was  taken  of  an  hysterical  girl,  who  pretended, 
and  was  believed,  to  be  a  prophetess,  to  laud  their  abominable 
idol  the  Covenant,  which  she  alleged  she  was  assured,  by  in- 
spiration, was  ratified  in  heaven ;  whereas,  she  was  taught  to 
say,  that  the  king's  covenant  (which  was  prefixed  to  the  inspired 
one)  was  the  devil's  invention  !  She  was  the  oracle  of  the 
party,  and  she  usually  denominated  our  Saviour  the  "  Co- 
venanting Jesus."  When  Rollock,  one  of  the  covenanting  mi- 
nisters, was  requested  io  pray  with  her,  he  said,  "  It  would  be 
unmannerly  in  him  to  speak,  while  his  master,  Christ,  was 
speaking  in  her  !"  The  senseless  ravings  of  this  insane  fanatic 
were  imputed  to  the  operations  of  the  Holy  Spirit, — her  im- 
pious, blasphemous  prophecies,  as  the  oracles  of  truth  3." 

At  this  time  the  Jesuits  reaped  a  rich  harvest,  and  were  re- 
markably active  in  Scotland.  One  of  their  number,  Abernethy, 
forged  a  story,  that  the  Scottish  liturgy  had  been  sent  to  Rome, 
to  be  seen  and  approved  by  the  pope  and  his  cardinals  previous 
to  publication,  and  that  a  Signior  Con  had  actually  shown  it 
to  him  there.  On  hearing  of  this  report,  the  commissioner 
wrote  to  Signior  Con,  who  was  then  at  London,  to  inquire  into 
the  truth  of  the  Jesuit's  story.  Con  in  reply  said,  till  he  came 
to  London  he  had  never  so  much  as  heard  that  there  had  been 
a  liturgy  proposed  for  Scotland,  and  had  never  seen  Abernethy 
but  once  in  his  whole  life.     This  did  not  prevent  Abemethy's 

t.«  '  Account  of  the  present  Persecution,  &c.  letter  iii. 

^  Large  Declaration,  p.  207. 
*  Burnet's  Memoirs. — Arnot's  Hist,  of  Edinburgh. 


588  HISTOKY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

story  from  gaining  extensive  belief  and  a  welcome  hearing. 
Even  Bailie  seems  to  have  been  deceived  by  this  man ;  who,  he 
says,  "  heaving  at  Rome  of  God's  wonderful  work  in  Scotland, 
his  conscience  awakened  on  him,  and  he  came  home  to  Scot- 
land, where  he  had  not  been  long  till  he  was  persuaded  of  the 
truth  of  the  report,  and  earnestly  sought  to  be  admitted  a  mem- 
ber of  the  reformed  church,  which  was  granted.  After  a  ser- 
mon ....  Mr.  Abernethy  did  make  a  very  sweet  discom'se, 
which  is  also  printed,  of  his  errors  and  reclaiming  by  the  grace 
of  God,  with  which,  and  the  very  penitent  frame  he  was  in  at 
the  time,  the  most  of  his  hearers  were  affected  even  to  tears. 
Thereafter  he  subscribed  the  covenant^  and  did  speak  much  in 
commendation  of  it ;  and,  after  all  our  diligence  to  try,  we  can 
find  no  ai^pearance  of  hypocrisy  in  him  ^"  He  seems  to  have 
been  but  a  clumsy,  though  evil  designed,  Jesuit ;  for  Burnet 
says,  the  lightness  and  weakness  of  the  man  became  afterwards 
visible,  and  small  account  was  made  either  of  him  or  his  story, 
which  at  this  time  took  wonderfully^. 

An  unsuccessful  attempt  was  made  in  the  council,  by  those 
in  the  covenanting  interest,  to  have  it  declared,  "  that  matters 
of  discipline  and  ceremonies  were  points  offaithP  Hamilton 
wrote  to  the  marquis  of  Huntly,  and  to  all  the  king's  fiiends,  to 
see  that  his  majesty's  proclamation  was  faithfully  published  ; 
and  to  the  clergy  and  professors  of  Aberdeen,  in  treating  them 
to  attend  the  Assembly,  and  support  the  church  and  the  crown 
with  the  strength  of  their  arguments.  When  he  discovered 
the  tyrannical  edicts  of  the  Tables,  he  drew  up  and  circulated 
a  strong  remonstrance  against  the  lay-elders ;  but  these  pre- 
cautions were  of  no  avail,  for  he  had  unfortunately  allowed  the 
Tables  to  anticipate  him  3. 

As  the  time  approached  for  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly, 
the  Tables  fell  on  a  plan  to  secure  the  attendance  of  an  armed 
force  to  back  their  measures,  without  exciting  suspicion. 
They  circulated  a  report  that  an  attack  was  meditated  on  the 
members  of  Assembly  in  their  journey  to  Glasgow;  and  they 
afterwards  recommended  to  all  who  were  zealous  in  the  cause 
10  accompany  their  ministers  in  arms,  and  guard  them  during 
the  sitting  of  the  Assembly*.  The  utmost  care  was  taken  of 
the  elections;  and  the  ruling  elders,  being  all  men  of  power 
and  influence,  and  besides  engaged  in  a  common  cause  of  sedi- 
tion, equalled  the  ministers  in  numbers  before  the  election, 
but  exceeded  them  when  votes  were  taken,  because  the  can- 

'  Bailie's  Letters.  "  Burnet's  Mem. —  Stevenson's  Church  and  State. 

'*  Burnet's  Memoirs,  lib.  ii.  81.  *  Ibid.  lib.  ii.   84,  85,  86. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  589 

didates,  which  amounted  sometimes  to  as  many  as  six  or  eight, 
were  removed  while  the  election  was  pending.  By  this 
means,  theTablers,  which  regulated  all  the  elections,  procured 
the  choice  of  such  ministers  only  as  suited  their  purposes. 
With  all  these  precautions  to  ensiue  success,  the  Assembly 
duly  met,  and  sat  down  on  the  21st  of  November. 

The  commissioner  also  made  great  exertions  to  procure 
subscriptions  to  the  confession,  which  many  signed  cheerfully, 
where  he  had  the  first  advantage.  A  reaction  began  to  take 
place,  which,  when  the  covenanters  observed,  they  spread  sinis- 
ter reports,  and  createdjealousiesof  the  king's  intentions.  They 
asserted  that  his  condescension  was  merely  temporary,  and 
intended  to  cajole  them  till  he  found  himself  strong  enough  to 
crush  their  liberties,  and  to  introduce  popery ;  and  they  added 
many  reasons  to  persuade  men  that  they  incurred  the  guilt  of 
peijury  by  signing  the  king's  confession.  The  marquis  of 
Huntly  was  the  most  successful  of  any  of  the  king's  friends, 
especially  at  Aberdeen,  where  the  bishop  and  clergy  signed,  at 
the  same  time  giving  a  paper  containing  seven  restrictiosn, 
which  are  creditable  to  the  memory  of  Dr.  Adam  Bellendeu, 
bishop  of  Aberdeen,  his  clergy,  and  the  other  most  worth}' 
and  excellent  opponents  of  the  prevailing  heresy.  Had  all 
the  clergy  stood  as  firm  as  these  illustrious  men,  the  atrocious 
guilt  which  the  possessors  of  the  church's  property  brought 
on  the  nation  might  have  been  avoided.  "  But,"  says  Burnet, 
with  great  truth  and  justice,  "  the  sins  of  Scotland  being  so 
great,  that  they  were  to  be  punished  with  a  tract  of  bloody 
civil  wars,  God,  in  his  holy  and  wise  judgments,  permitted  the 
poor  people  to  be  so  blind  in  their  obedience  to  their  leaders, 
that  these  arts  took  universally  with  them;  to  which  may 
justly  be  imputed  all  the  mischiefs  that  kingdom  has  smarted 
under  ever  since ^." 

1st.  "  We  do  heartily  abhor  and  condemn  all  errors  truly 
popish,  or  repugnant  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  consequently 
to  the  uniform  doctrine  of  the  reformed  kirks,  and  to  our 
national  confession,  registered  in  parliament  anno  1567.  2dly. 
We  do  noways  hereby  abjure  or  condemn  episcopal  govern- 
ment, as  it  was  in  the  days,  and  after  the  days  of  the  apostles, 
in  the  christian  kirk  for  many  hundreds  of  years,  and  is 
now,  conform  thereto,  restored  to  the  kirk  of  Scotland. 
3dly.  We  do  not  hereby  condemn  nor  abjure  the  Five  Perth 
Articles,  or  any  thing  lawful  of  that  sort,  which  shall  be  found 
by  the  chuich  conducible  at  any  time  for  good  policy  and 

1  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton,  lib.  ii.  85,  86. 


590  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP,  XIV. 

Older,  or  which  is  practised  by  any  sound  reformed  kirk. 
4thly.  We  still  hold  to  that  clause  of  our  great  national  con- 
fession (chap.  XX.  art.  21),  that  the  general  councils,  and  conse- 
quently the  national  kirk  of  Scotland,  have  no  power  to  make 
any  perpetual  law  which  God  before  hath  not  made.  5thly. 
By  the  adhering  to  the  discipline  of  the  reformed  kirk  of  Scot- 
land, we  mean  not  any  immutability  of  that  presbyterial  govern- 
ment which  was,  anno  1 581,  or  of  any  other  human  institution : 
but  we  do  hereby  understand  that  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdic- 
tion and  discipline  of  the  kirk  of  Scotland  doth  not  depend 
on  the  pope  of  Rome,  or  any  other  foreign  power ;  and  hereby 
we  do  confess  our  constant  obedience  to  the  kirk  of  Scotland 
in  all  her  lawful  constitutions.  6thly.  We  do  not  presume  by 
this  our  personal  oath  either  to  prejudge  the  liberty  of  the  kirk 
of  Scotland  to  change  and  reform  this  aforesaid  short  confession, 
in  some  ambiguities  and  obscure  expressions  thereof,  where- 
upon some  men  have  builded  inconvenient  interpretations  and 
doctrines,  or  to  exime  ourselves  from  obedience  to  the  kirk  in 
that  case.  7thly,  By  this  our  personal  oath  we  do  not  take  upon 
us  to  lay  any  farther  bond  upon  our  posterity  than  the  word  of 
God  doth,  recommending  only  our  example  to  them,  so  far  as 
they  shall  find  it  agreeable  to  God's  word.  In  this  sense,  as  is 
said,  and  no  otherwise,  do  we  subscribe  the  said  confession,  and 
the  general  bond  annexed  thereunto,  at  Aberdeen,  October  5, 

1638. (Signed),  Adam,  Aberdonen.,  John  Forbes,  D.D.  and 

Prof,  of  Divinity;  R.  Barron,  D.D.  and  Prof,  of  Divinity;  Al. 
Rosse,  D.D.;  James  Sibbald,  D.D. ;  Al.  Scrogie,  D.D.;  Wil- 
liam Leslie,  D.D. 

When  the  lord  commissioner  arrived  at  Glasgow,  he  found 
the  greatest  number  of  people  collected  there  that  had  ever 
previously  been  seen  in  that  city.  "  The  day  being  come,  Ha- 
milton marcheth  to  the  place  appointed  for 'the  session,  in  the 
equipage  of  a  high  commissioner,  the  sword  and  seal  being  car- 
ried before  him,  the  lords  of  the  council  and  all  the  officers  of 
state  attending  on  him  like  a  king  indeed  ^"  Some  difficulty  in 
point  of  form  was  experienced,  in  consequence  of  the  length 
of  time  which  had  elapsed  since  the  last  Assembly  that  had 
been  held,  as  there  was  not  a  moderator  to  open  the  present 
meeting  and  preside  in  it,  according  to  custom,  till  a  new  one 
should  be  elected.  By  a  sort  of  mutual  agreement  betwixt  the 
chiefs  of  the  lay  members  of  the  Assembly  and  the  commis- 
sioner, Mr.  John  Bell,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Glasgow,  was 
appointed  to  preside  till  the  moderator  was  chosen;  and  he 

'  Heylin's  Life  of  Laud,  352. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  591 

accordingly  opened  the  convocation  with  a  sermon.  We  are 
told  by  Bishop  Burnet,  that  "  the  marquis  judged  it  was  a  bad 
sight  to  see  such  an  Assembly, /or  not  a  gown  was  among  them 
all,  but  many  had  swords  and  daggers  about  themT  An 
ominous  sight,  and  pregnant  with  the  calamities,  which,  for  the 
sins  of  a  guilty  nation,  were  fast  falling  on  the  church.  Pres- 
bytery has  always  "  come  out  with  swords  and  wuth  staves" 
against  the  church,  as  Judas  and  the  soldiers  came  against 
Christ  her  head;  but  we  are  told  that  "all  they  that  take  the 
sword,"  without  warrant,  "  shall  perish  with  the  sword." 

The  first  session  was  chiefly  consumed  in  formalities.  There 
were  two  hundred  and  sixty  commissioners,  consisting  of  an 
equal  number  of  each,  of  ministers  and  lay-elders.  Besides, 
there  were  from  every  presbytery  from  two  to  four  lay  asses- 
sors, who  were  not  members,  and  had  no  vote;  but  their  busi 
ness  was  to  give  advice  to  the  members,  so  that  the  number 
was  very  considerable ;  and  none  were  admitted  into  the 
meeting  except  by  a  leaden  token,  as  a  sure  sign  of  his  being 
a  covenanter,  and  the  gates  were  securely  guarded  by  the  town 
officers.  The  brutal  conduct  of  the  people  which  got  in  by 
tokens,  as  good  revolutionists,  was  such  as  to  call  for  the 
pointed  rebuke  of  the  presbyterian  Baillie: — "  It  is  here 
alone,"  he  says,  "  where  I  think  we  might  learn  from  Canter- 
bury, yea,  from  the  pope,  from  the  Turks  or  Pagans,  modesty 
of  manners;  at  least,  their  deep  reverence  in  the  house  they 
call  God's  ceases  not  till  it  has  led  them  to  the  adoration  of 
the  timber  and  stones  of  the  place.  We  are  here  so  far  the 
other  way,  that  our  rascals,  without  shame,  in  great  numbers, 
make  such  din  and  clamour  in  the  house  of  the  true  God,  that 
if  they  minted  [attempted]  to  use  the  like  behaviour  in  my 
chamber,  I  should  not  be  content  till  they  were  down  the 
stairs  ^" 

The  commissioner  opened  the  meeting  with  a  speech  from 
the  throne;  and  then  desired  the  king's  letter  to  be  read  on 
the  second  session.  The  Assembly  were  then  proceeding  to 
elect  a  moderator,  but  to  this  the  commissioner  objected,  till 
the  bishop's  declinature  was  first  read,  which  the  Assembly 
flatly  refused  to  do,  alleging  that  the  meeting  must  first  be 
constituted,  before  they  could  consider  any  business.  He  pro- 
tested against  this  procedure;  but  they  had  pre-determined  to 
follow  their  own  system,  without  paying  any  regard  to  the 
royal  authority.  Mr.  Bell,  the  temporary  moderator,  signified 
his  earnest  desire  that  the  moderator  should  be  chosen;  and 

1  Baillie's  Letters,  i.  123-4. 


692  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV'. 

in  the  interim  the  commissioner  sent  to  the  castle  of  Glasgow, 
where  the  archbishop  of  Glasgow  and  the  bishops  of  Ross 
and  Brechin  had  taken  shelter  from  the  furious  mob,  to  con- 
sult them  how  he  should  proceed.  Their  counsel  was,  to  insist 
on  the  king's  letter  being  read  before  they  chose  a  moderator; 
and  they  were  decidedly  of  opinion  that  the  bishop's  declinature 
should  be  read  before  the  Assembly  was  constituted,  because 
afterwards  it  could  not  be  so  properly  received.  "  This,"  says 
the  bishop  of  Ross,  who  wrote  to  the  commissioner,  "  will  ma- 
nifest to  all  his  majesty's  pious  intentions,  evidence  your  grace's 
sincere  affection  to  religion  and  the  kingdom,  preserve  our 
right,  make  them  inexcusable,  let  the  people  see  how  unrea- 
sonable and  immoderate  they  are,  and  give  to  your  grace  a  fair 
way  and  ground  to  discontinue  and  discharge  the  meeting, 
under  pain  of  treason^." 

On  the  second  session  the  meeting  again  attempted  to  elect 
their  moderator,  when  the  commissioner  demanded  that  the 
king's  letter  should  be  read,  which  was  accordingly  done ;  the 
purport  of  which  was  to  recount  the  king's  concessions,  and 
his  anxious  desire  to  restore  the  peace  of  the  church,  and  re- 
quiring the  Assembly  to  give  the  same  reverence  and  obedience 
to  James,  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  his  commissioner,  as  if  he 
himself  were  personally  present,  and  promising  to  ratify  what- 
ever his  said  commissioner  should  offer  in  his  name.  The 
commissioner  now  required  that  the  commissions  of  the  minis- 
ters and  elders  should  be  examined,  that  those  who  had  been 
irregularly  elected  might  be  deprived  of  their  seats.  This  wise 
measure  would  have  proved  fatal  to  the  whole  covenanting 
cause,  and  it  was  therefore  strongly  resisted.  His  grace  then 
retired  into  the  chapter-house  to  consult  \\'ith  his  council,  and 
on  his  return  he  agreed  to  permit  the  election  of  their  mode- 
rator, under  protest  that  it  should  not  prevent  the  examination 
of  the  commissions,  or  im])ort  his  allowing  any  one  who  was 
irregularly  sent  up  to  be  considered  a  member  of  the  Assembly. 
He  again,  however,  urged  the  reading  of  the  bishop's  pi-otest 
before  the  election,  which  being  rudely  refused,  he  commanded 
it  in  the  name  of  the  king  to  be  read.  "  But  on  a  sudden  there 
arose  a  tumultuous  clamour,  crying, '  no  reading,  no  reading,' 
which  did  farther  incense  his  lordship,  and  was  displeasing  to 
most  of  the  members.  This  outcry  being  hushed,  the  lord 
commissioner  did  protest  that  their  refusal  to  hear  that  paper 
was  unjust,  and  that  it  was  injurious  to  call  the  archbishops 
and  bishops  j9re/e«c?e6?,  while  the  acts  of  parliament  authorised 

'  Burnett's  Memoirs,  lib.  ii.  97-98. 


1G38.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  593 

them.  Against  which  the  delegates  from  the  presbyteries  did 
also  protest,  that  the  bishops  behoved  to  be  taken  iox pretended^ 
till  the  Assembly  should  try  the  challenges  which  were  given 
in  against  them,  but  promised,  at  the  same  time,  that  so  soon 
as  a  moderator  was  chosen,  any  paper  which  his  grace  desired 
to  be  read,  should  be  heard  i." 

His  gi-ace's  efforts  were  of  no  avail.  Alexander  Hender- 
son, minister  of  Leuchars,  near  St.  Andrews,  was  chosen 
moderator;  a  man  of  great  ability,  and  well  fitted  for  the 
office  to  which  he  had  been  from  the  first  designed.  The 
marquis  then  desired  that  his  assessors,  the  earls  of  Argyle, 
formerly  lord  Lorn,  Traquair,  JRoxburghe,  Lauderdale,  and 
Southesk,  and  sir  Lewis  Stewart,  the  deputy  lord  advocate, 
might  be  permitted  to  vote  as  members, which  was  refused; 
but  he  protested  against  their  decision.  This  completed  the 
second  session.  The  commissioner  seemed  to  be  a  timid  irre- 
solute man,  and  not  fitted,  by  decision  of  character  or  energy 
of  action,  for  the  place  which  had  been  assigned  to  him  by 
the  misplaced  favour  and  affection  of  his  sovereign. 

November  23,  third  session. — The  first  proceeding  was  to 
elect  a  clerk,  although  Mr.  Sandilands,  the  commissary  of 
Aberdeen,  held  the  office  by  patent;  but  it  was  necessary  to 
have  a  clerk  in  harmony  with  the  majority  of  the  Assembly, 
and  one  who  was  deep  in  the  secrets  of  those  who  pulled  the 
wires.  Reasons  are  never  wanting  in  a  popular  Assembly  to 
authorize  any  act  of  injustice,  however  flagrant;  and  so,  on 
this  occasion,  neither  the  commissioner's  protest,  nor  Mr. 
Sandiland's  spirited  remonstrance,  had  any  effect.  He  w  as 
dismissed,  and  Archibald  Johnston,  of  Warriston,  was 
chosen  clerk,  to  whom  Mr.  Sandilands,  the  former  clerk,  deli- 
vered up  the  minutes  of  former  Assemblies,  from  the  year  L590 
to  1618.  After  assuming,  but  without  proof,  that  the  arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrews  had  destroyed  some  of  the  registers, 
and  interpolated  others,  Johnston  produced  five  MS.  books, 
which  he  averred  were  the  true  and  authentic  registers  which 
were  said  to  be  wanting,  and  which  exactly  fitted  into  the 
period  of  which  the  true  registers  would  have  given  a  very- 
different  account.  A  committee  was  immediately  formed,  to 
exainine  them  and  report ;  and  the  commissioner,  as  usual, 
contented  himself  with  a  protest.  Johnston  had  himself  pre- 
pared these  spurious  volumes,  and  the  Assembly  declared  that 
they  were  the  original  registers  of  the  church,  although  they 
had  never  been  heard  of  till  he  produced  them  for  party  pur- 

1  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  p.  279. — Burnet's  Memoirs. 
VOL.   I.  4  G 


594  HISTOKY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

poses.  The  Assembly  "  attested  before  God,  and  declared  to 
the  world,  that  these  registers  are  famous,  authentic,  and  good 
registers,  which  ought  to  be  so  reputed,  and  have  public  faith 
in  judgment,  and  outwith  the  same,  as  valid  and  true  records 
in  all  things;  and  with  that  report  a  paper  was  given  in,  con- 
taining nineteen  reasons,  proving  the  said  registers  to  be  au- 
thentic." The  moderator  then  proposed  that  the  commissions 
should  be  examined ;  but  the  commissioner  required  that  the 
bishop's  protest  should  be  first  read,  and  directed  that  Dr.  Hamil- 
ton, rector  of  Glassford,  might  be  heard  read  it,  now  that  the 
objections  respecting  a  moderator  and  clerk  were  removed.  It 
was  peremptorily  refused  till  after  the  commissions  had  been 
examined  and  the  Assembly  fully  constituted.  The  commis- 
sioner protested  that  the  not  reading  of  that  paper  before  try- 
ing the  commissions  should  infer  no  prejudice  to  the  lords  of 
the  clergy  and  their  adherents  ^ 

Saturday,  the  24th  of  November. — The  fourth  session  was 
entirely  occupied  in  examining  the  validity  of  the  different 
commissions;  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  induce  the  com- 
missioner to  permit  the  business  of  the  Assembly  to  proceed 
in  his  absence,  and  which  should  be  reported  to  him  daily. 
To  this  his  grace  decidedly  objected,  alleging  that  "  he  was 
sent  there  by  his  majesty  to  attend  to  this  business  alone  ;  so 
it  behoved  him  to  be  an  eye  and  ear  witness  of  all  that  passed, 
that  his  account  might  be  the  more  faithful^." 

The  fifth  session  of  this  Assembly  met  on  Monday,  the  26th 
of  November,  at  the  commencement  of  which  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Mackenzie  presented  a  protest  from  the  chanonry  of  Ross 
against  lay  elders  and  the  Tables  at  Edinburgh,  but  which  was 
summarily  rejected.  "  And  now  the  commissions  being  dis- 
cussed, the  moderator  reported  the  same,  with  a  remark  on  the 
singular  favour  of  God  towards  the  Assembly  in  vouchsafing 
them  peace  and  liberty  to  treat  of  all  such  matters  as  should 
come  before  them,  and  recommended  to  them,  as  the  next  and 
only  preparatory  step  remaining,  to  clear  the  authenticity  of  the 
registers,  and  that  the  committee  named  would  bring  in  their 
report  against  the  next  sederunt^." 

In  the  sixth  session,  on  Tuesday,  the  27th  of  November,  the 
committee  presented  their  report  of  the  five  books  which 
Johnston  had  forged  and  exhibited  as  the  true  registers,  and 

^  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  lib.  ii.  p.  280-284.— Balfour's  Annals,  301.— 
Bailie's  Letters,  i.  128-131. 

-  Bailie's  Letters,  i.  p.  132. — Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  30.1. 

3  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  p.  287. — Bailie's  Letters,  i.  p.  136. — Balfour's 
Annals,  ii.  p.  301-2. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  595 

at  the  same  time  gave  their  reasons  for  believing  them  to  be 
genuine.  The  commissioner  expressed  dissatisfaction  with 
Johnston's  reasons,  and  objected  to  their  being  received  as  true 
records ;  in  consequence  the  moderator  deferred  putting  it  to 
the  vote  whether  or  not  they  were  the  genuine  registers  of  the 
church  till  the  following  day.  But  it  is  evident  that  if  "  these 
famous,  authentic,  and  good  registers  "  had  been  genuine,  no 
reasoning  or  voting  would  have  been  necessary  to  prove  their 
authenticity ;  and  the  fact  that  so  much  solemnity  and  extra- 
ordinary care  was  taken  to  prove  what  ought  to  have  been  a  self- 
evident  fact,  shews  their  surreptitious  origin.  At  last  the  com- 
missioner procured  an  audience  for  the  protest  or  declinature  of 
the  bishops,  which,  after  every  possible  delay  had  been  inter- 
posed, was  read  by  Dr.  Robert  Hamilton  their  procurator. 

We,  Archbishops  and  Bishops,  and  other  undersubscribers, 
for  ourselves  and  in  name  and  behalf  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land :  Whereas  it  hath  pleased  the  king's  majesty  to  indict  a 
General  Assembly  of  the  church  to  be  kept  at  Glasgow,  Nov.  2 1 , 
1638,  for  composing  and  settling  of  the  distractions  of  the 
same,  first  do  acknowledge  and  profess,  that  a  General 
Assembly,  lawfully  called  and  orderly  convened,  is  a  most 
necessary  and  effectual  mean  for  removing  those  evils  where- 
with the  said  church  is  infested,  and  for  settling  the  order  which 
becometh  the  house  of  God ;  and  that  we  wish  nothing  more 
than  a  meeting  of  a  peaceable  and  orderly  Assembly  to  that 
effect.  Secondly,  we  acknowledge  and  profess,  as  becometh 
good  Christians  and  faithful  subjects,  that  his  majesty  hath  au- 
thority, by  his  prerogative  royal,  to  call  Assemblies,  as  is  ac- 
knowledged by  the  Assembly  at  Glasgow,  1610,  and  parlia- 
ment, 1612,  and  that  it  is  not  lawful  to  convene  without  his 
royal  consent  and  approbation,  except  we  will  put  ourselves  in 
danger  of  being  called  in  question  for  sedition- 
Yet,  nevertheless,  in  sundry  respects,  we  cannot  but  esteem 
this  meeting  at  Glasgow  most  unlawful  and  disorderly,  and 
their  proceedings  void  and  null  in  law,  for  the  causes  and 
reasons  following: — 

I.  Before  his  majesty's  royal  warrant  to  my  lord  com- 
missioner, his  grace,  to  indict  a  lawful  free  General  Assembly, 
the  usurped  authority  of  the  Tables  (as  they  call  them)  by  their 
missives  and  instructions,  did  give  order  and  direction  for  all 
presbyteries  to  elect  and  choose  their  commissioners  for  the 
Assembly,  and  for  seeking  of  God's  blessing  to  it,  to  keep  a 
solemn  fast,  September  16;  whereas  his  majesty's  warrant  for 
indicting  was  not  published  till  the  22d  of  that  month  :  so  that 
they,  preventing,  and  not  proceeding  by  waiTantof  royal  autho- 


596  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV 

rity,  the  pretended  commissioners  being  chosen  before  the 
presbyteries  were  authorized  to  make  election,  cannot  be  re- 
puted members  of  a  lawful  Assembly. 

