more than sufficient to learn to read perfectly, to answer to the
Catechism, and to have some entrance to the first rudiments of
Grammar. For the full accomplishment of the Grammar, we think other
three or four years, at most, sufficient. For the Arts, to wit,
Logic and Rhetoric, and for the Greek tongue, we allow four years.
The rest of youth, until the age of twenty-four years, should be
spent in that study wherein the learner would profit the Church
or Commonwealth, be it in the Laws or Physic or Divinity. After
twenty-four years have been spent in the schools, the learner must
be removed to serve the Church or Commonwealth, unless he be found
a necessary reader in the same College or University. If God shall
move your hearts to establish and execute this order, and put these
things into practice, your whole realm, we doubt not, within few
years, shall serve itself with true preachers and other officers
necessary for your Commonwealth.
3. _The Erection of Universities._--The Grammar schools and schools
of the tongues being erected as we have said, next we think it
necessary that there be three Universities in this whole realm,
established in the towns accustomed: the first in St. Andrews, the
second in Glasgow, and the third in Aberdeen.
In the first University and principal, which is St. Andrews, there
be three Colleges. And in the first College, which is the entrance
of the University, there be four classes or sessions: the first,
to the new supposts,[255] shall be only Dialectic; the next, only
Mathematics; the third, of Physic only; the fourth, of Medicine. And
in the second College, two classes or sessions: the first, in Moral
Philosophy; the second, in the Laws. And in the third College, two
classes or sessions: the first, in the tongues, to wit, Greek and
Hebrew; the second, in Divinity.
[255] Scholars; undergraduates.
4. _Of Readers, and of the Degrees, of Time, and Study._--In the
first College, and in the first class, shall be a reader[256] of
Dialectic, who shall accomplish his course thereof in one year. In
the Mathematic, which is the second class, shall be a reader who
shall complete his course of Arithmetic, Geometry, Cosmography, and
Astrology in one year. In the third class, shall be a reader of
Natural Philosophy, who shall complete his course in a year. And he
who, after these three years, by trial and examination, shall be
found sufficiently instructed in these aforesaid sciences, shall
be laureate and graduate in Philosophy. In the fourth class, shall
be a reader of Medicine, who shall complete his course in five
years. After the study for this time, he who is by examination found
sufficient, shall be graduate in Medicine.
[256] Tutor.
In the second College, in the first class, there shall be one reader
only in the Ethics, Economics, and Politics, who shall complete his
course in the space of one year. In the second class, shall be two
readers in the Municipal and Roman Laws, who shall complete their
courses in four years. After this time, those who by examination are
found sufficient, shall be graduate in the Laws.
In the third College, in the first class, there shall be a reader
of the Hebrew, and another of the Greek tongue, who shall complete
the grammars thereof in half a year, and for the remnant of the
year, the reader of the Hebrew shall interpret a Book of Moses,
the Prophets or the Psalms; so that his course and class shall
continue a year. The reader of the Greek shall interpret some book
of Plato, together with some place of the New Testament. And in the
second class, there shall be two readers in Divinity, one in the New
Testament, the other in the Old. These shall complete their course
in five years. After this time, those shall be graduate in Divinity
who shall be found by examination sufficient.
We think it expedient that no one be admitted unto the first
College, and to be suppost of the University, unless he have from
the master of the school, and from the minister of the town where
he was instructed in the tongues, a testimonial of his learning,
docility,[257] age, and parentage. Likewise, trial shall be taken by
certain examiners, deputed by the rector and Principals, and if he
be found sufficiently instructed in Dialectic, he shall forthwith,
that same year, be promoted to the class of Mathematic.
None shall be admitted to the class of Medicine but he that
shall have his testimonial of his time well spent in Dialectic,
Mathematic, and Physic, and of his docility[257] in the last.
[257] Capacity for receiving instruction.
None shall be admitted to the class of the Laws but he that shall
have sufficient testimonials of his time well spent in Dialectic,
Mathematic, Physic, Ethic, Economics, and Politics, and of his
docility in the last.
