History of the Church of Scotland. From the introduction of Christianity to the period of the disruption in 1843.

Preface

The want of a History of the Church of Scotland, at once concise and entire, haa long been felt Separate periods have been very fully treated of by several authors, leaving for their successors nttle to do but to compress the voluminous records which they had collected ; and ample materials exist to fill up the intermediate chasms, and to continue the narrative down to the present times. But as no attempt has hitherto been made to compress the histories of these detached periods, to fill up the intermediate chasms, and to continue the narrative, it is a matter of considerable difficulty for any person who has not much leisure to spend, nor ready 'access to public libraries, to obtain a connected view of the Church of Scotland throughout its entire history. Several very serious disadvantages have resulted from the want of such a work ; a great degree of ignorance has been allowed to prevail respecting the true principles and sharacter of the Church of Scotland ; her enemies have availed themselves of this ignorance to misrepresent her past conduct, to calumniate the characters of her Reformers and Martyrs, and to assail her present proceedings, while many of her zealous friends are without the means of vindicating the past and defending the present ;' and numbers are remaining in a state of neutrality, liable to be misled, who require but accurate information to induce them at once to give their cordial support to the Church of their fathers. Nor can there be a doubt, that many are at present not merely neutral but hostile, who would become her strenuous defenders, if they possessed sufficient Knowledge of her past and present history.

Impelled by these considerations, and by the strong persuasion, that by giving to the public a faithful record of the scriptural principles of the Church of Scotland, her sufferings in defence of the Redeemer's Headship and of Gospel truth and purity, and the mental, moral, and religious blessings which she has been instrumental in conferring on the kingdom, I should best aid in her vindication and defence, I have endeavoured to supply the long-felt want of a concise, continuous, and entire History of the Church of Scotland. I have not the presumption to imagine that my work will adequately supply the want. For reasons which seemed to me imperative, I have restricted myself within the limits which prevent the possibility of giving more than a tolerably full outline of a subject requiring several volumes to do it justice. Much peculiarly interesting and instructive matter, — both fitted to illustrate great principles, and characteristic of the interior life and private influence of the Presbyterian Church, — has been unavoidably, and very reluctantly, withheld, that the continuity of the main outline might not be broken, nor the general impression weakened by minute details.

References to authorities have been given in every matter of chief importance, except where these are already well known and universally admitted. It would have been easy to have adduced very many more ; but while a superfluous array of references appears to me to savour of ostentation, and can be of little consequence to the general reader, for whom chiefly this work is intended, it is believed, that those who wish to prosecute their acquaintance with the subject, will find enough to authenticate every statement, and to direct them to sources where more minute details may be obtained. I have preferred to quote the testimony of opponents rather than that of friends, in many instances, as less liable to be disputed ; and when several authorities support the same account, I have given the one most generally known, rather than the rarer, that the reader might the more easily verily my statement, if so disposed. The edition of Knox's History of the Reformation to which reference is made, is that which Dr. M ; Crie regarded as the most authentic. No pains have been spared in the investigation of every point respecting which conflicting opinions have been entertained ; and in forming my own judgment I have been guided chiefly by the testimony of those who were amply acquainted with the events which they related, and whose characters give the highest value to their evidence.

vi

PREFACE.

With regard to the sentiments contained in the work, I cannot but be aware, that while stating my own feelings and opinions, what I have written will not be equally agreeable to all. I have no wish to give unnecessary offence to any ; but in my opinion, no person ought to attempt to write history, who has not both an honest de"- sire to ascertain the truth, and sufficient courage to state it freely and impartially when ascertained. And it is perfectly impossible to write the History of the Church of Scotland, without relating events which cannot fail to excite strong moral indignation against the two systems by which that Church has, at different periods, been persecuted and oppressed. It has been my desire to abstain from unnecessary asperity of language, even when detailing acts of perfidy and cruelty, rarely equalled in the annals of persecution; not because I think that Scottish Prelacy has any peculiar claim to be leniently treated, but because the plain and simple statement of the truth will best display the spirit and character of that intolerant system.