II.  A  lawful  Assembly  must  not  only  be  indicted  by  lawful 
authority  (as  we  acknowledge  this  to  be),  but  also  constituted 
of  such  members  as  are  requisite  to  make  up  such  abody.  For  if, 
according  to  the  indiction,  none  at  all  do  convene,  or  where  the 
clergy  is  called  there  meet  none  but  laics,  or  more  laics  than  of 
the  clergy  with  equal  power  to  judge  and  determine  ;  or  such 
of  the  laics  and  clergy  as  are  not  lawfully  authorized,  or  are  not 
capable  of  that  employment  by  their  places ;  or  such  as  are 
legally  disabled  to  sit  and  decide  in  an  Assembly  of  the  church ; 
a  meeting  consisting  of  such  members  cannot  bethought  a  free 
and  lawful  Assembly.  By  that  Act  of  Parliament,  Jas.  VI. 
par.  8,  cap.  46, 1 572,  '  every  minister  who  shall  pretend  to  be  a 
minister  of  God's  Word  and  Sacraments  is  bound  to  give  his 
assent  and  subscription  to  the  articles  of  religion  contained  in 
the  acts  of  our  sovereign  lord's  parliament,  and  in  presence  of  the 
archbishop,  superintendent,  or  commissioner  of  the  province, 
give  his  oath  for  acknowledging  and  recognoscing  of  our 
sovereign  lord  and  his  authority,  and  bring  a  testimonial  in 
writing  thereupon,  and  openly,  upon  some  Sunday  in  time  of 
sermon  or  public  prayers,  in  the  kirk  where  he  ought  to  attend, 
read  both  the  testimonial  and  confession,  and  of  new  make  the 
said  oath  within  a  month  after  his  admission,  under  the  pain 
that  every  person  that  shall  not  do  as  is  above  appointed  shall, 
ipso  facto  ^  be  deprived,  and  all  his  ecclesiastical  promotions 
and  living  shall  be  then  vacant,  as  if  he  were  then  naturally 
dead,  and  that  all  inferior  persons  under  prelates  be  called 
before  the  archbishops,  bishops,  superintendents,  and  com- 
missioners of  the  dioceses  or  province  within  which  they  dwell 
as  the  act  bears.' 

III.  All  of  the  clergy  convened  to  this  Assembly  pretend 
themselves  to  be  ministers  of  God's  Word  and  Sacraments,  and 
have  benefices  or  other  ecclesiastical  livings:  yet,  nevertheless, 
the  most  part  of  them  have  never,  in  presence  of  the  archbishop, 
bishop,  superintendent,  or  commissioner  of  the  diocese  or 
province,  subscribed  the  articles  of  religion  contained  in  the 
acts  of  parliament,  and  given  their  oath  for  acknowledging  and 
recognoscing  our  sovereign  lord  and  his  authority,  and 
brought  a  testimonial  thereof:  and  therefore  they  are,  ipso 
facto ^  deprived,  and  their  places  void,  as  if  they  were  naturally 
dead ;  and  consequently,  having  no  place  nor  function  in  the 
church,  cannot  be  commissioners  to  this  Assembly :  hoc  maxime 
attentOi  that  the  said  persons  not  only  have  ne\er  given  their 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  597 

oath  for  acknowledging  his  majesty's  authority,  nor  can  shew 
any  testimonial  thereupon,  as  they  are  bound  by  the  said  act ; 
but  also  having,  as  subjects  comprehended  in  the  representative 
body  of  this  kingdom,  promised  to  acknowledge,  obey,  main- 
tain, defend,  and  advance  the  life,  honour,  safety,  dignity, 
sovereign  authority,  and  prerogative  royal  of  his  sovereign  ma- 
jesty, his  heirs,  and  successors,  and  privileges  of  his  highness* 
crown,  with  their  lives,  lands,  and  goods,  to  the  uttermost  of 
their  power  constantly  and  faithfully  to  withstand  all  and  what- 
soever persons,  powers,  and  estates,  who  shall  presume,  prease, 
or  intend  any  wise  to  impugn,  prejudge,  hint,  or  impair  the 
same,  and  never  to  come  in  the  contrary  thereof,  directly  or  in- 
directly in  any  time  coming,  as  the  act  of  parliament  Jas.  VI. 
pari.  18,  cap.  1,  does  proport. 

And  moreover,  being  obliged  at  their  admission  to  give  their 
oath  for  performance  of  this  duty  of  their  allegiance, '  and  to 
testify  and  declare  on  their  conscience  that  the  king  is  the 
lawful  supreme  governor,  as  well  in  matters  spiritual  and  eccle- 
siastical as  temporal,  and  to  assist  and  defend  all  jurisdic- 
tion and  authority  belonging  to  his  majesty  by  the  act  of  par- 
liament 1612;'  yet,  notwithstanding  of  the  said  bands,  acts,  and 
promises,  whereby  the  said  persons  are  so  strictly  bound  to  the 
performance  of  the  premises;  his  majesty  having  ordained  by 
act  of  council  at  Holyrood  House,  September  24,  1638,  and 
proclamations  following  thereupon,  that  all  his  majesty's  lieges, 
of  whatsoever  estate,  degree,  or  quality,  ecclesiastical  or  tem- 
poral, should  swear  and  subscribe  the  said  confession,  together 
with  a  general  band  for  defending  his  majesty's  person  and 
authority  against  all  enemies  within  this  realm  or  without ; 
have  not  only  refused  to  subscribe  the  said  band  and  confes- 
sion, but  have  in  their  sermons  and  other  speeches  dissuaded, 
deterred,  impeded,  and  hindered  others  of  the  lieges  to  sub- 
scribe the  same,  and  publicly  protested  against  the  subscrip- 
tion thereof;  and  thereupon  cannot  convene  nor  concur  law- 
fully to  the  making  up  of  the  body  of  an  Assembly  of  the  kirk, 
as  being  deprived  and  denuded  of  all  place  and  function  in 
the  same. 

IV.  A  General  Assembly  was  condescended  to,  out  of  his 
majesty's  gracious  clemency  and  pious  disposition,  as  a  royal 
favour  to  those  that  so  should  acknowledge  the  same,  and  ac- 
quiesce to  his  gracious  pleasure,  and  cany  themselves  peace- 
ably as  loyal  and  dutiful  subjects ;  which  the  commissioners 
directed  to  this  Assembly,  supposed  to  be  of  the  number  of 
those  that  adhere  to  the  last  protestation  made  at  Edinburgh, 
September  1638,  do  not  so  account  of,  and  accept,  as  appears 


598  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

by  the  said  protestation,  whereby  they  protest  that  it  shall  be 
lawful  for  them,  as  at  other  times,  so  at  this,  to  assemble  them- 
selves notwithstanding  any  impediment  or  prerogative  to  the 
contrary ;  as  also  by  continuing  their  meetings  and  Tables  dis- 
charged by  authority,  refusing  to  subscribe  the  band  according 
to  his  majesty's  and  council's  command  for  maintaining  his  ma- 
jesty's royal  person  and  authority,  protesting  against  the  same, 
still  insisting  with  the  lieges  to  subscribe  the  band  of  mutual 
defence  against  all  persons  whatsoever,  and  remitting  none  of 
their  former  proceedings,  whereby  his  majesty's  wrath  was  pro- 
voked: thereby  they  are  become  in  tlie  same  state  and  condition 
wherein  they  were  before  his  majesty's  proclamation  and  par- 
don, and  so  forfeit  the  favour  of  this  Assembly  and  liberty  to 
be  members  thereof.  And  others  of  his  majesty's  subjects  may 
justly  fear  to  meet  with  them  in  this  convention;  for  that  by 
the  act  of  Jas.  VI.  pari.  15,  cap.  31,  prelacies  being  declared 
to  be  one  of  the  three  estates  of  this  kingdom ;  and  by  the  act  of 
Jas.  VI.  pari.  8,  cap.  133, '  all  persons  are  discharged  to  impugn 
the  dignity  and  authority  of  the  three  estates,  or  any  of  them 
in  time  coming,  under  the  pain  of  treason^  And  whereas  the 
king  by  his  proclamation  declares  archbishops  and  bishops  to 
have  voice  in  the  General  Assembly,  and  calls  them  to  the 
same  for  that  effect,  as  constantly  they  have  been  in  use  in 
all  Assemblies  where  they  have  been  present,  as  appears  by 
many  acts  of  General  Assembly  ordaining  them  to  keep  and 
assist  at  the  same,  as  in  the  Assembly  at  Edinburgh,  Dec.  15, 
1566 ;  at  Edinburgh,  March  6,  1572  ;  at  Edinburgh,  May  10, 
1586 ;  and  by  a  letter  written  by  the  Assembly,  March  6,  1573, 
to  the  regent,  earnestly  desiring  his  own  or  his  commissioner's 
presence  and  the  lords  of  council  and  the  bishops  at  the 
Assembly:  they,  notwithstanding,  by  the  said  protestation, 
September  22,  declared  archbishops  and  bishops  to  have  no 
warrant  for  their  office  in  this  kirk,  to  be  authorised  with  no 
lawful  commission,  and  to  have  no  place  nor  voice  in  this 
Assembly;  and  withal,  do  arrogate  to  their  meetings  a  sove- 
reign authority  to  determine  of  all  questions  and  doubts  that 
can  arise,  contrary  to  the  freedom  of  the  Assembly,  whether  in 
constitution  and  members,  or  in  the  matters  to  be  treated,  or  in 
manner  and  order  of  proceeding;  which  how  it  doth  stand  with 
his  majesty's  supremacy  in  all  causes  and  over  all  persons  we 
leave  it  to  that  judgment  whereunto  it  belongeth,  and  do  call 
God  and  man  to  witness  if  these  be  fit  members  of  an  Assembly 
intended  for  the  order  and  peace  of  the  church. 

Giving    and  not    gi'anting  that  the    persons  foresaid   di- 
rected commissioners  in  iiame  of  the  clergy  to  this  meeting 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  599 

were  capable  of  that  authority,  and  that  the  said  presbyteries  had 
the  authority  to  direct  commissioners  to  the  General  Assembly, 
yet  have  they  now  lost  and  fallen  from  all  such  right,  if  any 
they  had,  in  so  far  as  they  have  deposed  the  moderators,  \^lio 
were  lawfully  appointed  to  govern  them,  by  the  bishops  in  their 
synods,  and  elected  others  in  their  place,  contrary  to  the  act  of 
the  Assembly  at  Glasgow,  1610,  and  act  of  parliament  1612, 
ordaining  bishops  to  be  moderators  at  these  meetings ;  and,  in 
their  absence,  the  minister  whom  the  bishop  should  appoint 
at  the  synod.  So  these  meetings,  having  disclaimed  the  au- 
thority of  bishops,  deposed  their  lawful  moderators,  and 
choosing  others  without  authority,  cannot  be  esteemed  lawful 
convocations,  that  can  have  lawful  power  of  sending  out 
commissioners  with  authority  to  judge  of  the  affairs  of  this 
church. 

V.  And  yet  doth  the  nullity  of  the  commissions,  flowing  from 
such  meetings,  further  appear  in  this,  that  they  have  associate 
to  themselves  a  laick  ruler  (as  they  call  him)  out  of  every  ses- 
sion and  parish;  who  being  ordinarily  the  lord  of  the  parish, 
or  a  man  of  the  greatest  authority  in  the  bounds,  doth  over- 
rule in  the  election  of  the  said  commissioners,  both  by  his 
authority,  and  their  number  being  more  than  the  ministers, 
whereof  some  being  ordinarily  absent,  and  five  or  six,  or  so 
many  of  them  put  in  list,  and  removed,  there  remain  but  a  few 
ministers  to  vote  to  the  elections;  and,  in  effect,  the  commis- 
sioners for  the  clergy  are  chosen  by  laymen,  contrary  to  all 
order,  decency,  and  custom  observed  in  the  Christian  world, 
nowise  according  to  the  custom  of  this  church  which  they  pre- 
tend to  follow  :  the  presbyteries  formerly  never  associating  to 
themselves  lay-elders  in  the  election  of  the  commissioners  to 
the  General  Assembly,  but  only  for  their  assistance  in  disci- 
pline and  correction  of  manners;  calling  for  them  at  such  oc- 
casions as  they  stood  in  need  of  their  godly  concurrence,  de- 
claring otherwise  their  meeting  not  necessary,  and  providing 
expressly  that  they  should  not  be  equal,  but  fewer  in  number 
than  the  pastors,  as  by  act  of  Assembly  at  St.  Andrews,  April 
24th,  1582,  (when  Master  Andrew  Melville  was  moderator) 
doth  appear.  Like  as  these  forty  years  bygone  and  upwards, 
long  before  the  re-establishing  of  bishops,  these  lay-elders  have 
not  been  called  at  all  to  presbyteries.  And  by  an  act  at 
Dundee,  1597,  (whereby  it  is  pretended  that  presbyteries  have 
authority  to  send  these  lay  commissioners,)  it  doth  nowhere 
appear  that  those  lay-elders  had  any  hand  in  choosing  of  the 
ministers  ;  and  this  is  the  only  act  of  the  Assembly  authorisinfr 
presbyters  to  choose  commissioners  to  the  General  Assembly : 


600  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

nor  had  lay-elders  sat  ordinarily  in  presbyteries  upon  any  occa- 
sion these  forty  years  and  upwards,  nor  ever  had  any  place  nor 
voice  in  election  of  ministers  for  the  General  Assembly,  and, 
consequently,  those  chosen  by  them  to  this  Assembly  have  no 
lawful  power  nor  authority. 

VI.  Beside,  the  persons  ecclesiastical,  pretended  to  be  au- 
thorised commissioners  to  this  Assembly,  have  so  behaved 
themselves,  that  justly  they  may  be  thought  unworthy  and  in- 
capable of  commission  to  a  free  and  lawful  Assembly. 

1.  For  that,  by  their  seditious  and  railing  sermons  and 
pamphlets,  they  have  wounded  the  king's  honour  and  sovereign 
authority,  and  animated  his  lieges  to  rebellion,  averring  that 
all  authority  sovereign  is  originally  in  the  collective  body^  de- 
rived from  them  to  the  prince ;  and  not  only  in  case  of  negli- 
gence it  is  suppletive  in  the  collective  body,  as  being  commu- 
nicate from  the  commonty  to  the  king,  cumulative  not  priva- 
tive, but  also,  in  case  of  maladministration,  to  return  to  the 
collective  body ;  so  that  rex  excidit  jure  suo,  and  that  they  may 
refuse  obedience. 

2.  Next,  they  are  kno^vn  to  be  such  as  have  either  been  schis- 
matically  refractory,  and  opposite  to  good  order  settled  in  the 
church  and  state,  or  such  as  having  promised,  subscribed,  and 
sworn  obedience  to  their  ordinary,  have  never  made  conscience 
of  their  oath  ;  or  such  as  have  sworn,  and  accordingly  prac- 
tised, yet,  contrary  to  their  promise  and  practice,  have  resiled, 
to  the  contempt  of  authority  and  disturbance  of  the  church  ; 
or  such  as  are  under  the  censures  of  the  church  of  Ireland,  for 
their  disobedience  to  order;  or  under  the  censures  of  this 
church,  or  convened  (or  at  least  deserving  to  be  convened) 
before  the  ordinaries,  or  a  lawful  General  Assembly,  for  divers 
transgressions  deserving  deprivation  ; — as,  first,  for  uttering  in 
their  sermons  rash  and  irreverent  speeches^  in  pulpit,  against 
his  majesty's  council  and  their  proceedings,  punishable  by  de- 
privation by  the  act  of  Assembly  at  Edinburgh,  May  22,  1590. 
Next,  for  reproving  his  majesty's  laws,  statutes,  and  ordi- 
nances, contrary  to  the  act  of  Assembly  at  Perth,  May  1,  1596. 
Thirdly,  for  expressing  of  men's  names  in  pulpit,  or  describing 
them  vively  to  their  reproach,  when  there  was  no  notorious 
fault,  against  another  act  of  the  same  Assembly.  Fourthly, 
for  using  applications  in  their  sermons,  not  tending  to  the  edi- 
fication of  their  present  auditory,  contrary  to  another  act  of  the 
same  Assembly.  Fifthly,  for  keeping  conventions,  not  allowed 
by  his  majesty,  without  his  knowledge  and  consent,  contrary 
to  another  act  of  the  same  Assembly.  Sixthly,  for  receiving 
of  people  of  other  ministers'  flocks  to  the  communion,  contraiy 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  COl 

to  order,  acts  of  Assembly,  and  councils.  Seventhly,  for  in- 
truding themselves  into  other  men's  pulpits  without  calling  or 
authority.  Eighthly,  for  usurping  the  authority  to  convene 
their  brethren,  and  proceed  against  them  to  the  censures  of 
suspension  and  dejDrivation.  Ninthly,  for  pressing  the  people 
to  subscribe  a  Covenant  not  allowed  by  authority,  and  oppos- 
ing and  withstanding  the  subscribing  of  a  Covenant  offered 
by  his  majesty,  and  allowed  by  the  council ;  besides  many 
personal  faults  and  enormities,  whereof  many  of  them  are 
guilty,  which,  in  charity,  we  forbear  to  express.  But  hereby 
it  doth  appear,  how  unfit  these  persons  are  to  be  members  of 
a  free  and  lawful  Assembly. 

VII.  Nor  doth  it  stand  with  reason,  scripture,  or  practice 
of  the  christian  church,  that  laymen  should  be  authorised  to 
have  decisive  voice  in  a  General  Assembly.  In  that  act  of 
Dundee,  1597,  whereby  these  elders  pretend  to  have  this  place, 
there  is  no  warrant  expressed  for  them  to  deliberate  and  deter- 
mine. Their  presence  and  assistance  we  approve,  being 
allowed  and  authorised  by  the  prince.  The  king's  majesty's 
presence  in  person,  or  by  his  delegates,  we  hold  most  neces- 
sary, to  see  all  things  orderly  and  peaceably  done,  and  that 
he  have  the  chief  hand  in  all  deliberations  and  determinations. 
Nor  do  we  refuse  that  any  intelligent  or  moderate  man  may 
make  remonstrance  of  his  opinion,  with  the  reasons  of  it,  in 
that  way  that  becometh  him  in  a  national  Assembly,  due  re- 
verence being  kept,  and  confusion  avoided.  But  that  any 
layman,  except  he  be  delegated  by  sovereign  authority,  shall 
presume  to  have  a  definitive  or  decisive  voice,  we  esteem  it  to 
be  intrusion  upon  the  pastoral  charge,  and  without  warrant. 
May  we  not,  therefore,  intreat  my  lord  commissioner  his  grace, 
in  the  words  of  the  fathers  of  the  fourth  general  council  at 
Chalcedon,  mitteforas  superfluos?  Nor  will  a  pious  prince  be 
offended  with  it;  but,  with  Theodosius  the  younger,  will  say, 
Illegitimum  est,  eum  qui  non  sit  in  ordine  sanctissimorum  epis- 
coporum  ecclesiasticis  immisceri  tract atibus ;  and  Pulcheria, 
the  empress,  commanded  Strategus,  Ut  clerici,  monaclii  et  laid 
vi  repellerentur,  exceptis  paucis  illis  quos  episcopi  secum  dux- 
erunt.  Upon  this  respect  was  Martinus,  in  that  council  of 
Chalcedon,  moved  to  say,  Non  esse  suum,  sed  episcoporum  tan- 
tum,  subscribere. 

VIII.  If  these  pretended  commissioners,  both  lay  and  ec- 
clesiastical, were  lawfully  authorised  (as  it  is  evident  they  are 
not),  and  for  none  other  cause  declinable,  yet  the  law  doth 
admit  that  justly  a  judge  may  be  declined  who  is  probably 
suspect.     And  of  all  probabilities,  this  is  the  most  pregnant, 

VOL,  I.  4  H 


602  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

when  the  judge,  before  he  come  to  judgment,  doth  give  sen- 
tence of  these  things  he  hath  to  judge.  This  made  our  re- 
formers' protestation  against  the  council  of  Trent  valid,  and 
their  not  compearing  justifiable,  because  Pope  Leo  X.  had  pre- 
condemned  Luther,  as  appeared  by  his  bull  dated  8th  of  June, 
1520,  renewed  by  Paul  IIL,  dated  in  August  1535.  This  was 
the  cause  why  Athanasius  would  not  give  his  appearance  at 
some  councils,  nor  Hosius  of  Corduba,  nor  Maximus,  patri- 
arch of  Constantinople.  But  so  it  is ;  the  most  part,  if  not  all 
of  the  said  commissioners  directed  to  this  meeting,  have  pre- 
condemned  episcopal  government,  and  condemned,  at  least 
suspended,  obedience  to  the  acts  of  the  General  Assembly 
and  parliament,  concerning  the  five  articles  of  Perth ;  have  ap- 
proved their  covenant  as  most  necessary  to  be  embraced  of  all 
in  this  kingdom,  and  not  only  have  given  judgment  of  these 
things  beforehand,  but  by  most  solemn  oaths  have  bound 
themselves  to  defend  and  stand  to  the  same :  as  doth  appear  by 
their  covenant,  petitions,  protestations,  pamphlets,  libels,  and 
sennons  ;  and  therefore  by  no  law  nor  equity  can  these  pre- 
tended commissioners  be  admitted  to  determine  in  this  meet- 
ing concerning  those  persons  and  points  which  beforehand 
they  have  so  unjustly  condemned. 

IX.  Further,  with  no  law  nor  reason  can  it  subsist  that  the 
same  persons  shall  be  both  judges  and  parties.  And  we  appeal 
to  the  consciences  of  all  honest  men,  if  all,  at  least  the  greatest 
part,  of  the  pretended  commissioners,  have  not  declared  them- 
selves party  to  the  archbishops  and  bishops  of  this  church  :  for 
in  that  they  have  declined  the  bishops  to  be  their  judges,  as 
being  their  party  (as  tlieir  declinatures,  petitions,  declarations, 
and  protestations  do  bear),  have  they  not  simul  et  semel  et  ipso 
facto  declared  themselves  to  be  party  against  bishops  ;  whom 
they  have  not  only  declined,  but  persecuted  by  their  calum- 
nies and  reproaches,  vented  by  word  and  writ  in  public  and 
in  private,  by  invading  [assaulting]  their  persons,  opposing 
and  oppressing  them  by  strength  of  an  unlawful  combination  ; 
for  the  subscribing  and  swearing  whereof  they  have,  by  their 
own  authority,  indicted  and  kept  fasts,  not  only  in  their  own 
church,  but,  where  worthy  men  refused  to  be  accessory  to  these 
disorderly  and  impious  courses,  they  have  (by  aid  of  the  un- 
ruly multitude)  entered  their  churches,  usurped  upon  their 
charges,  reading  and  causing  to  be  read  that  unlawful  cove- 
nant; by  threatening  and  menacing,  compelling  some  (other- 
wise unwilling),  out  of  just  fear,  to  set  their  hands  to  it;  by 
processing,  suspending,  and  removing  obedient  and  worthy 
ministers  from  their  places,  by  the  usurped  authority  of  their 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  603 

Tables  aud  presbyteries  ?  And  whereas,  by  all  law  and  jus- 
tice, persons  finding  themselves  wronged  in  judgment  have 
never  been  denied  the  remedy  of  declinatory  and  appellation  ; 
nevertheless  not  a  few  of  these  presbyteries  have  proceeded 
against  sundry  worthy  ministers,  who  have  declined  and  ap- 
pealed from  their  judgments  without  respect  to  this  defence  ; 
by  these  means  craftily  intending  to  disable  them  to  be  com- 
missioners for  the  church  ;  directly  or  indirectly  causing  their 
stipends  to  be  kept  back  from  them :  by  which  means,  not  the 
least  part  of  the  subscribing  ministers  have  been  gained  to 
their  covenant- 

But  it  is  without  example  uncharitable  and  illegal,  that  un- 
der the  pretext  of  summons  (the  like  whereof  was  never  used, 
nor  in  the  like  manner,  against  the  most  heinous  malefactors 
in  the  kingdom),  they  have  devised,  forged,  vented,  and  pub- 
lished a  most  infamous  and  scurril  libel,  full  of  infamous  lies 
and  malicious  calumnies  against  the  archbishops  and  bishops  of 
this  church ;  and  have  first  given  out  from  their  Tables  the 
order  prescribed  in  these  subsequent  articles,  which  we  have 
inserted,  that  the  world  may  be  witness  of  the  illegality  and 
maliciousness  of  their  proceedings. 

1.  To  desire  the  presbytery  of  every  bishop,  especially 
where  he  keeps  his  residence,  as  also  the  presbytei'y  where  his 
cathedral  seat  is,  to  have  a  special  care  of  this  bill  and  com- 
plaint against  the  prelates,  and  particularly  against  the 
bishop  of  their  diocese.  2.  That  some  noblemen  (if  any  be 
within  the  presbytery),  some  gentlemen  and  barons,  some 
ministers  and  some  commons,  who  are  not  chosen  commis- 
sioners to  the  Assembly,  in  their  own  name,  and  in  name  ot 
all  other  covenanters  or  complainers,  either  within  the  presby- 
tery or  diocese,  or  w^hole  kingdom,  w^ho  are  not  commissioners 
to  the  Assembly,  will  adhere  and  assist  in  this  complaint,  that 
they  present  this  bill  to  the  presbytery.  3.  That  they  who 
are  complainers  have  a  particular  care  to  fill  up  the  blanks 
left  in  the  bill,  in  the  subsumptions  of  the  particular  faults 
committed  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  against  these  general 
rules,  canons,  and  acts  ;  or  if  these  blanks  will  not  contain  the 
same,  that  the  complainers  draw  up,  in  a  particular  claim, 
all  the  particular  faults  and  transgressions  of  the  bishop  of 
that  diocese  against  these  rules,  canons,  and  acts,  or  any 
other  law  of  the  church  or  kingdom,  and  present  the  same  to 

the  presbytery,  with  this  general  complaint 6.  That 

the  presbytery  ordain  all  their  pastors  out  of  pulpit,  on  a  sab- 
bath day  before  noon,  to  cause  to  be  read  publicly  this  whole 


604  HISTOllY  OF  THE  [CHAr.  XIV. 

complaint  and  the  presbyteries'  reference  to  the  Assembly,  and 
so  admonish  the  bishop  of"  that  diocese  the  delinquent  com- 
plained upon,  with  the  rest  of  his  colleagues,  to  be  present  at 
the  General  Assembly  to  answer  to  the  particular  complaint, 
both  in  the  particular  and  general  heads  thereof,  given  or  to  be 
given  in.  And  likewise  out  of  pulpit  to  admonish  all  others 
who  have  interest  either  in  the  pursuing  or  referring  this  com- 
plaint, to  be  present  at  the  said  Assembly.  7.  That  the  pres- 
bytery insert  in  their  presbytery  books  the  whole  tenor  of  this 
complaint,  both  in  the  general  and  particular  heads  thereof; 
and  that  they  have  a  care  to  cause  delivery,  by  their  ordinary 
beadle,  to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  a  copy  thereof,  and  ti 
copy  of  an  act  referring  the  same  to  the  Assembly,  and  sum- 
mon him  to  compeir  before  the  Assembly.  ...  8.  That  the 
complainers  within  the  presbytery  where  the  bishop  is  resi- 
dent or  hath  his  cathedral,  be  careful  to  keep  correspondence 
with  those  in  other  presbyteries  within  their  diocese  who  best 
can  specify  and  verify  their  bishop's  usurpation  and  transgres- 
sions.' 

