THE FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE; OR, THE BOOKE OF THE POLICIE OF THE
CHURCH.
[Sidenote: Knox's part in its preparation.]
I regard the First Book of Discipline as, in several respects, the most
thoughtful, judicious, practical, and comprehensive of the documents
connected with the organisation of the Reformed Church of Scotland. It
was drawn up by the same six men[180] who were subsequently entrusted
with the preparation of the Confession of Faith; and it has been said
that they first settled the titles of the several chapters, and then
apportioned the preparation of so many of them to each. But this is
matter of pure conjecture. The portion on the universities, from the
multitude of its practical details, we cannot but assign mainly to
Douglas, the Principal of St Mary's College, and Wynram, the sub-prior
of the Augustinian Monastery at St Andrews. One can hardly doubt that
the rest, if not actually drafted by Knox, was carefully remoulded by
him; and it bears evidence of acquaintance with books which were far
more likely to have been known to him than to any of the others--as
Herman of Cologne's Book of the Reformation, Latin versions of some of
the earlier Kirchenbücher or Kirchenordnungen of the German Protestants,
and probably of the famous Ordonnances of Calvin, as drafted at Geneva
after his return from exile.
I. _The Government of the Church._
[Sidenote: Permanent Office-bearers.]
The opinions of our reformer and his associates respecting the
government and discipline of the church are gathered partly from the
opening chapters of the Book of Common Order, but mainly from the
treatise ultimately entitled the First Book of Discipline. I believe
that a careful study of these will lead to a pretty definite conclusion
as to what these opinions actually were, and to a pretty decided
conviction that, like their opinions respecting matters of doctrine and
ritual, they were substantially in harmony with those to which the
Scottish nation has been so long and firmly attached. It may be admitted
that there were some of Knox's associates who, whatever may have been
their own private sentiments, would, on grounds of expediency, have been
contented to retain the former hierarchical government of the church;
and if on such a point any weight is to be allowed to the assertions of
Spottiswoode,[181] the popish Archbishop of St Andrews might possibly in
that case not have refused to follow the course taken for a time by his
relatives in St Mary's College, and to remain at his post at the head of
the reformed church. But from the disastrous issue of the compromise in
their case, as well as from what is known and indisputable of his own
history and character, there is no reason to suppose that anything was
lost, but on the contrary that incalculable gain accrued to the reformed
church from this temptation not being put in his way. It was long
maintained by the leaders of the Scottish episcopalians that Knox
himself, to a certain extent, yielded to the wishes of his less
thoroughgoing associates, and was implicated with them in certain
attempts to continue or restore the semblance of a hierarchy in the new
church. In fact, some of them went so far as to assert that it was not
till after his death that controversy arose as to whether the episcopal
or presbyterian form of government was the more primitive and
scriptural. These views, if I understand rightly, are now abandoned by
their ablest men; and it was full time that they should be so. The works
of Whitgift, which have been republished in our own day and made more
generally accessible, clearly show that the controversy about the
presbyterian government of the church had been formally raised even in
England at least as early as 1568; while the Later Helvetic Confession,
approved by the Church of Scotland in 1566 at the request of Knox
himself,[182] as clearly shows that the principles on which the
controversy fell to be decided had been generally adopted by the
followers of Calvin even at an earlier date. These principles were:
First, that the names of bishop and presbyter are in Scripture used
indiscriminately to denote the holder of the same office; second, that
the only office-bearers of permanent divine appointment in the church
are the pastor, the doctor, the elder, and the deacon. In fact, at the
head of Calvin's Ordonnances Ecclesiastiques, drawn up, if not printed,
as early as 1541, we find the following: "Il y a quatre ordres d'offices
que notre Seigneur a institue pour le gouvernment de son eglise,
premierement les pasteurs, puis les docteurs, apres les ancients,
quatrement les diacres," which passed substantially into the Book of
Common Order in 1556. This being the case, we are not guilty of any
anachronism in attributing substantially presbyterian opinions to our
reformer, even if we have to grant that the particular church court
first known as the greater eldership or presbytery, and now exclusively
enjoying the title of presbytery, existed at that time only in a
rudimentary form.
[Sidenote: Superintendents temporary.]
The Book of Common Order of 1556 is the earliest authentic document
casting light on the opinions of our reformers respecting the government
and discipline of the church. The introductory part of the book treats
at length of the permanent office-bearers of the church, the manner of
their election, the duties of their respective offices, and the
assemblies they were to hold in common for government and discipline.
The enumeration of the office-bearers and the description of their
duties is quite in harmony with what the Books of Discipline
subsequently laid down. The office-bearers recognised are the minister,
the elder, the deacon, and the doctor; and the duties assigned to each
are such as have generally been allotted to these functionaries in the
presbyterian churches. The terms in which the last-named of them is
referred to are specially deserving of notice. They effectually close a
loophole, that might otherwise have been imagined to be left, for the
introduction of either bishop or superintendent as an essential and
ordinary office-bearer in the church on the pretext that, even if he
were so, he could be of little use in the single English congregation at
Geneva.[183] "Wee are not ignorant," it is said, "that the Scriptures
make mention of a fourth kind of ministers left to the church of Christ,
which also are verie profitable where time and place doth permit; but
for lack of opportunity in this our dispersion and exile we cannot well
have the use thereof, and would to God it were not neglected where
better occasion serveth. These ministers are called teachers or doctors,
whose office is to instruct and teach the faithfull in sounde doctrine,
providing with all diligence that the puritie of the Gospel be not
corrupt either through ignorance or evill opinions."[184] Now, can it be
supposed that Knox would have said all this of the doctor and not a word
of the superintendent, if he had deemed both to be of like permanence
and necessity in the church of Christ; or that he would have devoted
several pages to explain the duties of the office-bearers, and their
assemblies for the interpretation of the Scriptures and the
administration of discipline, and not have uttered one word about the
bishop, had he believed that that official was the chief or even an
essential minister of the church? Can it be supposed likely that he
would have been so silent, even if there had been no bishop, as
confessedly there was no doctor, among the English in Geneva; or
possible that he could have been so with Miles Coverdale,[185] a
regularly consecrated bishop attending on his ministrations and acting
as an elder in his congregation, unless he had regarded (and wished it
to be known that he regarded) the simple presbyter as _jure divino_ on a
level with the diocesan bishop, to say nothing of the fact that his
party at Frankfort had refused to have a bishop or superintendent over
their congregation?