Painful, indeed, has been the task of tracing the course of worldly policy and ecclesiastical corruption and despotism, which prevailed throughout the last century and the beginning of the present; and most reluctantly have I felt myself constrained to record the deeds which were done in Scotland during the long reign of Moderatism. But it was felt to be an imperative duty to do so, both as required by historical fidelity, and as rendered peculiarly necessary by the present circumstances of the Church. It would be a very instructive chapter in the history of the errors which the spirit of the world has superinduced upon Christianity, to give a full view of the rise, progress, and com-

Elete developement of the system which has been called Moderatism. I have not, owever, sought to do so, further than appeared absolutely necessary for the purpose of displaying so much of its real essence and character as might sufficiently prove, that the true Presbyterian Church of Scotland is not justly chargeable with the actions of a secular system, which had its origin in hostile elements, which gradually usurped, and long exercised over her the most cruel and oppressive tyranny, and whose whole procedure was one continuous endeavour to destroy her principles and subvert her constitution.

To those Gentlemen who have kindly favoured me with the perusal of valuable books, to which I could not otherwise have easily obtained access, I take this opportunity of returning my grateful thanks. And I now lay my work before the public, in the hope, that what was undertaken solely from a strong conviction of duty to the Divine Head of the Church, to the Church of Scotland, and to my countrymen in general, may, through the blessing of God, be of some avail in removing ignorance and prejudice, correcting erroneous misrepresentations, and enabling the community to form an accurate conception of the real principles and character of the Church of Scotland.

In preparing this edition of the History of the Church of Scotland, it has been thought expedient to continue the narrative of events till the Disruption which took place in May last, and resulted in the formation of what is now termed The Free Church of Scotland, — in which are still preserved entire the constitutional principles, the unfettered freedom, the vital energy, the doctrinal purity, and the spiritual fervency, that have, in its best periods, always distinguished the testimony-bearing Church of our fathers.

W. M. H.

Free Manse, Torphichen, October 1843.

HISTORY

OF THE

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

CHAPTER L

TROM THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO SCOTLAND, TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REFORMATION.

Introductory Remarks— Statement of General Principles involved in all Church History— Divine Truth infused into the Social System— Opposition from Man's Fallen Nature— Characteristic Principles of different Churches— Of the Church of Scotland— Introduction of Christianity into Scotland— The Culdees— Peculiarities of their System — Introduced into England— Aueustine the Monk— He and his followers oppose the Culdees— They retire to Scotland— The Prelatic System of Rome introduced — the Culdees at length overborne and suppressed— The leading Tenets of the Culdees— Progress of Popery— Its Wealth and Power— State of Scotland at the Commencement of the Reformation.

Thee.e are certain general principles involved in all Church History, greatly more profound in their character and important in their consequences than those which appear in, or can be deduced from, the records of Civil History. The civil historian has to deal with man merely as the mortal inhabitant of this world ; and, however deeply his philosophical knowledge of the human mind may enable him to penetrate into those undeclared motives by which sovereigns and statesmen are often influenced, and the affairs of nations controlled, there is still one department, and that the mightiest of all, into which it is not his province to enter. He may unravel the twisted intrigues of mere worldly policy ; he may detect and confute the sophistries of worldly wisdom ; but, except he be something more than a philosophical historian, he will remain utterly unable to understand the meaning and the power of conscience.

influenced by religion, and impelling men frequently to act directly contrary to every thing which he would deem politic and expedient. Not only this class of motives, but the course of events also, will often be found to lie equally beyond his reach adequately to comprehend and explain. He will often find means and arrangements apparently the wisest and most sufficient, utterly fail of accomplishing the proposed end ; while others, which seem ill advised and feeble, will be crowned with the most remarkable success. Frequently, therefore, must he content himself with recording the course of events, of which the impelling causes and controlling agencies are to him altogether unknown. Man as he is, in short, impelled by the passions and allured by the interests of his known and common nature, — circumscribed, as he at present appears, within the limits of space and time, of his earthly pursuits and mortal life, — forms the object of the »?ivil historian's important yet incomplete researches.

