“BOOKE OF THE UNIVERSALL KIRK.”
The printing of this, the earliest Record of the Reformed Church in
Scotland, has now reached a period in the history of that Church,
which renders it fitting that this impression should be accompanied
with a more precise statement than has yet been given of its
character and its fate.
For many years past, Dr Lee, Principal Clerk of the General Assembly,
made strenuous, but ineffectual, exertions, to recover for the
Church, the original Record of the period extending from 1560 to
1616. That Record, which is known to historians by the title of the
“Booke of the Universall Kirk,” had been surreptitiously purloined,
and found its way into the hands of the Trustees of Sion College,
in London; and although hopes were latterly entertained that their
restoration to the Church might be effected, these hopes are now
at an end. During the investigations which were instituted by a
Committee of the House of Commons, on the subject of Church Patronage
in Scotland, in the year 1834, three volumes of the Record were
produced by the official custodier of them, for the consideration of
that Committee. Their authenticity was established by the testimony
of Dr Lee, and other competent judges; and the Committee having
suspended its investigations, and made a report of the evidence
which it had obtained, these Books were left in the keeping of the
clerks, and perished in the great conflagration by which the Houses
of Parliament were consumed, on the 16th of October 1834.
Such is briefly the history of the valuable Record of which these
pages contain many of the earlier Acts and proceedings in the Church
of Scotland.
It is natural to suppose, that, during the first century of its
existence, the political and ecclesiastical revolutions which
took place in Scotland subsequently to the year 1560, the Records
of the Church could not escape unscathed amid the turmoils of
conflicting factions in Church and State. It appears from the MS.
_Abbreviates_[1] still extant, that, betwixt the years 1580 and
1587, the earlier portions of the General Assembly’s Registers,
filling five volumes, had passed into the hands of Adamson, Bishop
of St Andrews, and had suffered mutilation (were “mankit”) by him,
or, as has been alleged, by his Royal Master, King James VI., in
order to destroy the proofs of submission by certain Prelates to
the jurisdiction of the General Assembly. During a certain space,
however, it is proved that they were not in possession of the Church
or its Officers; and when, in the years 1586 and 1587, the custody
of the Books was reclaimed by the Assembly, they were allowed by
the King’s Commissioner to be exhibited to that Judicatory,--but
with a proviso, that at the close of each sederunt, they were to
be redelivered to the Lord Privy Seal.[2] There is no satisfactory
evidence known to us with respect to the custody of these Books
during the space which elapsed till the year 1638, when they were
again recovered by the Presbyterian Church--fully authenticated--and
once more restored to the custody of the Clerk of Assembly as the
legitimate custodier.[3]
The subsequent history of these volumes--the best, perhaps, that
can now be given--is to be found in a “Statement” concerning them,
drawn up by Dr John Lee, the present Clerk of the General Assembly,
in 1828, and printed in 1829, with the view of effecting the recovery
of these Registers from the Trustees of Sion College, who, as already
stated, had obtained possession of them. Dr Lee having kindly
communicated a copy of that “Statement,” we gladly avail ourselves of
the opportunity of embodying it entire on this occasion.
“STATEMENT concerning three Volumes of the Earliest Records of the
Church of Scotland, now deposited in Sion College, London.
“A few years ago, a Committee of the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland was appointed for the purpose of collecting
and recovering the various Manuscripts, connected with their
Ecclesiastical Establishment; and, among other objects to which this
Committee were desired to direct their attention, they were specially
instructed to print the ancient Record, entitled, ‘The Book of the
Universal Kirk of Scotland.’
“It has been discovered that this Book, extending to three volumes,
is extant in the Library of Sion College, London. But after much
correspondence, and repeated applications, not only do the Governors
of the College refuse to restore the volumes upon any terms, but even
to permit a copy of the work to be taken, or allow a collation with
the partial _Abbreviates_ of it preserved in Scotland; the College
stating, that they would not be justified in so doing, under the Deed
of Trust by which the possession of these volumes was acquired by the
College.