[Sidenote: Necessity of Preaching.]
This examination of the introductory chapters of the Book of Common
Order will enable us the better to understand and explain the parts of
the Book of Discipline drawn up in 1560 respecting the ministers and
office-bearers of the church. Even the ordinary ministers of the church
must all be well qualified to preach the gospel of salvation, as many of
the common people were unable to read,[186] and could only be saturated
with its teaching by the living voice of the preacher who, by sermons
and catechising on the Lord's day, and in the towns also by the sermon
during the week, was to his utmost to carry home the truth to their
hearts. Our reformers judged it necessary "that His Gospell be truely
and openly preached in every church and assembly of this realme";[187]
that no one "unable to edifie the church by wholesome doctrine" should
be promoted to or retained in ecclesiastic administration;[188] and held
that the sacraments cannot be "rightlie ministred by him in whose mouth
God hath put no sermon of exhortation."[189] Instead of entrusting
parishes, as was so often done in England, to men able only to read
homilies prepared by others, they affirmed that it was alike to have no
minister at all and to have an idol in place of a true minister, yea, in
some cases it was worse.[190] Men of best knowledge of God's Word and
cleanest life were to be nominated annually for election as elders and
deacons.[191] The former were to assist the minister in all affairs of
the kirk, to hold meetings with him for judging of causes, admonishing
evil livers, yea, to take heed to the life, manners, diligence, and
study of the ministers, as well as of the flock.[192] The deacons were
to assist in judgment, but chiefly to collect and distribute what was
provided for the poor. They might also, as in the French Church, be
admitted to read the Scriptures and common prayers in the congregation
if required and qualified to do so.[193] Besides ministers, elders, and
deacons, generally recognised in the reformed churches as holding
offices of divine institution, and being of "the ministry" or consistory
of the church, certain other functionaries are mentioned in this Book of
Discipline, to whom special duties are assigned, at least for a time.
These are the readers, or exhorters, and the superintendents, and both
classes appear to be spoken of in such a way as to make it clear that
they were not to be permanently retained as orders of office-bearers in
the church distinct from those above named.
[Sidenote: Readers.]
Readers, or exhorters, were to be provided for those churches which
could not presently be supplied with ministers. These readers were to be
men judged most apt distinctly to read the common prayers and the
Scriptures, but they were to be encouraged and urged so to exercise
their gifts that they might grow in knowledge and utterance, and in time
might come to be entrusted with the power of preaching the Word,
administering the sacraments, and discharging all the functions of the
ordinary pastor.[194] Special provision was made for the spiritual
improvement of these readers or exhorters in those weekly meetings for
the interpretation of Scripture which, originally introduced among the
exiles at Frankfort and Geneva, were after their return set up by them
in England under the name of prophesying, and in Scotland under the name
of the exercise.[195]
The portion of the book relating to the superintendents opens with a
statement of the reasons which had led its framers "to make difference
betwixt preachers _at this time_."[196] These last words, as has often
been remarked, would have been unmeaning had they regarded the
superintendent's office as by divine institution permanent in the church
and superior to that of the ordinary minister. Accordingly, when they
proceed to state in detail the reasons which induced them to sanction
such a difference, these are found to be--not, as in the Anglican
Ordinal, that there have always been in the church of Christ distinct
orders of bishops and presbyters,[197] nor even as in Alasco's book that
such offices were in some sort necessary, though, save in matters
executive, in no way superior to their brethren the ordinary ministers
of the church, but--that the dearth of qualified preachers or ministers
at that time in Scotland was so great, that if each were to be settled
in a single town or parish, and allowed to make continual residence
therein, the larger part of the realm would be left altogether destitute
of that efficient spiritual instruction, oversight, and training which
the people themselves eagerly longed for, and the reformed leaders
earnestly desired to provide for them. To meet this emergency, without
being obliged to avail themselves so generally and unrestrictedly
as the English had done of the former popish incumbents, they deemed it
most expedient that these should, for a time at least, be restricted to
the humbler duties of readers; and that from the whole number of godly
and learned men then in the realm ten or twelve should be selected, and
one of them assigned to each of the proposed provinces, which he should
visit annually through its whole extent, preaching from time to time in
every parish not provided with an ordained and preaching minister,
seeing to the administration of the sacraments and of church discipline
in such parishes, and presiding at the meetings of the provincial synod,
and at the examination and admission of ministers and readers appointed
to serve at the churches.
[Sidenote: Superintendent and Bishop compared.]
It used to be maintained by Scottish episcopalians, and has been
reiterated even in our own day, that there is hardly any difference to
be discerned between these superintendents and the old bishops save the
substitution of a name which is bad Latin for one which is good Greek.