But Church History has to deal with the deeds and characters of men in that very department into which the civil historian cannot enter. It views man as a moral and spiritual being, fallen from his original condition of purity and happiness, the slave of guilty passions, degraded by low and grovelling pursuits, and blinded by inveterate prejudices, yet capable of recovery from his depraved and miserable condition, and at present under a dispensation divinely fitted to restore

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

him to more than the purity and elevation from which he fell. He is seen, therefore, as constantly impelled by the one or the other of two contending influences, directly hostile to each other ; — the one, the influence of his fallen and corrupt nature, striving to perpetuate all its own evil tendencies, and to impede and pervert all the efforts of its opponent ; the other, the influence of revealed religion, of Christianity, striving to expel corruption, remove prejudices, and heal the moral maladies of the soul, by the infusion of the new and sacred principles of eternal truth. Church History has, therefore, for its peculiar province, the infusion into the soul of fallen man of the sacred principles of divine revealed truth, — their influence in the social system, as they strive to pervade and mould it anew, — the opposition which they meet with from the inherent depravity of the heart, — the struggles of these contending influences of good and evil, of the world and religion, — the convulsions occasionally thereby produced, — and the changes which take place in the aspect and structure of society, as the one or the other from time to time obtains ascendency, puts forth its power, and exhibits its native character. It is thus evident that the history of the Church of any land is the history of the moral and spiritual life of that land ; and that it claims, as its own peculiar domain, that very region of moral and spiritual principles and motives into which the secular historian, as such, cannot even enter, and yet without some knowledge of which, much of what is most important in the history of every nation can never be understood and explained.

In tracing the Church History of any country, we must expect to meet with much that we must both deplore and condemn. For although the principles which Christianity introduces into the soul of man, and thereby into the social system, are in themselves absolutely perfect, yet they are rarely perfectly received, and never have been perfectly developed. Divine truth does not, indeed, contract any portion of human error by entering into the mind of man ; but the depraved and prejudiced human mind obtains in general only a partial reception and distorted view of its great principles. The inevitable consequence is, that its genuine effects are very greatly impaired by the disturbing influence of human depravity and prejudice. Some of the most important religious principles are frequently obscured, because they have been either imperfectly understood, or are so opposed to the natural predilections of fallen man as to be disliked, and therefore perverted. They do indeed reappear from time to time, as peculiar junctures, under the guiding of Divine Providence, call them forth ; until their true character and value being thus forced upon the perception of the general mind, they are at length received, and opportunity thereby given for the similar process of developement to others, which had been equally neglected or opposed. This is the case, whether such principles have direct reference to the government, the doctrine, or the discipline of the Christian Church, as might easily be shown from the general records of Church History.

There is also a necessary continuity of character, as of being, in the life and history of any Church ; and that character can never be rightly understood, however familiar we may be with the details of its general history, unless we have a clear and true conception of those leading principles which have always formed the master element of its essential existence. By keeping them steadily in view, we shall be able to trace distinctly all the various changes and alternations of its course, marking and understanding not merely those external events which are manifest to the world, but those unseen influences which move, and mould, and animate the whole. Even in periods of comparative stagnation, when there seems to be a cessation of all active and vital impulses, the knowledge of what forms the essential characteristics of a national Church may enable us to detect the otherwise imperceptible progress of a deep and calm under-current, preparing for some new and mighty developement of silently-ripened energies, by which the whole structure of society may be convulsed, and constrained to assume a new aspect, more. in conformity with the character of its inward moral and religious life.

