minister of the Ellie, in the presbetrey of St Androus. The said day Mr
Patrik Skugall, minister of Leuchars, did preach. The Laird of Ardrose
(being patron of the parish, and ther present,) gott not libertie
to give him the right hand of felloshipe att his admission, (as the
custome is), because under censure for the leate engagement against
Englande.
(From the middest of Sept. to the middest of October.)—The Visitation
apointed (by the forsaide Generall Assemblie), for Angus and Mernes,
satte at the places apointed. Att which meitting Mr Andro Cant,
minister att Aberdeine, was moderator. The visitators apointed to
severall actaul ministers texts that they might heare them, some of
which had beine in the ministrie for the space of 20 or 24 yeares.
During the sitting of this meitting, ther was about eghteine ministers
deposed, and five suspended, (two of which number did apeale to the
Gener. Assemb.) The causes of ther depositiones werre, insufficiencie
for the ministrie; famishing of congregations; silence in the tyme
of the leatte engagement against Englande; corruptions in life and
doctrine; malignancie, drūkenes, and subscriving of a divisive
band, and such like. At this tyme, Mr James Laumonth, minister in
Kinnettells, was deposed; and Mr Johne Lyndsay, ane olde man, was
deposed, for adultrie and fornicatione, which werre proven against him.
They purposed againe to returne thither in March 1650.
Oct.—Mr James Carmichaell, minister of Kleishe, in the presbetrey of
Dumfermling, was deposed by that presbetrey, for insufficiencie.
Novemb.—The commission of the kirke satt at Edenbroughe, where Mr
James Guthrie, minister of Lawder, was appointed to be transported to
Sterling; Mr David Forret, and Mr James Sharpe, werre sutted be the
towne of Edenbroughe, bot were refused; and Mr Harie Raymoure, m. of
Carnebie, being desired be the towne of Duns, was appointed to remaine
att his owne charge.—All thir three werre of the presbetrey of St
Androus, in Fyfe.
Novemb.—Mr George Wynram, of Libberton, in Louthian, was sent, with
a comission from the estates of this kingdome, to our king, now leyen
at the iylles of Jernsey and Gernsey, upon the coast of France, bot
pertaining to the crowne of England.—He returned about the end of
January 1650.
The Lord Linton, eldest sonne to the Earle of Traquare, maried the Lady
Seaton, (daughter to the leatte Marquesse of Huntlie, that was executt
at the crosse of Edenbroughe the forsaid yeare, as is spoken before,)
a woman excommunicat by the church of Scotlande for being a papist.
The minister of Daicke, being ane olde man, did marie thir forsaid
persons privatlie, without proclamatione of ther bands, according to
the custome, for which, shortlie after, he was excommunicate, and his
church declared vacane, and he, by the state, banished.
Decemb.—Ane Mistris Hendersone, sister to Fordell Hendersone, in the
presbetrey of Dumfermling, (sometymes Lady of Pittaro,) being debated
by many to be a Witch, was apprehended and caried to Edenbroughe,
wher she was keiped fast; and after her remaining in prison for a
tyme, being in health att night, upon the morne was founde dead. It
was thought, and spoken by many, that she wronged her selfe, ether by
strangling or by poyson; but we leave that to the judgement of the
great day.
Decemb.—Ane act of parliament, discharging the going up and downe of
sturdie beggars through this kingdome, and appointing every parish to
entertaine ther owne poore, etc. This day, this act was reade by the
minister of the church of Largo, and apointed to be reade through the
severall churches of this kingdome.
By the comission of the Gener. Assemb. sitting at Edenbroughe, the
Earle of Abercorne and the Lord Gray, both being papists, were
excommunicate, and the Earle of Abercorne (whose surname if Hamiltone,)
was apointed to remove himselfe from off this kingdome.
IX MARTII.