This is more smart than true. The following very material differences
will at once occur to any one acquainted with the First Book of
Discipline, and with the constitution and practice of episcopal
churches. (1) The bishop in the latter must be consecrated to his office
by three, or at least two, bishops who have derived their office in the
like lineal succession from their predecessors; while the
superintendent, according to the practice of the Church of Scotland, and
the constitution of the Church of the Foreigners in London, might be set
apart to his office by a simple presbyter or ordinary minister of the
church. (2) The distinctive duties of the bishop are such as, according
to the practice of the churches recognising the necessity of his office,
cannot be delegated save to one of his own order, while there was no
duty entrusted to the superintendent in the Church of Scotland which
might not be devolved on a mere presbyter; and it was the custom of the
General Assembly to delegate to ordinary ministers the whole functions
of visitation and superintendence in provinces not provided with a
permanent superintendent, and to do so at times even in the case where
the former popish bishop of the diocese had joined himself to the
Reformed Church. (3) It is not generally recognised in episcopal
churches as a duty specially incumbent on the bishop to preach regularly
in the several churches of his diocese (certainly it was not expected of
the English bishops who were contemporary with the Scottish
superintendents);[198] but it was one of the main duties expected of
these superintendents, and one of the chief reasons assigned for the
institution of their office, that the Gospel might be preached from time
to time in all those parishes not provided with a more stated ministry,
and that thus men in every corner of the land might attain some
knowledge of the truths of our holy religion, as well as some feeling of
godliness. (4) Finally, the bishop in all episcopal churches, so far as
my knowledge extends, is allowed to claim a negative voice in synods of
his clergy, and can in no case be taken under discipline and judged by
them, but only by a synod of his own order; while the superintendent in
the Scottish Church was merely the permanent Moderator of Synod, and was
bound to give effect to the decision of the majority, or to carry it by
appeal before a higher court; and he was not only liable to be judged
and punished for neglect of duty and for personal misconduct by the
General Assembly, but was also liable to be charged with such offences
before his own synod, and to be judged and punished by it. On these
grounds I am so far from admitting that the superintendent was in all
respects identical with the bishop, that I am inclined to hold that it
was just because he was so completely stripped of all real episcopal
power that, when the hierarchy was revived, even the most moderate of
the bishops found they could not contain themselves within the limits
prescribed to the superintendents in the First Book of Discipline; and
that one of the main obstacles in the way of their success in the
struggle with their refractory presbyters was occasioned by their own
hasty promise to observe the caveats founded on the previous practice in
the case of superintendents, and especially by their promise to be
subject to the judgment and censure of the General Assembly.
[Sidenote: Gradation of Church Courts.]
The form of church government in Scotland was still further connected
with that of the Calvinistic churches on the Continent (particularly
that of France) by the establishment and gradation of church courts--the
General Assembly having jurisdiction over the whole church, the
provincial synod over the ministers and congregations within a
particular province, and the session or lesser eldership or consistory
over one or more neighbouring congregations.[199] What afterwards came
to be known as the greater eldership, or presbytery, or classical
consistory,[200] does not appear at first under that distinctive name;
but even the germ of this was implanted in that weekly meeting of
ministers and elders for the interpretation of Scripture termed the
exercise, which was authorised both by the Book of Common Order and the
First Book of Discipline.[201] It was soon established in all the
considerable towns in Scotland where there was a fully constituted
reformed church, and though at first it may possibly have confined
itself to the object it was immediately intended to serve, and may have
intervened only by advice in matters of discipline, yet it was not in
the nature of things that such a gathering of ministers and elders from
neighbouring churches should take place from week to week without such
cases as occupied the attention of parochial consistories being
discussed and advised on, as well as the doctrinal and critical
questions arising out of their exercises, which they were expressly
empowered to dispose of. The tendencies of the institution were so
manifest, and the powers it speedily assumed so undisguised, that Queen
Elizabeth became alarmed, and insisted on the suppression of it
throughout the province of Canterbury, notwithstanding the
remonstrances and entreaties of the good Archbishop Grindal, and his
repeated and urgent petitions that she would rather endeavour to confine
it to the original purpose, in which it had been of great service, than
suppress it altogether. In the province of York, where the institution
had taken firmer root, and where the contentions between Papists and
Protestants had gained more prominence than those between Puritans and
anti-Puritans, it was tolerated for a considerably longer period. When
in 1581 Scotland was regularly divided into presbyteries, the exercises
previously existing in particular towns were merged in, and their work
devolved on, these; and in the beginning of the seventeenth century,
when episcopacy was restored, the name of presbytery was again
frequently exchanged for that of exercise.
[Sidenote: The General Assembly.]
Of these several church courts perhaps the most distinctive as well as
the most important was the General Assembly, which was originally held
to represent the whole church; and which may still, after the lapse of
ages, be held substantially to do so--having representatives not only
from each of the presbyteries but also from each of the universities and
royal burghs in the kingdom. It has been wont to meet not (as such
national synods have generally done elsewhere) occasionally and chiefly
for legislative purposes, that is, authoritatively to explain the
church's creed and enact canons to regulate the administration of
discipline, but frequently and at short stated intervals to review the
proceedings of the inferior judicatories of the church, as well as to
legislate regarding matters of doctrine and discipline. Whether its
peculiar vitality in the Scottish Church is to be ascribed to its
popular constitution, or to the fact that it has in general faithfully
represented the national sentiments in those controversies which in
successive generations have been agitated in our country; or whether the
groundwork of it had not been laid long before in those national
councils of the church which the popish ecclesiastics had, under the
bull of Pope Honorius III.,[202] deemed themselves warranted to hold
every year, and at which the king and his nobles appear often to have
been present, and whether, therefore, in the maintenance of this
quasi-Gallican liberty, as well as in some minor matters enumerated by
Lord Hailes, there may not have been a closer and more real connection
between the pre- and post-Reformation church in Scotland than has been
commonly admitted, it would now, perhaps, be very difficult to
determine. But it will be allowed on all hands that this venerable
court--which was so early established and has subsisted almost
uninterruptedly since the Reformation, and has exercised such extensive
legislative and judicial powers--is the most distinctive characteristic
of the Scottish Church, and has had great influence in the development
of Scottish opinion and religious life.