Every person who has paid much at-

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OP SCOTLAND.

tention to Church History must be aware that, of the great leading principles of Christianity, some have been held in peculiar reverence, and defended with peculiar determination, by one national Church, and some by another ; and from this has arisen in each that distinctive characteristic by which the various portions of the Church general maintain their individuality, notwithstanding their common resemblance. It would require too wide a survey, and perhaps involve a discussion too vague, to point out the distinctive characteristics of the chief national Churches throughout the Christian world ; but there can be little difficulty in making specific mention of that great Christian principle which the Church of Scotland has always striven to realize and defend, — namely, That the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Head and King of the Church ; whence it follows, by necessary consequence, That its Government is derived from Him alone, and is distinct from, and not subordinate in its own province to, the Civil Magistrate. The very remoteness of Scotland from Rome, the seat first of imperial, and subsequently of ecclesiastical power, tended to allow for a time a more free developement of that great principle, and of its legitimate consequences, than would have been possible had it been more accessible to the influence of Roman supremacy. It might, perhaps, be thought by some, that the Presbyterian form of church government, rather than the great principle of the sole Sovereignty of Christ, has been, and is, the characteristic tenet of the Church of Scotland. But it requires only a little deeper investigation, or profounder thought, to enable any impartial and unprejudiced person to see, that the great principle of Christ's sole Sovereignty must prohibit the Church which holds it from the adoption of any merely human inventions or arrangements in that form of government which He has given to the Church, his free spiritual kingdom, of which the Holy Scriptures contain the only authoritative enactment and declaration.

It is not our purpose to enter here into the controversy respecting forms of church government, farther than merely to state our full conviction, that it can be proved, and often has been proved, that the Episcopalian, or rather let us term it now, and throughout this work, the Prelatic form of church government, is one of merely human invention ; whilst the Presbyterian is of divine origin and authority, and consequently is that which would of necessity be adopted and retained by any Church which held as its leading principle the sole headship and kingly dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is enough at present merely to have stated these general principles, and suggested their application. If the candid reader will bear them in mind during his perusal of the following pages, he will soon be able to decide for himself respecting their truth and their importance.

The first introduction of Christianity into Scotland cannot, it appears, be now exactly ascertained. It would be in vain to refer to the legendary records of ancient Scottish kings, given by some of our historians, as furnishing authoritative information respecting the events of a period so far beyond the boundaries of our nation's authentic annals. Perhaps the earliest indication that the light of Christianity had begun to dawn upon the remote regions of Caledonia, that can at all be depended upon, may be found in the words of Tertullian, who asserts, that " those parts of Britain which were inaccessible to the Romans had become subject to Christ." And although we are not to attach to the fervid lanffuag-e of a rhetorician the same degree of credit which we yield to the direct statements of a historian, yet, remembering the extreme rapidity with which Christianity was propagated throughout the Roman empire in the apostolic age, it is by no means improbable that it should have reached Britain, and even penetrated to the mountains of Caledonia, before the close of the second century. The violence of the persecutions which raged in every part of Rome's dominion's during the third century, may readily be supposed to have driven many of the Christians beyond the boundaries of the empire, and thus to have aided indirectly in the diffusion of the gospel, and especially to have promoted its introduction into the territories of unsubdued nations. Many

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

of those persecuted Christians may then have found a refuge among the unconquered districts of Scotland and Ireland, where they would, of course, endeavour to instruct the rude but not inhospitable natives in the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

In what manner these early Christian refugees commenced what may be termed their missionary labours among the Scots and Picts, — and whether, as some authors assert, the greater number of them resorted to Ireland, and there assembling themselves together, resumed the form of primitive ecclesiastical government to which they had been accustomed, — are questions into which it would be fruitless to inquire, it being now almost impossible to arrive at any certainty on these points. The records of those remote times are so obscure and contradictory, that they rather furnish material for conjecture, than data from which any satisfactory inferences may be drawn. There are, however, a few points on which all ancient records seem to agree. These, therefore, we may assume as generally admitted facts, although party-writers have endeavoured to deduce from them the most opposite conclusions ; and while we do not venture to claim for ourselves absolute impartiality and freedom from all biassing predilections, we shall do our utmost to guard against the influence of prejudices, — to state nothing but what we believe, after very careful investigation, to be the truth, — and to frame no inferences but what seem to us to be natural, direct, and inevitable.