None shall be admitted unto the class and session of Divinity but he
that shall have sufficient testimonials of his time well spent in
Dialectic, Mathematic, Physic, Ethic, Economic, Moral Philosophy,
and the Hebrew tongue, and of his docility in Moral Philosophy and
the Hebrew tongue. But neither shall such as will apply them to hear
the Laws be compelled to hear Medicine; nor such as apply them to
hear Divinity be compelled to hear either Medicine or the Laws.
In the second University, which is Glasgow, there shall be two
Colleges only. In the first shall be a class of Dialectic, another
in Mathematic, the third in Physic, ordered in all sorts as St.
Andrews. In the second College there shall be four classes: the
first in Moral Philosophy, Ethics, Economics, and Politics; the
second, of the Municipal and Roman Law; the third, of the Hebrew
tongue; the fourth, in Divinity. These shall be ordered in all
sorts, as we have written in the order of the University of St.
Andrews.
The third University of Aberdeen shall be conform to this University
of Glasgow, in all sorts.
We think it needful that there be chosen from the body of the
University a Principal for every College--a man of learning,
discretion, and diligence. He shall receive the whole rents of the
College, and distribute the same according to the erection of the
College, and shall daily hearken the diet accounts, adjoining to
him weekly one of the readers or regents. In the oversight of the
readers and regents he shall watch over their diligence, in their
reading, as well as their exercitation of the youth in the matter
taught. He shall have charge of the policy and uphold of the place;
and for punishment of crimes, shall hold a weekly convention with
the whole members of the College. He shall be accountable yearly to
the Superintendent, Rector, and rest of the Principals convened,
about the first of November. His election shall be in this sort.
There shall be three of the most sufficient men of the University,
not Principals already, nominated by the members of the College
(sworn to follow their consciences) whose Principal is departed,
and publicly proponed through the whole University. After eight
days the Superintendent, by himself or his special Procurator, with
the Rector and rest of the Principals, as a chapter convened, shall
confirm that one of the three whom they think most sufficient, being
before sworn to do the same with single eye, without respect to fee
or favour.
In every College, we think needful at the least one steward, one
cook, one gardener, and one porter. These shall be subject to
discipline of the Principal, as the rest.
Every University shall have a beadle subject to serve at all times
throughout the whole University, as the Rector and Principals shall
command.
Every University shall have a Rector, chosen from year to year as
follows. The Principals being convened with the whole Regents in
chapter, shall be sworn that every man in his room shall nominate
such one as his conscience shall testify to be most sufficient
to bear such charge and dignity; and three of them that shall be
of test nominated shall be put in edict publicly, fifteen days
before Michaelmas. On Michaelmas Even shall be convened the whole
Principals, Regents, and Supposts that are graduate, or have at
least studied their time in Ethics, Economics, and Politics, and no
others younger; and every nation,[258] first protesting in God's
presence to follow the sincere dictate of their consciences, shall
nominate one of the said three. He that has most votes shall be
confirmed by the Superintendent and Principal, and his duty with
an exhortation shall be proponed unto him. This shall be done on
the twenty-eighth day of September; and thereafter oaths shall
be taken, _hinc inde_, for his just and godly government, and of
the remnant's lawful submission and obedience. At his entrance to
the University he shall be propyned with a new garment, bearing
_Insignia Magistratus_; and he shall be bound to visit every College
monthly, and with his presence to decorate and examine the lections
and exercitation thereof. His assessors shall be a lawyer and a
theologian, with whose advice he shall decide all civil questions
betwixt the members of the University. If any one outside the
University shall pursue a member thereof, or be pursued by a member
of the same, the Rector shall assist the Provost and Bailies, or
other judges competent, to see that justice be ministered in these
cases. Likewise, if any of the University be criminally pursued,
he shall assist the judges competent, and see that justice be
ministered.
[258] Classification of students according to birthplace.
We think it expedient, that in every College, in each University,
there be twenty-four bursars, divided equally in all the classes
and sessions, as is above expressed: that is, in St. Andrews,
seventy-two bursars; in Glasgow, forty-eight bursars; in Aberdeen,
forty-eight; to be sustained only in meat upon the charges of the
College; and be admitted at the examination of the ministry and
chapter of Principals in the University, as well in docility of the
persons offered, as of the ability of their parents to sustain them
themselves, and not to burden the Commonwealth with them.
