itself, which, nevertheless, created considerable stir in the Church
Courts, and ultimately led to secession. On December 11, 1716, Mr
William Craig, student of divinity, appeared before them for license.
The Presbytery being deeply impressed with "the errors of the times,"
examined him strictly as to his soundness of faith. Further
consideration of the matter having been delayed for about a month, Mr
Craig was again (January 15, 1717) before the Presbytery; was asked by
them to sign the answers formerly given by him, and though he "seemed
to scruple a little at something of the wording" of some of them, he
finally did so, and was licensed. His signature still stands at that
date in the Presbytery's copy of the Confession of Faith. The most
famous statement signed by him was to the following effect:--"And
further, I believe that it is not sound and orthodox to teach that we
must forsake sin in order to our coming to Christ and instating us in
covenant with God"--language capable of bearing an Antinomian meaning,
and soon to be known as the "Auchterarder Creed." At next meeting of
Presbytery (February 12, 1717) Mr Craig came back, representing that he
was troubled with scruples anent the paper he had subscribed, that he
had done so hastily, and that he now wished to explain his explanation.
The Presbytery, after hearing him, resolved to declare his license null
and void, and in the end he had to appeal to the Assembly. The
Assembly of 1717 was somewhat startled at the theological language of
Auchterarder, ordered the Presbytery to restore Mr Craig's license,
declared the chief article of the new creed to be "unsound and most
detestable," and asked them to explain its meaning to a meeting of the
Commission. The Presbytery was of course able to show that their
meaning was both pious and orthodox, and that they had been only a
little over-zealous for the purity of the faith. In the old
Auchterarder fashion, they had been thinking for themselves, instead of
taking ready-made opinions from other people. One good result of the
commotion was that Presbyteries were henceforth prohibited from putting
queries of their own, preliminary to license, but "those and no other"
which had received the authority of the Church. Yet it had other
results which were evil. The discussion over the "Auchterarder Creed"
led to the re-publication of the "Marrow of Modern Divinity," and the
"Marrow Controversy" led directly to the secession of the Erskines.
The _origo mali_ was in Auchterarder.
The "Rising" of 1745 did not interfere so much with the business of the
Presbytery as that of 1715 had done. During that eventful year it
continued to hold its meetings as usual. The only reference is that on
May 1, 1746, a fortnight after Culloden, the Presbytery appoints that
if His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland shall come this way in his
return from the North, certain members should wait upon him to
congratulate him upon the victory obtained by him over the rebels.
On December 14, 1756, the celebrated tragedy of _Douglas_, written by
John Home, minister of Athelstaneford, in East Lothian, was acted in
Edinburgh. This atrocious fact caused much searching of heart in all
ultra-evangelical circles. The awful news reached Auchterarder.
Meeting in Glendevon Church on May 12, 1757, for the ordination of Mr
David M'Gibbon, the Presbytery came to the following resolution:--"The
Presbytery, taking into their serious consideration the general fame
that a minister of this Church has composed the tragedy of _Douglas_,
and has been at great pains to get it represented on the stage both at
London and at Edinburgh, to the scandal of very many; and the
Presbytery further considering how hurtful stage plays are to the
interest of religion, and to the morals of the people, and always were
held to be so in every well-regulated government, heathen as well as
Christian, therefore did and hereby do instruct their representatives
in the ensuing General Assembly humbly to insist with the venerable
Assembly that they would be pleased to make effectual enquiry, without
loss of time, into the ground of the above flame; and if it shall be
found to be indeed true {114} that ministers of the Gospel, members of
this Church, have done and behaved as above alledged, that the General
Assembly would be pleased to enquire if such adequate censure has been
inflicted on these brethren as their crime deserves; and if it has not,
that the venerable Assembly would order it to be done, and that they
would be further pleased to give some publick testimony of their
abhorrence of such practices, that the world may see the just
resentment of this Church against so uncommon and unprecedented a
behaviour in some of her undutiful sons, and that they would do this in
such a manner as shall appear to the venerable Assembly to be most
effectual for preventing the like in any of their members of whatever
degree in time coming." The zeal of Auchterarder was burning with a
holy fire.