There is reason to believe, as has been already stated, that the knowledge of Christianity was to some extent communicated to the people of Scotland and Ireland as early as towards the close of the second, and more especially during the third, century of the Christian era, in the times of those fierce persecutions which, while they were meant to exterminate, were actually overruled to promote the progress of the Christian religion. There is no reason, however, to think that those persecuted and banished Christians attempted at that early period to construct any distinct frame of ecclesiastical government. They seem rather to have dwelt in comparatively isolated solitude, each m his own retreat, and each communicating to his own immediate neighbours as much instruction as he could impart, or they could be persuaded to receive. If any dependence may be placed upon the fabulous records of those ages, there were too many convulsions and semi-revolutions in both Scotland and Ireland, caused by the contensions of rival races and petty monarchies, to have permitted the construction of any regular form of church government ; so that for a considerable period, while Christianity was gradually pervading both countries, it was doing so almost imperceptibly, through the exertions of individuals, without system and without combination, farther than that invisible but strong harmony which is caused by identity of principle and aim. In this manner Christianity might have been, and indeed appears to have been propagated extensively throughout the British Isles, before it began to assume the external aspect of a Church, with a regular system and form of government. But when persecution ceased, in consequence of the fall of Paganism before the progress of Christianity, and Rome began to be regarded as the central seat of ecclesiastical government, the Bishop of Rome very early assumed a sort of supremacy over the whole Christian Church, and took it upon him to interfere with the arrangements of the whole Christian world. To this, in all probability, we owe the visit of Palladius, about the object and consequences of which so much fruitless controversy has arisen.

According to the Archbishop Ussher, Palladius was sent from Rome to " the Scots believing on Christ," in the year 431, by Celestine, at that time Bishop of Rome, as their "first bishop," (primus episcopus).* Some writers assert, that by the word "Scots" we are to understand the Irish to be meant ; and are further to learn, that Palladius was sent to be Primate of Ireland ! It is not necessary to waste space in the discussion of assertions which contain their own refutation in their absurdity. Whatever else may have been among the secret objects of the Roman Bishop Celestine in the mission of Palladius, it appears sufficiently evident from the above-quoted ex-

* Ussher, Primord., p. 801. See also Jamiesons His» tory of the Culdees, pp. 7, 8.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

pression, that the chief one was to introduce Episcopal government among the Scottish and Irish Christians ; whence it clearly follows, that previously no such form of ecclesiastical government was known, if indeed there did exist previously either organization or government at all, beyond the mental harmony which subsisted among those who held one faith, were animated by one Spirit, trusted in one Saviour, and worshipped one God.

Whether the mission of Palladius were chiefly to Ireland or not, it may not now be possible to determine with certainty ; but there is reason to believe that he not only visited Scotland, but that he died there, at Fordoun, in the Mearns.* The very common opinion that Palladius was sent expressly to refute the errors of Pelagius, which are said to have become prevalent among the British Christians, we are disposed to regard as without sufficient foundation. The Pelagian heresy was scarcely known till the year 412, and that chiefly among the African Churches ; and it is not at all likely that it had even reached, much less made extensive progress among, the simple-minded Christians of Scotland and Ireland, before the year in which the mission of Palladius is recorded to have taken place.