“There is no difficulty in proving that the volumes in question were
laid on the table of the General Assembly which met at Glasgow in
1638; and that they were pronounced by that Assembly to be true and
authentic Registers of the Kirk of Scotland. The reasons proving
their authenticity are inserted in the manuscript journals of that
Assembly, and also, in a very satisfactory form, in the printed Acts
of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, of that year.
The descriptions are so minute as to establish the identity of all
the volumes which are still extant. The attestation of the Clerk is
superscribed at the beginning, and subjoined to the end of the first
volume, in these words:--‘This is the great Volume aprovin be the
General Assemblee at Glascow, in November, 1638. A. Jhonston, Cl^s.
Eccl.’ The autograph of this Clerk is to be seen on various documents
in possession of the General Assembly, and particularly on the copy
of the printed Acts of the Assembly of 1638, in the custody of the
present Clerk. The other volumes have the well known signature of a
Clerk, named ‘Thomas Nicolson.’
“It is understood, that, in 1649, the Books were transferred to
the charge of Mr Andrew Ker, Clerk of the Assembly; and that, in
1652, most, if not the whole, of the originals were for some time
entrusted to Lord Balcarras. During the troubles of the succeeding
period they were concealed in the house of a private individual till
the year 1677, when they were put into the hands of Bishop Paterson
(of Edinburgh), who retained them till after the Revolution. The
account of their discovery and subsequent fate may be seen in Keith’s
History of the Church and State of Scotland; but it appears from a
paper preserved in the Advocates’ Library in Edinburgh, and published
in the Appendix to Dr M‘Crie’s Lives of William Veitch and George
Brysson, that Keith’s narrative is not altogether correct in every
particular.
“After the Revolution some of the volumes and papers were delivered
up to a son of the former Clerk, Mr Secretary Jhonston, who lent
some of them to his cousin, Bishop Burnet, and others to Mr George
Ridpath, who, about that time, undertook to write a history of
Scottish affairs. Three volumes fell into the hands of a person whose
grandfather had been the intimate friend of Sir Archibald Johnston,
and had, like him, been executed as a traitor. This person was the
Honourable and Reverend Archibald Campbell, grandson of the Marquis
of Argyle, and son of Lord Neil Campbell. Mr Campbell was several
years known as an Episcopalian Clergyman, and subsequently as one of
the non-juring Bishops in Scotland. During the latter part of his
life he resided chiefly in England, without being in communion with
the Church of England, and without maintaining any intercourse with
the Episcopalian body in Scotland, to which he had been originally
attached.
“About the year 1733, a correspondence was opened between him and
Mr William Grant, Procurator and Clerk of the Church of Scotland
(afterwards Lord Prestongrange), on the subject of the records in Mr
Campbell’s possession. Mr Campbell offered to surrender these records
on certain terms, which did not appear to Mr Grant to be reasonable
or equitable. He demanded a large sum of money for the restitution of
the volumes to which he never had acquired any right of property, and
even this sum he would not accept till the Books had been published,
as was proposed, under his superintendence, on the understanding that
no member of the Church of Scotland was to be suffered to revise the
sheets as they passed through the press.
“It could scarcely be expected that these and other humiliating
conditions would be acceded to without hesitation; and while the
negotiation was still in progress, Mr Campbell, as he had sometimes
threatened to do, took a step which was intended to put the Books for
ever beyond the reach of the Church of Scotland, by entering into
a deed of trust or covenant with the President and Fellows of Sion
College, the terms of which do not appear to be accurately known to
any member of the Church of Scotland, but the effect of which has
undoubtedly been to detain these Records from their lawful owners for
nearly a century past.
“It is unnecessary to add, that the hardship is deeply felt by
all the members of the Church of Scotland, who are aware of
the importance of these Books, not merely as the only sure and
satisfactory memorials of the course of Ecclesiastical affairs in the
times immediately succeeding the Reformation, but also because they
are capable of shedding additional light on a most interesting and
instructive portion of our Civil history.