_Act abolishing the Patronages of Kirks._[423]
The Estates of Parliament being sensible of the great obligation that
layes upon them by the Nationall Covenant, and by the Solemn League
and Covenant, and by many deliverances and mercies from God, And by
the late solemn engagement unto duties, To preserve the Doctrine, and
maintain and vindicate the Liberties of the Kirk of Scotland, and to
advance the Work of Reformation therein, to the utmost of their power;
And considering that Patronages, and Presentations of Kirks, is an
evill and bondage, under which the Lords people and Ministers of this
land have long groaned, and that it hath no warrant in Gods word,
but is founded onely on the Canon law, and is a custome Popish, and
brought into the Kirk in time of ignorance and superstition, And that
the same is contrary to the second book of Discipline, in which upon
solid and good ground, it is reckoned among abuses that are desired
to be reformed, and unto severall Acts of Generall Assemblies, And
that it is prejudiciall to the liberty of the people, and planting of
Kirks, and unto the free calling and entrie of Ministers unto their
charge. And the saids Estates being willing and desirous to promove
and advance the Reformation foresaid, That everie thing in the house
of God may be ordered according to his Word and Commandement, Doe
therefore from the sense of the former obligations, and upon the former
grounds and reasons discharge for ever hereafter, All Patronages
and Presentations of Kirks, whither belonging to the King or to any
Laick Patrone, Presbytries or others within this Kingdome, as being
unlawfull and unwarrantable by Gods Word, and contrary to the Doctrine
and Liberties of this Kirk; And doe repeal, rescind, make voyd, and
annull all gifts and rights granted thereanent, And all former Acts
made in Parliament, or in any inferiour Judicatory in favours of any
Patrone or Patrones whatsoever, So farre as the same doth or may
relate unto the Presentation of Kirks, And doth statute and ordain
that no person or persons whatsomever shall at any time hereafter take
upon them under pretext of any Title, Infeftment, Act of Parliament,
Possession, or Warrant whatsoever, which are hereby repealed, to give
Subscrive, or Seal any Presentation to any Kirk within this Kingdom:
And Discharges the passing of any infeftments hereafter bearing a
right to Patronages to be granted in favours of these for whom the
Infeftments are presented; And that no person or persons shall either
in the behalfe of themselves or others, procure, receive, or make
use of any Presentation to any Kirk within this Kingdome: And it is
farther Declared and Ordained that if any Presentation shall hereafter
be given, procured, or received, that the same is null and of no
effect, and that it is lawfull for Presbytries to reject the same,
and to refuse to admit any to trialls thereupon, and notwithstanding
thereof to proceed to the planting of the Kirk upon the sute and
calling, or with the consent of the congregation, on whom none is
to be obtruded against their will. And it is Decerned, statute, and
Ordained, That whosoever hereafter shall upon the suit and calling
of the congregation, after due examination of their literature and
conversation, be admitted by the Presbytry unto the exercise and
function of the ministry in any Paroch within this Kingdom, That the
said person or persons without a Presentation, by vertue of their
admission, hath sufficient Right and Title to possesse and enjoy the
Manse and gleib, and the whole rents, profits and stipends, which
the Ministers of that Burgh had formerly possest and enjoyed, or
that hereafter shall be modified by the commission for plantation of
Kirks; And decerns all Titulars, and Taksmen of Tythes, Heretors,
Life-renters, or others subject and lyable in payment of Ministers
stipends, to make payment of the same, Notwithstanding the Minister
his want of a Presentation: And Ordains the Lords of Session and other
Judges competent, to give out Decreets, & Sentences, Letters conform,
Horning Inhibition, & all others Executorials upon the said admission
of Ministers by Presbytries, as they were formerly in use to doe upon
Collation and Institution following, upon Presentations from Patrons.