In the course of the eighteenth century the best known members of the
Presbytery were the dynasty of Moncrieffs at Blackford, and Dr. John
Kemp, of Trinity-Gask. Of the former, three generations succeeded each
other from 1697 to 1775, in which year Sir Henry Moncrieff left
Blackford to become minister of the West Kirk, Edinburgh. Of Dr. Kemp,
who left Trinity-Gask {115} in 1776, to become minister of New
Greyfriars, Edinburgh, a full account will be found in Kay's _Edinburgh
Portraits_. He was three times married, his second and third wives
being Earls' daughters.
The century was now drawing to a close. Since the Reformation there
had been no church extension within the bounds of the Presbytery. At
last, however, there was to be an awakening from this long sleep. The
district of Ardoch formed the southern portion of the parish of
Muthill. In the centre of it lay the famous Roman Camp, one of the
most ancient historic spots in Scotland, whose earthen trenches had
been thrown up by the soldiers of Agricola. It was the traditional
site of the Battle of Mons Grampius, where Galgacus and his Caledonians
fought for liberty, and, after all that has been written on the
subject, is as probably the real site as any other. There, in 1780, a
chapel of ease was built, and opened for worship on March 25, 1781.
The bounds of the chapel also included a small portion of the parish of
Blackford, and a larger portion of that of Dunblane, the Presbytery
thus extending its jurisdiction down the banks of the Allan to within a
few miles of the cathedral city. The Chapel at Ardoch was the
Presbytery's first-born child. In later years, in connection with the
Church Extension movement, promoted by Dr. Chalmers, the West Church
was built in Crieff in 1838, and the Chapel of Blairingone, in the
parish of Fossoway, in 1840. Thus equipped, the Presbytery of
Auchterarder was to meet the storm of 1843.
In the earlier years of the nineteenth century there were even to
observant eyes no signs of the coming blast. The Act of Queen Anne,
restoring Patronage, though long protested against, had been sullenly
acquiesced in by the Church. Moderates and Evangelicals, though
contending together in the several Church Courts, kept themselves
carefully within the limits of the Church's constitution. But a new
era was about to dawn. The struggle for political liberty which found
expression in the great Reform Act of 1832, had its counterpart also in
the ecclesiastical world. Patronage was again felt to be an
intolerable burden, and the rights of the Christian people to require
vindication. In these changed circumstances it became a difficult and
delicate matter to "redd the marches" between the Church and State.
With level-headed common-sense upon both sides it might have been done.
Unfortunately, in the struggle our most prominent national
characteristics, instead of being combined, got opposed to one another.
The proverbial "canniness" of the Scottish nation was all upon the one
side; the equally proverbial _perfervidum ingenium_ was all upon the
other. Led by the latter feeling, the Church resolved to fall back on
her own inherent rights and to get quit of Patronage by a side wind.
In 1834 she passed the Veto Act, giving power to "the major part of the
male heads of families, members of the vacant congregation," in any
parish to get quit of an unpopular presentee. The Presbytery of
Auchterarder was doomed to be the cockpit in which this great fight was
to be fought out. In the autumn of 1834 the Rev. Robert Young was
presented to the parish of Auchterarder by the Earl of Kinnoull. At
the moderation of his call on 2nd December the Rev. John Clark,
Blackford, preached from Mark xii., 10-11, a text somewhat interesting
in the light of what afterwards took place--"And have ye not read this
scripture: The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of
the corner: This was the Lord's doing, and is marvellous in our eyes?"
Mr Young's call was signed by three persons, for the Earl of Kinnoull
as Patron, and by two members of the congregation. He was vetoed by
287 male heads of families, and the Presbytery had no option under the
Act but to reject the call. This decision was confirmed on appeal to
the Assembly, and Mr Young and the Earl of Kinnoull had to seek redress
in the Civil Courts. The "Auchterarder Case" now attracted the
attention of the whole country. It raised the question of the legality
of the Veto Act. In November, 1837, it was heard before the whole
Court of Session, and the Judges by a majority found that, Mr Young
having been duly presented, the Presbytery was bound to take him upon
trials. An appeal was ultimately taken to the House of Lords, and by
it, in 1839, the decision of the Court of Session was re-affirmed. By
the highest legal authority the Veto Act was found to be worthless.
But the Church had gone too far to retrace her steps, and she now
raised the banner of Spiritual Independence. Other questions had come
to the front which heightened and intensified the feeling that
prevailed. By the equally illegal Chapel Act, also passed in 1834,
chapel districts were formed into parishes _quoad sacra_, and their
ministers found entitled to seats in the Church Courts. The minister
of Ardoch Chapel at once took his seat in the Presbytery, and was
followed in due time by the ministers of the West Church, Crieff, and
the Chapel at Blairingone. The Church had been led into an _impasse_
from which there was no outlet but by secession. The secession came.
