by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 28, 2024 | The Enlightenment
With the Patronage system being forced on the Presbyterian Church by a promise-breaking government, the General Assembly tried every means to have it rescinded. As all attempts at righting this government wrong evaporated with the passing years, the national church in Scotland ended up being controlled by the aristocracy and landed gentry. With this system being imposed on the church, a door was opened for compromise and a stream of liberals poured in to dominate it. However, the evangelicals continued to press for change.
The first strong voice to be raised was Revd Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754), son of the Covenanting minister, Henry Erskine of Chirnside. Ebenezer had earned a growing reputation as a powerful preacher in Scotland during his ministry at Portmoak. Whilst there, the dedicated congregation in Kinross called for him to be their new minister, but the patron wanted to reject such a gospel-firebrand, and chose instead the moderate, Robert Stark, much to the dismay of the congregation. Later, Ebenezer published a sermon in which he said, ‘that those professed Presbyterians who thrust men upon the congregations without the free choice their King had allowed them, were guilty of an attempt to jostle Christ out of His government, and to take it on their own shoulders.’ His sermon as Moderator of the Synod of Perth and Stirling brought him directly into conflict with the liberals. He insisted that ‘the call of the Church lies in the free choice and election of the Christian people.’ The liberal-dominated General Assembly, aided and abetted by the aristocracy, were furious at Ebenezer’s stand for the Reformation constitution, and he was dismissed as a Church of Scotland minister. With three other godly ministers, who likewise were cast out, Ebenezer forged the first secession Presbyterian Church in 1733.
Throughout the Covenanting period of the 17th century, secret prayer gatherings had multiplied across Scotland, despite being outlawed by the government. Again, godly Presbyterians were being stirred to pray for a Christian revival, and a prayer network mushroomed across the nation, inspired by Revd William McCulloch in 1731. Soon, crowds of thousands began to gather again to hear biblical preaching in the open-air. Revd William Robertson, the leader of the liberals in Edinburgh, complained that this was barbarous ‘banditry’ and ‘unworthy of the new age of the Enlightenment.’ Revd Ralph Erskine (1685-1752) joined his brother Ebenezer in this movement, becoming like the biblical James and John, whom Jesus called the ‘Sons of Thunder’. From Ayrshire to Stirling, to Dunfermline and Edinburgh, the gospel rang out loud and clear, and with boldness the pastors proclaimed Christ as the only ‘Head of His Church’, as the reformers and Covenanters had done. By 1766 it was reckoned that there were as many as 100,000 members throughout Scotland in the Secession Church, which had been founded by Revd Ebenezer Erskine, as droves of people abandoned the largely sterile and liberal Church of Scotland. This movement would prepare the way for George Whitefield, the human firebomb that hit Scotland in 1741.
‘Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet; tell My people their transgression…’ (Isaiah 58:1, NKJV).
Image: 1. Revd Ebenezer Erskine, National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, artist unknown, Wikimedia Commons; 2. Revd Ralph Erskine, artist: Richard Waitt, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 28, 2024 | The Enlightenment
How fickle are the ways of mankind. With considerable effort the government had coaxed a suspicious Presbyterian Church into the Union of 1707. Despite promises being made and a law being passed guaranteeing ‘that the said Presbyterian Government shall be the only Government of the Church within the Kingdom of Scotland,’ it only took five years for such vows to be cast aside as worthless. Along with this came the re-imposing of the patronage of the landowner, to choose the local church minister, even though this system had been abolished in the 1690 Church Settlement. History was repeating itself. The cause of this betrayal was the alliance of the Jacobites, who were determined to restore the Roman Catholic, James Francis Edward Stuart, ‘the Old Pretender’, to the throne, with the Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians and Tory politicians, who sought power. As G.N.M. Collins, Professor of Church History, once wrote, it was a ‘flagrant violation of the Act of Union’, for the government ‘re-imposed Patronage on the Scottish Church’ in order to control it.