“In these circumstances, the General Assembly have deemed it
necessary, as a last resource, to make an application to Parliament
by petition, in the hope that some means may be devised by the wisdom
of the Legislature, for relieving the Members of Sion College from
the restraint under which they feel themselves, and enabling them
to do that which they must, as an act of justice, wish to do,--to
restore to the Church of Scotland these ancient Records, which,
however acquired by the College, the Church of Scotland still
consider to be their own property.
“JOHN LEE, Cl. Eccl. Scot.
“55, PARLIAMENT STREET, WESTMINSTER,
_June 20_, 1828.”
The authenticity and authority of “The Booke,” as now for the first
time fully printed from the copies in the Advocates’ Library, (so
far as it exists in a continuous and connected form,) becomes,
since the originals are lost, a subject of grave inquiry. It is
our purpose, in the Notes and Illustrations to be appended to the
present Edition, to collect and point out all the evidence attainable
on this point--to supply from other sources the portions which are
wanting in the text--and to note any seeming discrepancies among
the several transcripts and Abbreviates. This must necessarily be
a work of careful research and considerable labour; requiring some
time for its accomplishment. In the meanwhile, however, we may state
briefly some of the leading evidences of authenticity on which we
rely, in concluding, that what is now printed possesses a character
of authenticity.
1. The Acts of Assembly, 1638, and subsequent years, (which are of
unquestioned authenticity,) approve of, reiterate, and re-enact many
of the most important statutes contained in the old Registers, which
those Assemblies had in their possession; and these, as re-enacted,
coincide, so far as they go, with the terms of the original Acts as
now printed.[4]
2. In Collier’s Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, we find
a most important corroboration to the same effect. He was a
contemporary of Archibald Campbell, already referred to, and had
access to the original Registers recently burnt, as appears from
numerous marginal references to and quotations from them. Thus (vol.
ii. p. 700) he refers to “MS. Acts of the Assembly, _penes_ Mr
Archibald Campbell, Armig.;” and there are very many other references
to the same MS. record,[5] as the source whence he derived numerous
Acts and documents embodied in his work. These, too, substantially
and closely, coincide with the text as now published.
3. Archbishop Spottiswood, in his History, (and he had full access to
the original records,) in like manner transfers many extracts to his
pages.
4. Bishop Keith, in his History of the Church and State in Scotland,
incorporates a great portion of the “Booke,” during the first seven
years of the existence of the Reformed Church--all agreeing (except
trifling variations in orthography) with the extant MS. Abbreviates;
and Knox’s History coincides substantially with Keith’s.
5. But David Calderwood, who had full access to the Registers, in
his larger History and Collections, (MS.) gives the most ample
transcripts from the originals that are any where to be found; and
he further supplies many particulars from those Registers which the
Abbreviates do not contain, but which are of material importance to
the elucidation of the proceedings in the Assemblies of the Church.
6. Petrie, in his History of the Church (Universal) from 600 to 1600,
embodies a very great portion of the Booke of the Kirk from the first
Assembly downwards; and he refers expressly, as his authority for so
doing, to “An _Extract_ of the Acts of the Nationall Assemblies,” (p.
242,)--the Acts, which he embodies very copiously, being identical in
all respects with those in the present Edition. The copy of his work
now before us was printed at the Hague in 1662, immediately after
the Restoration of Charles II.;--Petrie being “Minister of the Scots
Congregation at Rotterdam,” when his History was published. That work
is one of the most conclusive vouchers of the authenticity of the
“Booke,”--his transcripts being given from an Extract, authenticated,
of course, by the Clerk of Assembly.
We have thus, what is next to the best evidence (viz. the Registers
themselves) in support of the authenticity of our publication--the
concurrent testimony of three Episcopalian and two Presbyterian
Historians, in proof of the general fidelity of the transcripts
which remain; and the force of such evidence is strengthened by
the consideration, that all their works were published while the
originals were yet in existence, and could have been resorted to for
the correction of any errors, whether wilful or accidental.