II. _The Discipline of the Church._
The opinions of our reformer and his associates regarding the discipline
and practical organisation of the church have hardly ever been made a
subject of serious controversy, even by those who have so long called in
question the generally received ideas regarding his opinions on the
government of the church. That which marked out the early Reformed
Church of Scotland most distinctively among the churches of the
Reformation was the fact that she advocated, and resolutely carried into
practical operation, that "godly discipline" which they all admitted had
been used in the primitive church in her best and purest days, and the
restoration of which, they perhaps ventured to hint, was much to be
desired, but which yet they had not the courage to demand from the civil
power as of essential concern to the wellbeing of their churches. Even
Luther, who began so well, hesitated and quailed before the claims of
the civil powers, and left it to Calvin to carry out his own earlier
conceptions, and those of the Hessian Synod of 1528.[203] Our reformers,
however, boldly laid down the absolute necessity of it in their Book of
Common Order, and named in their Confession as one of the three
distinctive marks of a true church of Christ, "ecclesiastical discipline
uprightlie ministred as Goddis Worde prescribes, whereby vice is
repressed and vertew nurished."[204] Not content to exercise such a
discipline merely under this clause of their State-ratified Confession,
they sought and obtained an explicit acknowledgment of the church's
privileges in special Acts of Parliament, which continue in force at the
present day, and have enabled the Church of Scotland to maintain a
stricter and more efficient discipline than any other established church
has ventured to aim at.
[Sidenote: Nature and Ends of Discipline.]
The nature and ends of this discipline are pretty fully explained in the
introductory chapters of the Book of Common Order, in the Book of
Discipline, and the Order of Excommunication and Public Repentance. "As
no citie, towne, house, or family," it is affirmed in the first of
these treatises, "can maintaine their estate and prosper without policy
and governance, even so the Church of God, which requireth more purely
to be governed than any citie or family, cannot without spirituall
policy and ecclesiastical discipline continue, increase, and
flourish;[205] and as the Word of God is the life and soule of this
church, so this godly order and discipline is, as it were, sinews in the
body, which knit and joine the members together with decent order and
comelinesse; it is a bridle to stay the wicked from their mischiefs, it
is a spurre to pricke forward such as be slow and negligent; yea, and
for all men it is the father's rod, ever in a readiness to chastise
gently the faults committed, and to cause them afterward to live in more
godly feare and reverence."[206] Three causes are assigned why such
discipline should be retained and practised in the church--viz., that
evil men may not be numbered among God's children, that the good may not
be infected by association with the ungodly, and that the individual
taken under discipline may be made ashamed of his fault, and so may be
induced to repent and amend. This is said to be the object even of
excommunication--the highest censure the church can inflict on an
offending brother--that he, being brought to a due sense of his sin and
misery, may be saved in the day of the Lord. It is expressly provided
that, in regard to this last and highest censure, nothing is to be
attempted without the determination of the whole church--_i.e._, of the
ordinary members of the church--and they are affectionately reminded
that it is their duty to take good heed "that they seeme not more ready
to expell from the congregation than to receave againe those, in whom
they perceave worthy fruits of repentance to appeare," and "that all
punishments, corrections, censures, and admonitions stretch no farther
than God's Word with mercy may lawfully beare."[207]
[Sidenote: Order of Excommunication.]
The Order of Excommunication and Public Repentance, sanctioned by the
General Assembly in 1569, long continued to be used as a directory in
the administration of discipline. It was compiled by Knox, or rather
abridged by him from Alasco's 'Modus ac Ritus Excommunicationis' and his
'Forma ac Ratio Publicæ Penitentiæ,' used with the approbation of
Edward VI. in the Church of the Foreigners in London. It breathes
throughout a spirit of tender regard for erring brethren and earnest
longing for their recovery, quite as strongly as it manifests a spirit
of holy zeal for the glory of God and the purity of His church. In all
save the most notorious and urgent cases, the offender was to be dealt
with repeatedly both in private and in public to confess his aggravated
offence before the extreme penalty was inflicted on him. If these
dealings and admonitions proved ineffectual, the minister was once more
to explain the nature of his offence, and the frequency of the public
and private admonitions addressed to him, was then to appeal to the
elders and deacons to confirm the truth of what he said, and finally was
to ask of the whole church if they thought such a contempt should be
suffered amongst them, and only in the event of no man making further
intercession for the erring and obstinate was the minister to proceed to
pronounce the fearful sentence.[208]
[Sidenote: Discipline under Prelacy.]
In the times of declension which arose after James VI. took the
government into his own hands, the strict exercise of such discipline
became specially odious to the king and his gay courtiers, and incessant
efforts were made to relax its rigour. These, however, were in general
directed to effect this object rather by means of than in spite of the
church, by securing that cases involving the sentence of excommunication
should be reserved for the determination of the higher courts of the
church, on which the king and his friends could bring their influence to
bear with most effect. Even during the domination of the Second
Episcopacy it is well known, from records still extant, that
kirk-sessions and presbyteries were continued, and were allowed, with
the sanction of the bishop, to maintain a discipline which in the
present day would not be generally accounted lax. The grotesque penances
so often resorted to in the times immediately succeeding the
Reformation, and for the use of which our forefathers have been
subjected to so much abuse and ridicule, were by no means confined to
them, and probably had been suggested by similar grotesque ones in use
before, and were employed by the Court of High Commission, by the Church
of England, and by other churches too, in so far as they ever ventured
to exercise discipline on notorious offenders. Even those melancholy
trials of witches, for which they have been so severely blamed, were
not originated by them, and were countenanced quite as much by their
opponents, and by no one more than by the pope and his entourage, as
well as by James VI., the great patron of the bishops, and for long were
clamoured for by the people.