In defence of their somewhat mysterious principles no fewer than 451
ministers, on the 18th day of May, 1843, left the Church. All the
world wondered. It was said that in no country other than Scotland
could such a spectacle have been seen. Yet one cannot help looking
back with sorrow upon the blundering that made it possible. Like the
Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, it was "magnificent, but not
war."
With the addition of the chapel ministers the membership of
Auchterarder Presbytery had risen to eighteen. The parish of
Auchterarder was still vacant. Of the remaining seventeen, eight were
found to have seceded. Of these, five were legal members of
Presbytery--viz., James Carment, Comrie; Peter Brydie, Fossoway; John
Reid Omond, Monzie; John Ferguson, Monzievaird; and James Thomson,
Muckhart. The three others were the chapel ministers--Samuel Grant,
Ardoch; Finlay Macalister, West Church, Crieff; and Andrew Noble,
Blairingone. The case of Mr Brydie, of Fossoway, was somewhat
peculiar. On October 13, 1843, he petitioned the Presbytery asking it
to annul its judgment with regard to him, and submitted a medical
certificate to the effect that at the time of his secession he was "in
a state of lunacy." The Presbytery, having consulted the Synod,
reponed him, on the ground that at the time he separated himself from
the Church he had been in a state of unsound mind.
The Presbytery now once more consisted of fifteen parishes and three
chapels. The vacancies in the parishes were easily supplied. It was
different with the chapels. A new minister was, indeed, ordained at
Ardoch in December, 1844, but it was 1848 before the West Church,
Crieff, and the Chapel of Blairingone were once more re-opened for
worship in connection with the Church of Scotland. The decks had been
cleared after the storm, the rigging re-fitted, and the sails spread
once more to catch the favouring breeze. In a few years the
Presbytery's organisation had become more efficient than ever. In 1854
certain portions of the parishes of Monzie and Foulis were disjoined
from the Presbytery to form a part of the new parish of Logiealmond.
In 1855, Ardoch was erected into a parish _quoad omnia_. In 1864, the
West Church, Crieff, became a parish _quoad sacra_. The Chapel of
Blairingone was also by and by to become a parish; yet, when it did so,
it no longer formed a part of the Presbytery of Auchterarder. In 1856
the General Assembly determined to create a new Presbytery of Kinross,
and for this purpose to disjoin the two parishes of Muckhart and
Fossoway (the latter including Blairingone) from the Presbytery with
which they had been associated for two hundred and fifty years.
Auchterarder refused her consent, and protested, but in vain. She was
bereaved of her children.
This change somewhat altered the centre of gravity of the Presbytery.
Hitherto Auchterarder had been its natural centre, and its most
convenient place of meeting. From this time onwards it began
occasionally to meet at Crieff. In 1866 an Act of Assembly was passed
ordaining it to meet alternately in Auchterarder and Crieff.
After the Secession of 1843 a subtle change began to creep over the
opinions of the Presbytery. It was no longer the ultra-evangelical
body which it had been for more than a century. It began to take
broader views of culture and of human life. Were another minister of
the Church of Scotland now to write a new tragedy of _Douglas_ he would
be likely to receive its congratulations rather than its denunciations.
Its theology became sweeter, and it is in no danger of framing a new
"Auchterarder Creed" upon the lines of the last. When the new movement
began for the improvement of public worship there was, indeed, enough
of the old leaven left to lead to a vigorous resistance. This struggle
centred round "The Crieff Organ Case" in 1866-67. Ultimately, however,
the new views prevailed, and at the present moment (1896) the once
hated "kist of whistles" has found its way into no fewer than thirteen
out of the sixteen parishes which at present compose the Presbytery.
Since the days of that conflict, indeed, its spirit has broadened and
broadened. The old independent tone, for which it had been conspicuous
even in the seventeenth century, has become more and more marked. In
recent years the Presbytery has never been willing tamely to follow the
lead of Assembly leaders and Assembly Committees, but has insisted on
expressing a vigorous opinion of its own upon all the questions of the
day.