In justice to the Church of Scotland and to Dr Lee, the Editor of
this publication feels himself called on to add such particulars with
regard to the attempts made for the recovery of the Registers, as are
to be found in the recent Acts of the General Assembly, within the
last twenty years. Without pretending to enter into any detail of the
great and zealous exertions of Dr Lee for the recovery of our Church
Records, (exertions for which it owes him a deep debt of gratitude,)
we shall merely note a few of the Minutes of the Assembly referable
to this matter since the year 1820.
At the Assembly of that year, the “Report of the Committee upon the
Manuscripts belonging to the Church [was] called for, which was given
in at great length by Dr Lee, Convener of the said Committee. The
Assembly highly approve of the Report, and of the zeal and diligence
of the Committee. They renewed the appointment of the Committee,
and recommended to their attention the written Report now laid upon
the Assembly’s table.”--“Upon a motion, the unanimous thanks of the
Assembly were given from the chair to Dr Lee, for the extraordinary
labour to which he had submitted in prosecuting the inquiries of the
Committee.”
The year following a similar approval took place; and in 1822, the
Assembly “renewed the appointment of the Committee, and direct them
to continue their labours; and in particular, they authorised them
to continue their correspondence with the members of Sion College,
respecting access to certain manuscripts in the said College,
formerly belonging to the Church; and they direct the Moderator
to convey to the Lord Bishop of London an expression of the sense
which they entertain of his Lordship’s polite attention to the
communication made to him by the Committee on this subject.”
At the Assembly of 1823, the Committee was approved and renewed; “and
the Assembly instructed the Committee to get printed what is usually
called ‘The Book of the Universal Kirk,’ if they shall find, upon
inquiry, it can be done without encroaching upon the funds of the
Church.”
Passing over some of the intermediate years, we find in the Acts of
1828, that the Report of the Committee on the MSS. of the Church
was called for, and given in by Dr Lee, the convener. “The Assembly
approve of the Report, and re-appoint the Committee. It was moved,
seconded, and unanimously agreed to, that with a view to the recovery
of the ancient Records of this Church, which have long been deposited
in Sion College, London, a Petition be presented to both Houses of
Parliament, stating the claims of the Church to the property of these
volumes, and praying that, in the wisdom of Parliament, some means
may be devised, of securing either the restitution of the originals,
or at least a complete and authenticated transcript of the whole. The
draft of a Petition having been produced, was approved, and ordered
to be extended, subscribed by the Moderator, and sealed with the seal
of the Church,” &c.
In 1829, “it was moved, seconded, and unanimously agreed to, that,
in addition to the former Committee, which is hereby renewed, the
Assembly appoint a small Committee, to watch over and prosecute the
very important object of recovering the interesting record, entitled
‘The Buik of the Universall Kirk of Scotland,’ and to take what
steps they may find necessary for this purpose. It was also moved,
seconded, and unanimously agreed to, that the Moderator be instructed
to return the thanks of the General Assembly to Dr Lee, for the great
and unwearied zeal, attention, and exertions which he has bestowed on
the subject of the MSS. of the Church, and in regard to the claims
made for the Records in Sion College.”
In 1833, the Committee was renewed, “with instructions to use
their best endeavours to find accommodation for the Books and MSS.
belonging to the Church under the roof of St Giles’s Church, if
possible; and to use all diligence to recover the Records in Sion
College.” And in the Assembly of 1834, Dr Lee, as convener, on
giving in its Report, stated, “That there is now a near prospect of
obtaining the restitution of the three volumes of the early records
of the Church, which have long been deposited in the library of Sion
College.”
Only a few days previously to this favourable report being made,
(viz. May 2, 1834,) the Assistant Librarian of Sion College, who had
been summoned by a Committee of the House of Commons, appeared before
it, and was ordered to produce the Books. On the 5th he produced
them--Dr Lee, Principal Macfarlan, and others, having previously, in
April, inspected and borne evidence to their authenticity.[6] They
were burnt on the 16th of October following.