5. _Of Stipends and Expenses necessary._--We think expedient that
the Universities be doted with temporal lands, with rents, and
revenues of the Bishoprics' temporality, and of the Collegiate
Kirks, as far as their ordinary charges shall require; and
therefore, we crave that it would please your honours, by advice of
your honours' Council and vote of Parliament, to do the same. And
that the same may be shortly expedite, we have recollected the sums
we think necessary for the same.
(1) For the ordinary stipend of the Dialectitian Reader, the
Mathematician, Physician, and Reader in Moral Philosophy, we
think sufficient a hundred pounds for every one of them. (2) For
the stipend of every Reader in Medicine and Laws, a hundred and
thirty-three pounds, six shillings and eight pence. (3) To every
Reader in Hebrew, Greek, and Divinity, two hundred pounds. (4) To
every Principal of a College, ij lb. (5) To every Steward, sixteen
pounds of fee. (6) To every Gardener, to every Cook, and to every
Porter, each, ten marks. (7) To the board of every Bursar, other
than those in the classes of Theology and Medicine, twenty pounds.
(8) To every Bursar in the class of Theology, which will be only
twelve persons in St. Andrews, 24 lib.
The sum of yearly and ordinary expenses in
the University of St. Andrews, extends to 3796 lib.
The sum of yearly and ordinary expenses of
Glasgow 2922 "
Aberdeen, the same 2922 "
----------
The sum of the ordinary charges of the whole 9640 lib.
----------
The beadle's stipend shall be of every entrant and suppost of the
University, two shillings; of every one graduate in Philosophy,
three shillings; of every one graduate in Medicine or Laws, four
shillings; in Theology, five shillings; all Bursars being excepted.
We have thought good that, for building and upkeep of the places,
a general collection be made; and that every Earl's son, at his
entrance to the University, shall give forty shillings, and suchlike
at every graduation, forty shillings; every Lord's son suchlike at
each time, thirty shillings; each freeholding Baron's son, twenty
shillings; every Feuar and substantial gentleman's son, one mark;
every substantial Husbandman's or Burgess's son, at each time,
ten shillings; every one of the rest, excepting the Bursars, five
shillings at each time.
We recommend that this collection be gathered in a common box, put
in keeping of the Principal of the Theologians, every Principal
having a key thereof. The contents should be counted each year once,
with the relicts of the Principals to be laid into the same, about
the fifteenth day of November, in presence of the Superintendent,
Rector, and the whole Principals. At their whole consent, or at
least the most part thereof, the sums collected should be reserved
and employed only upon the building and upkeep of the places, and
repairing of the same, as ever necessity shall require. For this
end, the Rector with his assistants shall be obliged to visit the
places each year once, immediately after he is promoted, upon the
last of October, or thereby.
6. _Of the Privilege of the University._--We desire that innocency
should defend us rather than privilege, and we think that each
person of the University should be answerable, before the Provost
and Bailies of each town where the Universities are, for all crimes
whereof they are accused, only that the Rector be Assessor to them
in the said actions. In civil matters, if the question on both
sides be betwixt members of the University, making their residence
and exercitation therein for the time, the party called shall not
be obliged to answer, otherwise than before the Rector and his
Assessors. In all other cases of civil pursuit, the general rule of
the Law shall be observed, _Actor sequitur forum rei_, etc.
The Rector and all inferior members of the University shall be
exempted from all taxations, imposts, charges of war, or any other
charge that may onerate or abstract him or them from the duties of
their office--such as Tutory, Curatory, Deaconry, or any suchlike,
that are established, or hereafter shall be established in our
Commonwealth. In this manner, without trouble, this one may wait
upon the upbringing of the youth in learning, that other bestow his
time only in that most necessary exercition.[259]
[259] Bodily exercise; military exercise.--_Jamieson._
All other things, touching the books to be read in each class and
all such particular affairs, we refer to the discretion of the
Masters, Principals, and Regents, with their well advised Councils;
not doubting but that, if God shall grant quietness and give your
wisdoms grace to set forward letters in the sort prescribed, ye
shall leave wisdom and learning to your posterity, a treasure more
to be esteemed than any earthly treasure ye are able to provide
for them. These, without wisdom, are more able to be their ruin
and confusion, than help or comfort. And as this is most true, we
leave it with the rest of the commodities to be weighed by your
honours' wisdom, and set forward by your authority for the most high
advancement of this Commonwealth, committed to your charge.