Declaring alwayes that where Ministers are already admitted upon
Presentation, and have obtained Decreets confirm thereupon, That the
saids Decreets and Executorials following thereupon, shall be good
and valide Rights to the Ministers for suiting and obtaining payment
of their stipend, And the Presentation and Decreet conform, obtained
before the date hereof, shall be a valid ground and right for that
effect; Notwithstanding the annulling of Presentations by vertue of
this present Act, And because it is needfull that the just and proper
interest of Congregations and Presbytries in providing of Kirks with
Ministers be clearly determined by the Generall Assembly, and what is
to be accompted the Congregation having that interest; Therefore it is
hereby seriously recommended unto the next Generall Assembly, clearly
to determine the same, and to condiscend upon a certain standing way
for being a setled rule therein, for all time comming. And it is hereby
provided, declared, and ordained, that the taking away of Patronages
and Presentations off Kirks, shall import nor inforce no hurt nor
prejudice unto the title and right that any Patrone hath unto the
tythes of the Paroch, nor weaken his Infeftment wherein the same is
contained, But that the said Title, Right, and Infeftment, shall in
every respect (so farre as doth concern the Tythes,) be als valid and
strong as when Presentations were in use. It is further statute and
ordained, that the Tythes of these Kirks whereof the Presentations are
hereby abolished, shal belong heretably unto the saids Patrons, and
be secured unto them, and inserted in their Rights and Infeftments
in place of the Patronage. Likeas the Estates of Parliament declare
the said Patrons their Right thereunto to be good and valid, Hereby
granting full power to them to possesse, sell, annalzie, and dispone
the same in manner after specified, as fully and freely as the Minister
and Patrone might have done before the making of these presents,
Excepting alwayes therefrom these tythes which the Heretors have had
and possest by vertue of Taks set to them by the Ministers, without
any deed or consent of the Patrones, concerning which it is provided,
That the said Tythes at the issue and outrunning of the present Taks,
shall belong unto the Heretors respective, These said Heretors and
the Patrons above mentioned, each of them for their interest, being
alwayes lyable to the payment of the present stipends to the Ministers,
and to such augmentation and provision of new stipends to one or more
Ministers, & such as the Parliament or Commission for plantation of
Kirks shall think fit and appoint. Excepting also such Tythes as are
and have been possest, and uplifted by the Minister as their proper
stipends; concerning which, it is hereby declared, that the Minister
shall enjoy the same without any Impediment as formerly, it being
hereby provided also, That this Act shall prejudge no person of the
Right, Title, and Possession of their Tythes by Infeftments, Taks,
and other lawfull rights acquired by them, and their Predecessors and
Authors, as Accords of the Law. Likeas the Estates of Parliament renew
the former Acts granted in favours of Heretors, for valuing, leading,
and buying of their Tythes; Hereby ordaining any Patrone, having right
to these tythes made to them by this Act, and having no right thereunto
of before, To accept the value of six yeers rents, according to the
prices of valued bolls respective, injoyned and set down in the former
Acts thereanent, and that for the Heretable right of the saids Tythes,
and for all title interest or claim that the saids Patrons can have or
pretend thereunto by vertue of this Act.
APPENDIX.
STATE OF THE PRESBYTERIAN KIRK OF SCOTLAND FROM 1649 TO 1654.
The Acts and proceedings of the General Assemblies, which we have
now presented in an accessible form to the notice and study of our
countrymen, constitute the entire body of its statutes that are
recognised by the Church as in any degree legitimate, during the long
period which intervened betwixt the years 1602 and 1690.
During the years which immediately followed the Assembly of 1649, the
dissensions, civil and ecclesiastical, which arose in an aggravated
form, rendered all the proceedings of the Church courts of a very
questionable character, insomuch so, that no authorized register
of these proceedings is known to exist; nor has the Presbyterian
Church, ever since the re-establishment of that form of polity at
the Revolution, given the stamp of its sanction to any of the edicts
which emanated from the few Assemblies that were permitted to be
held subsequently to that of 1649. Indeed, after that time, and even
before that time, the judicatories of the Presbyterian Church—divided
into two furious antagonist parties, mutually excommunicating and
excommunicated, persecuted and persecuting each other—had assumed
such a position in relation to the supreme national authority, as
virtually to dissolve its connection with the State, and practically
to abrogate that constitution which it derived from the State in
1592—a constitution which had been again restored to it, with all
the legal force of an Act of the Legislature, in 1641. It had ceased
to be that Church which the law of the land thus sanctioned; and, by
usurping civil and political powers not conferred upon it as a national
establishment, and not legitimately belonging to any ecclesiastical
body, it spontaneously broke asunder the ties by which it was connected
with the State, and perpetrated its own self-destruction. It assumed
temporal and political power, whereas only spiritual jurisdiction had
ever been conferred upon it. The whole frame of its constitution,
as settled by deliberate compact—in the first instance, in 1567,
subsequently confirmed by the charter of 1592, and restored by the Act
1641—was entirely subverted; the subordination of its ministers and
inferior judicatories to those of higher jurisdiction was repudiated;
and the steps by which it gradually sunk and declined, were consummated
by its final extinction as a _National Establishment_ in the schisms
which arose among its office-bearers, and the forcible dispersion and
prohibition of its General Assemblies, under the mandates of a foreign
conqueror.