Nothing certain is known respecting the direct effects produced by the mission of Palladius. It is indeed stated by Marianus Scotus, that after him St. Patrick was consecrated by Celestine, and sent as archbishop to Ireland, where, in the course of forty years, he converted the whole island to the faith ;| but this account cannot be relied on, in consequence of its opposition to other and more authentic records. There is no proof whatever that St. Patrick had any connection with Rome ; while there is strong reason to believe that he was a native of Scotland, and that the Christianity which he communicated to Ireland was, both in forms and doctrines, what he had himself been taught by his Scottish instructors. What the form of church government was which St. Patrick instituted in Ireland, appears very plainly, even from the statement of Archbishop Ussher. " We read," says that learned and candid

" Jamieson'8 Hist. Culd., p. 9. t Ibid., p. 8.

prelate, — tl we read in Nennius, that at the beginning St. Patrick founded 365 churches, and ordained 365 bishops, besides 3000 presbyters" (or elders).* What kind of bishops these were, is sufficiently apparent from the fact that there was one for each church, and also from the number of the elders, — about eight to each bishop. It was, in short, manifestly the same institution which ultimately became the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, — a parish minister, with his session of elders, in each church and parish that had received the gospel. But it is time to quit the regions of dark and half-fabulous antiquity, and to direct our attention to what, though still obscure, has been brought into somewhat of a more definite form, by those writers who have preserved to us an outline of the aspect of primitive Christianity in Scotland, in the remarks they have made on the Culdees.

It is not our intention to investigate at any length the questions which have been so long agitated respecting the origin, the doctrines, and the form of church government of the Culdees, but rather to state briefly and consecutively all that is clearly known concerning them.

The name Culdees appears to have been given to those Christians who fled from persecution, and sought refuge in those districts of Scotland which were beyond the limits of the Roman empire. Different explanations have been suggested of the name itself ; some deriving it from Latin, and assuming it to have been an abbreviation of Cultores Dei, worshippers of God ; others from the Gaelic expression, Gille De, servants of God ; and others from the Gaelic Cml or Ceal, a sheltered place, a retreat. We would combine the two latter opinions, and suppose that the Culdees derived their name from the union of these two facts in their early history, namely, that they were refugees, and dwelt generally in comparatively secret retreats and hid^ ing-places ; and that chey were known to be in a peculiar manner servants of God. Their early possession of the island of Iona, and concentration there as their chief seat, we would regard also as the result of a combination of circumstances.

* Discourse on the Religion of the Irish and British | p. 77.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.

The same necessity which drove them to Scotland would impel them to seek some tolerably secure place of safety, to which they could at all times retreat from danger. The marked and important intercourse between the Dalriad Scots and the Irish, which subsisted at that period, would point out some interjacent island as affording easy access to either country and people. For these reasons Iona would readily recommend itself to them, as at once a safe retreat, even from its insignificance in point of size, and at the same time allowing free and convenient intercourse with Picts, Scots, and Irish. It thus became their chief residence; and in it first appeared that form of ecclesiastical government, the rudimental principles of which they had either brought with them, or into which Christianity itself naturally tended to mould a society of single-hearted believers.

The first definite accounts which have reached us respecting the Culdees are those which relate to Columba, who is said to have been a native of Ireland, and of royal extraction. He is reported to have founded the monastery, or rather abbey, of Iona, in . the year 563, and to have been himself the first abbot. He took with him, we are told, from Ireland to Iona, twelve companions, over whom he possessed no other kind of superiority than that of being president for life. Neither the office nor the designation of bishop, in its prelatical sense, appears to have been known among them. The institution of Iona formed, in truth, a regular presbytery, as it has long existed in Scotland, with this slight difference, that the presidency, or what we term the moderatorship, was permanently enjoyed by the abbot, whom even Bede terms the " Presbyter- Abbott." Upon the death of this, permanent president, or presbyter-abbot, the remaining presbyter-monks met and chose a successor from among themselves, to whom was accordingly given the permanent presidency, but without any such rite as that of consecration, or any thing which could indicate elevation to an office essentially superior in itself. He was, in fact, nothing more than " the first among equals," placed so by the choice of his brethren, for the purpose of maintaing order in their meetings together for deliberation and consultation.