According  to  which  articles,  upon  Sunday,  October  28th, 
they  caused  read  the  said  libel  in  all  the  churches  in  Edinburgh, 
notwithstanding  my  lord  commissioner's  command,  given  to 
the  provost  and  bailies,  to  the  contrary,  except  in  Holyrood 
House,  where  it  was  read  the  next  Sunday,  as  it  was  in  the 
other  churches  of  the  kingdom ;  proceeding  herein  against 
all  charity,  which  doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly,  nor  de- 
lighteth  in  the  discovery  of  men's  nakedness,  nor  take  up  a 
reproach,  nor  backbite  with  the  tongue ;  much  less  to  wTite  a 
book  against  a  brother.  2.  Against  the  order  prescribed  by 
the  apostles,  '  not  to  rebuke  an  elder,  but  to  entreat  him  as  a 
father :'  and  by  the  act  of  parliament,  Janaes  VI.  par.  8,  dis- 
charging all  persons  to  impugn  or  to  jDrocure  the  diminu- 
tion of  the  authority  and  power  of  the  three  estates,  or  any  of 
them.  3.  Against  all  lawful  and  formal  proceeding,  espe- 
cially that  prescribed  by  the  act  of  General  Assembly  at 
Perth,  March  1st,  1596  ;  whereby  it  is  ordained,  that  all  sum- 
monses contain  the  special  cause  and  crime,  which  the  said 
libel  does  not ;  naming  only  general  calumnies,  reproaches, 
and  aspersions,  without  instruction  of  any  particular,  but 
leaving  these  to  be  filled  up  by  malicious  delation,  after  they 
have  defamed  their  brethren  by  publishing  this  libel ;  as  ap- 
pears by  the  Sth  and  1 1th  articles  of  the  said  instructions,  and 
against  the  order  prescribed  by  the  Assembly  at  St.  Andrews, 
April  24th,  15S2,  whereby  it  is  enacted,  '  that  in  process  of 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  605 

deprivation  of  ministers,  there  be  a  libelled  precept  upon  forty 
days'  warning,  being  ivithin  tlie  realm,  and  threescore  days,  be- 
ing ivithout  the  realm,  to  be  directed  by  the  kirk  and  such 
commissioners  thereof  as  elect  and  direct  the  person  com- 
plained of,  smnmoning  them  to  compear  and  answer  upon  the 
complaint.  And  in  case  of  their  absence  at  the  first  sum- 
mons, the  second  to  be  directed  upon  the  like  warning,  with 
certification,  if  he  fail,  the  libel  shall  be  admitted  to  probation, 
and  he  shall  be  holden  pro  confesso?  Which  form  not  being 
kept  in  a  summons  inferring  the  punishment  of  deprivation, 
the  same  cannot  be  sustained  by  the  order  of  that  Assembly. 
4.  Against  common  equity,  which  admits  summons  directed 
by  the  authority  of  these  pretended  presbyteries  cannot  sus- 
tain for  compearance  before  the  General  Assembly,  nor  could 
reference  be  made  from  the  presbyteries  to  the  General  Assem- 
bly, the  parties  never  being  summoned  to  compear  before  the 
presbytery,  whereby,  either  in  presence  of  the  party  or  in  case 
of  contumacy,  the  complaint  might  be  referred  to  the  Assem- 
bly. That  there  was  no  citation  before  the  reference  is  clear 
by  the  said  instructions.  And  what  a  strange  and  odious 
form  it  is,  to  insert  such  a  calumnious  libel  in  the  presbytery 
books,  without  citing  the  parties  to  answer  thereto ;  and  to 
cite  bishops  before  the  General  Assembly  by  the  said  libel,  by 
publishing  the  same  at  churches  to  which  they  had  no  rela- 
tion, and  were  many  miles  distant,  we  leave  it  to  the  judgment 
of  indifferent  men.  5.  Against  all  decency  and  respect  due 
to  men  of  their  place,  the  said  persons  being  men  of  dignity, 
and  some  of  them  of  his  majesty's  most  honourable  privy 
council,  and  known  to  be  of  blameless  conversation,  and  to 
have  deserved  well,  thus  to  be  reviled  and  traduced,  doth  re- 
dound to  the  reproach  of  church  and  state,  and  of  the  gospel 
whereof  they  are  preachers.  6.  Lastly,  to  omit  many  other 
informalities  against  their  own  consciences,  which  we  charge 
in  the  sight  of  God,  as  they  must  answer  before  His  great 
and  fearful  tribunal,  if  they  suspect  and  know  not  perfectly, 
according  to  the  judgment  of  charity,  them  whom  they  thus 
accuse,  to  be  free  of  these  crimes  wherewith  they  charge  them, 
at  least  many  of  them,  as  appears  evidently  by  the  eleventh 
article  of  the  said  instructions,  having  therein  libelled  the 
general  and  have  yet  to  seek  the  specification  thereof,  from 
the  malice  of  their  neighbovu'S,  if  they  can  furnish  it.  By 
which  informal  and  malicious  proceeding  it  is  most  apparent 
that  our  said  parties  do  seek  our  disgrace  and  overthrow  most 
maliciously  and  illegally.  And  therefore  we  call  heaven  and 
earth  to  witness  if  this  be  not  a  barbarous  and  violent  perse- 


606  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

cution,  that,  all  circumstances  being  considered,  hath  few  or 
none  to  parallel  it  since  the  beginning  of  Christianity  ;  and  if 
we  have  not  just  cause  to  decline  the  said  })retended  commis- 
sioners as  our  party. 

Moreover,  can  these  men  expect  but  in  a  lawful  assembly 
they  were  to  be  called  and  censured  for  their  enormous  trans- 
gressions foresaid  ?  And  will  any  man  think,  that  they  can 
be  judges  in  their  own  cause  ?  It  is  alleged  out  of  the  canon 
law  against  the  pope,  that  if  the  pope  be  at  variance  with  any 
man,  ho  ought  not  to  be  judge  himself,  but  to  choose  arbitrators. 
And  this  may  militate  against  them,  except  they  be  more  un- 
ruly than  popes.  Ludovicus  Bavarus,  and  all  the  estates  of 
Germany  with  him,  did  plead  this  nullity  against  the  sentence 
and  proceedings  of  John  XXII.  and  of  his  council :  and  the 
archbishop  of  Cologne,  1546,  did  plead  the  nullity  of  Paul  III. 
his  bull  of  excommunication,  because  he  protested  that  so 
soon  as  a  lawful  council  should  be  opened,  he  would  implead 
the  pope  as  party,  being  guilty  of  many  things  censurable  by 
the  council. 

X.  But  the  late  protestation  doth  shew  the  authors  thereof 
to  be  no  less  injurious  to  our  peace  and  authority  than  they 
are  overweening  of  their  own.  For  it  is  against  reason  and 
practice  of  the  christian  church  that  no  primate,  archbishop, 
or  bishop,  have  place  or  voice,  deliberative  or  decisive,  in  Gene- 
ral Assemblies,  except  they  be  authorised  and  elected  by 
their  presbyterial  meetings,  consisting  of  preaching  and  ruling 
elders  (as  they  call  them),  and  without  warrant  or  example  in 
the  primitive  and  purest  times  of  the  church. 

This  also  doth  infer  the  nullity  of  an  Assembly,  if  the 
moderator  and  president  for  matters  of  doctrine  and  discipline 
shall  be  neither  the  primate,  archbishop,  nor  bishop,  but  he 
who,  by  plurality  of  presbyters  and  laymen's  voices,  shall  be 
elected  :  which  haply  may  be  one  of  the  inferior  clergy,  or  a 
lay  person,  as  sometimes  it  hath  fallen  out.  Whereas,  canoni- 
cally,  according  to  the  ancient  practice  of  the  church,  the 
primate  should  preside  according  to  the  constitution  of  the 
first  council  of  Nice,  can.  6,  of  Antioch,  can.  9,  and  of  the 
imperial  law,  Novel  Constitut.  123,  cap.  10,  and  according  to 
our  own  law.  For  what  place  in  Assemblies  archbishops  and 
bishops  had  in  other  christian  nations,  the  same  they  had  (no 
doubt)  in  Scotland,  and  yet  still  do  retain,  except  by  some 
municipal  law  it  hath  been  restrained,  which  cannot  be  shown. 
For  the  restraint  of  their  authority  by  the  act  of  parliament 
1592,  is  restored  by  the  act  of  parliament  1606  and  1609,  and 
all  acts  prejudicial  to  their  jurisdiction  abrogated.     Neither 


1838.]  CHHRCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  o07 

doth  that  act,  1592,  establishing  General  Assemblies,  debar 
bisliops  from  presiding  therein ;  nor  the  abrogation  of  their 
commission  granted  to  them  by  act  of  parliament  in  ecclesiasti- 
cal causes,  imply  and  infer  the  abrogation  of  that  authority, 
which  they  received  not  from  the  parliament,  but  from  Christ, 
from  whom  they  received  spiritual  oversight  of  the  clergy  under 
their  charge  ;  whereunto  belongeth  the  presidentship  in  all 
Assemblies  for  matters  spiritual,  always  with  due  submission 
to  the  supreme  governor ;  which  is  so  intrinsically  inherent  in 
them  as  they  are  bishops,  that  hoc  ipso  that  they  are  bishops, 
they  are  presidents  of  all  Assemblies  of  the  clergy :  as  the 
chancellor  of  the  kingdom  hath  place  in  council  and  session 
not  by  any  act  or  statute,  but  hoc  ipso  that  he  is  chancellor. 
By  act  of  parliament  bishops  are  declared  to  have  their  right 
in  synods  and  other  inferior  meetings,  but  by  no  law  restrained 
nor  debarred  from  the  exercise  of  it  in  national  assemblies. 
And  the  law  allowing  bishops  to  be  moderators  of  the  synods 
doth  present  a  list  in  absence  of  the  metropolitan,  to  whom, 
of  right,  this  place  doth  belong  as  said  is,  out  of  which  the 
moderator  of  the  General  Assembly  shall  be  chosen.  For  is  it 
not  more  agreeable  to  reason,  order,  and  decency,  that  out  of 
moderators  of  synods  a  moderator  of  the  General  Assembly 
should  be  chosen,  than  of  the  inferior  clergy  subject  to  them  } 

XL  As  concerning  that  act  of  the  General  Assembly,  1580, 
whereby  bishops  are  declared  to  have  no  warrant  out  of  Scrip- 
ture, if  corruption  of  time  shall  be  regarded,  the  authority  of 
that  Assembly  might  be  neglected  no  less  than  that  at  Glasgow, 
1610.  But  it  is  ordinary  that  prior  acts  of  assemblies  and  par- 
liaments give  place  to  the  posterior  :  for  posteriora  derogant 
prioribus.  And  there  passed  not  full  six  years  when  a  General 
Assembly  at  Edinburgh  found,  that  the  name  of  bishops  hath 
a  special  charge  and  function  annexed  to  it  by  the  word  of 
God ;  and  that  it  was  lawful  for  the  General  Assembly  to  admit 
a  bishop  to  a  benefice  presented  by  the  king's  majesty,  with 
power  to  admit,  visit,  and  deprive  ministers,  and  to  be  mode- 
rators of  the  presbyteries  where  they  are  resident,  and  subject 
only  to  the  sentence  of  the  General  Assembly, 

As  for  that  act  at  Montrose,  let  them  answer  to  it  that  have 
their  calling  by  that  commission.  We  profess  that  we  have  a 
lawful  calling  by  the  election  of  the  clergy,  who  are  of  the 
chapter  of  our  cathedrals,  and  consecration  of  bishops  by  his 
majesty's  consent  and  approbation,  according  to  the  laudable 
laws  and  ancient  custom  of  this  kingdom,  and  of  the  church 
in  ancient  times,  and  do  homage  to  our  sovereign  lord  for  our 
temporalities,  and  acknowledge  him  solo  Deo  minorem  next 


608  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XIV. 

unto  God  in  all  causes  and  over  all  persons,  spiritual  or  tern 

poral,  in  his  own  dominions  supreme  governor. 

******** 

XII,  Lastly,  it  is  most  manifest  by  the  premises  how  absurd 
it  is,  and  contrary  to  all  reason  and  practice  of  the  christian 
church,  that  archbishops  and  bishops  shall  be  judged  by  pres- 
byters; and  more  absurd  that  they  should  be  judged  by  a 
mixed  meeting  of  presbyters  and  laicks,  convening  without 
lawful  authority  of  the  church.  How  and  by  whom  they  are 
to  be  judged  according  to  the  custom  of  ancient  times,  may  be 
seen  by  the  council  of  Chalcedon,  can.  9,  and  Concil.  Milevit. 
can.  22,  and  Concil.  Carthag.  2,  can.  10.  Nor  do  we  dechne 
the  lawful  trial  of  any  competent  judicatory  in  the  kingdom, 
especially  of  a  General  Assembly  lawfully  constitute,  or  of 
his  majesty's  high  commissioner,  for  any  thing  in  life  and  doc- 
trine can  be  laid  to  our  charge :  only  we  declare  and  affirm, 
that  it  is  against  order,  decency,  and  Scripture,  that  we  should 
be  judged  by  presbyters,  or  by  laics,  without  authority  or 
commission  of  sovereign  authority. 

For  the  reasons  foresaid,  and  many  more,  and  for  discharge 
of  our  duty  to  God,  to  his  church,  and  to  our  sacred  sovereign, 
lest,  by  our  silence,  we  betray  the  church's  right,  his  majesty's 
authority,  and  our  own  consciences,  we,  for  ourselves,  and 
in  name  of  the  Chinch  of  Scotland,  are  forced  to  Protest, — 
That  this  Assembly  be  reputed  and  holden  Null  in  Law 
Divine  and  Human;  and  that  no  churchman  be  holden  to  ap- 
pear before,  assist,  or  approve  it,  and.  Therefore,  that  no  letter, 
petition,  subscription,  interlocutor,  certification,  admonition, 
or  other  act  whatsoever  proceeding  from  the  said  Assembly,  or 
any  member  thereof,  be  any  ways  prejudicial  to  the  religion 
and  confession  of  faith  by  act  of  parliament  established,  or  to 
the  church,  or  to  any  member  thereof,  or  tt»  the  jurisdiction, 
liberties,  privileges,  rents,  benefices,  and  possessions  of  the 
same,  acts  of  General  Assembly,  of  council  and  parliament 
in  favour  thereof,  or  to  the  three  estates  of  the  kingdom,  or 
any  of  them,  or  to  us,  or  any  of  us,  in  our  persons  or  estates, 
authority,  jurisdiction,  dignity,  rents,  benefices,  reputation,  and 
good  name  ;  but  on  the  contrary,  that  all  such  acts  and  deeds 
above  mentioned,  and  every  one  of  them,  are,  and  shall  be  re- 
puted and  esteemed.  Unjust,  Illegal,  and  Null  in  them- 
selves, with  all  that  hath  followed  or  may  follow  thereupon. 

And  forasmuch  as  the  said  Assembly  doth  intend  (as  we  are 
informed)  to  call  in  question,  discuss,  and  condemn,  things  not 
only  in  themselves  lawful  and  warrantable,  but  also  defined 
and  determined  by  acts  of  General  Assembly  and  parliaments, 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  009 

and  in  practice  accordingly,  to  the  disgrace  and  prejudice  of 
the  reformed  religion,  authorities  of  the  laws,  and  liberties  of 
the  church  and  kingdom,  weakening  his  majesty's  authority, 
disgracing  the  profession  and  practice  which  he  holdeth  in  the 
communion  of  the  church  where  he  liveth,  and  branding  of  re- 
formed churches  with  the  foul  aspersions  of  idolatry  and  su'per- 
stition — We  Protest  before  God  and  Man,  that  ivhat  shall 
be  done  in  this  kind  may  not  redound  to  the  disgrace  or  disad- 
vantage of  reformed  religion,  nor  be  reputed  a  deed  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland. 

We  Protest  that  we  embrace  and  hold,  that  the  religion 
presently  professed  in  the  church  of  Scotland,  according  to 
the  profession  thereof  received  by  the  estates  of  this  kingdom, 
and  ratified  in  parliament  in  the  year  1567,  is  the  true  religion, 
bringing  men  to  eternal  salvation,  and  do  detest  all  contrary 
error. 

We  Protest  that  episcopal  government  in  the  church  is 
lawful  and  necessary  :  and  that  the  same  is  not  opposed  and 
iminigned  for  any  defect  or  fault,  either  in  the  government  or 
governors ;  but  by  the  malice  and  craft  of  the  devil,  envying  the 
success  of  that  government  in  this  church  these  many  years  by 
]mst,  most  evident  in  planting  of  churches  with  able  and 
learned  ministers,  recovering  of  the  church  rents,  helping  of 
the  ministers'  stipends,  preventing  of  these  jars  betwixt  the 
king  and  the  church,  which  in  former  times  dangerously  in- 
fested the  same,  keeping  the  people  in  peace  and  obedience, 
and  suppressing  popery,  which,  in  respect  either  of  the 
number  of  their  professors  or  the  boldness  of  their  profession, 
was  never  at  so  low  an  ebb  in  this  kingdom  as  before  these 
stirs. 

We  Protest  that,  seeing  these  who  for  scruple  of  conscience 
did  mislike  the  service-book,  canons,  and  high  commission, 
which  were  apprehended  or  given  forth  to  be  the  cause  of  the 
troubles  of  this  church,  have  now  received  satisfaction,  and 
his  majesty  is  graciously  pleased  to  forget  and  forgive  all 
offences  by-past  in  these  stirrs,  that  all  the  subjects  of  this 
kingdom  may  live  in  peace  and  christian  love,  as  becometh 
faithful  subjects  and  good  christians,  laying  aside  all  hatred, 
envy,  and  bitterness;  and  if  any  shall  refuse  so  to  do,  they 
may  bear  the  blame,  and  be  thought  the  cause  of  the  troubles 
that  may  ensue;  and  the  same  be  not  imputed  to  us,  or  any  of 
us,  who  desire  nothing  more  than  to  live  in  peace  and  concord 
with  all  men,  under  his  majesty's  obedience;  and  who  have 
committed  nothing  against  the  laws  of  the  kingdom  and 
church  that  may  give  any  man  just  cause  of  offence  ;  and  are 

VOL.  I.  4  I 


610  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

SO  far  from  wishing  hurt  to  any  man,  in  his  person  or  estate, 
notwithstanding  all  the  indignities  and  injuries  we  have  suf- 
fered, that  for  quenching  this  jiresent  combustion,  and  settling 
peace  in  this  church  and  country,  we  could  be  content  (after 
clearing  of  our  innocency  of  all  things  wherewith  we  be 
charged)  not  only  to  lay  down  our  bishoprics  at  his  majesty's 
feet,  to  be  disposed  of  at  his  royal  pleasure,  but  also,  if  so  be 
it  pleased  God,  to  lay  down  our  lives,  and  become  a  sacrifice 
for  this  atonement. 

We  Protest,  in  the  sight  of  God,  to  whom  one  day  we 
must  give  account,  that  we  make  use  of  this  declinator  and 
PROTESTATION  out  of  the  conscience  of  our  duty  to  God  and 
his  church,  and  not  out  of  fear  of  any  guiltiness,  whereof  any 
of  us  is  conscious  to  himself,  either  of  wickedness  in  our  lives, 
or  miscarriage  in  our  callings  ;  being  content,  every  one  of  us, 
for  our  own  particular  (as  we  have  never  shown  ourselves  to 
be  otherwise),  to  undergo  the  lawful  and  most  exact  trial  of 
any  competent  judicatory  within  this  kingdom,  or  of  his 
majesty's  high  commissioner. 

And  we  most  humbly  entreat  his  grace  to  intercede  with 
the  king's  majesty,  that  he  may  appoint  a  free  and  lawful 
General  Assembly,  such  as  God's  word,  the  practice  of  the 
primitive  church,  and  laws  of  the  kingdom,  do  presci'ibe  and 
allow,  with  all  convenient  speed,  to  the  effect  the  present  dis- 
tractions of  the  church  may  be  settled.  And  if  there  be  any 
thing  to  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  any  of  the  clergy,  of  whatso- 
ever degree,  either  in  life  or  manners,  or  doctrine,  or  exercise 
of  his  calling  and  jurisdiction,  he  may  be  heard  to  answer  all 
accusations,  and  abide  all  trial,  either  for  clearing  his  inno- 
cency or  suffering  condign  punishment,  according  to  his  trans- 
gressions: DECLINING  always  this  Assembly  for  the  causes 
above  written.  Like  as  by  these  presents  we  and  every  one  of 
us  DECLINE  THE  SAME,  the  wholc  members  thereof,  and  com- 
missioners foresaid  directed  thereto  and  every  one  of  them. 

We  Protest  that  this  our  protestation,  in  respect  of  our 
lawful  absence,  may  be  received  in  the  name  of  us  undersub- 
scribing  for  ourselves,  and  in  the  name  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land that  shall  adhere  to  the  said  protestation,  and  in  the  name 
of  every  one  of  them,  from  our  well-beloved  Dr.  Robert 
Hamilton,  minister  of  Glasford,  to  whom  by  these  presents  we 
give  our  full  power  and  express  mandate  to  present  the  same 
in  or  at  the  said  Assembly,  or  where  else  it  shall  be  necessary 
to  be  used,  with  all  submission  and  obedience  due  to  our  gra- 
cious sovereign  and  his  majesty's  high  commissioner:  and 
upon  the  presenting  and  using  thereof,  acts  and  instruments  to 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  611 

crave,  and  all  other  things  to  do  that  necessarily  are  required 
in  such  cases:  firm  and  stable  holding,  or  for  to  hold,  what  he 
or  any  of  them  shall  lawfully  do  in  the  premises. 

In  witness  whereof,  as  we  are  ready  with  our  blood,  so  with 
our  hand  we  have  subscribed  these  presents  at  the  palace  of 
Holyrood  House,  Newcastle  and  Glasgow,  the  16th,  17th, 
and  20th  days  of  November,  1638,  et  sic  subscribitur  i. 

Jo.  St.  Andrew,  arch. 
Pa.  Glasgow, 
Da.Edinburgen, 
5  Tho.  Gallovidien, 

Jo.  ROSSEN, 

Walterius  Brechinen. 

The  Assembly  treated  this  noble  protest  with  scorn  and  con- 
tempt. They  asserted  their  perfect  independence  on  the  royal 
authority,  and  their  competency  to  meet,  sit,  and  vote,  without 
the  presence  of  the  bishops;  and  also  their  power  as  judges 
over  the  governors  of  the  church,  who  by  law  and  usage  were 
constitutional  members  of  the  Assembly,  and  had  been  so  ever 
since  the  first  Protestant  Assembly  after  the  Reformation. 
Many  protests  were  presented  and  read  from  several  places 
from  the  inferior  clergy,  both  against  the  lay  elders  and  the 
manner  of  the  election  of  the  ministers,  as  both  unlawful  and 
unusual,  and  because  the  lay  elders  equalled,  and  in  some 
cases  outnumbered,  the  ministers.  "  For  these  and  other 
weighty  causes,  the  election  of  such  commissioners,  and  their 
place  in  this  Assembly  being  so  dangerous  to  the  church, 
threaten  the  same  with  the  most  intolerable  yoke  of  bondage, 
to  be  laid  on  the  neck  of  the  presbyteries  by  laic  overruling 
elders,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  liberties  of  the  said  presbyteries, 
and  whole  discipline  of  this  church."  The  strongest  protest 
of  all  was  presented  by  the  presbytery  of  Glasgow,  but  prin- 
cipal Bailie  objected  to  its  being  read.  The  commissioner 
pressed  the  reading  of  it,  "  but  all  in  vain;  for  no  justice 
could  be  had  from  them,  especially  on  a  point  which  so  much 
concerned  their  reputation ;  for  they  conceived  it  would  be  a 
great  blur  to  their  business,  if  a  protestation  (made  by  that 
presbytery  in  which  was  the  seat  of  the  Assembly)  should  be 
known ;  and,  therefore,  they  would  neither  read  it,  nor  did 
they  deliver  it  back  again,  against  all  rules  both  of  justice  and 
equity  2." 

The  lord  Montgomery  and  Mr.  Durie,  one  of  the  principal 

»  Large  Dodaratioa,  p.  248-2G4.  -  Ibid.  pp.  265-26S. 


^'12  HISTORY  OF    THE  [CHAP.  XIV 

clerks  of  session,  "  took  instruments  that  the  bishops  thereby 
acknowledged  their  citation,  that  they  had  compeared  by  thefr 
procurator,  and  therefore  that  their  personal  absence  was 
wilful;  and  craved  that  Dr.  Hamilton,  as  their  procurator, 
might  be  cited  apud  acta.  This  was  no  sooner  sought  than 
granted."  The  commissioner  protested  against  this  proceed- 
ing, and  produced  several  other  protests  from  the  dean  and 
chapter  of  Edinburgh,  and  several  other  clergy,  against  the 
lay-elders,  and  against  the  powers  assumed  by  the  Assembly; 
and  in  the  meantime,  as  laj  elders  were  so  much  harped  on, 
the  moderator  caused  to  be  read  some  papers  in  support  of 
their  sitting  in  Assemblies,  said  to  have  been  drawn  up  by 
Mr.  David  Calderwood  the  historian,  who,  though  he  Avas  no 
member  of  the  Assembly,  having  no  parochial  charge, 
lodged  in  a  room  adjoining  the  moderator's,  and  promoted  by 
his  studies  the  proceedings  of  the  Assembly  ^ 

Session  seven,  Wednesday,  2Sth  November.  —  The  first 
business  which  came  before  the  Assembly  was  the  approba- 
tion of  Ihe  five  spurious  registers.  The  commissioner  protested 
against  the  reception  of  these  five  books  as  sufficient  registers, 
and  that  neither  his  royal  master,  nor  the  lords  of  the  clergy, 
should  suffer  any  prejudice  by  any  thing  in  them.  Notwith- 
standing the  committee  which  had  revised  them  gave  in  a 
written  declaration  "  that  these  registers  are  famous,  authen- 
tic, and  good  registers,  which  ought  to  be  so  reputed,  and  have 
public  faith  in  judgment,  and  outwith  the  same  as  vahd  and 
true  records  in  all  things ;  and  with  that  report  they  gave  in  a 
paper,  containing  nineteen  reasons,  proving  the  said  registers 
to  be  authentic."  Therefore  "  the  whole  Assembly  did  una- 
nimously approve  of  these  books  as  the  true  and  authentic 
registers  of  our  church,  and  appointed  the  testimony  of  the 
committee,  and  their  reasons,  to  be  inserted  in  the  books  of 
Assembly  2." 

Two  written  replies  to  the  bishops'  declinature  were  read  in 
this  session,  which  Baillie  confesses  "  ivere  raiv  and  rude'," 
both  of  which  professed  to  be  answers  to  all  the  material  parts 
of  the  bishop's  "  invective 3."  The  Assembly,  says  Burnet, 
"  went  on  at  such  a  rate,  that  the  marquis  judged  it  no  longer 
fit  to  bear  with  their  courses ;  for  all  elections,  how  disorderly 
soever,  were  judged  good;  their  ears  were  shut  upon  reason, 
and  the  bishops'  declinature  being  read,  was  rejected,  and  an 

'  Baillie's  Letters,  i.  136.  —  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  30".  -  Stevenson's  Church 
and  State,  287-290. 

-  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  237-290.  ^  Baillie's  Letters,  i.  139. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  61. i 

answer  drawn:  wherefore,  on  the  28lh,  in  the  morning,  he 
called  a  council  in  the  Chapter-house,  and  told  them  he  was 
necessitated  to  dissolve  the  Assembly,  and  gave  his  reasons 
for  doing  it,  using  much  industry  to  gain  them  to  concur  with 
him  in  it.  The  earl  of  Argyle  asked  if  he  was  to  desire  the 
council's  approbation  of  what  he  intended,  or  not:  the  mar- 
quis answered,  his  instructions  from  his  majesty  were  clear 
and  positive  for  what  he  was  to  do,  and  therefore  it  was  not  in 
his  power  to  let  any  debate  be  whether  he  shovdd  do  it  or  not; 
only  he  desired  their  concurrence  and  advice  as  to  the  manner 
of  douig  it.  Two  hours  were  spent  in  discourse,  but  clear 
advices  were  not  given  from  any  of  them.  From  thence  the 
marquis  went  to  the  church  where  the  Assembly  sat;  and  after 
he  sat  a  long  witness  to  some  debates  that  were  among  them, 
it  was  offered  to  be  put  to  the  vote  whether  the  Assembly  was 
a  free  Assembly,  notwithstanding  the  bishop's  declinature, 
or  not  ^" 

The  Assembly  had  been  occupied  with  a  debate  on  the  bishops' 
declinature,  and  the  answer  to  it.  which  gradually  branched  off 
into  a  dissertation  on  the  Synod  of  Dort,  arminianism,  and  po- 
pery; but  both  sides  became  wearied  of  a  dispute  that  seemed 
to  be  interminable,  and  as  it  was  alleged  that  the  bishops  were 
"  summoned  for  heresy, — viz.  points  of  popery  and  arminian- 
ism,"— to  put  an  end  to  the  debate,  the  moderator  "  stated  the 
question,  whether  or  not  this  Assembly  found  themselves 
judges  to  the  bishops,  notwithstanding  of  their  declinature  ?  but 
when  they  were  about  to  vote,  the  lord  commissioner  inter- 
rupted them."  The "  Large  Declaration"  states,  that "  they  gave 
our  commissioner  the  occasion  to  do  and  declare  that  which,  by 
our  special  commandment,  he  had  resolved ;  for  he  presently 
made  a  speech  of  a  competent  length,  the  sum  whereof  was 
this : — '  I  should,  perhaps,  have  continued  a  little  longer  with 
you,  if  you  had  not  fallen  upon  a  point  which  doth  enforce  my 
deserting  von.  You  are  now  about  to  settle  the  lawfulness  of 
this  judicatory,  and  the  competency  of  it  against  the  bishops 
whom  you  have  cited  here,  neither  of  which  I  can  allow,  if  I 
shall  discharge  either  my  duty  towards  God,  or  loyally  to- 
wards my  gracious  and  just  master.  This  is  a  day  to  me  both 
of  gladness  and  sadness ;  gladness,  in  that  I  have  seen  this 
Assembly  meet,  and  that  I  shall  now,  in  his  majesty's  name, 
make  good  unto  you  all  his  most  gracious  offers  in  his  royal 
proclamation ;  of  sadness,  in  that  you,  who  have  called  so  much 
ior  a  free  General  Assembly,  and  having  one  most  free,  in  his 

'  Memoirs  of  the  Dukr-s  of  Hamilton,  p.  101. 