“A General Assembly had met, July 1650, against the lawfulness
of which there was no objection. Tho’ it met at Edinburgh, the
second Wednesday of July, 1650, according to the appointment of the
preceding Assembly, yet none of the Acts of it have been printed.
“Another General Assembly met at St Andrew’s, June 1651, and
adjourned to Dundee, where it sat for some time in the month of July,
1651. Also another Assembly met at Edinburgh, the second Wednesday
of July, 1652: against the Lawfulness of these last two General
Assemblies the anti-Resolutioners protested.
“Another General Assembly met at Edinburgh, July 20, 1653; but after
the Moderator, Mr David Dickson, had prayed, a party of armed men
surrounded the Assembly House, and the Commander entering, dissolved
the Assembly for not sitting by the authority of the Parliament of
the Commonwealth of England. He led the Ministers under a guard a
mile from the Town, and forbid them again to Assemble.
“An attempt was made to have another General Assembly at Edinburgh,
July 1654; but before it was constituted, it was dissolved, as
before, by the soldiers. Cromwell gave great support to the
Protesters, and bore hard upon the Resolutioners.”[424]
In prosecuting our illustrative notices of its rapid decline, and fall,
and abolition, by these concurrent circumstances, we are now relieved,
in some measure, from adhering to the precise form of the Introductions
to the Acts of each successive Assembly, which we have heretofore
adhered to, and we are constrained to present the transactions for
some years after the Assembly 1649 in a somewhat different shape—as
a mere historical conclusion to the Acts of the Assemblies which are
recognised; and although we shall give all the information we can glean
connected with the Assemblies that were held subsequently, these, it
must be remembered, have no such claim to the character of authenticity
as that which belongs to the antecedent proceedings. The subsequent
details, therefore, must be regarded, not as a record of the Acts of
the Established Presbyterian Kirk, but as a mere historical sketch
of Presbyterianism in Scotland, during a period of about five years.
Presbytery remained, indeed, in a state of complete abeyance, as the
Established Church Government of Scotland, during a period of forty
years, when it was restored at the Revolution.
There are not, it is believed, any authorized minutes extant, of the
Assemblies 1650, 1651, or 1652. The proceedings of the Commission of
the General Assembly 1650, from July of that year to July 1651, fill a
large volume of above 400 folio pages. A very few pages are extant of
the Acts of the Commission of the Assembly 1651, (from August, 1651, to
May 14, 1652,) not more than eleven pages. The Acts of the Commission
of the Assembly, 1652, (from August, 1652, to May 30, 1653,) fill
twenty-nine pages. The whole Acts and proceedings of these Commissions,
from 1650 to 1653, could not be comprised in fewer than two very
closely printed 8vo volumes of above 500 pages each. None of these
Acts, although some of them are in print, ever possessed any authority
except over a section of the Church, many of the other ministers and
elders having protested against them, and held them to be null and
void. Even, therefore, if these were accessible, (which they are not
at present,) it would be altogether beyond the compass of this work to
include them. Such of them, however, as we have been able to pick up
from the controversial pamphlets and chronicles of the times, may be
given in this supplement, not as being in any degree authoritative or
legitimate Acts of the Kirk, but merely as illustrations of the history
of those dark and troublous times.
The period to which our attention is now directed, is one which excites
a painful interest. It is pregnant with lessons of infinite value: it
presents the most humiliating views of human nature; and, while the
hallowed name, and rites, and spirit of religion were desecrated by its
pretended votaries—by the clergy of that age, in particular, without
distinction of parties—these memorials present to view an incarnation
of all the worst passions by which human beings are agitated.