[Sidenote: The People remoulded.]
To us, living in the light and glorying in the toleration of the
nineteenth century, some of these disciplinary provisions may seem
harsh, several of the details frivolous, others inquisitorial; and the
very principle of such a close identification of the ecclesiastical and
civil, as that all offences against morality and church discipline were
to be also dealt with and punished by the state, more than questionable.
But to men living in the sixteenth century and just emerging out of the
ignorance and licence which the old church had tolerated, and longing to
be moulded into a community really holy and self-denying and quickened
to a higher life--enthused with a longing to reach loftier heights in
it--the iron discipline of Calvin and Knox was welcome as requiring only
what they felt to be their duty and their true interest. We may extend
to the disciple what the historian of French Protestantism has said of
the master, and so far varying the words of Haag affirm: "The
institutions of Calvin [and Knox] accomplished what was proposed. In
less than three generations the Genevese [and Lowland Scots] were
entirely remoulded. To frivolity and licentiousness succeeded that
somewhat austere strictness of morals which in earlier days
distinguished the disciples of the reformer[s]. History tells of only
two [three] men who have been able permanently to impress their stamp on
an entire people--Lycurgus and Calvin [and Knox], whose characters in
fact have much in common."[209] The Athenians made merry over the black
broth of the Spartans; but Sparta conquered Athens. How many accusations
and witticisms have been launched against the Calvinistic spirit, and
yet Calvinistic countries led the way in Christian activity and civil
freedom, and to them even those who abuse them are largely indebted for
their blessings.
III. _The Prerogatives and Duties of Church Members._
[Sidenote: The Exercise.]
The thorough agreement of our reformers' ideas respecting the nature of
the church with those of the apostles and primitive Christians comes out
even more emphatically in the statements they make in the First Book of
Discipline and the Book of Common Order about the ordinary members of
the congregation, and the arrangements there recommended for promoting
their spiritual welfare, and calling forth all their gifts. Not only are
they to be allowed a voice in the choice of their ministers, elders, and
deacons, in the exclusion of members from the church and their
readmission into it, and through their representatives in the government
of the church generally; not only are they to have week-day and Sabbath
services, and frequent communions for their edification and growth in
grace,--but in the principal congregations there are to be weekly
meetings for the study and interpretation of the Scriptures. At these
meetings every man was to be allowed to speak his mind and propose his
doubts, to exercise his gifts for the edification of the brethren, or to
"inquire as God shall move his heart and the text minister
occasion."[210] The opening paragraph of chapter xii. of the First Book
of Discipline shows us whence this remarkable institution was derived,
and proves clearly that Neander was not the first in post-Reformation
times who discovered the full significance of certain well-known
passages in St Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, but only a
restorer of the long-forgotten teaching of Calvin, Alasco, and Knox.
The paragraph is as follows: "To the end that the kirk of God may have a
tryall of men's knowledge, judgements, graces, and utterances; as also,
such that have somewhat profited in God's Word may from time to time
grow in more full perfection to serve the kirk as necessity shall
require; it is most expedient that in every towne where schooles and
repaire of learned men are, there be a time in one certain day every
week appointed to that exercise which S. Paul calls prophecying; the
order whereof is expressed by him in thir words: 'Let the prophets speak
two or three and let the other judge, but if anything be revealed to
another that sitteth by, let the former keep silence; for ye may one by
one all prophesie that all may learne, and all may receive consolation.'
... By which words of the apostle, it is evident that in the Kirk of
Corinth when they did assemble for that purpose, some place of Scripture
was read, upon the which one first gave his judgement to the instruction
and consolation of the auditors; after whom did another either confirme
what the former had said, or added what he had omitted, or did gently
correct or explaine more properly where the whole verity was not
revealled to the former; and in case things were hid from the one and
from the other, liberty was given for a third to speak his judgement to
the edification of the kirk." The exercise or practice here authorised
by the apostle, it is next affirmed, is a thing most necessary for the
kirk of God this day in Scotland, "for thereby, as said is, shall the
kirk have judgement and knowledge of the graces, gifts, and utterances
of _every man within their bodie_, the simple and such as have somewhat
profited shall be encouraged daily to studie and to proceed in
knowledge, and the whole kirk shall be edified; for this exercise must
be patent to such as list to hear and learne, and _every man shall have
liberty to utter and declare his minde and knowledge to the comfort and
consolation of the Kirk_."[211] Then after appointing some prudent
regulations to prevent this liberty of prophesying from encroaching on
the province of the regular ministry of the church, or degenerating into
a school for the encouragement of rash speculation instead of
ministering to the comfort and godly edifying of the brethren,
directions are given that the ministers of the landward parishes
adjacent to every important town, together with the readers within six
miles, should assist those that prophesy within the towns, that they
themselves may learn or others may learn from them. "And moreover," it
is again repeated, "men in whom is supposed to be any gifts which might
edifie the church if they were well imployed must be charged ... to
joyn themselves with the session and company of interpreters.... For no
man _may be permitted as best pleaseth him to live within the kirk of
God_, but every man must be constrained by fraternall admonition and
correction to bestow his labours, when of the kirk he is required, to
the edification of others."[212] Such was the remarkable provision made
by our reformers, that every adult member of the church should enjoy
such means of grace as were fitted to promote his growth in Christian
knowledge as well as in spiritual life, and should have reasonable
opportunity of using for the glory of God and the good of his brethren
the gifts with which the Spirit of God had furnished him. It may be
questioned whether some such institution is not as much needed in the
present day, if the members of the church are to be preserved from the
temptations to doubt with which they are surrounded, and if they are to
be encouraged to supplement the labours of their ministers and elders in
winning back those who have been seduced into the paths of error or sin;
and whether its influence, if it were only set about with earnestness,
would be less powerful to preserve and reclaim than it was in those
earlier times.