It were idle now to indulge in unavailing regrets and reflections on
this unfortunate result; and the present attempt is made, in as far
as that is possible, to repair the loss which has thus been sustained
by the Church and the country. We take the liberty of deducing a
practical inference from this calamity--that no time should be lost
in securing for the remaining Records of the Church a place of safe
deposit. This surely is attainable in the metropolis of Scotland;
and we trust it will be one of the first acts of the ensuing General
Assembly, to adopt the requisite measures for this purpose, and to
order the List of MSS. in the repositories of the Church (which was
given in by Dr Lee some years ago) to be printed, for the information
of all its members, before the Assembly be dissolved.
We cannot conclude these notices more appropriately than by
transcribing the following testimony, borne by Dr Lee to two
distinguished Prelates of the Church of England, in connexion with
this subject, and subjoining an extract from one of his admirable
Reports:
“The late Bishop of London, now Archbishop of Canterbury, and the
present Bishop of London, through whom I made many applications,
did all that was in their power to forward the object; and if their
advice had been promptly followed by the College, we would have had
the Books in our possession ten years ago. Indeed, the conduct of
these Prelates reflected on them the highest honour.”
* * * * *
In concluding his Report to the Assembly in May 1820, in reference to
these ancient Registers of the Church, Dr Lee thus remarks--
“They exhibit the real character of the internal government of
this national church. They display the operation of the principles
by which the first Reformers and their immediate successors
were actuated. They demonstrate that these men were not more
distinguished by zeal for truth, than by loyalty to the head of
the government, attachment to true principles, (I do not say of
toleration--for that was a term which they certainly did not
employ or approve)--of religious liberty and civil subordination.
They bear testimony to the strictness and impartiality of ancient
discipline. They vindicate the character of those illustrious men
whose names have been unjustly aspersed, but who, both by their
doctrines and their lives,--by their unwearied exertions and their
patient sufferings,--left an example, not indeed of faultless
excellence, but assuredly of the most noble, magnanimous, and
fearless adherence to the standards of our constitution.
“These Registers also contain much that is capable of correcting
erroneous representations of historical facts with regard to the
internal state of the kingdom--the institutions, habits, and
customs, as well as the morals of the people, and the spirit which
was most prevalent at particular periods in various districts of
the land. They prove, beyond all controversy, that our Reformers,
instead of having been at first actuated by an unrestrained spirit
of innovation, were rather, in some respects, disposed to retain
too much than to reject too much of the practices of the church
from which they had separated, and that this very circumstance
prevented them from ever attaining that independence at which
they aimed. At the same time, they prove, that from the very
first moment, it was the determined object of the leaders of the
Reformation, to establish such a Presbyterian Government, as was at
last, with the utmost difficulty, completed;--and that even when
the name of bishop was introduced, the persons holding that title
sat in the General and Provincial Assemblies in no higher rank than
the humblest presbyter, and in the Kirk-Sessions were named after
the parochial minister, under the designation of elder.
“In addition to all this it may be stated, that, though these
documents were less productive of instruction than they are, they
well deserve to be preserved with care, as the most venerable
remnants of a distant age--as the earliest annals of our infant
church, as the (almost sacred) relics--not of canonized saints
indeed--but of confessors and martyrs, who counted not their lives
dear to them; and who, when they thought it necessary, never shrunk
from sealing their testimony with their blood. And if I am again
asked--What is the use of attending to these perishing monuments
of a period of little refinement?--I have only to answer, that
with all my antiquarian propensities, and all my admiration of
what is great and magnificent in the works of art, and all my
reprobation of the violence which impelled some of our Reformers to
demolish the solemn temples which they considered as the shrines of
idolatry, and the receptacles of antichristian intruders,--I would
much rather share in the disgrace of these acts of violation, than
destroy or deface one shred or fragment of these frail memorials
of despised and almost forgotten worth, which bear the impress of
zeal for piety and learning, loyalty and patriotism, liberty and
truth,--and which more conspicuously than even the uplifted banner
of the Covenant, present the seal and superscription of glory to
God, and good will to man--peace to the church, and happiness to
the state.”