“Each—for Madness ruled the hour—
Would try its own persuasive power.”
Referring to the Acts of the Assembly 1649 as the most unexceptionable
record, both of its proceedings and the spirit by which it was
actuated, it will be observed, that, at its close, it appointed the
next meeting of an Assembly to be held at Edinburgh, the second
Wednesday of July, 1650, having, as usual, named Commissioners to act
during the interval which followed.
In order to pave the way for the various extracts subjoined, it seems
proper to give an outline of some domestic occurrences in Scotland
during the year 1649, which have not already been adverted to, but
which are calculated to throw light upon the state of society in this
country at the period alluded to.
A detail has already been given of the events by which Argyle and
the Kirk gained a complete ascendency in the government of Scotland,
to the exclusion of all the loyal and moderate men, of whatever
rank or condition; and the power thus acquired was not permitted to
slumber in a state of inactivity. The Whigamore Parliament, _purged_
as it had been of every countervailing element, proceeded, in the
beginning of March, to enforce the Act of Classes, (so called, from the
classification of those who were excluded from the public service into
various grades,) and they began with the highest functionaries of the
State. The Earl of Crawford was removed from the office of Treasurer,
and his place supplied by a commission, of which Argyle, Eglinton,
Cassilis, and Burlie were the members; and Sir James Carmichael, the
Deputy, was displaced, to make way for his own son, who was a minion of
Loudoun’s, The Earl of Roxburghe was ousted as Lord Privy Seal, and the
Earl of Sutherland substituted in his room. Cassilis and Lothian were
appointed conjunct Secretaries in place of Lanerick, proscribed. Gibson
of Durie was superseded, and Johnston of Wariston named Clerk-Register;
and Thomas Nicolson supplied the vacancy created by Johnston’s
promotion, in the office of Lord Advocate. They displaced no fewer than
eight Judges of the Court of Session, and appointed others in their
places. Lords Couper and Cassilis were appointed extraordinary Lords of
Session, and the latter held no fewer than three of the highest posts
in the executive departments of the State; and they ordained George
Marquis of Huntly “hes head to be choped off from hes bodey, at the
Crosse of Edinbrughe, one Thursday, the 22 of Marche, this zeire, wich
wes performed”—the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and Lord
Capell, having, on the 9th of that month, been subjected to the same
penalties in England, for their resistance to lawless power; while
three separate gifts and grants, in favour of Loudoun, were passed
the first Exchequer day that was holden; and, in the north, about the
same time, the Lord Reay and other loyalists were defeated and taken
prisoners, and Inverness subjected to military conquest.[425]
Nor was the Commission of the Kirk supine at that dismal season.
From the middle of September to the middle of October, it held a
Visitation for Angus and Mearns: it deposed eighteen ministers, and
suspended five for “insufficiencie for the ministrie, famishing of
congregations, silence in the tyme of the leatte engagement against
Englande, corruptions in life and doctrine, malignancie, drūkenes,
and subscriving of a divisive band,” &c.[426] These were not the
only ecclesiastical achievements of the Commission; for, besides
several other depositions, a Committee of Assembly visited St Andrews,
concussed Baron, one of the professors, to demit his office; and, by a
system of terror, endeavoured to crush the seeds of malignancy among
the teachers and youth in that university. Cant and Rutherford were the
presiding spirits on those occasions: “Mr Samuell Rutherfurd [who] altho
lousse in hes zouthe, hes beine from his first begining a suorne enimey
to Monarchey, as hes wrettings testifie, [Lex Rex, &c.,] a hatter of all
men not of hes oppinion, and one quho if neuer so lightlie offendit,
vnreconcilable; woyd of mercey and charity, altho a teacher of both to
others.”[427]
Such was the complexion of affairs in the summer of 1649; and we shall
best accomplish our object, in a brief abstract of these Scottish
annals, by noting, in the first place, from the authentic Acts of
the Estates, the more prominent particulars therein recorded, and
subjoining these to such documents and extracts from contemporary
chronicles as may fill up the outline thus presented.