614  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

majesty's  intentions,  granted,  you  have  so  handled  and  marred 
the  matter,  that  there  is  not  the  least  shadow  of  freedom  to  be 
discerned  in  this  your  meeting  by  any  man  who  hath  not  given 
a  bill  of  divorce  both  to  his  understanding  and  conscience. 
With  what  wresting  and  wringing  your  last  protestation 
charges  his  majesty's  last  gracious  proclamation  in  the  point 
of  prelimitations,  is  both  known  and  misliked  by  many  even  of 
your  own  pretended  Covenant ;  but  whether  your  courses,  es- 
pecially in  the  elections  of  the  members  of  this  Assembly,  be 
not  only  prelimitations  of  it,  but  strong  bars  against  the  freedom 
of  it,  nay,  utterly  destructive  both  of  the  name  and  nature  of  a 
free  Assembly,  and  unavoidably  inducing  upon  it  many  and 
main  nullities,  will  be  made  manifest  to  the  whole  world. 

"  'But  his  majesty's  sincere  intentions  being  to  perform,  in  a 
lawful  Assembly,  all  he  hath  promised  in  his  gracious  procla- 
mation, if  you  find  out  a  way  how  these  things  may  pass,  and 
be  performed  even  in  this  Assembly  such  as  it  is,  and  yet  his  ma- 
jesty not  made  to  approve  any  way  the  illegalities  and  nullities 
of  it,  for  satisfying  all  his  majesty's  good  subjects  of  the  reality 
of  his  meaning,  I  am,  by  his  majesty's  special  command, 
ready  to  do  it,  and  content  to  advise  with  you  how  it  may 
be  done"' 

But  now,  the  commissioner  said,  "  the  sad  part  was  behind, 
viz.  that  since  they  had  brought  lay-elders  to  give  voices  in 
this  Assembly, — a  thing  not  practised  before,  or  at  least  disused 
so  long  that  no  man  present  had  seen  it, — the  ministers  sitting 
here  as  commissioners  were  chosen  by  lay-elders,  a  thing  never 
heard  of  before  in  this  church  ;  all  the  persons  having  voices 
here  were,  before  the  elections,  designed  by  the  Tables  at  Edin- 
burgh ;  all  others,  by  their  express  directions,  barred :  these 
few  commissioners  sent  hither,  but  not   chosen  according  to 
their  designature,  were,  by  their  cavils,  made  for  that  purpose, 
set  aside,  and  not  admitted  to  have  voices,  the  bishops  cited 
hither  were  to  be  judged  by  the  very  same  persons  who  had 
])rejudged  and  condemned  them  at  their  Tables.     He  attested 
heaven  and  earth  whether  this  could  be  imagined  to  be  any 
way  a  free  Assembly  ;  and,  therefore,  called  God  to  witness, 
that  they  themselves  were  the  cause,  and  the  only  cause,  why 
this  Assembly  could  not  have  that  happy  issue  which  we 
heartily  wished.     And,  why?  the  bishops  could  receive  no 
censure  fi-om  them,  in  regard  to  these  their  sinister  proceed- 
ings;  for  how  could  any  man  expect  justice  from  them  who 
had  denied  it  to  us  in  refusing  voices  to  our  commissioners' 
assessors,  which  was  never  denied  to  our  royal  father,  when 
he  called  more  assessors  than  we  did  now  }     Much  more  to 


1838.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  615 

this  purpose  was  delivered  by  our  commissioner;  upon  all 
which  he  commanded  and  required  them  not  to  proceed  any 
farther  in  this  Assembly  ;  and  declared,  ihat  whatsoever  they 
should  say  or  do  hereafter  in  it,  he  in  our  name  protested 
against  itj  and  that  it  should  never  oblige  any  of  our  subjects, 
nor  be  imputed  for  an  act  of  this  Assembly  i." 

Here  the  marquis  caused  his  majesty's  commissions  to  be  read, 
as  they  had  been  formerly  proclaimed,  and  protested  that,  by 
producing  and  signing  them,  he  had  made  known  his  majesty's 
intentions  ;  and  now,  in  delivering  them,  he  had  disclaimed  the 
lawfulness  of  the  Assembly.  He  then  went  on  to  show  the 
illegality  of  the  lay-elders,  and  the  manifest  inconsistency  of 
their  being  greater  in  numljer  than  the  ministers  : — *"'  But  now 
I  am  sorry  T  can  go  on  with  you  no  more,  for  the  sad  part  is 
yet  behind  about  ruling  [lay]  elders;  for  neither  ruling  elders, 
nor  any  minister  chosen  commissioner  by  ruling  elders,  can 
have  voice  here  ;  because  no  such  election  is  warranted  either 
by  the  laws  of  this  church  or  kingdom,  or  by  the  practice  or 
custom  of  either ;  for  even  that  little  which  appeareth  to  make 
for  those  elders  in  the  Book  of  Discipline,  hath  by  this  time 
been  broken  by  you,  there  being  more  lay  elders  giving  votes  at 
any  one  of  these  elections  than  there  were  ministers,  contrary 

to  the  Book  of  Discipline But,  say  there  were  law  for 

those  lay -elders,  the  interruption  of  the  execution  of  that  law 
for  above  forty  years  makes  so  strong  a  prescription  against  it, 
that  without  a  new  reviving  of  that  law,  by  some  new  order 
from  the  General  Assembly,  it  ought  not  again  to  be  put  in 
practice ;  for  if  his  majesty  should  put  in  practice,  and  take 
the  penalties  of  any  disused  laws,  without  new  intimations  of 
them  from  authority,  it  would  be  thought  by  yourselves  very 
hard  dealing. 

"  To  say  nothing  of  that  office  of  lay-elders,  it  being  unknown 
to  the  Scriptures,  or  church  of  Christ  for  above  fifteen  hundred 
years,  let  the  world  judge  whether  those  laymen  be  fit  to  give 
votes  in  inflicting  the  censures  of  the  church,  especially  that 
great  and  highest  censure  of  excommunication ;  none  having 
power  to  cast  out  of  the  church  by  that  censure,  but  those  who 
have  power  to  admit  into  the  church  by  baptism ;  and  whether 
all  the  lay-elders,  here  present  at  this  Assembly,  be  fit  to  judge 
of  the  high  and  deep  mysteries  of  predestination, — of  the  uni- 
versality of  redemption, — of  the  sufficiency  of  grace  given,  or 
not  given,  to  all  men, — of  the  resistibility  of  grace, — of  total 
and  final  perseverance  or  apostacy  of  the  saints, — of  the  anti- 

J  Large  Declaration,  p.  279-80. 


616  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

lapsarian  or  postlapsaiian  opinions, — of  election  and  reproba- 
tion ; — all  which  they  mean  to  ventilate,  if  they  do  detennine 
against  the  Arminian,  as  they  give  out  they  will. 

"  In  many  presbyteries  these  lay -eiders  disagreed  in  their 
elections  wholly,  or  for  the  most  part,  from  the  ministers,  and 
carried  it  from  them  by  number  of  votes;  though,  in  all  reason, 
the  ministers  themselves  should  best  know  the  abilities  and 
fitness  of  their  brethren 

"  How  can  these  men,  now  elected, be  thought  fit  to  be  ruling 
elders  who  were  never  elders  before,  all,  or  most  part  of  them, 
being  chosen  since  the  indiction  of  the  Assembly ;  some  of 
them  but  the  very  day  before  the  election  of  their  commis- 
sioners; which  demonstrates  plainly,  that  they  were  chosen 
only  to  serve  their  associates'  turn  at  this  Assembly  ? 

"  Since  the  institution  of  lay-elders,  by  your  own  principles, 
is  to  watch  over  the  manners  of  the  people  in  the  parish  in 
which  they  live,  how  can  any  man  be  chosen  a  ruling  elder 
from  a  presbytery  who  is  liOt  an  inhabitant  within  any  parish 
of  that  presbytery,  as  hath  been  done  in  di\ers  elections, 
against  all  law,  sense,  or  reason  ? 

"  By  what  law  or  practice  was  it  ever  heard  that  young 
noblemen,  or  gentlemen,  or  others,  should  be  chosen  rulers  of 
the  church,  being  yet  minors,  and  in  all  construction  of  law 
thought  unfit  to  manage  their  own  private  estates,  unless  you 
will  grant,  that  men  of  meaner  abilities  may  be  thought  fit  to 
rule  the  church,  which  is  the  house  of  God,  than  are  fit  to  rule 
their  own  private  families  and  fortunes  ? 

*****  *  *  * 

"  This  introducing  of  ruling  elders  is  a  burthen  so  grievous 
to  the  brethren  of  the  ministry,  that  many  of  the  presbyteries 
have  protested  against  it  for  the  time  to  come ;  some  for  the 
present ;  as  shall  appear  by  divers  protestations  and  suppli- 
cations ready  to  be  here  exhibited. 

"  For  the  ministers  chosen  commissioners  hither,  besides 
that  the  fittest  are  passed  by,  and  some  chosen  who  were  never 
commissioners  of  any  Assembly  before,  that  so  they  might  not 
stand  for  their  own  liberty  in  an  Assembly  of  the  nature  where- 
of they  are  utterly  ignorant,  choice  hath  also  been  made  of 
some  who  are  under  the  censure  of  the  church  ;  of  some  who 
are  deprived  by  the  church  ;  of  some  who  have  been  banished 
and  put  out  of  the  university  of  Glasgow,  for  teaching  their 
scholars  that  monarchies  were  unlawful ;  some  banished  out 
of  this  kingdom  for  their  seditious  sermons  and  behaviour ; 
and  some,  for  the  like  offences,  banished  out  of  Ireland  ;  some 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  617 

lying  under  the  fearful  sentence  of  excommunication  ;  some 
having  no  ordination  nor  imposition  of  hands;  some  admitted 
to  tlie  ministry  contrary  to  the  standing  laws  of  this  church 
and  kingdom ; — all  of  them  chosen  bv  lav-elders  !  What  a 
scandal  were  it  to  the  reformed  churches  to  allow  this  to  be  a 
lawful  Assembly,  consisting  of  such  members,  and  so  unlaw- 
fully chosen ! 

"  Of  this  Assembly  divers  who  are  chosen  are  at  the  horn, 
[i.  e.  under  a  writ  of  outlawry]  ;  and  so,  by  the  laws  of  this 
kingdom,  are  incapable  of  sitting  as  judges  in  any  judica- 
tory. 

*****  *  *  * 

"  You  have  cited  the  reverend  prelates  of  this  land  to  appear 
before  vou  bv  a  wav  unheard  of,  not  onlv  in  this  kinardom,  but 
in  the  whole  christian  world,  their  citations  being  read  in  the 
pulpits,  which  is  not  usual  in  this  church  ;  nay,  and  many  of 
them  were  read  in  the  pulpits  after  they  had  been  delivered 
into  the  bishops'  own  hands.  How  can  his  majesty  deny  unto 
them,  being  his  subjects,  the  benefit  of  his  laws,  in  declining 
all  those  to  be  their  judges  who,  by  their  covenant,  do  hold  the 
principal  thing  in  question — to  wit,  episcopacy — to  be  ab- 
jured, as  many  of  you  do  ?  or  any  of  you  to  be  their  judges 
who  do  adhere  to  your  last  protestation,  wherein  you  declare 
that  it  is  an  office  not  known  to  this  kingdom,  although  at  this 
present  it  stands  established  both  by  acts  of  parliament  and  acts 
of  General  Assemblies?  Whoever  heard  of  such  judges  as 
have  sworn  themselves  parties?  And  if  it  shall  be  objected, 
that  the  orthodox  bishops  in  the  first  four  and  other  general 
councils  could  not  be  deemed  to  be  competent  judges  of  the 
heretics,  though  beforehand  they  had  declared  their  judgments 
against  these  heretics,  it  is  easily  answered,  that  in  matters 
of  heresy  no  man  must  be  patient,  since  in  fundamental  points 
of  faith  a  man  cannot  be  indifferent  without  the  hazard  of  his 
salvation,  and  therefore  must  declare  himself  to  be  on  Christ's 
side,  or  else  he  is  against  him;  but  in  matters  of  church  go- 
vernment and  policy,  which,  by  the  judgment  of  this  church, 
in  the  21st  Article  of  our  Confession,  are  alterable  at  the  will 
of  the  church,  it  is  not  necessary  for  any  man  who  means  to 
be  a  judge,  to  declare  himself,  especially  against  that  govern- 
ment which  stands  established  by  law  at  the  time  of  his  decla- 
ration ;  being  not  only  not  necessary, but  likewise  not  lawful  at 
that  time  for  him  so  to  do.  Now,  this  declaration  all  you  who 
adhere  to  the  last  protestation  have  made,  even  since  you 
meaned  to  be  the  bishops'  judges.    Besides,  even  those  ortho- 

voL.  I.  4  k 


618  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XlV. 

clox  fathers  never  did  declare  themselves  against  the  heretics, 
their  persons  or  callings,  by  oaths  and  protestations,  as  you 
have  done;  for  that  had  been  a  prejudging  them,  and  this 
prejudging  in  you  makes  you  now  to  be  incompetent  judges. 

"  Upon  the  whole  matter,  then,  there  are  but  two  things  left 
for  me  to  say :  first,  you  yourselves  have  so  proceeded  in  the 
business  of  this  Assembly,  that  it  is  impossible  the  fruits  so 
much  wished  and  prayed  for  can  be  obtained  in  it;  because, 
standing  as  it  does,  it  will  make  the  church  ridiculous  to  all 
the  adversaries  of  our  religion ;  it  will  grieve  and  wound  all  our 
reformed  churches  who  hear  of  it;  it  will  make  his  majesty's 
justice  traduced  throughout  the  whole  christian  world,  if  he 
should  suffer  his  subjects,  in  that  which  concerns  their  callings, 
their  reputations,  and  their  fortunes,  to  be  judged  by  their 
SWORN  ENEMIES.  If,  therefore,  you  will  dissolve  yourselves, 
and  amend  all  these  errors  in  a  new  election,  I  will  with  all 
convenient  speed  address  myself  to  his  majesty,  and  use  the 
utmost  of  my  intercession  with  his  saci'ed  majesty  for  the  in- 
diction  of  a  new  Assembly,  before  the  meeting  whereof  all  these 
things  now  challenged  maybe  amended:  if  you  shall  refuse 
this  offer,  his  majesty  will  then  declare  to  the  whole  world  that 
you  are  the  disturbers  of  the  peace  of  this  church  and  state, 
both  by  introducing  of  lay-elders  against  the  laws  and  practices 
of  this  church  and  kingdom,  and  by  going  about  to  abolish 
episcopal  government,  which  at  this  present  stands  established 
by  both  the  said  laws:  two  points  (I  dare  say),  and  you  must 
swear  it,  if  your  conscience  be  appealed  to  (as  was  well  observed 
by  that  reverend  gentleman  we  heard  preach  the  last  Sunday) 
which  these  you  drew  into  your  covenant  were  never  made 
acquainted  with  at  their  entering  into  it ;  much  less  could  they 
suspect  that  these  two  should  be  made  the  issue  of  this  busi- 
ness, and  the  two  stumbling-blocks  to  make  them  fall  off  from 
their  natural  obedience  to  their  sovereign  ^" 

Henderson  made  a  long  speech  in  reply  to  the  lord  commis- 
sioner, "  ivell  penned,  which  he  had  in  readiness  whensoever 
the  Assembly  should  be  dissolved ;"  wherein,  says  Buiniet, 
"  he  said  much  to  the  magnifying  of  the  king's  authority  in 
matters  ecclesiastical,  calling  him  the  universal  bishop  of  the 
churches  in  his  dominions,  with  other  such-like  expressions, 
which  gave  no  small  disgust  to  many  of  the  zealous  brethren." 
He  vindicated  the  proceedings  of  the  Assembly,  and  particu- 
larly in  declaring  themselves  judges  of  the  bishops.  The 
charge  against  the  bishops  was  one  of  the  most  scandalous 

1  Burnet's  Memoirs  of  the  Dukes  of  Hamilton. — Large  Declaration,  p.  280. 


1638.]  CHUKCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  619 

ever  heard  of  in  the  christian  church,  for  every  one  of  them, 
except  two  who  apostatised  from  covetousness,  were  charged 
with  heresy,  symony,  peijury,  incest,  adultery,  fornication,  and 
breach  of  the  Lord's  day.  These  homble  accusations  against 
men  of  blameless  lives  were  the  malignant  libels  of  false  trai-  i 
tors  who  had  entirely  succumbed  to  the  god  of  this  world,  and 
hurried  on  that  crisis  for  the  base  purpose  of  keeping  posses- 
sion of  property  procured  by  sacrilegious  spoliation.  The 
king  says,  "  We  shall  desire  the  reader  to  observe  their  pro- 
ceedings in  one  process,  which  we  are  confident  was  framed 
and  ])ursued  with  such  malice,  injustice,  falsehood,  and  scan- 
dal, not  only  to  the  reformed  religion  in  particular,  but  to  the 
chiistian  religion  in  general,  as  it  cannot  be  paralleled  by  any 
precedent  of  injustice  in  preceding  ages,  nor  (we  hope)  shall 
ever  be  followed  in  future ;  and  which,  if  it  were  known  among 
Turks  or  infidels,  would  make  them  abhor  the  christian  reli- 
gion, if  they  did  think  it  would  either  countenance  or  could 
consort  with  such  abominable  impiety  and  injustice  ^" 

Henderson,  of  course,  denied  all  the  charges  which  the 
marquis  had  made  against  prejudging  the  bishops,  and  the 
prelimitation  to  the  electors  of  the  members.  To  Avhich  the 
marquis  well  replied,  "  As  for  your  pretence  of  your  unlimited 
freedom,  you  indeed  refused  so  much  as  to  hear  from  his  ma- 
jesty's commissioner  of  any  prudent  treaty  for  the  preparing 
"and  right  ordering  of  things  before  the  Assembly ;  alleging 
that  it  could  not  be  a  free  assembly  where  there  was  any  pre- 
limitation either  of  the  choosers  or  of  those  to  be  chosen,  or 
of  things  to  be  treated  of  in  the  Assembly,  but  that  all  things 
must  be  discussed  upon  the  place,  else  the  Assembly  could  not 
be  free  :  but  whether  you  yourselves  have  not  violated  that 
which  you  call  freedom,  let  any  man  judge  ;  for,  besides  these 
instructions,  which  it  may  be  are  not  come  to  our  knowledge, 
we  have  seen,  and  offer  now  to  produce, /owr  several  papers  of 
instructions  sent  fi-om  them  whom  you  call  the  Tables,  con- 
taining alio/ them  prelhnitations,  and  such  as  are  not  only  re- 
pugnant to  that  which  you  call  the  freedom,  but  to  that  which 
is  indeed  the  freedom  of  an  assembly.  Two  of  these  papers 
were  such  as  you  were  contented  should  be  communicated  to  all 
your  associates — to  wit,  that  larger  paper  sent  abroad  to 
all  presbyteries,  immediately  after  his  majesty's  indiction 
of  the  Assembly,  and  that  lesser  paper  for  your  meeting  first 
at  Edinburgh,  then  at  Glasgow,  some  days  before  the  Assem- 
bly J  which  paper  gave  order  for  choosing  of  assessors,  and 

'  Large  Declaration,  p.  207. 


620  HISTOUY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

divers  other  particulars  :  but  your  other  two  papers  of  secret 
instructions  were  directed,  one  of  them  only  to  one  minister 
of  every  presbytery,  to  be  communicated  by  him  as  he  should 
see  cause,  but  to  be  quite  concealed  from  the  rest  of  the  mi- 
nisters ;  the  other  paper  was  directed  only  to  one  layman  of 
every  presbytery,  and  to  be  communicated  by  him  as  he  should 
see  cause,  but  to  be  quite  concealed  from  all  others.  In  both 
which  papers  are  contained  such  directions  which,  being  fol- 
lowed, as  they  were,  have  quite  banished  all  freedom  from  this 
Assembly,  as  shall  appear  by  reading  the  papers  them- 
selves ^" 

The  marquis  then  directed  these  secret  instructions  to  be 
read,  but  which,  of  course,  were  disowned  by  the  Assembly, 
as  being  merely  the  private  opinions  of  some  zealous  indivi- 
duals. But  the  elections  having  been  all  conducted  according 
to  these  private  instructions,  it  is  an  unquestionable  proof,  as  the 
marquis  said,  that  "  they  were  sent  by  an  authority  which  all 
feared  to  disobey."  In  conclusion,  he  said,  "  That  for  many 
months  the  Tables  had  been  obeyed  by  all ;  but  he  would  now 
make  a  trial  what  obedience  they  would  give  to  the  king's  com- 
mand ;  and  protested  that  one  of  the  chief  reasons  that  moved 
him  to  dissolve  this  Assembly  was  to  deliver  the  ministers  from 
the  tyranny  of  lay  elders,  w^ho  (if  not  suppressed)  would  (as 
they  were  now  designing  the  ruin  of  episcopal  powTr)  prove  not 
only  ruling,  but  over-ruling  elders'^;" — "and  withal  added, 
that  if  they  would  now  depart,  he  would  be  suitor  to  us 
for  the  indiction  of  a  new  free  General  Assembly,  in  which 
they  might  moderate  the  faults  committed  by  them  in  their 
proceedings  in  this." 

It  became  now  the  marquis's  imperative  duty  to  dissolve 
the  Assembly,  and  which  he  did  in  his  majesty's  name,  and 
discharged  their  further  proceedings  under  joam  of  treason;  yet 
not  without  such  sensible  marks  of  grief,  says  Buniet,  as 
affected  all  present.  He  likewise,  in  his  own  name  and  in 
that  of  the  lords  of  the  clergy,  protested  that  no  act  there 
should  imply  his  consent,  or  be  accounted  lawful  or  of  force 
to  bind  any  of  his  majesty's  subjects.  A  rumour  had  been 
circulated  in  the  morning,  that  it  was  his  grace's  intention  to 
dissolve  the  Assembly,  and  the  leading  men  had  taken  their 
measures  accordingly.  Lord  Rothes  presented  a  protest 
against  the  dissolution,  and  the  earl  of  Argyle,  who  now^  began 
to  throw  off"  the  mask  which  he  had  so  long  worn,  presented 

1  Large  Declaration,  281-284. 
^  Burnet's  Memoirs  of  Dukes  of  Hamilton,  lib.  ii.  101-106. 


1638.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  621 

another  in  the  name  of  the  presbyteries,  universities,  and 
burghs.  After  a  long  speech,  to  encourage  tlie  Assembly,  the 
moderator  put  tlie  question,  "  whether  they  would  adhere  to 
the  protestation  against  the  lord  commissioner's  departure,  and 
continue  constituted  till  all  things  needful  were  concluded,  or 
not  ?"  On  the  vote  being  taken,  "  the  whole  members  pro- 
mised heartily  to  abide,  on  all  hazards  ^^  The  faithful  histo- 
rian must,  however,  record  the  names  of  sir  John  Carnegie,  of 
Cathie,  and  the  reverends  Thomas  Thoirs,  John  Watson,  Jo- 
seph Brodie,  John  Annan,  and  Dr.  Barron,  who  left  the  Assem- 
bly the  moment  that  the  commissioner  dissolved  it.  The  busi- 
ness of  this  session  was  concluded  by  the  question,  "  whether 
the  Assembly  do  find  themselves  lawful  and  competent  judges 
to  the  pretended  archbishops  and  bishops  of  this  kingdom, 
and  the  complaints  given  in  against  them  and  their  adherents, 
notwithstanding  of  their  declinature  and  protestation  ?"  and 
the  whole  Assembly  voted  affirmatively'^. 

The  marquis  summoned  a  council ;  yet  so  doubtful  was  he 
of  their  allegiance,  that  he  dared  not  ask  them  to  subscribe  his 
proclamation  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Assembly,  but  procured 
their  signatures  separately  next  morning.  His  proclama- 
tion was  read,  on  Thursday,  the  29th  of  November,  at  the 
Market-cross,  but  which  was  immediately  met  with  a  protest 
by  the  earl  of  Rothes  and  others.  The  earl  of  Argyle  also 
withdrew  from  the  council  and  joined  the  Assembly,  and  sat 
there  constantly  until  its  close.  Although  he  sat  and  voted 
in  this  Assembly  as  a  lay-elder,  yet  he  had  never  been  elected 
as  a  member  for  any  burgh  or  presbytery.  He  had  the  im- 
pudent effrontery  to  acknowledge  his  treachery,  by  openly 
saying  in  the  Assembly,  "  that  from  the  beginning  he  had 
been  theirs,  and  would  have  taken  that  cause  by  the  hand  as 
soon  as  any  of  them  did,  had  it  not  been  that  he  conceived  that 
his  professing  hitherto /or  the  king,  and  going  along  with  his 
council,  was  more  available  to  them  than  if  he  had  declarea 
himself  at  once  for  them^J''' 

"  Always,"  says  bishop  Guthry,  "  Argyle's  example,  toge- 
ther with  my  lord  commissioner's  so  quiet  deportment,  being 
in  the  midst  of  the  country  where  his  power  lay,  wrought  so 
upon  the  lords  of  the  council,  and  other  noblemen  also  (who 
had  formerly  stood  out),  that  many  of  them  during  the  time 
of  the  Assembly,  and  others  of  them  shortly  after,  joined  to 

^  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  p.  309. 

-  Calfour's  Annals,  ii.' 303 -4.— -Guthry 's  Mem,  41. 

»  Stevenson's  Ch.  and  State,  310.— Baillie's  Letters,  p.  145.    . 


622  HISTOKY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

the  covenanters^"     The  marquis  considered  their  secession 
as  rather  advantageous  than  otherwise^. 

The  privy  council  wrote  to  the  king,  and  commended  the 
marquis's  zeal  and  diligence  in  his  service  ;  and  he  departed 
for  his  palace  at  Hamilton,  and  carried  the  three  prelates  with 
him,  who  had  been  in  amanner  imprisoned  in  the  castle  of  Glas- 
gow, in  order  to  secure  their  personal  safety  from  the  excited 
fury  of  the  populace.  While  taking  horse,  Spalding  says, 
"  the  earl  of  Argyle,  the  earl  of  Rothes,  and  lord  Lindsay, 
three  pillars  of  the  covenant,  had  some  pj'ivy  speeches  with 
him,  which  drew  suspicion  that  he  w^as  on  their  side^."  From 
thence  he  went  to  Edinburgh,  and  despatched  an  account  of 
the  late  proceedings  of  the  Assembly  to  the  king,  and  asked 
pel-mission  to  wait  on  him.  The  king,  in  reply,  acknowledged 
the  marquis's  services,  and  approved  of  his  having  dissolved  the 
Assembly.  The  marquis  also  received  two  letters  from  arch- 
bishop Laud,  in  which  he  thanks  him  for  his  protection  of  the 
prelates  from  the  fury  of  the  people  ;  and  adds,  "  I  heartily 
pray  your  lordship  to  thank  both  the  bishop  of  Ross  and  the 
dean  [of  Durham,  Balcanqual]  for  their  kind  letters,  and  the 
full  account  they  have  given  me  ;  but  there  is  no  particular 
that  requires  an  answer  in  either  of  them,  saving  that  I  find  in 
the  dean's  letter,  that  Mr.  Alexander  Henderson,  who  went  all 
this  while  for  a  quiet  and  calm-spirited  man,  hath  shewed 
himself  a  most  violent  and  passionate  man,  and  a  moderator 
tvithout  moderation'^.'''' 