VIII. Of the Rents and Patrimony of the Kirk.
The ministers and the poor, together with the schools, when order
shall be taken thereanent, must be sustained upon the charges of
the Church. Provision must therefore be made, how and from whom
the necessary sums must be lifted. But, before we enter upon this
head, we must crave of your honours, in the name of the Eternal God
and of His Son, Christ Jesus, that ye have respect to your poor
brethren, the labourers and manurers of the ground. These have
been so oppressed by these cruel beasts, the Papists, that their
lives have been dolorous and bitter. If ye will have God author and
approver of your reformation, ye must not follow their footsteps.
Ye must have compassion upon your brethren, appointing them to pay
reasonable teinds, that they may feel some benefit of Christ Jesus,
now preached unto them.
With grief of heart we hear that some gentlemen are now as cruel
over their tenants as ever were the Papists, requiring of them
whatsoever before they paid to the Church; so that the papistical
tyranny is only like to be changed to the tyranny of the lord or
of the laird. We dare not flatter your honours, neither yet is it
profitable for you that so we do: if you permit such cruelty to be
used, neither shall ye, who by your authority ought to gainstand
such oppression, nor shall they that use the same, escape God's
heavy and fearful judgments. The gentlemen, barons, earls, lords,
and others, must be content to live upon their just rents, and
suffer the Church to be restored to her liberty, that, in her
restitution, the poor, who heretofore by the cruel Papists have
been spoiled and oppressed, may now receive some comfort and
relaxation.[260]
[260] Concluded by the Lords: that these teinds and other exactions
be clean discharged, and never be taken in time coming, such as
the Uppermost Cloth, the Corps-present, the Clerk-mail, the Easter
offerings, Teind Ale, and all handlings Upaland can neither be
required nor received of godly conscience. (_Additio._)
Nor do we judge it to proceed from justice that one man shall
possess the teinds of another; but we think it a thing most
reasonable that every man have the use of his own teinds, provided
that he be answerable to the deacons and treasurers of the Church
for that which justly shall be appointed unto him. We require
deacons and treasurers to receive the rents rather than the
ministers themselves; because not only the ministers, but also
the poor and schools must be sustained from the teinds. We think
it most expedient, therefore, that common treasurers, to wit, the
deacons, be appointed from year to year, to receive the whole rents
appertaining to the Church; and that commandment be given that no
man be permitted either to receive, or yet to intromit with anything
appertaining to the sustentation of the persons foresaid, but such
as by common consent of the Church are thereto appointed.
If any think this prejudicial to the tacks and assedations[261]
of those that now possess the teinds, let them understand that an
unjust possession is no possession before God. Those of whom they
received their title and presupposed right were and are thieves and
murderers, and had no power so to alienate the patrimony and common
good of the Church. And yet we are not so extreme, but that we wish
just recompense to be made to such as have disbursed sums of money
to those unjust possessors, so that it has not been so disbursed of
late days to the prejudice of the Church. Such alienations as are
found and known to be made by plain collusion ought in nowise to be
sustained by you. For that purpose, we think it most expedient that
whosoever have assedation of teinds or churches be openly warned to
produce their assedation and assurance, that, cognition[262] being
taken, the just tacksman may have a just and reasonable recompense
for the years that are to run, the profit of the years passed being
considered and deducted; and that the unjust and surmised may be
served accordingly. Thus the Church, in the end, may recover her
liberty and freedom, and that only for relief of the poor.
[261] Leases.
[262] Evidence.
Your honours may easily understand that we speak not now for
ourselves, but in favour of the poor and the labourers defrauded
and oppressed by the priests and by their confederate pensioners.