IV. _Education of the Young and University Reform._
[Sidenote: Schools.]
The care and anxiety of our reformers were not confined to the adult
members of the church. They were extended in a special manner to the
young, and were manifested towards them, if possible, with more intense
earnestness and loving tenderness. Though parish schools, in the later
sense, were not yet devised, detailed arrangements were made that the
readers at the several kirks should impart religious knowledge and the
elements of primary education to the young of the flock, and that those
who showed an aptitude for learning and capability of being trained to
be of service to kirk or common-weal should have access at various
centres to higher training. "Seeing," they say in their importunate
pleading with the nobles on their behalf, "that God hath determined that
His kirke here in earth shall be taught not by angels but by men, and
seeing that men are borne ignorant of God and of all godlinesse, ... of
necessity it is that your honours be most careful for the vertuous
education and godly upbringing of the youth of this realm, if either ye
now thirst unfainedly [for] the advancement of Christ's glorie or yet
desire the continuance of His benefits to the generation following; for
as the youth must succeed to us, so we ought to be carefull that they
have knowledge and erudition to profit and comfort that which ought to
be most deare to us, to wit, the kirk and spouse of our Lord
Jesus."[213] To secure this noble end it was deemed necessary that,
besides the readers' schools, every considerable town should have at
least one schoolmaster appointed who was competent to teach grammar and
the Latin tongue; and that in the more notable towns, especially the old
cathedral cities, where the revenues of the prebendaries or of the monks
might be made available, there should be a college in which at least
logic, rhetoric, and the languages--_i.e._, Latin and Greek--should be
taught by competent masters, for whom and for the poorer scholars
attending them suitable stipends and bursaries should be provided out of
the aforesaid revenues. The fruit of such an organisation, it is
affirmed, would soon appear. "For first, the youthhead and tender
children shall be nourished and brought up in vertue _in presence of
their friends_, by whose good attendance many inconveniences may be
avoyded in which the youth commonly fall either by overmuch libertie
which they have in strange and unknowne places while they cannot rule
themselves, or else for lack of good attendance and of such necessaries
as their tender age requires. Secondly, the exercise of children in
every kirke shall be great instruction to the aged and unlearned," who
had never been taught to read, and in whose presence in the Sunday
afternoon service they were examined. Lastly, "the great Schooles called
the Universities shall be replenished with these that shall be apt to
learning; for this must be carefully provided that no father, of what
estate or condition that ever he be, use his children at his own
fantasie especially in their youthhead; but _all must be compelled_ to
bring up their children in learning and vertue." Thus boldly did our
reformers lay down the principle of compulsory education, which men in
our own day have only hesitatingly adopted, but with greater consistency
or daring than our contemporaries have yet evinced, for they proposed to
apply the principle to the children of the rich and potent, as well as
to those of the poor and vicious. Those higher classes, they say, "may
not be permitted to suffer their children to spend their youth in vaine
idleness as heretofore they have done, but they must be exhorted, and by
the censure of the kirk compelled, to dedicate their sonnes by training
them up in good exercises to the profite of the kirk and commonwealth."
This they expect the rich to do at their own expense, while they desire
the children of the poor to be supported at the charge of the kirk. The
sons neither of rich nor poor are to be permitted to reject learning if
they develop any aptitude for it, but are to be "charged to continue
their studie that the commonwealth may have some comfort by them." To
secure this object, discreet and learned men are to visit the schools
every quarter, and examine what proficiency the pupils have
attained.[214]
[Sidenote: Value of Learning.]
To these suggestions regarding primary and secondary schools succeeds a
very detailed statement of the changes desired in the universities to
adapt them to the new order of things. And then they conclude as
follows: "All other things touching the books to be read in ilk classe,
and all such like particular affaires, we referre to the discretion of
the masters, principals, and regents, with their well-advised counsel;
not doubting but if God shall grant quietnesse, and give your wisedomes
grace to set forward letters in the sort prescribed, ye shall leave
wisdome and learning to your posterity--a treasure more to be esteemed
than any earthly treasure ye are able to amasse for them, which without
wisdome are more able to be their ruin and confusion than their help and
comfort. And as this is most true, so we leave it with the rest of the
commodities to be weighed by your honours' wisedome, and set forwards
by your authority to the most high advancement of this commonwealth
committed to your charge."[215]
These touching appeals were not made altogether in vain. Though neither
quietness nor a large measure of grace was granted to the rough barons
so earnestly and tenderly addressed, yet the goodly fabric of our church
and commonwealth was reared up in those troublous times. The full and
liberal adoption of the plan of national education sketched by our
reformer and his associates still remains in part to be desiderated, and
is worthy to be striven for by the churches which claim to represent
them. The partial carrying out of their views, more than any other
influence that can be named, has conduced to elevate our people and
raise Scotland to the rank it now holds among the nations; and we can
hardly doubt that the more complete realisation of them in the careful
Christian training of the young and the adult members of the church, and
the extension of the blessings of education and religion to the masses
so long left to grow up in ignorance and vice, would tend greatly to
bring back the disaffected to the paths of peace and life, to raise the
members of the church in the scale of intelligence and virtue, to make
the nobles more than ever heretofore the _decus et tutamen patriæ_, and
to bind all, both classes and masses, closely together in the bonds of
mutual Christian affection and true patriotism.
V. _Care of the Poor._
[Sidenote: Oppression of the Poor.]