No  sooner  had  the  commissioner  retired,  than  the  lord 
Erskine,  eldest  son  of  the  earl  of  Mai',  addressed  the  Assem- 
bly:  "  My  lords,  and  the  rest,  my  heart  hath  been  with  you;  I 
will  dally  no  more  with  God  ;  I  beg  to  be  admitted  into  your 
blessed  covenant,  and  pray  you  all  to  pray  to  God  for  me,  that 
He  would  forgive  me  for  dallying  with  hirn  so  long."  Three 
other  gentlemen  desired  the  same,  and  they  were  all  imme- 
diately admitted  into  this  bond  of  rebellion,  and  "  fore-runner 
of  many  woes."  "  These  men  were  resolved  to  enter  into  their 
covenant  long  ago,  but  were  on  purpose  for  doing  of  it  at  that 
hour,  for  the  greater  glory  of  their  covenant ;  for  no  sooner  had 
they  sworn,  and  the  moderator  received  them  by  the  hand,  but 
jiresently  he  desired  the  whole  audience  to  admire  God's  ap- 
probation and  sealing  of  their  proceedings,  that  even  at  that 

^  Guthry's  Memoirs,  41.  '  Burnet's  Memoirs,  lib.  ii.  107. 

3   Spalding's  History  of  the  Troubles  in  Scotland  and  England,  i.  79. 
*  Burnet's  Memoirs,  lib.  ii.  107—108. 


1638.]  GHURCn  OF  Scotland,  623 

instant,  when  they  might  have  feared  some  shrinking  and  back- 
sUding,  because  of  the  present  ruptm-e,  He  had  moved  the 
hearts  of  these  men  to  beg  admittance  into  their  blessed 
society ! ^" 

1.  Thursday,  29th  of  November,  1638.— This  is  called  the 
eighth  session  of  the  Assembly ;  but  as  it  was  lawfully  dissolved 
by  the  same  authority  that  convoked  it,  this  day  must  commence 
de  novo  another  Assembly,  which  sat  under  the  pain  of  rebel- 
lion, and  in  defiance  of  the  king's  authority,  although  they 
acknowledged  his  right  to  call  and  preside  in  all  national 
Assemblies.  The  early  part  of  this  day  was  occupied  in  hear- 
ing the  royal  proclamation  for  the  dissolution  of  the  Assembly, 
at  the  Market  Cross ;  which  discharged  and  inhibited  all  the 
members  of  the  said  Assembly  from  further  meeting,  convening, 
treating,  and  consulting  any  thing  belonging  to  the  said  Assem- 
bly, under  the  pain  of  treason.  On  its  conclusion,  Johnston 
of  Warriston  assisted  the  lord  Erskine  and  others  to  read  their 
protest,  and  peremptorily  refused  to  dissolve  the  Assembly,  for 
reasons  wdiich  they  then  declared.  After  this  formality  the 
Assembly  met  as  formerly,  under  the  conduct  of  Henderson, 
the  moderator  "  without  moderation."  After  some  other  busi- 
ness, a  committee  was  appointed  "  for  consideration  of  the 
service-book,  the  book  of  canons  and  ordination,  and  the  high 
commission,  that  it  might  be  known  to  posterity  what  great 
mercy  the  Lord  had  showed  in  delivering  us  from  them.  As 
also  that  it  might  be  known  to  the  world,  that  the  supplications 
against  these  books  had  been  just,  and  that  some  monuments 
of  their  wickedness  might  be  left  to  the  generations  fol- 
lowing "^r 

2.  The  second-ninth  session,  Friday,  the  30th  November, 
was  chiefly  occupied  in  condemning  the  General  Assem- 
blies of  Perth,  St.  Andrews,  Glasgow,  Linlithgow,  and  Aber- 
deen ;  and  a  committee  was  appointed  in  order  to  revise  the 
registers,  and  "  for  putting  the  nullities  of  these  Assemblies 
into  a  formal  act 3." 

3.  Saturday,  the  1st  December,  was  their  third  session, or  the 
tenth  according  to  their  o\Aai  calculation,  when  they  put  several 
clergymen  upon  their  trial,  in  absence,  for  points  of  doctrine ;  and 
as  a  specimen  of  their  doctrinal  views  we  shall  select  the  case 

^  Large  Declaration,  p.  2S7. 

^  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  310-318. — Baillie's  Letters,  145-148. — Bal- 
four's Annals,  ii.  305. 

^  Baillie's  Letters,  148. — Stevenson's  Church  and  State  321. — Balfour's  Anns, 
ii.  306,  307. 


624  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

of  Dr.  Panther,  who  was  professor  of  divinity  In  the  New  Col 
lege,  St.  Andrews,  and  v/hom  they  condemned  and  deposed. 
It  may  not  be  beyond  the  bounds  of  charity  to  imagine  that 
his  chair  in  the  University  was  coveted  for  a  professor  more  to 
their  own  theological  taste.     In  his  case,  "  it  was  proven  that, 
besides  recommending  Canterbury's  method  of  study  to  our 
youth,  viz.  to  begin  with  the  popish  schoolmen  and  fathers, 
and  to  close  with  protestants,  a  most  unhappy  and  dangerous 
order,  he  had,  in  his  notes,  turned  aside  to  the  popish  justifica- 
tion, and,  in  his  discourses  on  original  sin,  to  the  grossest  pela 
gianism,  besides  other  points  of  Arminianism.    On  which,  Mr 
Baillie  observes,  '  that  though  they  [the  ministers]  were  dumb, 
the  heavens  did  cry  for  vengeance  against  the  bishops,  for 
suffering  the  church  to  be  undermined  with  such  instruments 
of  their  own  making  and  maintaining^.'  " 

4.  Monday,  December  3d,  was  their  4th- 11th  session.  Mr. 
Mitchel,  one  of  the  clergy  of  Edinburgh,  was,  in  absence,  tried 
and  found  guilty  of  Aeresy, inasmuch  as  he  had  gloried  in  teach- 
ing universal  grace  and  the  universal  efficacy  of  Christ's  death, 
the  resistibility  of  grace,  and  the  falling  away  of  the  saints. 
These  catholic  verities,  which  more  clearly  develop  the  doc- 
trines of  the  church  at  that  time  than  any  laboured  confession  of 
feiith,  were  wound  up  with  the  usual  charge  of  arminianism  and 
popery,  and  of  having  declined  the  authority  of  this  Assembly. 
He  was  unanimouslyfound  guilty  of  the  heresy  of  holding  sound 
catholic  doctrines  ;  and  the  moderator,  being  under  that  strong 
delusion  which  gives  credit  to  a  lie,  pronounced  sentence  of  de- 
privation "  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  name  of  this 
Assembly  convened  in  His  name .'"  The  business  of  this  session 
was  concluded  by  reading  a  letter  from  the  lord  bishop  of 
Orkney,  apologizing  that  from  age  and  sickness,  and  the  length 
of  the  journey,  he  had  been  unable  to  obey  their  summons,  but 
that  he  now  submitted  simpliciter  to  their  judgment'^ !  This  was 
one  of  the  Iscariot  tribe,  who  unhappily,  from  covetous  motives, 
came  under  our  Lord's  censure,  "  No  man  having  put  his  hand 
to  the  plough,  and  looking  back,  is  fit /or  the  kingdom  o/  God'^." 
In  his  letter  "  he  acknowledged  the  unlawfulness  of  his  office, 
and  declared  his  unfeigned  sorrow  and  grief  for  his  having  ex- 
ercised such  a  sinful  office  in  the  church  ;  affirming  the  same 
to  have  no  warrant  from  the  Word  of  God,  and  to  have  been  the 
occasion  of  many  fearful  and  evil  consequences,  both  in  Scotland 

'  Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  323. — Balfour's  Annals,  307. 

2  BailHe's  Letters,  151.— Stevenson's  Church  and  State,  325,  326.— Balfour's 
Annals,  ii.  307. 

3  St.  Luke,  ix.  62. 


1838.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  C25 

and  other  parts  of  Christendom  :  he  therefore  abjures  all  epis 
copal  power  and  jurisdiction,  and  swears  by  the  great  name  Oj 
the  Lord  God,  while  he  lives  never  directly  or  indirectly  to  ex- 
ercise that  power  in  the  kirk,  or  to  approve  or  allow  it  so  much 
a.s  in  discourse,  either  public  or  px'ivate  ^"  "  By  this  submis- 
sion, being  only  deposed  from  his  episcopal  function,  he  was 
not  excommunicated  by  the  Assembly,  as  the  far  greater  part 
of  his  brethren  the  bishops  were  ;  and  thereby  he  saved  his 
estate  of  Gorthie,  and  the  money  he  had  upon  bond,  which 
otherwise  would  all  have  fallen  under  escheat."  Upon  Gra- 
ham's apostacy  and  renunciation  of  the  episcopal  office,  the 
king  appointed  Dr.  Robert  Baron,  Professor  of  Divinity  in 
Marischall  College,  Aberdeen,  "  a  man  famous  for  his  writ- 
ings and  other  good  qualifications ;"  but,  being  forced  by  the 
persecution  of  the  times  to  leave  the  kingdom,  he  died  at  Ber- 
wick, and  was  never  consecrated  2. 

5.  Tuesday,  December  4th,  was  their  fifth-twelfth  session. 
The  Reverends  William  Maxwell  of  Dunbar,  and  George 
Sydserf  of  Cobunispath,  were  deposed  for  the  maintenance 
of  sound  catholic  doctrines,  and  for  appealing  to  the  king 
against  the  tyranny  of  this  Assembly.  Dr.  Gladstanes,  son  of 
the  late  archbishop  and  archdeacon  of  St.  Andrews,  was  de- 
posed "  with  one  mouth "  for  the  same  cause.  The  last  six 
General  Assemblies  which  had  been  held  under  the  late  king's 
sanction  and  authority,  and  all  of  whose  acts  had  been  solemnly 
ratified  in  as  many  different  parliaments,  "  were  voiced  with 
one  consent"  to  be  "  nullities."  "  The  Assembly,  with  the 
universal  consent  of  all,  after  the  serious  examinations  of  the 
reasons  against  every  one  of  these  pretended  Assemblies  apart, 
being  often  urged  by  the  moderator  to  inform  themselves 
thoroughly  that,  without  doubting,  and  with  a  full  persuasion 
of  mind,  they  might  give  their  voices,  declared  all  these  six 
Assemblies  of  Linlithgow,  1606  and  1608;  Glasgow,  1610; 
Aberdeen,  1616  ;  St.  Andrews,  1617;  Perth,  1618;  and  every 
one  of  them,  to  have  been  from  the  beginning  unfree,  unlawful, 
and  null  Assemblies,  and  never  to  have  had,  nor  hereafter  to 
have,  any  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  their  conclusions  to  have 
been  and  to  be  of  no  force,  vigovu",  nor  efficacy ;  prohibited  all 
defence  and  observation  of  them,  and  ordained  the  reasons  of 
their  nullity  to  be  inserted  in  the  books  of  the  Assembly^." 
Balfour  says,  that  the  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  was  unani- 

'  Nalson's  Impartial  Collection,  i.  252. 
^  Keith's  Catalogue  of  Scottish  Bishops,  p.  227. 

^  Johnston's  Collections  of  Acts  of  Assembly,  from  1638  to  1649,  pp.  8  and  9. 
— Baillie. — Stevenson. — Balfour. 

VOL.  I.  4  L 


626  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CH\P.  XIV, 

mously  deposed  in  this  session;  but  this  act  is  not  named  by 
any  other  author. 

6.  Wednesday,  December  5th,  the  sixth  or  thirteenth  session. 
The  moderator  deduced  from  the  Act  of  Nullity  which  was 
passed  the  preceding  session,  that  they  were  absolved  from 
their  canonical  oaths  to  the  bishops,  that  presbyteries  and 
Assemblies  were  restored  to  their  rights,  and  that  the  ordina- 
tions and  depositioiis  by  presbyteries  passed  lately  without 
bishops  were  valid  and  legaP.  The  act  declares  that  "  the 
oaths  and  subscriptions  exacted  by  tlie  prelates  of  the  intrants 
in  the  ministry  all  this  time  bypast  (as  without  any  pretext 
of  wan-ant  from  the  kirk,  so  for  obedience  of  the  acts  of  these 
null  Assemblies,  and  contrary  to  the  ancient  and  laudable  con- 
stitutions of  this  kirk,  ivhich  never  have  been  nor  can  be  lawfully 
repealed,  but  must  stand  in  force,)  to  be  unlawful  and  no  way 
obligatory  2."  After  having  absolved  themselves  from  their 
oaths,  in  the  manner  of  the  papists,  they  put  Dr.  Hamilton, 
procurator  for  the  bishops,  on  his  trial,  in  absence,  and  without 
any  difficulty  found  him  guilty  of  affronting  the  Assembly,  by 
addressing  their  president,  after  the  king  had  dissolved  the 
meeting,  as  Mr.  Henderson,  minister  of  Leuchars,  instead  of 
moderator;  of  absence  from  his  parish,  seeking  promotion;  of 
profanation  of  the  Sabbath ;  of  ordinary  swearing,  and  a  violent 
persecutor  in  requiring  his  parishioners  to  commmiicate  kneel- 
ing, &c.  He  was  deposed  and  deprived  oi"  his  parish,  but  of 
which  he  kept  possession  till  he  was  forcibly  driven  away,  when 
he  fled  to  England  for  personal  protection.  John  Chrichton, 
minister  of  Paisley,  and  several  others,  were  deposed  for  main- 
taining catholic  doctrines, but  which  were  termed  arminianism 
and  popery  3. 

7.  Thursday,  December  6th,  the  seventh  or  fourteenth 
session.  "  Many  large  and  tedious  treatises  against  the  books 
were  read.     We  got  all  thanks  for  our  labours.     A  resolution 

was  taken  to  put  us  all  in  print and,  indeed,  there 

•were  many  things  in  our  pamphlets  might  not  well  haveabidden 
the  light;  how  well  soever,  at  the  first  reading  they  pleased 
men  unacquainted  with  that  kind  of  study."  In  truth,  they 
were  so  stuffed  with  uncharitable  malignant  railings  against  the 
bishops  and  orthodox  clergy,  that  even  the  more  sober  of  their 
own  party  were  ashamed.  "  I  took  it  ever  for  one  ol'our  party's 
greatest  crimes,"  says  Baillie,  "  that  they  cast  all  burdens  on 
the  back  of  our  sweet  prince  yet,  and  themselves  have  never 
endeavoured  to  satisfy  as  many  of  their  challenges,  either  by 

'  Baillie's  Letters,  i.  p.  152.  "  Johnston's  Collections,  p.  15. 

^  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  308. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  627 

maintaining  them  in  reason,  or  confessing  their  errors  by  in- 
genuous repentance  ^" 

Four  acts  or  decrees  were  this  day  passed — against,  first,  the 
Liturgy ;  second,  the  Book  of  Canons ;  third,  the  Book  of  Con- 
secration of  Bishops,  and  Ordination  of  Priests  and  Deacons  ; 
foarth,  the  High  Commission  Court^.  "  The  said  books,  by 
full  consent  of  the  Assembly,  were  rejected  and  condemned  as 
popish,  erroneous,  and  altogether  destructive  to  the  discipline 
established  in  the  church  of  Scotland,  and  others  of  the  best  re- 
formed churches  of  Europe^." 

8.  Friday,  7th  of  December,  the  eighth  or  fifteenth  session. 
"  The  bishop  of  Dunkeld  sent  us,  in  writing,  his  simple  dimis- 
sion*."  Alexander  Lindsay  was  a  son  of  Mr.  Lindsay,  of 
Evelick,  and  was  promoted  fi-om  the  parsonage  of  St.  Madoe's, 
in  the  Carse  of  Go  wry,  Perthshire,  in  the  year  1607  ;  and  he 
now  "renounced  his  office,  abjured  episcopacy,  submitted  to 
presbyterian  parity,  and  accepted  from  the  then  rulers  his 
former  church  of  St.  Madoe's 5."  "  Thereafter,"  says  Bailie, 
"  the  bishop's  censures  came  thick  upon  us."  Thomas  Sydserf^ 
bishop  of  Galloway,  was  accused  of  breach  of  the  caveats^ 
arminianism,  of  having  a  crucifix  in  his  chamber,  of  professing 
more  love  for  papists  than  for  puritans,  &c.  John  Spottiswood, 
archbishop  of  St.  Andrews,  and  lord  chancellor  of  the  kingdom, 
was  charged  with,  and,  of  course,  found  to  have  been  guilty  of, 
profaning  the  Sabbath,  carding  and  diceing,  riding  through  the 
country  the  whole  day,  tippling  and  drinking  in  taverns  till  mid- 
night, falsifying  the  acts  of  Aberdeen  Assembly,  lying  and 
slandering  the  old  Assembly  and  Covenant  in  his  wicked  book, 
of  adultery,  incest,  sacrilege,  and  ftequent  simony.  He  was 
deposed,  and  decreed  to  be  excommunicated.  They  next 
arraigned  Dr.  Walter  Whitford,  bishop  of  Brechin,  against 
whom  they  brought  the  usual  list  of  crimes;  and,  in  proof  of 
their  infamous  breach  of  the  ninth  commandment.  Bailie  says, 
"  also  a  woman  and  child  brought  before  us,  that  made  his 
adultery  very  probable.^''  "  The  man  was  reputed  to  be  univer- 
sally infamous  for  many  crimes  ;  yet  such  was  his  impudence, 
that,  it  was  said,  he  was  ready  to  have  compeared  before  us  for 
his  justification."  This  worthy  and  maligned  man  of  course 
was  ordered  to  be  excommunicated^.  He  fled  for  preservation 
of  his  life  into  England,  for,  having  been  a  zealous  supporter 
of  the  liturgy,  he  was  obnoxious  to  the  furious  covenanters. 

^  Bailie's  Letters,  153.  '  Johnston's  Collections,  lG-18. 

3  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  309.  *  Bailie's  Letters,  i.  154. 

*  Keith's  Catalogue,  98.  "  Bailie's  Letters,  &c.  i.  155. 


628  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV, 

9.  Saturday,  8th  of  December,  theninth  or  sixteenth  session. 
The  subject  of  discussion  this  day  was  respecting  the  lawful- 
ness of  episcopacy,  and  whether  or  not  it  was  understood  to 
be  abjured  in  the  covenant  of  1580.  Argyle  stated  that  many 
entertained  doubts  in  what  sense  the  covenant  of  1580  should 
be  signed :  he  and  others  had  subscribed  it,  at  the  king's  com- 
mand, in  the  sense  in  which  it  was  understood  in  that  year. 
But  some  alleged  that  episcopacy  made  at  that  time  a  part  of  the 
discipline  of  our  church  ;  whilst  others  considered  that  it  was 
therein  disavowed  ;  therefore,  as  this  Assembly  was  the  fittest 
nidge  of  that  controversy,  he  proposed  that  these  doubts  should 
be  removed  hy  their  decision.  "  This  motion  was  thought 
reasonable  ;  so,  for  clearing  the  minds  of  all,  the  clerk  brought 
forth  a  large  scroll  as  the  labour  of  the  committee,  consisting  of 
three  parts : — 1 .  Of  reasons  shewing  the  necessity  to  clear  the 
sense  of  the  covenant  in  the  1580  year ;  next  a  number  of  pas- 
sages of  our  General  Assemblies,  from  the  1576  to  the  1596, 
and  ofourBookof  Discipline,  condemning  episcopacy ;  thirdly, 
an  answer  to  some  objections.  After  reading  of  all  this  at  leisure, 
the  question  was  formed  about  the  abjuration  of  all  kinds  of 
episcopacy  in  such  terms  as  I  pi'ofess  1  did  not  well  in  the  time 
understand,  and  thought  them  so  cunningly  intricate,  that 
hardly  could  I  give  any  answer,  either  ita  or  non.  To  make 
any  public  dispute  I  thought  it  not  safe,  being  myself  alone, 
and  fearing,  above  all  evils,  to  be  the  occasion  of  any  division, 
which  was  our  certain  wreck.  The  farthest  I  aimed  at  was, 
in  voicing  to  declare  shortly  my  mind :  so  when  all  men  were 
called  to  pi'opone  what  doubts  they  had,  before  the  voicing,  I, 
with  all  the  rest,  was  as  dumb  as  a  fish-  When  it  came  to  my 
name,  many  eyes  were  fixed  on  me,  expecting  some  opposi- 
tion ;  but  all  I  said  was, — That,  according  to  the  express 
words  of  the  Assembly,  1580,  1581,  episcopacy  was  to  be  dis- 
tinguished :  episcopacy  as  used  and  taken  in  the  church  of 
Scotland,  I  thought  to  be  removed  ;  yea,  that  it  was  a  popish 
error,  against  Scripture  and  antiquity,  and  so  then  abjured ;  but 
episco])acy  simpliciter,  such  as  was  in  the  ancient  church,  and 
in  our  own  church  during  Knox's  days,  in  the  person  of  the 
superintendents,  it  was,  for  many  reasons,  to  be  removed,  but 
NOT  abjured  in  our  confession  of  faith.  This,  Argyle  and 
Loudon,  and  many,  took  out  of  my  mouth,  as  not  ill  said,  and 
nothing  against  their  mind,  who  spake  not  of  episcopacy  sim- 
vliciter,  but  in  our  own  church,  whether  or  not  it  had  been 
condenmed  at  the  time  of  the  covenant's  first  subscription. 
I  replied  no  more ;  but  if  I  had  considered  the  moderator's 
stating  of  the  question,  as  it  7ioiv  stands  in  print,  I  would  have 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  C29 

said  without  any  hesitation,  that  it  did  seem  i  me  to  be 
Poluzetesis,  consisting  at  least  of  three  much  different  ques- 
tions, all  which  required  divers  answers In  voicing, 

many  to  the  number  of  fifty  and  above,  as  some,  who  curiously 
remarked,  did  avow  '  remove  episcopacy,'  but  said  nought  of 
their  abjuration :  yea,  sundry  of  prime  men  there  will  yet 
avow  that  they  never  thought  all  episcopacy  abjured  in  our 
church,  notwithstanding  all  was  taken  for  abjurers  and  re- 
movers by  the  clerk  ;  and  that  very  justly  for  answering  affirma- 
tive to  one  part  of  the  question,  and  negative  to  none,  they 
ought  to  be  taken  as  affirming  the  whole  ;  yea,  not  one,  when 
the  question  of  abjuring  came  over  again,  as  it  did  twice  there- 
after, would  be  plain ;  but  all  was  content  but  poor  I,  to  be 
counted  abjurers.  If  any  man,  for  any  respect,  did  dissemble 
his  judgment,  his  own  heart  knows ;  I  will  judge  no  man.  That 
day  was  closed  with  hearty  thanksgiving,  for  so  great  an  har- 
mony, in  a  matter  of  high  consequence  where  no  small  discre- 
pance was  feared."  In  this  transaction  we  have  a  full  con- 
fession and  decision,  on  an  authority  which  presby terians  con- 
sider superior  to  the  six  first  general  councils,  that  Knox's 
superintendents  were  bishops ;  and  more,  that  this  Assembly 
did  not  abjure  that  particular  episcopacy  ^ 

10.  Monday,  December  10th,  the  tenth-seventeenth  session. 
The  five  articles  of  Perth  were  "  in  one  voice  totally  abjured 
and  removed."  The  bishops  of  Edinburgh,  Aberdeen,  Ross,  and 
Dumblane,  were  all  of  them  deposed  from  any  function  in  the 
kirk,  and  to  be  excommunicated.  Durablane's  crimes,  by 
[over  and  above,]  those  that  were  general  to  all  the  bishops, 
were  arminianism,  popery,  and  drunkenness. 

11.  Tuesday,  11th  of  December,  the  eleventh-eighteenth 
session.  George  Graham,  the  apostate  bishop  of  Orkney — a 
fallen  Star — v/as  deposed,  but  not  excommunicated,  on  account 
of  his  submission.  John  Guthrie,  bishop  of  Moray,  was  de- 
posed; and  if  he  acquiesced  not  with  the  said  sentence,  and 
made  his  repentance,  but  which  he  never  did,  to  be  excommu- 
nicated. Patrick  Lindsay,  archbishop  of  Glasgow,  was  de- 
posed and  excommunicated.  James  Fairlie,  bishop  of  Argyle, 
was  deposed ;  and  if  he  did  not  acquiesce  with  his  sentence 
and  repent,  to  be  excommunicated.  Niel  Campbel,  bishop  of 
the  Isles,  was  deposed  2.  A  number  of  the  inferior  clergy  also 
were  deprived  of  their  livings  for  having  yielded  obedience  to 


'  Baillie's  Letters  and  Journals,  i.  157-159. — Stevenson's  Church  snd  State, 
303-333.— Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  30S''. 
-  Balfour's  Annals,  ii.  310. 


630  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XIV. 

the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  laws ;  and  for  having  maintained 
sound  catholic  doctrines.  They  were  accused  of  having 
preached  baptismal  regeneration,  universal  redemption,  Christ's 
descent  into  hell,  the  real  spiritual  presence  in  the  sacrament, 
and  of  having  administered  the  elements  to  each  individual 
with  a  benediction  from  within  the  rails  of  the  altar,  and  made 
the  people  kneel  ^  This  was  the  head  and  front  of  their  offend- 
ing, and  which  shews  that  they  were  confessors  for  the  truth, 
and  true  disciples  of  Christ,  that  took  up  the  cross  and  fol- 
lowed Him. 

12.  Wednesday,  December  12th,  the  twelfth-nineteenth 
session.  The  Assembly  deposed  Alexander  Lindsay,  bishop 
of  Dunkeld,  from  the  office  of  bishop,  and  suspended  him  from 
the  office  and  the  exercise  of  the  ministry,  but  to  be  received 
again,  on  his  repentance,  by  the  presbytery.  John  Abemethy, 
bishop  of  Caithness,  received  sentence  of  deposition  from  the 
episcopal  office  ;  but  to  be  received  into  the  office  of  the  mi- 
nistry upon  his  public  profession  of  repentance  to  be  made  in 
the  kirk  of  Jedburgh,  and  of  which  he  was  continued  the  minis- 
ter. In  consequence  of  their  fears  that  the  marquis  of  Hamilton 
intended  to  garrison  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh,  Baillie  says, 
"  made  them  desire  to  see  the  Assembly  at  a  short  end ;  so,  with- 
out farther  delay,  we  decreed  to  pronounce  the  sentence  of  the 
bishops'  deposition  and  excommunication  to-morrow  after 
sermon  by  the  moderator  2." 

13.  Thursday,  December  13th,  the  thirteenth-twentieth 
session,  in  which  the  bishop  of  Dunblane  was  deposed.  Alex- 
der  Henderson,  the  moderator,  preached  in  the  cathedral,  from 
Psalm  ex.  ver.  1 . — "  Thereafter,  in  a  very  dreadful  and  grave 
manner,  he  pronounced  their  sentences.  My  heart  was  filled 
with  admiration  of  the  power  and  justice  of  God,  who  can 
bring  down  the  highest  and  pour  shame  on  them  even  in  this 
world  suddenly  by  a  means  all  utterly  unexpected,  who  will 
sin  against  him  with  an  uplifted  hand^,"  The  following  is  a 
copy  of  the  general  sentence,  and  there  was  a  particular  sen- 
tence for  each  of  the  prelates,  which  rehearsed  all  the  scanda- 
lous, false,  and  most  malignant  charges  of  immorality,  which 
had  been  preferred  against  them. 