Queen Anne favoured such a policy, for it suited her ‘to make Churchmen more dependent on the aristocracy.’ We had broken free from the tyranny of the papal system, only to be ensnared by the tyranny of kings; but now the Church of Scotland would be held captive by the State through the aristocracy. The Patronage Act of 1712 was passed so quickly, without proper consultation, that leaders in the Church of Scotland were taken by surprise. They attempted later, through their commissioners, to try and repeal the Act, but all to no avail. Soon, against the democratic constitution of the Presbyterian Church, the landowners were granted the right to nominate the pastor of their choice, and so they began to dominate the church landscape. Many of the landowners were pro-Episcopalian and liberal, more interested in land and titles, than in true godliness. Through this doorway came greater compromise and liberal values into the Church of Scotland, thus preparing the way for the Enlightenment.
Since 1560 the struggle had largely been over the right of the church to follow biblical teaching, without interference by any external authority. In the Second Book of Discipline (1578), the Christian democratic election of leaders by the people was clearly stated, ‘so that none be intruded upon any congregation, either by the prince or any inferior person, without lawful election and the assent of the people over whom the person is placed, as the practice of the apostolical and primitive kirk and good order crave.’ The 1712 Patronage Act was a backward step into another form of tyranny that would dominate the Church of Scotland for another 130 years, leading eventually to the break-away movement, later known as the Free Church of Scotland. It would not be until 1874 that the Church Patronage Act was passed for the Church of Scotland, thus freeing it to practice its biblical democracy without government interference.
‘Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus’ (Revelation 14:12, NKJV).
Image: Portrait of Queen Anne of England, in a tinted engraving from an atlas commissioned by Augustus the Strong (King of Poland and Elector of Saxony), 1706-1710, public domain, Wikipedia.
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 28, 2024 | The Enlightenment
It was 1707 and the members of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh feared for their lives. The members had voted for a Union with England by 110 to 69. With the touch of the Sceptre of State on the Union document by the Duke of Queensberry, Scotland had ceased to exist as an independent nation. The members were still required to sign the document, but furious crowds supporting independence forced the members to flee from Parliament House to elsewhere to complete the Union. They tried to meet surreptitiously, firstly in a nearby pub, then at a summer house near Moray House in the Canongate. As locals spied them and drummed up defiant mob support, they moved form place to place, unable to enact the final part. It was only when they feigned defeat and left, and then cunningly reassembled in a cellar opposite the Tron Kirk on the Royal Mile, that they could complete the Union.
Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, a key promoter of the Union, said that it was ‘contrary to the inclinations of at least three-fourths of the Kingdom’, and yet it went ahead, amidst rioting. The aristocratic elite, led by the Duke of Queensberry, and ably financed by the English, had pressed through with their politicians to forge the Union, without any say from the majority of the Scottish people. Fearing control by the English over State and Church, the majority were determined to try and sort out the Scottish financial mess themselves. And what a mess it was! Previous wars, unrest and financial pressures had weakened the Scottish economy so much, that in the 1690s an estimated 5-15% of the population had died from famine. To compound this problem further, leaders of the nation, driven by national pride, committed the grave mistake of raising half the nation’s money to resource the doomed Darien expedition to the Isthmus of Panama in order to set up a Scottish trading base for East Asia. Within the year most of the settlers had died of malaria; the defeated stragglers returned, dejected and ruined. Thus, when England offered a financial olive branch in return for a Union between the nations, ruled from Westminster, the minority felt constrained to force the Union through. Only 45 Scottish MPs represented the nation in London; one more than in Cornwall.
The Church of Scotland was deeply suspicious, which was not surprising after all they had been through for 130 years. Revd William Carstares sought to pilot them through the cloud of mistrust, and the leaders agreed to the Union on the basis that the Presbyterian Church would be allowed to practice its Christian democratic system without government intrusion. He also reminded them that if they did not accept the Union, they would likely find themselves under the Jacobites with another Roman Catholic king. The Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Act of 1707 was thus enshrined in law, guaranteeing ‘that the said Presbyterian Government shall be the only Government of the Church within the Kingdom of Scotland.’ The church was to learn again that the political government, this time under Queen Anne, could not be trusted. Only five years later the Presbyterians discovered that such a law could be overturned by another law, causing the Church of Scotland to lose its democratic right for a further 131 years.
‘By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words’ (2 Peter 2:3, NKJV).