In the course of the present century several ministers, afterwards to
become better known, have begun their respective careers within the
bounds of the Presbytery. Dr. William Robertson, latterly minister of
New Greyfriars, Edinburgh, was ordained as minister of Muckhart in
1831. Dr. Robert Home Stevenson, minister of St. George's, Edinburgh,
Moderator of the General Assembly of 1871, was ordained in 1840 as
assistant and successor in the parish of Crieff. Dr. John Cunningham,
minister of Crieff from 1845 to 1887, was Moderator of the General
Assembly of 1886, and was latterly Principal of St. Mary's College, St.
Andrews. His successor in the Moderatorship of Assembly, Dr. George
Hutchison, Banchory-Ternan, was ordained as minister of Monzie in 1845.
Dr. Paton J. Gloag, then of Galashiels, Moderator of the Assembly of
1889, was ordained in 1848 as assistant and successor in the parish of
Dunning. Dr. John Wilson, a genial man, much beloved by all his
brethren, was minister of Dunning from 1861 to 1878, Clerk of
Presbytery from 1864, and author of "Index to the Acts of Assembly."
Dr. William Mair, minister of Ardoch from 1865 to 1868, is now of
Earlston, and author of the well-known "Digest of Church Laws."
The loss of Muckhart and Fossoway, the addition of Ardoch and Crieff
West left the Presbytery still with its original number of fifteen
parishes. There was yet another to be added. In the extreme west of
the parish of Comrie, at the point where the River Earn leaves its
parent lake, was the district of Dundurn. Next to Ardoch, it was
probably the oldest historic spot within the Presbytery. There, first
of all places within the bounds, had the Gospel in the course of the
sixth century been preached by the saintly Fillan. It was still
haunted by sacred memories. It had been the site of a pre-Reformation
chapel. It had long been a preaching-place for the minister of Comrie.
Latterly there had sprung up by the shores of the beautiful lake a
hamlet which called itself St. Fillans. It became a favourite place of
summer resort. In 1879 a new chapel was built, and in 1895 the
district of Dundurn was erected into a parish _quoad sacra_.
At the present moment (1896) the Presbytery thus consists of sixteen
parishes, all fully equipped; 94 elders and 5023 church members form
its effective strength as a part of the Church militant. It has faced
many a serious crisis in the past; with a calm cheerfulness it faces
the future.
MEMORIES OF GASK
By Rev. JAMES MARTIN, Gask
The parish of Gask is a comparatively small one both in population and
in territorial extent. The earliest historical record we have of it
goes back to the time of the invasion of Britain by the Romans. The
road which passes along the ridge of high ground was originally made by
the Romans, and was designed to form a line of communication between
the camp at Ardoch and the camp at Bertha, near the junction of the
Almond with the Tay. On the north side of it, in this parish, there
are still to be distinctly seen two small camps or stations, and on the
south side of it there is a larger one. The Romans have left traces of
their presence here in the works they constructed, which the lapse of
eighteen centuries has not entirely obliterated.
Coming down the stream of time, we find that Wallace, that noble and
disinterested patriot, sought a hiding-place in time of danger amid its
dense woods. During a visit to Perth in 1296, a plot was laid by the
English to capture him, but, having received timely warning, he made
his escape with his small band of followers to Gascon Ha'. This is
generally supposed to have occupied a different site from the ruin near
the River Earn which now bears that name, and which is celebrated by
Lady Nairne in the song of "Bonnie Gascon Ha'." The Gascon Ha' to
which Wallace repaired for safety from his treacherous and relentless
enemies is said to have stood a mile and a half to the north-east of
that ruin in the midst of the Gask woods. Here they prepared to pass
the night, and having obtained two sheep from a neighbouring fold, they
kindled a fire and made ready their evening repast. Greatly exhausted
with their long and fatiguing march, Wallace proposed that his
followers should rest while he would keep watch. During the course of
the night he was startled by the "blowing of horns mingled with
frightful yells, proceeding apparently from a rising ground in the
immediate neighbourhood." Scouts were sent out from time to time, but
all failing to return, the patriot was at last left alone. He wandered
about till morning, killing two of the English whom he encountered, one
of whom was Sir John Butler, and then hastened with all speed to
Torwood, near Dunipace, where his uncle was parish priest.