"  Sentence  of  deposition  and  excommunication  against  Mr. 
John  Spottiswood,  pretended  archbishop  of  St.  Andrews ; 
Mr.  Patrick  Lindsay,  pretended  archbishop  of  Glasgow ;  Mr. 
David  Lindsay,  pretended  bishop  of  Edinburgh ;  Mr.  Thomas 

'  Baillie's  Letters,  i.  163—166. 

-  Baillie's  Letters,  i.  107.— Balfour's  Aiinals,  ii.  311.  ^  Baillie,  i.  1C8. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  ()31 

Sydserf,  pretended  bishop  of  Galloway  ;  Mr.  John  Maxwell, 
pi'etended  bishop  of  Ross;  Mr.  Walter  Whitford,  pretended 
bishop  of  Brechin. 

"The  General  Assembly  having  heard  the  libels  [indict- 
ments] and  complaints  given  in  against  the  aforesaid  pretended 
bishops  to  the  presbytery  of  Edinburgh,  and  sundry  other 
presbyteries  within  their  pretended  dioceses,  and  by  the  said 
presbyteries  referred  to  the  Assembly  to  be  tried,  the  said 
pretended  bishops  being  lawfully  cited,  oftentimes  called,  and 
their  procurator.  Dr.  Robert  Hamilton,  and  not  compearing, 
but  declining  and  protesting  against  this  Assembly,  as  is  evi- 
dent by  their  declinature  and  protestation  given  in  by  the  said 
Dr.  Robert  Hamilton,  minister  at  Glasford,  which,  by  the  acts 
of  Assembly,  is  censurable  with  summary  excommunication  : 
entered  in  consideration  of  the  said  declinature,  and  finding 
the  same  not  to  be  relevant,  but  on  the  contrary  to  be  a  dis- 
played banner  against  the  settled  order  and  government  of  this 
kirk,  to  be  fraughted  with  insolent  and  disdainful  speeches,  lies, 
and  calumnies  against  the  members  of  this  Assembly,  pro- 
ceeded to  the  cognition  of  the  said  complaints  and  libels  against 
them ;  and  finding  them  guilty  of  the  breach  of  the  cautions 
agreed  upon  in  the  Assembly  holden  at  Montrose,  anno  1()00, 
for  restricting  of  the  minister  voter  in  parliament  from  en- 
croaching upon  the  liberties  and  jurisdiction  of  this  kirk, 
which  was  set  down  with  certification  of  deposition,  infamy, 
and  excommunication,  especially  for  receiving  of  consecration 
to  the  office  of  episcopacy,  condemned  by  the  Confession  of 
Faith  and  acts  of  this  kirk,  as  having  no  vvarrant  nor  founda- 
tion in  the  word  of  God,  and  by  virtue  of  this  usurped  power, 
and  power  of  the  High  Commission,  pressing  the  kirk  with  no- 
vations in  the  worship  of  God,  and  for  sundry  other  heinous 
offences  and  enormities,  at  length  expressed  and  clearly  proven 
in  their  process,  and  for  their  refusal  to  underly  the  trial  of  the 
reigning  slander  of  sundry  other  gross  transgressions  and 
crimes  laid  to  their  charge: — Therefore,  the  Assembly,  mot'ea 
with  zeal  to  the  glory  of  God axvA.  thepurgingof  his  kirk,  hath  or- 
dained the  said  pretended  bishops  to  be  Deposed,  and  by  these 
presents  doth  Depose  them,  not  only  of  the  office  of  commis- 
sionary  to  vote  in  parliament,  council,  or  convention,  in  name 
of  the  kirk,  but  also  of  all  functions,  whether  of  pretended  epis- 
copal or  ministerial  calling,  declareth  them  Infamous.  And 
likewise  ordaineth  the  said  pretended  bishops  to  be  Excommu- 
nicated, and  declared  to  be  of  those  whom  Christ  commandeth 
to  be  holden  by  all  and  every  one  of  the  faithful  as  Ethnicks 
and  Publicans  :  and  the  sentence  of  excommunication  to  be 
pronounced  by  Mr.  Alexander  Henderson,  moderator,  in 


632  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XIV. 

face  of  the  Assembly  in  the  high  kirk  of  Glasgow ;  and  the 
execution  of  the  sentence  to  be  intimated  in  all  the  kirks  of 
Scotland,  by  the  pastors  of  every  particular  congregation,  as 
they  will  be  answerable  to  their  presbyteries  and  synods,  or  to 
the  next  General  Assembly,  in  case  of  the  negligence  of  presby- 
teries and  synods  ^" 

14.  Friday,  14th  December,  the  fourteenth  twenty -first 
session. — The  earl  of  Wigton  signed  the  covenant;  fiveminis- 
ters  were  deprived  and  deposed  from  their  ministerial  office ; 
and  Henderson  was  removed  from  the  church  and  parish  of  Leu- 
chars  to  the  better  living  of  St.  Giles's  Church,  Edinburgh  2. 

15.  Saturday,  December  15th,  the  fifteenth  twenty-second 
session. — Order  was  taken  for  the  erection  and  jurisdiction  of 
provincial  synods :  "  Concerning  kirk-sessions,  provincial  and 
national  assemblies,  the  General  Assembly,  considering  the 
great  defection  of  this  kirk,  and  decay  of  religion  by  the  usurpa- 
tion of  the  prelates,  and  their  suppressing  of  the  ordinary 
judicatories  of  the  kirk,  and  clearly  perceiving  the  benefits 
which  will  redound  to  religion  by  tlie  restitution  of  the 
said  judicatories,  remembering,  also,  that  they  stand  obliged  by 
their  solemn  oath  and  covenant  with  God,  to  return  to  the  doc- 
trine and  discipline  of  this  kirk,  &c The  Assembly 

findeth  it  necessary  to  restore,  and  by  these  presents  restoretli, 
all  these  Assemblies  unto  their  full  integrity  in  their  members, 
privileges,  liberties,  powers,  and  jurisdictions ;  as  they  were 
constituted  by  the  aforesaid  Book  of  Policy^." 

16.  Monday,  17th  December,  the  sixteenth  twenty-third 
session. — A  visitation  of  the  University  of  Glasgow  was  or- 
dered, with  power  for  the  visitors,  of  which  Mr.  Baillie  was 
one,  to  depose  all  orthodox  and  loyal  men  whom  they  should 
find  in  it. 

17.  Tuesday,  18th  December,  seventeenth  twenty-fourth 
session. — This  session  was  occupied  with  filling  up  the 
churches  and  parishes  which  had  been  declared  vacant  in  for- 
mer sessions.  Furious  covenanters  were  appointed  to  succeed 
those  confessors  who  had  been  deprived  for  maintaining  the 
truth.  All  titles  of  dignity,  as  deans,  subdeans,  chanters,  &c. 
were  abolished  in  all  time  coming.  Archibald  Johnston,  the 
clerk,  was  elected  procurator ;  and  Robert  Dalglcish  to  be  agent 
for  the  kirk'^. 

18.  Wednesday,  19th  December,  the  eighteenth  twenty- 
fifth  session. — Places  were  appointed  for  receiving  bishops 

1  Johnston's  Collection  of  Acts,  pp.  18,  19. 

-  Balfour's  Annals. — Baillie's  Letters. 

■'  Johnston's  Collections  of  Acts,  session  21,  p.  41. 

■•  Balfour's  Annals. — Baillie's  Letters. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  633 

who  should  be  penitent !  An  act  would  have  been  passed  for 
the  apprehension  and  imprisonment  of  papists ;  but  it  was 
thought  inexpedient,  "  lest  it  should  give  occasion  to  their  des- 
perate banding  ^"  The  children  of  this  world  are  wise  in  their 
generation;  and  had  the  church  been  as  familiar  with  the  car- 
nal sword  as  either  the  papists  or  the  presbyterians,  it  appears 
that  she  would  not  have  perished  at  this  time,  as,  from  her 
principle  of  non-resistance,  she  did  perish. 

19.  Thursday,  20th  December,  nineteenth  twenty-sixth  and 
last  session. — The  moderator  took  a  review  of  the  proceedings 
of  this  Assembly,  and  congratulated  the  members  upon  the  suc- 
cess which  had  attended  that  fundamental  principle  of  the 
presbyterian  religion — resistance  to  the  powers  that  be  2,  To 
prevent  discussion  and  the  enlightenment  of  the  people,  tlie 
Assembly  found  it  necessary  to  shackle  the  press,  and  the  fol- 
lowing act  was  passed  :^ — 

The  Assembly,  considering  the  great  prejudice  which  God's 
kirk  in  this  land  hath  sustained  these  years  by-past  by  the 
unwarranted  printing  of  libels,  pamphlets,  and  polemics,  to 
the  disgrace  of  religion,  slander  of  the  gospel,  infecting  and 
disquieting  the  minds  of  God's  people,  and  disturbance  of  the 
peace  of  the  kirk;  and  remembering  the  former  acts  and  cus- 
toms of  this  kirk,  as  of  all  other  kirks,  made  for  restraining 
these  and  the  like  abuses,  and  that  nothing  be  printed  concern- 
ing the  kirk  and  religion  except  it  be  allowed  by  those  whom 
the  kirk  entrusts  with  that  charge:  the  iVssembly  unanimously, 
by  virtue  of  their  ecclesiastical  authority,  discharge th  and 
inhibiteth  all  printers  within  this  kingdom  to  print  any  act  of 
the  former  Assemblies,  any  of  the  acts  or  proceedings  of  this 
Assembly,  any  confession  of  faith,  any  protestations,  any  rea- 
sons pro  or  contra,  anent  the  present  divisions  and  controver- 
sies of  this  time,  or  any  other  treatise  whatsoever  which  may 
concern  the  kirk  of  Scotland  or  God's  Cause  in  hand,  without 
warrant  subscribed  by  Mr.  Archibald  Johnston,  as  clerk  to  the 
Assembly  and  advocate  for  the  kirk;  or  to  reprint,ivithout  his 
warrant,  any  acts  or  treatises  aforesaid,  which  he  hath  caused 
any  other  to  print,  under  the  pain  of  ecclesiastical  censures, 
to  be  executed  against  the  transgressors  by  the  several  pres- 
byteries, and  in  case  of  their  refusal,  by  the  several  commis- 
sioners from  this  Assembly:  Whereimto  also  we  are  confident 
the  honourable  judges  of  this  land  will  contribute  their  civil  au- 
thority; and  this  to  be  intimated  publicly  in  pulpit,  with  the 
other  general  acts  of  this  Assembly  3. 

'  Baillie's  Letters,  i.  p.  172.  -  Rom.  xiii.  2. 

3  Johnston's  CoUection   of  Acts.     Act  Session,  26.     Dec.  20,  1838. 

VOL.  I.  4  M 


634  HISTORY  Oi-  THE  [cHAP.  XIV. 

The  Assembly  now  rose,  and  the  members  dispersed,  after  a 
speech  from  the  moderator,which  he  concluded  with  these  words 
of  fearful  import ;  "  We  have  now  cast  down  the  ivalls  of  Jericho: 
let  him  that  rebuildeth  them  beware  of  the  curse  of  Hiel,  the 
Bethelite^.'''  "  The  curse  causeless  shall  not  come:"  on  the 
contrary,  we  are  told  that  they  shall  prosper  that  love  Jeru- 
salem. Henderson,  who  uttered  the  curse,  could  not  himself 
fall  under  its  blight,  nor  feel  the  sharpness  of  the  serpent's 
tooth,  which  he  so  recklessly  invoked  on  others;  for  he  had 
neither  "  first-born"  nor  "  youngest"  to  suffer  for  his  enormous 
sacrilege  ;  he  was  never  married.  Nevertheless,  he  had  mercy 
shewn  to  him  in  this  world,  and  the  door  of  repentance  was 
opened  to  him  before  he  died,  which,  though  late,  it  is  to  be 
hoped  was  effectual.  This  Assembly  is  the  palladium  of 
Scottish  presbytery,  and  this  "  seditious  presbyter,"  as  Heylin 
very  justly  calls  him,  is  reckoned  the  apostle  of  what  they  call 
the  "Second  Reformation."  Butwehaveseenby  whatmeans 
this  reformation  was  effected ;  and  the  saying  of  Leslie  can  no 
longer  be  disputed,  that  "it  is  particularly  remarkable  of  pres- 
bytery, that  it  never  came  yet  into  any  country  upon  the  face 
of  the  earth  but  by  rebellion. — Let  them  shew  that  country  or 
])lace  in  the  world  wherever  presbytery  entered,  but  by  eras- 
tianism,  by  lay  power  and  authority,  by  lay  cannon,  swords, 
and  muskets^."  Their  own  modern  historian  has  conveyed 
in  the  following  words  a  most  just  and  severe  censure  upon  this 
erastian  Assembly  of  lay  and  clerical  traitors :  "  There  is  here 
presented  one  of  the  many  instances  which  occur  in  history  of 
the  inconsistency  of  human  conduct.  Had  the  king  or  the 
bishops  acted  in  this  respect  as  the  covenanters  did;  had  they 
suppressed  every  work  hostile  to  prelacy  and  the  opinions 
associated  vyith  it;  how  loudly  would  they  have  been  repro- 
bated by  their  opponents,  as  declaiing  war"  against  the  cause 
of  truth  and  religion !  Yet  the  moment  that  the  people  who 
would  thus  have  complained  ascend  to  the  pinnacle  of  power, 
they  proscribe  every  effort  to  examine  their  tenets  by  the  test 
of  reason  or  the  principles  of  revelation 3." 

In  the  first  introduction  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Cove- 

^  "  Id  his  days — namely,  in  those  of  Ahab,  who  did  more  to  provoke  the  Lord 
God  of  Israel  to  anger  than  all  the  kings  of  Israel  that  went  before  him — did 
Hiel,  the  Bethelite,  build  Jericho  :  he  laid  the  foundation  thereof  in  Abiram  his 
first-born,  and  set  up  the  gates  thereof  in  his  youngest  son  Segub,  according  to 
the  word  of  the  Lord,  which  he  spoke  by  Joshua,  the  son  of  Nun,"  1  Kings,  xvi. 
34.  "  And  Joshua  adjured  them  at  that  time,  saying,  Cursed  be  the  man  before 
the  Lord  that  riseth  up  and  buildeth  this  city,  Jericho  ;  he  shall  lay  the  foimda- 
tiim  tliereof  in  his  first-born,  and  in  his  youngest  son  shall  he  set  up  the  gates 
of  it:"  Josh.  vi.  26. 

^  Rehearsals,  iii.  C3  &  78.  ^  Cook's  Hiutory  of  the  Church,  ii.  472. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  635 

nant,  the  original  Tramers  of  it  made  the  most  unbounded  pro- 
testations of  their  attachment  and  adhesion  to  episcopacy, 
and  they  declared,  especially  to  the  lord  commissioner,  that 
their  only  object  was  to  control  and  regulate,  not  to  abolish  it. 
In  his  dispute  with  the  Aberdeen  clergy,  Henderson  attempted 
to  obviate  their  just  fears  that  more  and  deeper  designs  were 
meant  than  met  the  ear,  and  he  endeavoured  to  allay  their 
well-founded  apprehensions  by  saying,  "  You  will  have  all 
the  covenanters,  against  their  intentions,  and  whether  they  will 
or  not,  to  disallow  and  condemn  the  Articles  of  Perth  and 
episcopal  government:  but  it  is  known  to  many  hundreds  that 
the  words  were  purposely  conceived,  for  satisfaction  of  such 
as  were  of  your  judgment,  that  we  might  all  join  in  one  heart 
and  one  judgment."  'Notwiihsia.ndmg  this  special  disclaimer y 
this  same  individual,  as  moderator  of  an  Assembly,  "  with- 
out moderation,"  condemned,  anathematised,  and  imprecated 
the  a^'ful  curse  of  Hiel  the  Bethelite,  upon  all,  that,  in  obe- 
dience to  God's  holy  will  and  commandments,  continue  sted- 
fastly  in  the  apostles'  doctrine  and  fellowship.  "  And  now," 
says  Mr.  Skinner,  "  for  this  very  man,  from  his  usurped  chair 
of  infallibility,  to  condemn  episcopacy,  and  notwithstanding 
of  his  insinuations  to  the  contrary,  only  a  few  months  before, 
to  declare  with  such  brazen  effrontery  '  that  it  was  abjured  in 
the  covenant,'  whatsoever  it  may  say  for  Mr.  Henderson's 
talents  in  conducting  such  business,  is  so  flagrant  a  reflection 
on  his  honesty  as  cannot  well  be  removed,  even  by  that  strange 
tenet  which  they  have  invented,  in  a  defence  of  their  proceed- 
ings, published  by  Warriston,  in  February  next  year,  '  Thai 
the  swearer  is  neither  bound  to  the  meaning  of  the  prescriber 
of  the  oath,  nor  to  his  oion  meaning  who  takes  the  oath,  but  to 
the  reality  of  the  thing  sworn,  as  it  shall  be  afterwards  inter- 
preted by  the  competent  judge  ^ .' " 

The  sentence  of  these  men  against  the  bishops  of  the 
church  of  Scotland,  and  through  them  against  all  "  the  glo- 
rious company  of  the  apostles"  and  "  the  goodly  fellowship 
of  the  prophets"  throughout  the  world,  shows  the  poison  of 
asps  which  was  under  their  lips,  their  arrant  hypocrisy,  and 
their  most  malignant  artifice.  They  charged  the  prelates 
with  a  list  of  the  most  heinous  immoralities,  some  of  which 
were  of  so  gross  a  nature  as  to  require  not  only  ecclesiastical  cen- 
sures, buteven  condign  punishment  at  the  hand  of  the  civil  ma- 
gistrate. Yet,  as  these  general  accusations  served  their  purpose, 
they  were  no  forther  noticed  than  to  be  huddled  up  in  a  ge- 
neral and  vague  declaration  of  scandalous  offences;  leaving, 

Skinner's  Ecclesiastical  Hist,  ii,  335. 


636  IlISTOKY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.     [CHAP.  XIV. 

however,  the  stigma  of  immovaUty  upon  these  worthy  con- 
fessors, than  whom  no  set  of  men  ever  less  deserved  it.  The 
original  accusation  of  immorality  was  cushioned  in  the  As- 
sembly, and  the  head  and  front  of  the  bishops'  offence  was  placed 
in  their  holding  that  sacred  office  which  Christ  and  his  apostles 
had  held  and  exercised,  and  to  whom  they  could  reach  by  a  re- 
gular official  ascent.  How  truly,  in  this  instance,  has  Our 
Lord's  words  been  verified :  "  Yea,  the  time  cometh,  that 
whosoever  killeth  you  [and  your  successors],  will  think  that 
he  doeth  God  sen-ice."  Accordingly,  Henderson  asserted  that 
they  were  moved  with  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God  in  destroying 
those  whom  God  hath  declared  to  be  as  the  stars  in  his  right 
hand,  and  whose  office  he  has  promised  to  preserve  to  the  end 
of  the  world.  "  And,"  says  good  Mr.  Skinner,  "  this  method 
of  smothering  an  accusation  which,  if  openly  tried  and  proved, 
would  have  had  raore  weight  with  the  sensible  part  of  the 
nation  than  any  other  part  of  the  charge  against  them,  is  cer- 
tainly a  fuller  vindication  of  the  innocence  and  blameless  be- 
haviour of  these  persecuted  prelates,  than  any  laboured  defence 
that  could  have  been  made  for  them.  But  this  was  not  the 
only  instance  of  arrogance,  as  well  as  artifice,  w^hich  this 
Assembly  exhibited;  for  on  the  moiTOw  after  this  proclama- 
tion, they  had  the  boldness,  jiublicly  at  the  market-cross,  to 
'  summon  and  cite  all  those  of  his  majesty's  council,  or  any 
others  who  have  procured,  consented,  subscribed,  or  ratified 
his  proclamation,  to  be  responsible  to  his  majesty  and  three 
estates  of  parliament,  for  their  counsel  given  in  this  matter, 
so  highly  importing  his  majesty  and  whole  realm,  protesting 
for  remedy  of  law,  against  them  and  every  one  of  them.'    And 

to  crown  all,  before  they  rose they  very  confidently 

ordered  a  letter  to  be  drawn  up  and  sent  to  the  king,  for  ob- 
taining his  royal  assent  to  what  they  had  done;  as  if,  in  slight- 
ing his  proclamations,  and  obstinately  continuing  their 
judicatory  against  his  will,  formally  notified  to  them  by  his 
commissioner,  they  had  done  nothing  but  what  became  good 
and  dutiful  subjects  ^" 

This  rebellious  Assembly  levelled  to  the  ground,  "  at  one 
fell  swoop,"  the  whole  of  the  pious  labours  of  the  late  king's 
reign,  and  revived  the  distinguishing  doctrine  of  popery  and 
]:)resbytery,  the  supremacy  of  the  ecclesiastical  authority  over 
the  civil  power.  James  compelled  them  to  retract  this  dan- 
gerous and  unconstitutional  doctrine,  but  the  party  had  always 
nourished  it  in  secret,  and  they  seized  the  first  favourable  op- 
portunity to  repossess  themselves  of  it. 

•  Skinner's  Eccl.  Hist,  ii,  337,  338. — Johnston's  Collections,  p.  66-71. 


637 


CHAPTER  XV. 


CONCLUSION. 


Intrigues  of  Cardinal  Richlieu  and  the  Jesuits. — Possessors  of  the  ecclesiastica, 
property.  —  The  real  cause  of  the  rebellion. — The  papal  dispensing  power 
imitated. — Manner  of  electing  the  members  of  the  Assembly. — Lay  elders. — 
The  high  commissioner — accused  of  treachery — an  instance. — First  interview 
of  Montrose  with  the  king — and  court  intrigue. — Montrose  joins  the  cove- 
nanters.— The  deposing  doctrine,  whence  derived. — The  object  of  all  rebellion. — 
Large  Declaration. — The  first  grounds  of  discontent. — Certain  advantages  in 
extemporary  prayers. — James  determined  to  improve  the  worship  of  his  native 
church — and  gave  orders  for  the  compilation  of  a  liturgy. — Charles  followed 
out  his  father's  intentions. — His  error — his  reason  for  thinking  a  liturgy  would 
be  acceptable — the  cause  of  his  ruin. — The  history  of  the  expatriated  bishops 
traced — their  letter  to  the  king,  and  his  answer. — Proposal  to  murder  arch- 
bishop Spottiswood. — His  illness — his  interview  with  the  marquis  of  Hamilton 
— his  confession  of  faith — his  death — buried  in  Westminster  Abbey — his  cha- 
racter.—  Archbishop  Lindsay.  —  Bishop  Lindsay,  of  Edinburgh. — Bishop 
Bellenden,  of  Aberdeen. — Bishop  Whitford,  of  Brechin. — Bishop  Wedderburn, 
of  Dunblaiue. — Bishop  Abernethy,  of  Caithness. — Bishop  Campbell,  of  the 
Isles. — Bishop  Fairly,  of  Argyle. — Bishop  Guthrie,  of  Moray.— Bishop  Max- 
well, of  Ross — made  bishop  of  Killala — and  archbishop  of  Tuam. — Bishop 
Sydserf,  of  Galloway — exercised  his  office  at  Paris. — Spanheim  and  Diodati's 
letters. — The  Scottish  bishops  left  no  successors. — Conclusion. 

Cardinal  Richlieu  and  the  Jesuits  had  a  large  share  in 
exciting  this  rebellion;  but  they  only  stepped  in  to  foment  the 
causes  which  already  existed  for  this  most  wicked  and  tyran- 
nical revolution.  When  Korah  raised  his  voice  against  Moses 
and  Aaron,  he  was  backed  by  Dathan  and  Abiram,  laymen 
princes  of  the  Assembly,  famous  in  the  congi-egation,  men  of 
renown :  so,  in  this  case,  the  complaints  of  the  few  ministers 
who  were  dissatisfied  with  the  episcopal  government  would 
have  evaporated  in  mere  grumbling,  and  would  have  been 
confined  to  protesting,  had  not  the  nobility,  with  their  puissant 
militaiy  retainers,  made  use  of  the  ministers  as  mere  tools, 
under  pretence  of  great  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  safety 
of  the  church.  Every  one  of  the  noblemen  and  barons  who 
took  such  an  active  part  at  the  Tables  and  the  Assembly,  were 


638  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XV. 

possessed  of  large  estates,  which  had  formerly  belonged  to 
the  church  before  the  era  of  the  Reformation.  And  none  of 
them,  perhaps,  were  more  deeply  implicated  in  that  sacrilege 
than  the  earl  of  Argyle,  who  pretended  to  so  much  zeal,  and 
acted  as  a  dictator  during  the  whole  period  of  the  grand 
rebellion.  His  ancestor,  the  fifth  earl  of  Argyle,  received  the 
whole  of  the  lands  which  belonged  to  the  three  bishoprics  of 
Argyle,  the  Isles,  and  also  of  Brechin ! 

Almost  all  the  ancient  nobility  had  participated  in  the  plun- 
der of  ecclesiastical  property,  except  those  noblemen  who  re- 
mained fiiTM  in  their  obedience  to  the  Roman  See.  Many 
others  got  the  church  lands  erected  into  temporal  lordships ; 
and  a  minute  inquiry  into  the  history  of  the  sixteenth  century 
would  shew,  that  the  plunder  of  the  church  was  shared  by  the 
ancestors  of  almost  all  the  ancient  Scottish  nobility,  and  many 
others  besides,  who  favoured  the  Protestant  cause  then,  from 
selfish  motives,  and  now  their  sons  rushed  into  the  guilt  of  rebel- 
lion to  keep  that  which  had  been  at  first  sacrilegiously  obtained. 
This  was  the  real  cause  of  the  religious  disturbances  at  that 
time ;  the  liturgy  and  the  episcopal  government  were  merely 
made  pretences,  as  the  ministers  would  not  have  adopted  the  real 
views  of  the  lay  chiefs^  although  they  readily  entered  heartily 
into  any  cause  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  "  for  Ciu'ist's  crown 
and  covenant."  Hypocrisy  was  one  of  the  reigning  sins  of  the 
times ;  and  it  was  most  disgustingly  exhibited  by  the  leading 
men,  both  lay  and  ministerial,  among  the  covenanters.  This 
sin,  together  with  the  immoral  obligations  of  the  covenant 
itself,  for  a  time  completely  demoralized  the  greater  part  of  the 
nation.  The  papal  power  of  dispensing  with  the  obligation  of 
oaths  was  assumed  by  the  Glasgow  Assembly,  and  Alexander 
Henderson  absolved  all  the  inferior  clergy  from  their  canonical 
oaths  to  their  respective  bishops. 

But  the  JESUITS  were  deeply  implicated  in  the  events  of  this 
period ;  and  those  men  who  were  most  vociferous  against  \>o- 
pery  sought  and  obtained  assistance  fi'om  the  Jesuits,  and  who 
were  most  active  in  promoting  all  the  iniquitous  proceedings 
which  then  disgraced  the  page  of  history,  and  even  supplied  the 
presbyterians  with  a  copy  for  tlieir  covenant.  A  respectable 
author  says, "  Charles  had  true  notions  of  the  balance  of  power  on 
the  continent.  He  was  sensible  of  Richlieu's  ambition,  and  his 
dangerous  views  ;  and  after-events  proved  that  he  was  right  in 
transfeiTing  his  jealousy  from  the  house  of  Austria  to  that  of 
Bourbon.  Richlieu  had  gained  the  prince  of  Orange  and  the 
States-general,  and  had  formed  a  plan  of  making  himself  master 
of  the  Austrian  Netherlands.  The  naval  power  of  Charles,  who 


1638.]  CIITTRCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  639 

was  at  this  time  looked  upon  as  a  formklable  prince,  was  the 
only  cheek  which  llichlieu  dreaded  in  his  attempt.  In  order 
to  remove  it,  he  sent  over  D'Estrades,  an  able  negociator,  in 
the  year  1637,  to  offer  Charles  his  own  terms  if  he  would  but 
remain  neutral ;  but,  above  all,  to  make  the  queen  his  friend, 
and  to  offer  her  any  thing  she  could  demand  from  her  brother. 
It  is  to  the  honour  of  Charles  that,  though  he  was  fond  of  his  wife 
even  to  weakness,  he  reprimanded  her  for  talking  even  of  a  neu- 
trality for  Flanders — even  though  D'Estrades,  in  his  master's 
name,  promised  that  Charles  should  be  assisted  by  a  body 
of  French  troops  in  reducing  his  rebel  subjects.  This  denial  did 
not  discourage  D'Estrades;  to  whom  Charles  declared,  in  an 
audience  he  gave  him,  that  he  was  so  far  from  such  a  neutrality, 
that  he  was  determined  to  have  a  fleet  in  the  Downs  ready  to  act, 
and  with  15,000  troops  on  board,  which  he  would  land  in  Flan- 
ders in  case  of  need.  Charles  then  thanked  Richlieu  for  his 
offers,  but  said  that  he  had  no  occasion  for  any  foreign  as- 
sistance to  reduce  his  subjects,  if  they  should  fail  in  their  duty; 
his  own  autliority  and  the  laws  being  sufficient  to  keep  them 
in  awe. 