For, while the priests' pensioner's idle belly has been delicately
fed, the poor, to whom a portion of that appertains, have pined with
hunger. Moreover, the true labourers were compelled to pay that
which they ought not: for the labourer is neither debtor to the dumb
dog called the bishop, nor yet unto his hired pensioner; but is
debtor only unto the Church. And the Church is only bound to sustain
and nourish at her charges the persons before mentioned, to wit, the
ministers of the Word, the poor, and the teachers of the youth.
But now to return to the former head. The sums able to sustain
these forenamed persons, and to furnish all things appertaining to
the preservation of good order and policy within the Church, must
be lifted from the teinds, to wit, the teind sheaf, teind hay,
teind hemp, teind lint, teind fishes, teind calf, teind foal, teind
lamb, teind wool, teind cheese, etc. And, because that we know
that the tithes reasonably taken, as is before expressed, will not
suffice to discharge the former necessity, we think that all things
doted to hospitality, all annual rents, both in burgh and land,
pertaining to Priests, Chantery,[263] Colleges, Chaplainries, and
to Friars of all orders, to the Sisters of the Sciennes, and to all
others of that order, and such others within this realm, should be
received still to the use of the church or churches within the towns
or parishes where they were doted. Furthermore, there should be
appropriated for the upholding of the Universities and sustentation
of the Superintendents, the whole revenue of the temporality of the
Bishops', Deans', and Archdeacons' lands, and all rents of lands
pertaining to the Cathedral churches whatsoever. Besides, merchants
and rich craftsmen in free burghs, who have nothing to do with the
manuring of the ground, must make some provision in their cities,
towns, or dwelling-places to support the need of the Church.
[263] Chanters were laics endowed with ecclesiastical benefices.
To the ministers, and failing these the Readers, must be restored
their manses and their glebes; otherwise they cannot serve their
flock at all times as their duty is. If any glebe exceed six acres
of land, the rest shall remain in the possessor's hands until order
be taken therein.[264]
[264] The Lords condescend that the manse and yards be restored to
the ministers. And all the Lords consent that the ministers have six
acres of land, except Marischall, Morton, Glencairn, and Cassillis,
where manses are of great quantity. (_Additio._)
The receivers and collectors of these rents and duties must be the
deacons or treasurers appointed from year to year in every church,
by common consent and free election of the church. The deacons may
distribute no part of that which is collected, but by commandment
of the ministers and elders; and they may command nothing to be
delivered, but as the Church before hath determined; and the deacons
shall pay the sums, either quarterly, or from half year to half
year, to the ministers which the Kirk hath appointed. The same they
shall do to the schoolmasters, readers, and hospitals, if any be,
always receiving acquittances for their discharge.
If any extraordinary sums fall to be delivered, then must the
ministers, elders, and deacons consult whether the deliverance of
these sums doth stand with the common utility of the Church or not;
and if they do universally agree and condescend either upon the
affirmative or the negative, then, because they are in credit and
office for the year, they may do as best seemeth unto them. But if
there be controversy amongst themselves, the whole Church must be
made privy; and after the matter has been exponed and the reasons
heard, the judgment of the Church, with the ministers' consent,
shall prevail.
The deacons shall be bound and compelled to make accounts to the
ministers and elders of that which they have received, as oft as the
policy shall appoint; and the elders when they are changed, which
must be every year, must clear their accounts before such auditors
as the Church shall appoint. When the deacons and elders are
changed, they shall deliver to them that shall then be elected, all
sums of money, corns, and other profits remaining in their hands.
The tickets for these must be delivered to the Superintendents in
their visitation, and by them to the great Council of the Church,
that the abundance as well as the indigence of every church may
be evidently known, and that a reasonable equality may be had
throughout the whole realm. If this order be precisely kept,
corruption cannot suddenly enter. The free and yearly election of
deacons and elders will not suffer any one to usurp a perpetual
dominion over the Church; the knowledge of the rental shall suffice
them to receive no more than whereof they shall be bound to make
accounts; and the deliverance of the money to the new officers shall
not suffer private men to use in their private business that which
appertaineth to the public affairs of the Church.
IX. Of Ecclesiastical Discipline.