IT is well known that Queen Mary, both in France and after her return
to this country, refused to ratify the Proceedings of the PARLIAMENT
which met at Edinburgh in August 1560; and its Acts, were not included
in the authorized collection of the public statutes. In order to
obviate this legal want of the royal sanction, it was judged expedient
that the CONFESSION OF FAITH, and some special Acts, should be renewed
in the first Parliament of James the Sixth, during the regency of the
Earl of Murray, in December 1567. It was proposed to have inserted in
this Appendix a list of the Members and some passages relating to the
proceedings of that Parliament, along with an account of the early
editions of the Confession of Faith, 1560; and some notes respecting
the First Book of Discipline. Want of space has rendered it necessary
to omit these notices; but another opportunity may be afforded of
introducing them in a subsequent volume.
It is also well known that the selfish rapacity of some of the
Nobility who had supported the Reformed doctrines, and had obtained
possession of Church-lands and property, prevented the Policy of the
Kirk from being established according to the plan drawn up by Knox and
his brethren. But the FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE must always be regarded
as an important work to illustrate the form of Church government and
discipline submitted for approval by our early Reformers; and it is
now presented to the Reader in a much more perfect and authentic form
than it has ever appeared.
* * * * *
The following notes, selected from a careful collation of the Book of
Discipline, with the copy inserted by Spottiswood in his History of
the Church, will prove how very little reliance can be placed on the
Archbishop's assertion of his having given it "word by word." As the
omissions and emendations referred to might have been inside by the
Editor in 1655, (see page 181, note 5,) the new edition, printing for
the Spottiswoode Society, (edited by Bishop Russell, and collated with
the author's original MS.,) has been employed.
Page 183-184, Spottiswood omits the whole of the Preface,
and introduces the Book of Discipline with the short
paragraph already quoted at page 181, note 5. There is a
slight variation in the new edit. (p. 331,) reading, "I
_have_ thought meet, word by word, to insert the same," &c.
187, There are several omissions in this page; for instance,
in line 7, the words "devysed by men;" various words in
lines 15 to 22; and nearly the whole of lines 24 to 26.
188, lines 21, 22, altered; and lines 24 to 29 abridged.