Soon after the Scots Confession had been accepted and the Protestant Church in Scotland had become a reality, a team put together what was known as the First Book of Discipline in 1560. In essence it was the vision or manifesto for the fledgling Protestant Church, which also outlined its structure and church discipline. John Knox again led the committee of the six Johns and they submitted their book to the Scottish Parliament, which accepted it. It was eventually approved on 27 January 1561 in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, where it was signed by the Duke of Châtelherault and many of the lords.
The First Book of Discipline was far ahead of its time. Contained within this document lay key ingredients for shaping modern Scotland, such as democracy, education and welfare. The pyramid power system of Rome had been rejected and those leaders ‘who tyrannically have empired above the poor flock of Christ Jesus’, and had been replaced by a Christian democratic practice. We are told that ‘the election of elders and deacons ought to be used every year once… by common and free election… How the votes and suffrages may be best received, so that every man may give his vote freely, every several church may take such order as best seems to them.’ This radical return to New Testament practice would influence the Puritans in England, and thus inspire the eventual development of a more democratic government in Britain. The vision was ‘that every several church have a schoolmaster appointed’ to give every boy and girl in Scotland a basic education, and if the children came from poor homes, funding should be found to help them. This revolutionary call for education also included the revitalizing of our universities. With these responsibilities came a welfare program of provision ‘for the widow and fatherless, the aged, impotent, or lame, who neither can nor may travail for their sustenance’, but not for the idle beggars who would abuse this kindness.
The whole vision for Scotland was based clearly on the Bible as the church’s authority, and not on the traditions of men. One section focused on the removing of idolatry. ‘By idolatry’, it says, ‘we understand the Mass, invocation of saints, adoration of images, and the keeping and retaining of the same; and, finally, all honouring of God not contained in his holy word.’ Parents across the nation were encouraged to practice family devotions by using the Protestant Church catechism, so that ignorance would be extinguished.
It was expected by John Knox and the leaders of the Scottish Reformation that the colossal wealth of the Romanist church in revenues and assets, which amounted to about half of the combined wealth of Scotland, would be used to pay for the new ministers, for education and for the poor. Sadly, the nobles had other intentions, and a feeding frenzy of greed and selfishness erupted among them. Knox was heartbroken and wryly stated that ‘two parts [were] freely given to the Devil; and the third part must be divided between God and the Devil’. By acting in the way that they did, the nobles proved by their actions that they did not care about the First Book of Discipline. If they had truly got behind the vision of the reformers, the need of nationwide education and provision for the needy would have got off to a great start; instead, the church had to fight for its vision through several centuries before it finally became a reality. These days the vision and fruit of the reformers has largely been forgotten, but countless people have benefitted from it.
‘Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?’ (Isaiah 58:6-7, NKJV)
Image: Statue of John Knox in St Giles’, Edinburgh, pointing people back to the Bible: Paul James-Griffiths