At an early period the lands now comprehended in this parish belonged
to the Earl of Strathearn, the great landowner in this district at that
time. It is said that he possessed all the lands lying between the
Cross of Macduff, near Newburgh, and the west end of Balquhidder in
length, and between the Ochils and the Grampians in breadth. It was
out of his lands of Nether Gask that he granted liberty to quarry
stones for building the Abbey of Inchaffray, along with two acres of
ground on which to erect workshops.
The lands of Gask have now been in the possession of the Oliphant
family for nearly six hundred years. The name was originally written
Olifard, then Olyfaunt, and now Oliphant. Sir William Olyfaunt was the
first of that name on whom these lands were bestowed by King Robert the
Bruce. Sir William occupied a prominent position in the early history
of our country. He was Governor of Stirling Castle, and when summoned
in the name of Edward I. to surrender it, made the noble reply, "I have
never sworn fealty to Edward, but I have sworn to keep the Castle, and
must wait the order of my constituent." And when the Castle was
besieged by Edward and his army he defended it for three months, and
only capitulated from the scarcity of provisions. He was a member of
the Parliament held at Aberbrothock in 1320, and subscribed along with
some other Scottish Barons the famous letter to the Pope, which so
nobly asserted the independence of Scotland. To that document were
affixed the seals of Sir William Olyfaunt and Malise, Earl of
Strathearn. He died in 1329, and was buried in the Church of
Aberdalgie, where a monument of black marble was erected to his memory.
When the present Church of Aberdalgie was built in 1773 the site was
changed, and the monument to Sir William Olyfaunt was left in the open
churchyard. In 1780, Mr Oliphant of Gask erected a stone covering over
it to protect it from injury by the weather.
Sir William was succeeded by his son, Walter Olyfaunt, who married a
daughter of King Robert the Bruce, and, "having resigned the lands of
Gask into the hands of his brother-in-law, David II., obtained, in
1364, a new charter confirming them to the said Walter and his spouse
Elizabeth, our beloved sister, on a peculiar tenure for the reddendum
of a chaplet of white roses at the feast of the nativity of St. John
the Baptist at the manor place of Gask." This incident has been
happily expressed in a poem by Miss Ethel Blair Oliphant, now Mrs
Maxtone Graham, who inherits much of the poetic genius of her
great-grand-aunt, Lady Nairne.
THE TRIBUTE OF GASK
Now ken ye the gift Gask has brought to the King?
'Tis an off'ring sae royal, sae perfect, and fair,
Than jewels o' siller more dainty and rare,
A crown for a maid or a monarch to wear.
The courtier's tribute is but a poor thing,
For what can he offer and what can he bring,
Than the crown of White Roses from Gask to the King?
Now ken ye the service Gask does for the King?
All for his sake, in the bloom of the year,
In the gardens of Gask the white blossoms appear--
The Royal White Roses to Scotland sae dear.
Then far o'er Stralhearn let the praise of them ring,
Let them live once again in the song that we sing,
The crown of White Roses from Gask to the King.
Now ken ye what Gask will yet do for the King?
In the days that may come, when the roses are dead,
When the pledge is forgotten, the vows left unsaid;
What then shall lie found for an off'ring instead?
Oh! then at his feet his heart he will fling.
Truth, Honour, Devotion, as tribute will bring
For the crown of White Roses from Gask to the King!
This charter, which has always been highly prized by the Gask family,
had a rather singular history during the last century. In 1746 the
Duke of Cumberland sent out Sir Joseph York from Perth to search the
House of Gask, when he took away a box containing the charter, and it
was not till forty years after that it was traced to its hiding-place,
restored to its rightful owners, and safely deposited in the Gask
charter chest. The Oliphants obtained large estates in different parts
of Scotland, and were raised to the Peerage by James II., in 1450, by
the title of Lord Oliphant. The fifth Lord, styled in the Gask papers
"ane base and unworthy man," squandered away the large estates he
inherited not only in Perthshire, but also in Forfarshire, Kincardine,
Caithness, and Haddington. One of the younger branches of the Oliphant
family purchased from his spendthrift cousin the lands of Gask, which
have ever since continued in the same family.
Laurence Oliphant was, in the year 1650, knighted by Charles II., when
that monarch was at Scone. He for a capricious reason disinherited his
eldest son, Patrick, and gave the lands of Gask to his second son and
his heirs. About fifty years thereafter the estate of Gask, from the
failure of heirs in the younger branch, came into the possession of
James, the eldest son of the disinherited Patrick.