"  Richlieu's  pride  was  offended  with  this  spirited  declara- 
tion ;  and  D'Estrades  had  orders  to  tamper  with  some  Scotch- 
men, particularly  a  lord  and  a  clergyman,  who  were  then  at 
the  English  court,  but  were  so  little  considered  that  they  had 
not  been  able  to  obtain  access  to  Charles.  Richlieu  appros-ed 
of  what  D'Estrades  had  done ;  and  his  letter  to  that  minister 
sufficiently  accounts  for  the  springs  of  the  Scotch  troubles  at 
that  time.  '  I  will  pursue,'  says  he, '  the  advice  which  you  have 
given  me  as  to  Scotland,  and  will  immediately  despatch  thither 
the  abbe  Chambers,  my  almoner,  who  is  himself  a  Scotchman, 
and  who  shall  go  to  Edinburgh  to  wait  upon  the  two  persons 
you  have  named  to  me,  and  to  enter  into  a  negociation  with 
them.  Before  the  end  of  twelve  months  the  king  and  queen 
of  England  shall  repent  their  having  refused  the  offers  which 
you  made  them  from  his  majesty.  If,'  continues  he,  with  the 
same  strain  of  insolence,  '  God  blesses  our  undertaking,  his 
majesty  will  have  no  great  reason  to  regret  that  England  has 
rejected  his  offers.  You  could  not  have  spoken  better,  nor 
could  you  have  better  answered  the  king  of  England  on  my 
account.  They  shall  soon  know  that  I  am  not  despicable.  If 
your  two  Scotch  friends  are  yet  in  London,  tell  them  to  trust 
to  whatever  may  be  communicated  to  them  by  the  abbot  Cham- 
bers; and  give  them  a  letter  from  yourself"  to  that  abbot,  which 
will  serve  as  a  signal  to  introduce  them  to  his  company.  You 
have  done  an  important  service  to  his  majesty  by  finding  out 


C40  HISTORY  OF  THE  [cHAP.  XV. 

these  two  men.  Assure  them  of  my  affection  and  protection.' 
Charles  did  not  suspect  those  hidden  dangers,  which  came  from 
a  haughty  popish  prelate  confederated  with  Scotch  cove- 
nanters. Richlieu's  emissaries  tampered  with  Leslie,  who  had 
served  with  so  much  reputation  under  Gustavus  Adolj^hus,  but 
whom  Charles,  on  account  of  his  station,  refused  to  treat  as  a 
gentleman  ;  and  100,000  crowns  of  French  money  were  depo- 
sited in  his  hands  for  the  use  of  the  covenanters^." 

From  what  we  have  seen  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Glas- 
gow Assembly  was  elected,  no  reasonable  person  could  call  it 
either  free  or  lawful.  As  the  law  stood,  the  clergymen  com- 
posing the  presbyteries  elected  one  or  more  of  their  own  num- 
ber to  represent  them  in  the  Assembly,  and  their  election  was 
subject  to  the  control  of  the  bishop,  and  no  lay  person  what- 
ever had  any  voice  in  the  matter.  But  the  Tables,  sitting  in 
Edinburgh,  regulated  the  whole  of  the  elections,  to  the  entire 
exclusion  of  the  just  influence  of  the  clergy.  Laymen  elected, 
or  rather  appointed,  such  fanatical  ministers  as  they  knew 
would  answer  their  designs;  and,  moreover,  they  forced  lay- 
elders  into  the  Assembly,  as  constituent  members,  contrary  to 
law,  as  they  had  been  set  aside  for  more  than  forty  years  pre- 
viously. In  their  protest  against  the  royal  proclamation  which 
dissolved  them,  they  justified  their  disobedience  by  an  appeal 
to  some  of  the  practices  of  the  worst  Assemblies  in  the  time  of 
Andrew  Melville.  At  the  same  time,  they  were  most  lavish  in 
taking  their  Maker's  name  in  vain,  by  appeals  to  him  to  wit- 
ness their  loyalty  and  affection  for  their  sovereign,  at  the  very 
time  that  they  were  actually  engaged  in  the  most  deliberate 
acts  of  treason  against  his  crown  and  dignity. 

The  marquis  of  Hamilton  was  an  irresolute  man,  and  with- 
out that  confidence  in  himself  that  is  requisite  for  one  placed 
in  the  position  that  he  was  in  such  times,  and  among  such  de- 
signing artful  men.  Indeed,  bishop  Guthry  does  not  scruple 
to  accuse  him  of  dii*ect  treachery  ;  and,  truly,  his  remarkable 
duplicity  towards  Montrose  and  some  others,  which  he  relates, 
along  with  his  habitual  wavering  and  irresolute  public  conduct, 
gives  great  probability  to  the  following  incident.  The  bishop 
states,  that  after  the  marquis's  first  conference  with  the  cove- 
nanter chiefs  and  ministers,  in  presence  of  the  privy  council  at 
Dalkeith,  he  "  himself  convoyed  them  through  the  rooms,  and 
stepping  into  the  gallery,  drew  them  into  a  corner,  and  then 
expressed  himself  as  follows : — '  My  lords  and  gentlemen,  I 
spoke  to  you  before  these  lords  of  council  as  the  king's  commis- 

'  Guthry's  General  Historj'  of  Scotland,  ix.  258. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  641 

sionei" ;  now,  there  being  none  present  but  ourselves,  I  speak 
to  you  as  a  kindly  Scotchman :  If  you  go  on  with  courage  and 
resolution  you  will  carry  what  you  please ;  but  ifyou  faint,  and 
give  ground  in  the  least,  you  are  undone — a  word  is  enough  to 
wise  nien^"  It  is  painful  to  believe  such  treachery  of  the 
commissioner  ;  but  the  story  was  never  contradicted,  the  report 
became  public,  and  no  doubt  assisted  greatly  to  raise  the  spirits 
of  the  rebels.  Nalson,  also,  concurs  with  Heylin,  in  accusing 
him  of  treachery,  and  of  having  been  the  cause  of  driving  the 
gallant  Montrose  into  the  ranks  of  the  disaffected. 

The  rebel  chiefs  "  made  great  use  of  some  persons  about  the 
king,  from  whom  they  received  constant  intelligence;  amongst 
whom  the  marquis  of  Hamilton  was  suspected,  by  the  king's 
friends,  and  even  accused  of  being  07ie  of  the  chief;  and,  that 
I  may  not  without  ground  seem  to  sully  the  memory  of  so  great 
a  person, — not  to  insist  upon  the  ambition  he  was  accused  of 
by  those  about  the  court,  and  Ramsay's  drinking  his  health  by 
the  name  oi  James  the  Seventh!  his  underhand  dealings  to  the 
king's  disadvantage  with  the  covenanters,  and  his  taking  letters 
out  of  the  king's  pockels, — there  is  a  remarkable  passage  in  the 
*  Observations  upon  the  History  of  King  Charles,  written  by 
H.  L.,  p.  205,'  which,  the  author  avers,  came  from  the  mouth 
of  the  earl  of  Montrose  to  the  king,  and  which  seems  confirmed 
by  concurrent  circumstances  ;  which,  if  true,  will  plainly  show 
how  much  the  king  lost  by  making  him  his  confidant,  and  how 
much  the  faction  advantaged  themselves  by  having  their  party 
so  near  the  king  as  was  the  marquis,  the  earl  of  Manchester, 
the  lord  Say,  Sir  Henry  Vane,  and  several  others  of  the  Scot- 
tish nation.     The  story  is  this : — 

"  James,  earl  of  Montrose,  coming  out  of  France,  had  a  great 
inclination  to  put  himself  into  his  majesty's  more  immediate 
service,  and  for  this  purpose  made  his  application  to  Hamil- 
ton. The  marquis,  who  knew  the  gallantry  of  the  person,  and 
feared  a  competitor  in  his  majesty's  favour,  told  the  earl  that 
he  would  do  him  any  service,  but  that  the  king  was  so  wholly- 
given  up  to  the  English,  and  so  slighted  and  discountenanced 
the  Scottish  nation,  that  were  it  not  for  doing  service  to  his 
country, — which  the  king  intended  to  reduce  to  the  form  of  a 
province, — he  could  not  suffer  the  indignities  which  were  put 
upon  him.  This  done,  he  repairs  to  the  king,  tells  him  of  the 
earl's  return  from  France,  and  of  his  purpose  to  attend  him  at 
the  time  appointed ;  but  that  he  was  so  powerful,  so  popular, 
and  of  such  esteem  among  the  Scots,  by  reason  of  an  old 

'  Guthry's  Memoirs,  34,  35. 
VOL.   L  4   N 


642  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XV. 

descent  from  the  royal  family,  that,  if  he  were  not  nipped  in  the 
bud,  he  might  endanger  the  king's  interest  and  affairs  in  Scot- 
land. The  earl  being  brought  to  the  king,  with  very  great 
demonstrations  of  affection  on  the  marquis's  part,  the  king, 
without  taking  any  great  notice  of  him,  gave  him  his  hand  to 
kiss,  and  so  turned  aside ;  which  so  confirmed  the  truth  of  that 
false  report  which  Hamilton  had  delivered  to  him,  that,  in 
great  displeasure  and  disdain,  he  makes  to  Scotland,  where  he 
found  those  who  knew  how  to  work  on  such  humours  as  he 
brought  along  with  him,  till,  by  seconding  the  information 
which  they  had  from  Hamilton,  the  covenanters  fashioned  him 
wholly  to  their  will  and  designs  ^" 

On  another  occasion,  also,  Nalson  gives  the  letter  of  a  Mr. 
Andrew  Kipping,  a  physician,  addressed  to  the  secretary-of- 
state,  in  which  Kipping  directly  accuses  the  marquis  of  high 
treason,  on  the  authority  of  "  one  Chrighton,  a  Scot,  pretend- 
ing himself  a  servant  to  the  earl  of  Traquair ;  who  declared  to 
the  said  Kipping  that  the  marquis  of  Hamilton  was  the  archest 
traitor  that  ever  betrayed  any  king  since  Adam  ;  that  he  had 
recourse  to  Loudon  in  the  Tower,  and  private  discourse  ;  that 
he  procured  of  the  king  his  enlargement,  .  .  and  after  brought 
him  to  kiss  the  king's  hand,  and  to  be  sent  with  a  commission 
into  Scotland,  to  reduce  the  Scots  into  obedience ;  .  .  .  that 
the  last  year,  in  Scotland,  he  told  the  covenanting  lords  he  had 
no  commission  to  fight,  (which  was  a  sufficient  intimation  to 
them,)  and  that  the  lords  came  daily  to  him,  and  had  conference 
with  him  ;  .  .  .  that  Traquair  is  a  dangerous  covenanter ;  .  . 
that  marquis  Hamilton  lays  claim  to  the  crown 2,"  &c. 

Argyle  and  the  covenanters  adopted  the  genuine  popish  doc- 
trine of  deposing  heretical  kings ;  and  his  three  causes  for  de- 
position, which  are  afterwards  stated,  are  only  a  repetition  of 
the  papal  doctrine.  Bellarmine  and  other  Jesuits  claim  the 
power  of  deposition  for  the  pope,  and  the  covenanters  claimed 
the  same  power  for  the  people,  and  both  for  the  same  cause — 
the  maintenance  of  true  religion  against  popery  and  fanati- 
cism. The  covenanters  and  their  abettors  were  taught  this  an- 
tichristian  doctrine  by  their  instigators,  the  Jesuits,  as  bishop 
Burnet  has  very  well  said,  in  his  sermon  on  the  30th  January, 
1680,  where  he  says,  "  The  resolving  all  power  in  the  people 
was  first  taken  up  by  the  assertors  of  the  pope's  deposing 
power ;  for  they  argued,  that  if  it  belonged  to  the  people, 
then  the  pope,  representing  the  universal  church,  all  their 
rights  did  accrue  to  him ;  so  that,  in  their  names,  he  was  to 

'  Nalson's  Impartial  Collection,  i.  63.  ^  Ibid.  i.  376. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OK  SCOTLAND.  643 

dispose  of  crowns  as  he  pleased."  The  object  of  all  rebellion 
is  for  power;  which,  in  addition  to  the  retention  of  their  sacri- 
legiously gotten  wealth,  was  the  real  spring  of  the  rebellion 
with  the  nobles.  Rebellion  was  the  sin  which  cast  Lucifer 
out  of  heaven ;  and  it  is  the  sin  to  which  he  most  chiefly  tempts 
all  the  sons  of  Adam  in  every  condition  of  life.  If  we  desire 
to  enter  into  heaven,  we  must  keep  the  commandments ;  but  obe- 
dience to  our  princes  is  one  of  them,  and  which  is  recommended 
to  our  attention  by  a  promise,  and  forbidden  to  be  broken  by 
the  menace  of  eternal  damnation.  Therefore,  although  these 
over  zealous  covenanters  had  kept  nine-tenths  of  the  law,  yet, 
as  they  offended  so  grievously  in  this  one  point,  they  were  as 
guilty  as  if  they  had  broken  the  whole  law  of  God  \  and  so 
they  incurred  the  fearful  denunciation  of  the  apostle.  Charles 
said,  very  justly,  in  the  Large  Declaration, "  That  the  contrivers 
and  pursuers  of  the  late  wicked  covenant,  though  they  pre- 
tended religion,  yet  intended  nothing  less That  these 

pretenders  to  reformation  proceeded  in  such  a  way  as  tended 
to  the  apparent  ruin  both  of  the  reputation  ami  religion  of  the 
reformation  ;  and  that  the  pope  and  conclave,  and  the  Jesuits, 
could  not  have  proposed  any  method  more  effectual  to  reduce 
these  kingdoms  to  the  Roman  obedience  ;  that  the  covenant- 
ers, in  their  sermons  and  seditious  pamphlets,  made  use  of 
the  maxims  of  the  Jesuits,  the  very  style  and  phrase  of  Be- 
canus,  &c.,  and  transcribed  arguments  verbatim  out  of  Bel- 
larmine  and  Suarez,  endeavouring  with  those,  and  Jesuitical 
fables,  false  reports,  prophecies,  and  pretended  inspirations, 
to  delude  the  populace,  and  unhinge  them  from  their  loyalty 
and  allegiance." 

The  first  ground  of  discontent  was  his  majesty's  legal  revo- 
cation of  such  property  as  had  been  plundered  and  had  passed 
away,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  crown,  during  the  two  previous 
minorities.  The  next  was  the  commission  granted  by  the 
crown  for  relieving  the  clergy  in  point  of  maintenance,  and  the 
inferior  laity  from  the  grinding  oppression  of  the  lords  of  erec- 
tion, or  the  impropriators  of  the  tithes.  By  virtue  of  this  com- 
mission a  rate  was  set  upon  the  tithes,  and  they  were  purchased 
by  the  owners,  so  that  the  lords  of  erection  were  sufficiently 
compensated  for  their  rights ;  and  the  ministers'  livings  were 
augmented,  and  themselves  freed  from  the  dangerous  and  mer- 
cenary slavery  to  which  they  had  been  subjected.  The  pro- 
prietors of  land  and  the  clergy  were  well  satisfied  with  the 
issue  of  this  commission ;  for  the  one  had  their  livings  im- 
proved, and  the  others  were  relieved  from  an  intolerable  sla- 
very and  dependence  on  their  fellow  subjects.     The  nobility 


644  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XV. 

and  theolher  lay  patrons  also  seemed  outwardly  satisfied, but  in 
private  they  were  exceedingly  discontented  and  dissatisfied  "  to 
be  robbed  of  the  clientele  and  dependence  of  both  clergy  and 
laity  upon  them,  and  not  being  able  to  fix  their  discontent  at 
these  proceedings,  as  either  affronting  or  weakening  religion, 
they  betook  themselves  to  their  old  artifice,  giving  out  that  this 
commission  was  procured  only  by  the  bishops,  who  meant  no 

good  to  religion So  that  the  grounds  of  the   sedition 

appear  plainly  to  be — first,  his  majesty's  revocation  ;  secondly, 
the  commission  of  surrendries ;  and  lastly,  denying  honours 
to  some  persons  at  his  majesty's  coronation  i." 

The  fiery  and  undutiful  spirits  thathad  been  bred  in  the  school 
of  Melville  saw  the  advantage  which  the  extemporary  mode  of 
worship  gave  them,  of  glancing  at  all  the  political  topics,  pri- 
A^ate  gossip,  and  uncharitable  suspicions  which  then  prevailed. 
It  likewise  enabled  them  to  rail  on  the  king  and  his  ministers 
to  their  faces,  Avithout  the  fear  of  contradiction,  or  of  being 
called  in  question  for  their  disloyalty.  In  short,  their  prayers 
deserved  more  the  name  of  oblique  sermons,  designed  to  in- 
flame the  minds  of  their  hearers  against  the  government,  and 
Avhich  they  frequently  most  completely  effected,  than  of  solemn 
penitential  addresses  to  God.  A  liturgy  is  an  admirable  de- 
fence against  all  such  indecorous  and  sinful  courses  in  our  ad- 
dresses to  the  throne  of  grace  ;  and  any  precomposed  form  of 
prayer  is  sure  to  be  more  judiciously  framed,  and  free  from  the 
agitation  of  violent  or  political  sentiments,  than  extemporary 
addresses  hit  off  in  the  midst  of  contention,  political  agitation, 
and  party  spirit. 

King  James  was  long  subjected  to  this  species  of  persecu- 
tion, and  was  daily  insulted  at  public  worship  by  the  coarse 
invectives,  and  the  insolent  and  uncharitable  reflections  of  the 
preachers  in  his  day,  in  their  extemporary -effusions.  On  his 
accession  to  the  crown  of  England,  he  saw  and  admired  the 
decency  and  uniformity  of  the  liturgy,  and  was  struck  with  its 
excellence.  He  naturally  drew  a  parallel  betwixt  the  chas- 
tened grandeur, sober  dignity, energy, sublimity  of  tliought,and 
the  simplicity  of  expression,  of  its  composition,  with  the  poor, 
imbecile,  and  seditious  addresses  to  which  he  had  been  com- 
pelled to  listen  in  his  native  kingdom.  The  comparison  made 
the  extemporary  worship  the  more  odious,  when  he  returned  to 
Scotland  after  several  years'  absence.  He,  therefore,  as  became 
a  religious  prince,  conceived  a  strong  desire  to  redress  the 
evil,  and  to  endeavour  to  establish  an  uniform  liturgy  and  ser- 

'  Large  Declaration. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  645 

vice  in  the  church  of  Scotlanrl.  James's  pious  design  met 
with  some  opposition,  and  much  delay,  from  various  causes  ; 
but  in  the  Assembly  at  Aberdeen,  in  August  1616,  an  act  was 
passed  for  the  compilation  of  a  liturgy.  William  Cooper, 
bishop  of  Galloway,  with  several  learned  and  devout  clergy- 
men, were  appointed  for  its  preparation.  The  archbishop  of 
St.  Andrews  perused  and  revised  the  copy  which  they  had  pre- 
pared, and  sent  it  up  to  James  for  his  approbation  ;  who  was 
satisfied,  and  returned  it  to  the  archbishop  with  his  full  con- 
sent ;  but  the  demise  of  the  crown  interrupted  the  progress  of 
the  good  work,  and  eventually  it  was  entirely  laid  aside. 

Moved  by  the  same  pious  and  princely  designs  which  had  ac- 
tuated his  father,  Charles  determined  to  follow  out  his  purpose 
of  settling  a  public  liturgy  in  the  church  of  Scotland.  He 
caused  the  English  liturgy  to  be  revised,  and  to  be  cautiously 
adapted  so  as  not  to  give  the  papists  an  opportunity  of  up- 
braiding the  Anglo-catholic  church  with  any  material  dif- 
ference in  our  liturgies,  and  yet  that,  by  some  immaterial  altera- 
tions, it  might  be  justly  reputed  a  distinct  national  liturgy.  But 
Charles's  error  lay  in  sending  this  unexceptionable  formulary 
to  be  adopted  solely  on  the  authority  of  his  privy  council  and  his 
own  proclamation,  without  the  ecclesiastical  countenance  and 
establishment  of  a  synod  of  the  church.  This  error  was  quickly 
perceived  and  improved  by  the  impropriators  of  the  tithes, 
and  of  which  they  instantly  made  a  stalking-horse  to  arouse 
the  passions,  the  prejudices,  and  the  ignorant  zeal  of  the  peo- 
ple. Charles  says,  he  had  many  reasons  to  induce  him  to  be- 
lieve that  the  Scottish  church  would  not  dislike  the  liturgy, 
which  he  designed  for  its  edification. 

"  First,  because  many  persons  of  the  best  quality  of  the  sub 
jects  of  Scotland,  frequently  resorting  to  his  majesty's  chapel- 
royal  and  other  chuixhes  in  London,  were  present  at,  and  did 
with  reverence  demean  themselves  at,  divine  service;  which 
made  it  probable  that  at  home  they  would  not  account  that 
unlawful  and  antichristian  in  it,  as  many  of  them  have  done 
since,  with  which  they  did  here  voluntarily  comply. 

"  Secondly,  the  English  liturgy  had  been  read  in  his  majesty's 
chapel  at  Holyrood  House,  from  the  year  1617,  without  dis- 
like ;  to  which  the  council,  nobility,  bishops,  clergy,  judges, 
gentry,  burgesses,  and  women  of  all  ranks,  resorted.  The 
bishops  made  use  of  it  in  ordinations  in  some  cathedrals,  and 
in  the  new  college  at  St.  Andrews,  and  it  was  used  in  all 
places  whither  his  majesty  resorted  whilst  in  that  kingdom, 
to  which  great  numbers  of  all  sorts  of  people  resorted,  with- 
out the  least  dislike  of  it,  or  complaints  against  it. 


646  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XV. 

"  Thirdly,  that  book  being  in  substance  the  same  with  the 
English  liturgy,  no  charges  of  idolatry,  popery,  or  supersti- 
tion, could  be  objected  against  the  one  which  would  not  re- 
flect upon  the  other :  now  the  compilers  of  the  English  liturgy 
being  such  bishops  and  others  as  were  either  burnt  or  banished 
in  queen  Mary's  days,  and  even,  by  these  enemies  of  the  ser- 
vice-book, esteemed  glorious  martyrs  and  sufferers  for  the  refor- 
mation, they  could  neither  with  conscience  or  honesty  be 
charged  with  framing  a  liturgy  stuffed  with  idolatry,  popery, 
or  superstition  :  none  have  more  learnedly  and  vigorously  op- 
posed idolatry  or  superstition  than  the  English  bishops  and 
clergy,  ever  since  the  reformation  ^" 

Charles  had  not  only  ignorant  and  bigotted  fanatics,  but 
ambitious  and  powerful  nobles,  with  their  feudal  military  vas- 
sals, to  deal  with  ;  and  he  entirely  mistook  the  right  method 
of  managing  them.  He  commanded  where  he  should  have 
instructed  and  persuaded;  and  he  temporized  and  vacillated 
where  he  ought  to  have  been  "  bloody,  bold,  and  resolute,"  to 
enforce  obedience.  Charles's  great  misfortune,  and  indeed  it 
was  the  visible  cause  of  his  ruin,  was,  that  he  had  too  much  cle- 
mency, and  too  sadly  misplaced  it.  He  showered  all  his  fa- 
vours upon  his  enemies,  whom  he  vainly  attempted  to  re- 
claim and  attach  to  his  person  and  government ;  and  he  dis- 
gusted and  alienated  his  friends  without  being  able  to  reclaim 
his  enemies,  who  could  never  forgive  or  trust  to  him ;  for  it  is 
he  who  does  the  injury  that  never  forgives.  Charles  preferred 
all  the  heads  of  the  rebellion,  and  complied  with  all  their  de- 
mands, consented  to  the  exthyation  of  the  church,  agreeable 
to  the  vow  and  intention  of  the  covenant,  and  to  the  establish- 
ment of  presbytery,  for  both  of  which  he  afterwards  expressed 
the  most  lively  and  sincere  repentance. 

It  remains  only  to  trace  the  progress  of  the  expatriated 
bishops,  who  were,  now  that  "  treason  had  done  its  worst,"  no 
longer  able  to  serve  the  king  or  the  church  in  any  capacity. 
As  mentioned  before,  the  covenanters  proposed,  and  really  in- 
tended, to  have  murdered  archbishop  Spottiswood,  at  Stirling ; 
but  his  life  was  spared  more  from  the  prudential  fears  of  the 
covenanted  chiefs  than  from  any  motives  of  honour  or  justice. 
Bishop  Russell  has  inserted,  in  a  note  to  his  History,  an 
anonymous  letter  from  one  who  was  known  to  Johnston  of 
Warriston,  dated  28th  October,  1638,  in  which  he  very  signifi- 
cantly hints  at  the  propriety  of  assassinating  the  primate ; 
and  with  the  hypocrisy  of  the  party,  prays  for  a  blessing  on 

'  Large  Declaration,  p.  19-24. 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  647 

the  foul  deed.  "  Dear  christian  brother  and  courageous  pro- 
testant, — Upon  some  rumour  of  the  prelate  of  St.  Andrews,  his 
coming  over  the  water,  and  finding  it  altogether  inconvenient 
that  he  or  any  of'that  kind  should  show  themselves  peaceabhj 
in  public,  some  course  was  taken  how  he  might  be  entertained 
in  such  places  as  he  might  come  unto  ;  we  are  now  informed 
that  he  will  not  come,  but  that  Broughen  (Brechin)  is  in  Edin- 
burgh or  thereabout :  it  is  the  advice  of  your  friends  here, 
that  in  a  private  way  some  course  may  be  taken  for  his  terror 
and  disgrace,  if  he  offer  to  shew  himself  in  public.     Think 

upon  the  best  r by  the  advice  of  your  friends  there.    I  fear 

that  this  public  appearance  at  Glasgow  shall  be  prejudicial  to 
our  cause.  We  are  going  to  take  order  with  his  chief  sup- 
porters there,  Gladstanes,  Scrimgeour,  and  Haliburton.  Wish- 
ing you  both  protection  and  direction  from  your  master,  I 
continue  your  own,  whom  you  know. — G."^ 

Seeing  that  his  life  was  in  imminent  danger,  not  only  from 
the  public  act  of  the  fanatical  mob,  but  fi-om  the  dagger  of  the 
private  assassin,  he  fled  to  Newcastle,  where  he  remained  for 
some  time.  Here  he  wrote  to  the  king,  and  earnestly  solicited 
permission  to  resign  his  office  of  lord  chancellor,  which  had 
been  conferred  on  him  for  life  by  patent.  Charles  accepted 
his  resignation,  and  wrote  with  his  own  hand  an  affectionate 
letter  of  thanks  for  his  past  services.  Age,  fatigue  of  body,  and 
griefof  soul,  threw  him  into  a  fever,  and  on  his  recovery  he  re- 
tired to  London,  where  he  had  a  relapse.  During  his  sickness 
he  received  the  holy  communion  from  the  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, and  was  visited  by  many  persons  of  distinction. 
Among  these,  the  marquis  of  Hamilton,  who  was  generally 
supposed  to  be  disaffected  to  episcopacy,  waited  on  him,  and 
said,  "  My  lord,  I  come  to  kiss  your  lordship's  hands,  and 
humbly  to  ask  your  blessing."  To  which  the  primate  replied, 
"  My  lord,  you  shall  have  my  blessing ;  but  give  me  leave  to 
say,  my  lord,  that  I  visibly  foresee  that  the  church  and  king 
are  both  in  danger  to  be  lost ;  and  I  am  verily  persuaded  that 
there  is  none  under  God  so  able  to  prevent  it  as  your  lordship, 
and  therefore  I  speak  to  you  as  a  dying  prelate,  in  the  words 
of  Mordecai  to  Esther, '  If  you  do  it  not,  salvation  in  the  end 
shall  come  somewhere  else,  but  you  and  your  house  shall 
perish.'"  The  marquis  answered,  "  that  what  he  foresaw  was 
his  grief,  and  he  wished  from  his  heart  he  was  able  to  do  what 
was  expected  from  him,  though  it  were  to  be  done  with  the 
sacrificing  of  his  life  and  fortune;"  after  which,  he  received 

*  Cited  in  Bishop  Russell's  Hist,  of  the  Church  in  Scotland,  ii.  162. 