I must still add that the same enlightened principles which guided them
to make careful provision for these important objects, led them also to
take a kindly interest in the humbler poor and aged, and to urge both on
the state and on the members of the church the duty they owed to this
long despised and neglected class of the population. First, for the poor
peasantry who were not paupers, but who, they allege, had been
grievously oppressed by the exactions of the clergy in the times
immediately preceding, they present the following earnest plea: "With
the griefe of our hearts we heare that some gentlemen are now as cruell
over their tenants as ever were the Papists, requiring of them (the
tiends and) whatsoever they afore payed to the kirk, so that the
Papistical tyrannie shall onely be changed into the tyrannie of the lord
and laird. We dare not flatter your honours, neither yet is it
profitable for you that we so doe: (for neither shall we,) if we permit
cruelty to be used; neither shall ye, who by your authoritie ought to
gaine-stand such oppression, nor yet they that use the same, escape
God's heavie and fearfull judgements. The gentlemen, barones, earles,
lords, and others must be content to live upon their just rents, and
suffer the kirk to be restored to her _(right and) liberty_; that by her
restitution, the poore, who heretofore, by the cruell Papists, have been
spoiled and oppressed, may now receive some comfort and relaxation, and
their tiends and other exactions _be cleane discharged_ and no more
taken in time comming. The uppermost claith, corps-present, clerk-maile,
the pasche-offering, tiend-ale, and all handlings[216] upaland can
neither be required nor recieved of good conscience."[217]
[Sidenote: Exactions of the Medieval Church.]
[Sidenote: The Oppressors relentless.]
The history of the world, the history of the Christian church, has few
passages more noble than this, where these poor ministers, not yet
assured of decent provision for their own maintenance, boldly undertake
the patronage of the peasantry, and say they would rather suffer
themselves than ask that teinds should be exacted from those who had
been so long ground down, not only by the exaction of these from their
crofts and even from their gardens, but also by a multitude of other
imposts, which, although their very names are now almost forgotten in
Scotland, had been long felt to be a grievous oppression. Was it any
wonder that those crushed and down-trodden classes should rally round
their protectors, and under their kindly and godly training should grow
up to be a strength to the church and a power in the state? Charming
fancy pictures are still sometimes drawn of the stately monastery--with
its handsome church and kindly and cultured monks--as a centre of
civilising and Christianising influences to the district in which it was
erected. These influences no doubt had a certain reality in the early
ages of the church, and even in the days of the good Queen Margaret; but
in Scotland, at least, these days had long passed away before the
sixteenth century; and the monasteries, as a whole, had become a source
of weakness and scandal, rather than of strength and honour to the
dominant church. In fact, their wealth, being to a large extent derived
from the teinds of parishes, should have been devoted to the spiritual
interests of these parishes, whereas the vicars appointed by them being
generally put off with a miserable pittance and left largely dependent
on these hated and oppressive exactions--corpse presents, uppermost
cloth, Pasche-offerings--could not fail to alienate the peasantry from
the monasteries and their rural representatives. Such charges of
oppression could never have been so publicly made against them had they
not been notoriously true. And if further evidence were needed, it may
be found in abundance in the poems of Sir David Lindsay and the
Wedderburns. The picture the former has drawn of the poor peasant driven
out of house and holding[218] by these oppressive exactions is known to
be true to the life; and contributed greatly to the overthrow of the
merciless oppressors who, until the very eve of the triumph of the
Reformation, could not be persuaded either to abolish or abate their
dues.[219]
FOOTNOTES:
[180] [The six were John Wynram, John Spottiswoode, John Willock, John
Douglas, John Row, and John Knox (_supra_, p. 99).]
[181] Spottiswoode's History, Spot. Soc. ed., i. 371, 372.
[182] _Supra_, pp. 112, 113.
[183] The appointment of such an official as chief minister of the
English congregation of Frankfort had, however, been urged by Knox's
opponents there, but was refused by his party (Discourse of Troubles at
Frankfort, pp. xiv, xlvii, cxvii, cxxxv-cxxxviii, cxlvi, cxlvii).
[184] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 409, 410; Laing's Knox, iv. 177.
[185] The great services Coverdale had rendered to the cause of
Protestantism by his translation of the Scriptures did not suffice to
blot out from the minds of Elizabeth and her ministers the remembrance
of his connection with Knox and Goodman. He was welcomed at the
consecration of Archbishop Parker, though he came in his black gown, for
they could not well do that without him; but all Grindal's efforts
failed to secure for him a Welsh bishopric, or even to get him left
unmolested in the parochial benefice he conferred on him.
[186] Even in St Andrews, with all its equipment of schools and
colleges, the common people are represented in 1547 as welcoming Knox's
offer of a public disputation, because though they could not all read
his papers they could understand what he addressed to them _vivâ voce_
(Laing's Knox, i. 189).
[187] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 518; Laing's Knox, ii. 185.
[188] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 526; Laing's Knox, ii. 191.
[189] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 530; Laing's Knox, ii. 194.
[190] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 530; Laing's Knox, ii. 194.
[191] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 577; Laing's Knox, ii. 233.
[192] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 578; Laing's Knox, ii. 234, 235.
[193] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 581; Laing's Knox, ii. 236, 237.
[194] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 532; Laing's Knox, ii. 195, 196.
[Readers who were able to _exhort_ and explain the Scriptures were to
have their stipends augmented until they attained the honour of a
minister (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 536, 537; Laing's Knox, ii. 199,
200).]
[195] [The readers who had "any gift of interpretation" were to take
part in these meetings (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 590; Laing's Knox, ii.
244).]
[196] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 539; Laing's Knox, ii. 202.
[197] ["It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture
and ancient authors, that from the apostles' time there hath been these
orders of ministers in Christ's church: bishops, priests, and deacons"
(Liturgies of Edward VI., Parker Society, p. 331).]