648  HISTORY  OF   THE  [UHAP.  XV. 

the  archbishop's  blessing  on  his  knees.  Spottiswood  left  a  writ- 
ten copy  of  the  faith  in  which  he  died  : — "  I  profess,"  he  said, 
"  that  I  believe  all  the  articles  of  that  ancient  christian  creed 
commonly  called  the  Apostles'  Creed  ;  other  addittiments, 
which  ignorance  and  presumption  have  supei-induced  into 
Christianity,  I  simply  refuse,  beseeching  God  to  purge  his 
church  from  the  errors  and  superstitions  that  have  crept  into 
the  same,  and  at  last  to  make  us  all  that  are  called  christians, 
the  sheep  of  one  fold.  For  matters  of  rites  and  ceremonies, 
my  judgment  is,  and  hath  been,  that  the  most  simple,  decent, 
and  humble  rites,  should  be  chosen — such  as  the  bowing  of 
the  knee  in  the  receiving  of  the  holy  sacrament,  with  others 
of  the  like  kind ;  profaneness  being  as  dangerous  to  religion 
as  superstition.  As  touching  the  government  of  the  church, 
I  am  verily  persuaded  that  the  government  episcopal  is  the  only 
right  and  apostolic  form :  parity  among  ministers  being  the 
breeder  of  all  confusion,  as  experience  might  have  taught  us. 
And  as  for  the  ruling  elders,  as  they  are  a  mere  human  de- 
vice, so  they  will  prove  (when  the  way  is  more  open  to  them) 
the  ruin  of  both  church  and  stale."  In  the  simplicity  of  this 
faith  he  lived,  and  died,  in  the  month  of  December,  1639. 
His  affectionate  sovereign  assigned  him  a  tomb  in  Westmin- 
ster Abbey,  near  his  beloved  master,  king  James  ;  and  his 
body  was  followed  to  the  grave  by  all  the  loyal  Scottish  and 
English  nobility  then  in  London,  with  all  the  king's  servants. 
The  funeral  procession,  attended  by  800  torches,  was  met  at 
the  west  door  by  the  dean  and  prebendaries  in  their  robes, 
and  he  was  buried  according  to  the  solemn  rites  of  the  church 
of  England,  "  before  the  extermination  of  decent  christian 
\)\  rial  was  come  in  fashion." 

This  eminent  prelate  contended  more  for  the  substance  of 
piety  than  for  its  mere  show — more  for  the  power  of  godliness 
than  its  bare  form.  He  was  frequent  and  fervent  in  his  private 
devotions,  and  in  public  worship  his  carriage  was  so  exem- 
plary as  to  excite  the  coldest  congregation  to  unite  with  him  in 
the  same  fervency  and  warmth  of  devotion.  Few  men  suffered 
more  from  the  insolence  and  opposition  of  his  opponents,  when 
sedition  wore  the  colours  of  religion ;  and  few  men  have  suffered 
more  in  their  character  than  this  able  and  upright  prelate,  fi-om 
the  most  malignant  false  witnesses  who  have  attacked  it. 
Baillie,  the  most  moderate  and  temperate  of  his  opponents, 
calls  him  an  infamous  wretch  ; — "  I  was  also  content  with  ano- 
ther part  of  my  task,  to  throw  down  to  the  dust  oi  just  contempt 
and  well-deserved  disgrace  the  unhappy  aT\dinfa?nous  wretches, 
Adanison,  Spottiswood,    Maxwell,    and    Balcanqual."      His 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  649 

public  munificence  was  only  bounded  by  his  means.  He  built 
and  adorned  the  parish  church  of  Dairsie  wholly  at  his  own  ex- 
pense; and,  in  a  time  of  famine  in  the  Orkneys,  he  not  only 
contributed  largely  himself  to  their  relief,  but  he  induced  others 
to  do  the  same  ^  Nalson  says. "  He  was  a  person  advanced  for 
his  merit  to  that  high  character  which  he  supported  with  so 
gi*eat  prudence,  conduct,  and  integrity,  as  made  it  appear  he 
deserved  his  honour  and  dignity.  He  came  to  the  grave 
in  peace  and  a  good  old  age,  and  had  the  happiness  not  to  be 
witness  to  those  calamities  and  desolations  which  afterwards 
happened  to  his  country  2." 

Bishop  Keith  represents  archbishop  Lindsay,  of  Glasgow,  on 
the  authority  of  some  persons  who  knew  him  personally,  to  have 
been  "  both  a  good  man  and  a  very  fervent  preacher;  that  he 
exercised  his  office  with  much  lenity,  and  was  much  against 
pressing  the  liturgy  on  the  people."  Baillie  says,  that  he  sent 
for  lord  Wemyss, "  and  intreated  him  to  deal  {or J'avour  towards 
him"  with  the  Glasgow  Assembly;  and  assured  him  "that he 
was  pressed  against  his  heart,  by  the  commissioner  and  bishop 
of  Ross,  to  subscribe  the  declinature."  The  Assembly  sent  and 
pressed  him  to  withdraw  his  signature  from  it,  which  he  peremp- 
torily refused  to  do  ;  and  they  condemned  him,  "  besides  com- 
mon faults,  for-^the  practice  of  the  book  of  canons,  the  urging, 
under  pain  of  horning  [outlawry],  the  practice  of  the  service- 
books,"  &c.  It  may  therefore  be  concluded,  that  the  report  of 
his  submission  was  a  libel  forged  still  further  to  blacken  his 
character.  He  was  both  aged  and  in  bad  health,  and  he  found 
it  safest  to  retire  to  Newcastle,  where  he  died  in  1641  ^. 

David  Lindsay,  bishop  of  Edinburgh,  was  deposed  and  ex- 
communicated upon  the  false  declamatory  charge  of,  "  beside 
common  faults  of  breaking  the  caveats^,  was  proven  to  have 
been  a  pressor  of  the  late  novations  ;  an  urger  of  the  liturgy  ; 
a  refuser  to  admit  any  of  the  ministry  who  would  not  first  take 
the  order  of  a  preaching  deacon ;  a  bower  to  the  altar ;  a 
wearer  of  the  rochet ;  a  consecrator  of  churches  ;  a  domineerer 
ofpresbytei'ies;  alicenser  of  marriages  without  banns;  a  coun- 
tenancer  of  corrupt  doctrine ;  an  elevator  of  the  elements  at 
consecration  ;  a  defender  of  ubiquity,"  &c.  He  was,  like  the 
other  confessors,  a  maintainor  of  catholic  doctrines  and  usages, 
and  a  man  of  exemplary  private  character.  He  also  fled  into 
England  from  the  fury  of  the  fanatics,  who  were  hounded  on 
by  the  lay  chiefs  and  the  presbyterian  ministers.  He  died  a 
few  years  afterwards,  but  it  is  not  known  where. 

'  Life,  prefixed  to  his  History.  -  Impartial  Collection,  i.  286. 

3  Baillie's  Letters. — Keith's  Catalogue.       *  Vide  ante,  ch.  x.  pp.  '108-411. 
VOL.  I.  4  0 


()50  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XV. 

"  The  proper  faults  of  Adam  Bellenden,  of  Aberdeen,  were 
great  slanders  of  frequent  simony.  Though  he  did  not  favour 
well  enough  all  Canterbury's  ways,  yet  he  had  been  found  as 
forward  as  any  to  press  the  canons  and  liturgy ;  that  he  sus- 
pended ministers  for  fasting  on  Sunday  ;  that  he  enacted  fast- 
ing on  Wednesdays  only ;  that  he  consecrated  the  chapel  of 
an  infamous  woman,  the  lady  Wardhouse ;  stayed,  at  his  plea- 
sure, processes  against  papists  and  incestuous  persons ;  that 
he  had  not  subscribed  the  declinature,  as  was  thought  for  lack 
of  no  good  will,  but  only  through  distance  of  place,  the  writ 
in  time  could  not  be  conveyed  to  him.  That  defect  in  his  pro- 
cess was  supplied  by  the  moderator  with  a  discourse  of  his 
singularly  malicious  apostacy ;  that  he  had  been  a  man  by 
appearance,  but  too  zealous  against  bishops,  and  all  their 
courses,  so  that  his  vehemency  beyond  the  grounds  of  any 
reason  he  knew  did  offend  his  wise  and  learned  neighbour, 
Mr.  Patrick  Simpson.  We  decreed  him  to  be  excommuni- 
cat."  His  character  may  be  gathered  from  the  nature  of  the 
charges  which  were  trumped  up  against  him,  and  which  may 
be  measured  by  the  rule  of  contrary.  He  likewise  took  shelter 
in  the  north  of  England,  where  he  died  soon  after. 

Walter  Whitford,  of  that  ilk,  bishop  of  Brechin,  was  ac- 
cused upon  their  usual  evidence,  the  malicious  gossip  of  their 
personal  and  official  enemies.  He  was  very  desirous  of  encou- 
raging the  use  of  the  liturgy,  a  fact  which  of  itself  is  a  contradic- 
tion to  the  calumnies  of  his  enemies;  but  whose  violence  com- 
pelled him  to  consult  his  personal  safety  by  retiring  to  Eng- 
land, where  he  died  in  the  year  1643. 

James  Wedderburn,  bishop  of  Dunblane,  who  had  been 
formerly  professor  of  divinity  at  St.  Andrews,  was  excommuni- 
cated, "  though  he  did  not  subscribe  the  declinature,  neither  was 
he  personally  summoned,  having  previously  fled  to  England; 
yet  was  he  excommunicated  as  one  who  had  been  an  especial 
instrument  of  all  our  mischiefs,  having  corrupted  with  armi- 
nianism  diverse  with  his  discourses  and  lectures  in  St.  Andrews, 
whose  errors  and  perverseness  kythe  [show  themselves]  this 
day  in  all  the  nooks  of  the  kingdom,  having  been  a  special 
pennei*,  practiser,  urger  of  our  books,  and  of  all  novations ;  a 
man  set  in  the  chappel  [royal,  of  which  he  was  dean]  to  be  a 
hand  to  Canterbury  in  all  his  intentions.  What  drunkenness, 
swearing,  or  other  crimes  were  libelled,  /  do  not  remember^ 
Catholic  doctrines  are  here  nicknamed  arminianism ;  and  it  is 
evident  that  he  had  been  a  prelate  who  had  exhorted  and 
taught  wholesome  doctrine  with  all  authority,  and  withstood 
and  convinced  the  gainsayers.     He  had  also  been  ready,  with 


1638.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  651 

all  faitliful  diligence,  to  banish  and  drive  away  all  erroneous 
and  strange  doctrines  contrary  to  God's  word ;  and  who,  both 
privately  and  publicly,  called  upon  and  encouraged  others  to 
do  the  same.  He  died  in  1639,  at  the  early  age  of  fifty-four, 
and  was  buried  in  the  chapel  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  in  the  Ca- 
thedral of  Canterbury. 

Of  the  fate  of  John  Abernethy,  bishop  of  Caithness,  the  ac- 
counts are  rather  conflicting.  Baillie  says,  that  he,  with  the 
bishop  of  Dunkeld, "  simply  submitted  themselves  to  the  synod, 
and  requested  to  be  continued  in  the  office  of  the  ministry. 
This  their  submission  did  obtain  them  favour,  otherways  there 
was  truly  alleged  against  them  the  common  faults,  and  as  foul 
pranks  of  simony  and  avarice  as  any  of  the  fonner."  Keith 
says,  "  by  his  writings,  he  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  good 
literature ;"  and  good  Mr.  Skinner  says,  he  died  in  exile  :  but 
Mr.  David  Laing,  in  a  note  to  Baillie's  Letters,  of  which  he  is 
the  editor,  calls  this  submission  a  "renunciation^,"  and  is 
confirmed  by  Baillie,  who  says,  he  "  simply  submitted ;"  which 
means,  that  he  acknowledged  and  obeyed  their  jurisdiction ; 
and  Dr.  Hamilton,  the  bishops'  procurator,  was  preferred  to 
the  see  of  Caithness,  but  he  was  never  consecrated. 

Neil  Campbell,  bishop  of  the  Isles,  was  deposed,  and 
threatened  with  excommunication,  unless  he  repented ;  which, 
perhaps,  he  did,  as  we  hear  nothing  more  of  him. 

James  Fairley,  bishop  of  Argyle, "  seemed  as  worthy  of  cen- 
sui'e  as  any.  In  his  small  time  he  had  shewn  good  will  to  go 
the  worst  ways  of  the  faction,  far  contrary  to  the  opinion  which 
all  men  had  of  his  orthodoxy  and  honesty  :  he  was  an  urger  on 
of  the  wicked  oath  on  intrants,  an  intruder  of  the  liturgy  npon 
them,  an  oppressor  of  his  vassals,  a  preacher  of  arminianism, 
a  profaner  of  the  Sabbath,  and  beginner  to  do  all  that  Canter- 
bury could  have  wished  2.  Notwithstanding  his  submission 
saved  him ;  for  he  was  deposed  from  his  episcopal  functions, 
and  afterwards  placed  as  presbyterian  minister  at  Laswade. 

John  Guthrie,  of  that  ilk,  bishop  of  Moray,  set  a  noble  ex- 
ample of  defiance  to  the  covenanting  Assembly,  and  suffered 
persecution  as  his  reward.  "  Moray  had  all  the  ordinary  faults 
of  a  bishop  !  besides  his  boldness  to  be  the  first  to  put  on  his 
sleeves  [episcopal  robes]  in  Edinburgh,  did  make  many  urge  his 
excommunication,  or  to  give  token  of  repentance  against  snch 
a  day ;  but  because  he  was  not  formally  summoned,  the  mode- 
rator with  some  piece  of  violence  kept  him  from  that  sentence^.'* 

'  Baillie's  Letters,  i.  166.         ^  jby.  i.  164.         ^  Baillie's  Letters,  i.  164. 


652  HISTORY  OF  THR  [CHAP.  XV. 

Noth withstanding  this  slight  favour,  he  was  deposed,  but  he 
maintained  the  validity  and  rights  of  his  order  for  two  years 
at  Spynie  Castle,  the  episcopal  palace  of  his  see,  till  colonel 
Monroe  took  military  possession  of  it,  when  he  w'as  obliged 
to  retire  to  his  own  estate  of  Guthrie,  in  the  county  of  Angus. 
One  of  the  malicious  and  improbable  stories  trumped  up 
against  this  worthy  confessor,  mentioned  by  Baillie,  is,  that 
"  There  w^as  objected  against  him,  but,  as  I  suspect,  not  suffi- 
ciently proven,  his  countenancing  a  vile  dance  of  naked  people 
in  his  own  house,  and  of  women  going  barefooted  in  pilgi-image 
not  far  from  his  dwelling."  This  is  cited  to  shew  the  vile 
spirit  by  which  the  Assembly  was  actuated,  and  not  as  for  a 
moment  admitting  the  truth  of  such  an  accusation.  "  He  was," 
says  bishop  Keith,  "  a  venerable,  worthy,  and  hospitable  pre- 
late. After  his  deprivation,  he  was, by  an  act  of  that  Assembly, 
appointed  to  make  his  public  repentance  in  Edinburgh,  be- 
cause in  the  year  1633  he  had  preached  in  a  surplice  [query, 
lawn  sleeves]  before  his  majesty  king  Charles  the  First  in  the 
high  church,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  zealous  people  there." 
If  he  refused  to  submit  to  this  degradation,  he  was  forthwith 
to  be  excommunicated.  He  despised  their  orders  and  their 
denunciations,  and  was  accordingly  excommunicated.  He 
was  fined,  plundered,  and  imprisoned,  yet  still  maintained  his 
episcopal  character,  "  till  at  last,  being  old  and  not  likely  to 
give  the  prevailing  cause  much  trouble,  he  was  suffered  to  die 
in  quiet  in  his  own  house  of  Guthrie  in  August" 

John  Maxwell,  bishop  of  Ross,  was  a  very  learned  man, 
with  whom  archbishoj)  Laud  contracted  a  firm  and  lasting 
friendship,  by  whose  advice  bishop  Maxwell  was  made  a  privy 
councillor  and  an  extraordinary  lord  of  Session.  The  arch- 
bishop likewise  intended  that  he  should  have  been  made  lord 
treasurer,  a  step  that  excited  the  jealousy  of  lord  Traquair  and 
the  envy  of  the  nobility,  and  which  proved  prejudicial  not 
only  to  himself  and  his  order,  but  to  the  king  also  ;  for  the 
nobility  became  discontented  that  the  bishops  should  possess 
offices  which  they  thought  pertained  hereditarily  to  themselves. 
His  abilities  and  talents  for  affairs  soon  presented  him  as  an  ob- 
ject of  envy  and  malice  to  the  people  generally  ;  and  so  much 
was  he  feared,  that  the  usurping  government  and  the  Assem- 
blies retained  his  name  in  the  condemned  list  of  incendiaries 
so  long  as  he  lived,  and  always  excepted  him  out  of  every  act 
of  oblivion  or  indemnity.     In  the  Assembly  "his  process  was 

'  Vide  post,  vol.  ii. 


1G39.]  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.  (353 

no  way  perfect ;  the  long  legend  of  his  erroneous  doctrines 
was  clean  omitted.  It  was  committed  to  Durie  to  search  for 
witnesses  of  a  number  of  errors  which  all  knew  he  gloried  to 
preach  even  in  Edinburgh  ;  but  Durie's  information  came  not 
in  time  :  however,  it  was  proven,  that  two  years  ago  he  was  a 
public  reader  in  his  house  and  cathedral  of  the  English  liturgy ; 
that  he  was  a  bower  at  the  altar,  a  wearer  of  the  cope  and 
rochet,  a  deposer  of  godly  ministers,  an  admitter  of  fornica- 
tors, a  compauier  with  papists,  an  usual  carder  on  Sundays ; 
yea,  instead  of  going  to  thanksgiving  on  communion  days,  that 
he  called  for  cards  to  play  at  the  beast ;  had  often  given  abso- 
lution, consecrated  deacons,  robbed  his  vassals  of  above  forty- 
thousand  marks,  kept  fasts  every  Friday,  journeyed  usually  on 
Sunday,  had  been  a  chief  decliner  of  the  Assembly,  and  a 
principal  instrument  in  all  troubles  both  of  church  and  state. 
Of  his  excommunication  no  man  made  question."  He  fled  to 
England,  and  was  by  the  king  translated  to  the  bishopric  of 
Killala  in  the  year  1640,  where  he  was  again  a  sufferer  from 
the  other  extreme — the  papists  in  the  time  of  their  rebellion. 
The  poj)ish  rebels  stript  him  naked,  wounded  him  severely,  and 
left  him  for  dead ;  but  the  earl  of  Thomond,  who  soon  after 
passed  by,  recognised  and  took  care  of  him,  and  brought  him 
to  Dublin  without  farther  damage,  where  he  greatly  allayed  the 
consternation  of  the  people  by  his  many  excellent  sermons. 
He  waited  on  the  king  at  Oxford,  and  gave  him  the  first  coiTect 
infonnation  respecting  the  miserable  state  of  the  kingdom  of 
Ireland,  and  of  the  innate  hatred  which  the  Irish  papists  bore 
to  the  professors  of  the  protestant  religion.  During  his  resi- 
dence with  the  king,  the  archbishopric  of  Tuam  falling  void, 
he  promoted  him  to  that  see  by  letters  patent,  dated  30th  of 
August,  1645,  and  he  soon  after  took  possession  of  it.  He 
was  so  grievously  afflicted  with  the  news  of  the  king's  misfor- 
tunes, and  the  calamities  that  had  befallen  the  church,  that  he 
was  found  dead  in  his  closet  on  his  knees  on  the  14th  of 
February,  1646,  and  was  interred  in  Christ  Church,  Dublin,  by 
the  care  of  the  marquis  of  Ormond. 

Thomas  Sydserf,  bishop  of  Galloway,  "  a  learned  and  worthy 
prelate,"  was  deposed  and  excommunicated,  and  followed  his 
brethren  into  England  ;  thence  he  went  to  Paris,  and  exercised 
his  episcopal  office  in  the  chapel  of  the  king's  ambassador 
there.  He  there  ordained  several  priests,  and  among  others 
John  Durel,  the  author  of  the  "  View  of  the  Reformed  Churches 
Abroad  ;"  in  which  work  he  says  that  the  French  protestants 
made  a  consistorial  act,  in  which  they  agreed  "  not  to  pay  any 


654  HISTORY  OF  THE  [CHAP.  XV. 

regard  to  the  Scotch  presbyterian  excommunications  without 
a  particular  specification  of  a  particular  cause,  which  they  did 
not  admit  episcopacy  to  be."  In  perfect  consiste*icy  with  this 
act,  they  communicated  with  bishop  Sydserf,  who  had  been 
excommunicated  by  the  Scotch  presbyterians,  and  they  recog- 
nised the  ordination  which  Durel  and  others  received  at  his 
hands.  It  may  be  remarked  that,  although  I  have  used  the 
word  excommunicate  in  the  sense  meant  by  the  Assembly,  yet 
I  by  no  means  admit  their  power  to  excommunicate,  nor  under- 
stand the  bishops  really  to  lie  under  that  sentence  which  they 
do  to  this  day,  for  it  has  never  been  reversed.  But  as  the 
Assembly  had  the  civil  power  on  their  side,  their  sentence 
carried  with  it  all  the  civil  pains  and  penalties  which  were 
competent  to  follow  the  lawful  sentence ;  that  is,  of  deatli  and 
confiscation  of  property.  Durel  "  quotes  a  letter  written  by 
the  well-known  Fredrick  Spanheim,  one  of  the  ministers  of 
Geneva,  to  the  Irish  primate  Usher,  to  the  English  earl  of  Pem- 
broke, and  to  two  young  Scotch  noblemen,  lord  Angus  and 
lord  Maitland,  with  all  of  whom  he  had  been  acquainted  when 
in  Britain  :  in  which,  speaking  in  the  name  of  the  church, 
Spanheim  has  these  \\^oi'ds : — '  With  singular  affection  to  all  the 
British  churches,  we  reverence  and  love  their  illustrious  pre- 
lates, and  we  pray  to  God  for  the  prosperity  of  these  kingdoms, 
and  of  all  them  that  sit  at  the  helm,  as  well  in  the  church  as  in 
the  commonwealth,  that  God  may  have  his  glory,  the  king  his 
just  rights,  and  the  prelates  of  your  churches  their  due  autho- 
rity.' This  letter,  Mr.  Durel  says,  was  written  in  October, 
1633.  The  date  is  observable,  and  shews  us  that,  at  the  very 
time  when  the  Scotch  presbyterians,  who  glory  in  Geneva  as 
their  mother  church  and  standard  of  reformation,  were  schem- 
ing against  their  own  prelates  both  in  person  and  office,  that 
their  mother  church  was  reverencing  and  praying  for  them  in 
both  respects  !  To  this  let  me  add  another  letter,  though  some 
years  later,  from  the  same  quarter,  by  the  pen  of  another 
Genevan  minister,  the  learned  John  Diodati,  to  the  assembly 
of  divines  at  Westminster  in  1647 ;  the  whole  strain  of  which 
is  in  praise  of  the  church  of  England,  sadly  lamenting  the  un- 
natural tumults  which  were  rending  that  once  beautiful  and 
pure  church, — .'  that  fair  eye  of  the  reformed  churches,  where 
the  needy  had  been  in  use  to  find  assistance,  and  the  afflicted  a 
refuge  to  fly  to,  &c.i"' 

Bishop  Sydserf  was  the  only  prelate  who  survived  the  "  ex- 

1  Skinner's  Eccl.  Hist.  ii.  348—349. 


1639.]  CHURCH   OF  SCOTLAND.  655 

tirpation''^  of  the  church  of  Scotland.  From  the  circumstance, 
perhaps,  of  their  dispersion  and  the  complete  prostration  of  the 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  powers,  the  prelates  all  died  within  two 
or  three  years  oftheir  exile,  without  making  any  provision  what- 
ever for  preserving  the  succession  ;  so  that,  with  the  solitary 
exception  of  bishop  Sydserf,  the  church  which  had  been 
founded  by  Spottiswood,  and  nourished  by  James  and  Charles 
as  its  royal  nursing  fathers,  was  really  and  truly  extirpated  by 
the  blood-thirsty  and  malicious  men  who  had  sworn  its  destruc- 
tion in  their  covenant.  James  Beaton,  archbishop  of  Glasgow, 
who  died  possessed  of  that  see  in  1603,  connected  the  ancient 
British  and  papal  church  with  the  Spottiswoodian  ;  and 
Thomas  Sydserf  was  the  connecting  link  betwixt  it  and  the  pre- 
sent episcopal  church  in  Scotland.  We  have  the  authoritative 
decision  of  the  Glasgow  Assembly  that  the  Knoxian  establish- 
ment was  episcopal ;  and  with  the  above  connecting  links,  with 
only  a  vacancy  of  seven  years,  we  see  that,  in  point  of  fact,  epis- 
copacy has  never  ceased  to  exist  in  Scotland.  It  has  ever  been 
the  subject  oi persecution  in  that  kingdom.  Three  of  its  pre- 
lates have  been  murdered  since  the  era  of  the  reformation  ;  and 
nine  were  obliged  to  flee  for  their  lives,  as  threats  of  death  were 
thundered  out  against  them.  The  whole  order  have  ever  suf- 
fered that  moral  martyrdom  "of  cruel  mockings  and  scourgings, 
yea,  moreover,  of  bonds  and  imprisonments,"  which  befel  the 
saints  of  "  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy."  The  falsehoods 
of  the  charges  against  the  bishops  appear  transparently  in  the 
exact  similarity  of  the  immoralities  of  which  they  were  each 
falsely  accused,  much  of  which  the  accusers  themselves  ac- 
knowledge to  be  the  mere  rumour  of  malignant  envy.  Those 
three  fallen  stars  who  apostatized,  through  covetousness,  to 
presbytery,  were  accused  of  the  same  list  of  immoralities  as 
the  others,  and  from  which  they  were  never  absolved,  but 
continued  in  their  degraded  ministry  without  even  censure. 
This  is  another  and  a  resistless  proof  that  the  infamous 
crimes  adduced  against  the  prelates  were  mere  declamatory 
fabrications  to  blind  and  deceive  the  vulgar,  to  afford  a  spe- 
cious cloak  for  their  proceedings,  and  to  round  off"  their 
indictment. 

These  persecuted  prelates  have  long  since  been  gathered 
to  their  fathers,  and,  through  the  cross  which  they  bore  with 
exemplary  patience,  will,  we  fervently  trust,  receive  the 
Crown  of  Righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  Righteous 
Judge,  shall  give  them,  when,  perhaps,  their  persecutors  shall 
be  calling  on  the  rocks  and  mountains  to  cover  them  from 


656  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND.    [CHAP.  XV. 

the  wrath  of  the  Chief  Bishop.  May  they  rest  in  peace! 
and  may  their  successors  in  that  long  persecuted  branch  of 
Christ's  holy  catholic  church  "  maintain  and  set  forward,  as 
much  as  shall  lay  in  them,  quietness,  los^e,  and  peace  among 
all  men  ;  and  such  as  be  unquiet,  disobedient,  and  criminous, 
correct  and  punish  according  to  such  authority  as  they  have 
by  God's  Word." 


END  OF  vol,.  I. 


Wilson  and  Otfilvy,  57,  Skinner  Strrc',  Hnowliill,  London. 


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