[198] The jest attributed to Queen Elizabeth that she had _made_ a
bishop but _marred_ a good preacher shows this.
[199] In the chief towns, just as in Geneva, there seems from early
times to have been a common or "general session," although there were
several congregations in each, as in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and
Perth.
[200] Even the Second Book of Discipline does not sharply distinguish
between the lesser and greater eldership or presbytery; and Gillespie
admits they were not distinguished in the primitive church, though he
holds that both were needed in Scotland to do the work which the one
presbytery did in the primitive church (_infra_, pp. 230-233).
[201] [The Book of Common Order distinguishes between the weekly meeting
of the ministers and elders in their assembly or consistory, and the
weekly meeting of the congregation for the interpretation of the
Scriptures (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 411-413; Laing's Knox, iv.
177-179). For the nature and object of the exercise see _infra_, pp.
170-173.]
[202] [The bull, which is printed in Concilia Scotiæ, ii. 3, is dated
"xiiij kalendas Junij pontificatus nostri anno nono," _i.e._, the 19th
of May 1225.]
[203] See Schenkel's article, "Kirche," in Herzog's Real-Encyklopädie.
[204] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 68; Laing's Knox, ii. 110.
[205] See Calvin's Institutes, book iv. chap. ii.--"As no city or
village can exist without a magistrate and government, so the Church of
God stands in need of a spiritual polity of its own. This is altogether
distinct from the civil government, and is so far from hindering or
impairing it, that it rather does much to aid and promote it."
[206] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 413; Laing's Knox, iv. 203.
[207] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 414-417; Laing's Knox, iv. 204-206. If
this humanity is not observed in private as well as in public, there is
danger lest instead of discipline we fall into a kind of Gehenna, and
instead of correctors and educators become executioners of the brethren
(Calvin).
[208] The form of absolution then appointed to be used was, with consent
of Henderson, modified by the Westminster divines into the shape in
which it appears in their Directory for Church Government and
Excommunication, and as modified was afterwards inserted in our Form of
Process of 1707.
[209] La France protestant, deuxième édition, iii. 530.
[210] Book of Common Order, in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 412; Laing's
Knox, iv. 179.
[211] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 587-589; Laing's Knox, ii. 242, 243.
[212] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 590, 591; Laing's Knox, ii. 244, 245.
[213] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 547; Laing's Knox, ii. 209.
[214] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 548-550; Laing's Knox, ii. 209-211.
[215] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 561; Laing's Knox, ii. 220, 221.
[216] [Dr Mitchell seems to have thought that _handlings_ should be read
_haldings_.]
[217] Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 562, 563. [The words which in this
quotation are enclosed in parentheses are not in the copy of the Book of
Discipline preserved by Knox (Laing's Knox, ii. 221, 222). Instead of
the words, "if _we_ permit cruelty to be used," that copy reads, "if
_you_ permit suche creualtie to be used"; and after the words, "comfort
and relaxation," is the clause, "Concludit be the Lordis."]
[218] The pauper comes on the stage with the words--
"Of your almis, gude folks, for God's luife of heavin,
For I have motherles bairns either sax or seavin;"
and proceeds in piteous strain--
"Gude man, will ye gif me of your charitie,
And I sall declair yow the black veritie.
My father was ane auld man, and a hoir,
And was of age four scoir of yeirs and moir.
And Mald, my mother, was four scoir and fyfteine,
And with my labour I did thame baith susteine.
Wee had are meir, that caryit salt and coill,
And everie ilk yeir scho brocht us hame ane foill.
Wee had thrie ky, that was baith fat and fair,
Nane tydier into the toun of Air.
My father was sa waik of blude, and bane,
That he deit, quhairfoir my mother maid gret maine:
Then scho deit, within ane day or two;
And thair began my povertie and wo.
Our gude gray meir was baittand on the feild,
And our Land's laird tuik hir for his hyreild,
The vickar tuik the best cow be the heid,
Incontinent, quhen my father was deid.
And quhen the vickar hard tel how that my mother
Was deid, fra hand he tuke to him ane uther:
Then Meg, my wife, did murne baith evin and morow,
Till at the last scho deit for verie sorow:
And quhen the vickar hard tell my wyfe was dead,
The thrid cow he cleikit be the heid.
Thair umest clayis, that was of rapploch gray,
The vickar gart his clark bear them away.
Quhen all was gane, I micht mak na debeat,
Bot with my bairns past for till beg my meat.
Now, haif I tald yow the blak veritie,
How I am brocht into this miserie."
--Laing's Lindsay's Poetical Works, 1879, ii. 99, 102, 103.
[219] [In the Articles addressed by some of the temporal lords and
barons to the queen regent, and sent by her to the Provincial Council
convened in Edinburgh a few weeks before the Reformation burst like a
tempest upon the country, it was requested that "the corps presentes,
kow, and [um]est claith, and the silvir commonlie callit the kirk
richts, and Pasch offrands quhilk is takin at Pasch fra men and women
for distribution of the sacrament of the blessit body and blood of Jesus
Christ," should no longer be extorted under pain of excommunication or
debarring from the sacraments, but left to the free will of the givers
(Concilia Scotiæ, ii. 148, 149). The Council met this demand for
reformation by enacting that in future the poor should be freed from
mortuary dues, while those not quite so poor were only to pay them in a
modified form; and the small tithes and oblations were to be taken up
before Lent so as to avoid the appearance of selling the sacrament
(Ibid., ii. 167, 168, 174). When, on the 27th of May 1560, the reforming
vicar of Lintrathin raised a summons against his parishioners for
payment of his teinds, "the cors present and umest clayth of all yeris
and termes bigane restand unpayit" were specially excepted from his
claim (Spalding Miscellany, iv. 121).]