Image: Union Treaty of 1707, Scottish Parliament, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 28, 2024 | The Enlightenment
The large crowd was silent as Revd Richard Cameron raised his voice at the outlawed conventicle. It was to be his last sermon before he was killed at Airds Moss in 1680. As he drew near to the end of his sermon, he uttered these memorable words: ‘Our Lord is to set up a standard,’he said,‘and oh that it may be carried to Scotland! When it is set up, it shall be carried through the nations…’ The reformers themselves had discussed world mission, but first they had to get the church in order. They had hoped that this would not take too long, but in reality, it would last from 1560 until 1690. In this period they sought to establish, then re-establish, the Presbyterian Church, in the face of tyranny.
In 1701 a group of Christians met in Edinburgh. By now, eleven years had passed since the church had settled down after the trauma of the 17th century. They began to turn their eyes from home to the nations, and hope was kindled in their hearts to reach the world for Christ. Thus was The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) started, which received the Royal Charter eight years later, in 1709.
Inspired by the Church of England minister, Revd Thomas Bray, who had pioneered The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK)in 1698, the Scottish society was keen to bring education and literacy to this nation, especially in the Highlands, which was regarded by the Protestants as a needy mission field with little biblical Christianity and with people who spoke Gaelic as a first language. In 1709, however, SSPCK’s board in Edinburgh drew up a document stating their desire ‘To extend their endeavours for the advancement of the Christian Religion, to Heathen Nations; and for that end, to give encouragement to ministers to preach the Gospel among them.’
Although the first known Protestant missionaries were officially sent from Britain to America in 1702, by The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), they were Scots from Aberdeen. This organisation had also been founded by the prolific Thomas Bray. In 1723, Revd Robert Millar of Paisley Abbey, wrote two volumes on world mission called The History of the Propagation of Christianity and the Overthrow of Paganism, which was printed in Edinburgh. He dedicated it to SSPCK at the back, showing the source of his inspiration.
This book impacted many church leaders in Britain and America with a call for world mission, but it was not until 1730 that SSPCK sent out its first three missionaries to the American Indians. David Brainerd was sponsored by SSPCK as he wrestled with deep depression amongst his Indian tribe. In his short ministry, between 1743 and 1747, he saw the breakthrough he longed for as the Indians turned to Christ with deep heart-searching. Brainerd’s diary was edited and published by Revd Jonathan Edwards two years later, and was disseminated by John Erskine from Edinburgh. This diary had a huge impact on inspiring and shaping missionary work, influencing such missionary giants as William Carey, Henry Martyn, and Adoniram Judson. John Wesley said, ‘Let every preacher read carefully over the Life of David Brainerd.’ Scotland had come through the valley of tears in the 17th century, to become one of the forerunners of Protestant world mission, just as Revd Richard Cameron had prophesied.
‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:19-20, NKJV).
Image: Revd Webster preaching to a packed congregation in 18th century Edinburgh, John Kay, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 25, 2024 | The Reformation
You would have thought that the fire of the Reformation would have burnt a long time, but just 36 years later, after most of the leaders had died, the flames had been reduced to glowing embers. We read of a ‘spreading moral desolation over the land’ with the population increasingly being ‘light and wanton in behaviour’, and the ministry degenerating into a clinical routine with little of the life of God’s Spirit. Concerned Christians began to pray fervently for a visitation of God in Scotland and he heard their cries.
John Davidson, the minister of Prestonpans, near Edinburgh, was deeply stirred about the complacency and compromise in the church and the growing decadence of the nation. He called the Presbytery in Haddington to press the Assembly to set aside prime time for addressing this problem. The leaders of the Church of Scotland agreed, and on 24th March 1596, something significant happened. John Davidson read out a document indicting everyone from the king down to the least of them, about the abounding sins of their time, and exposed the negligence and compromise of the clergy. The ministers of the church were so struck with anguish at the spiritual state of the church and nation, that 400 pastors and leaders met on the next Tuesday for a day of humbling before the Lord. As Davidson led the Assembly in a prayer of confession in St Giles’, Edinburgh, the Holy Spirit came upon them. ‘Then it was that the ancient Cathedral Church saw a strange sight…There were suche sighes and sobs,’ wrote R. Moffat Gillon, ‘with shedding of tears among the most part of all estats that were present, everie one provoking another by their example, that the Kirk resounded, so that the place might worthily have been called Bochim [i.e a place of weeping, see Judges 2:1-5]; for the like of that day was never seen in Scotland since the Reformatioun, as everie man confessed. There have been manie days of humiliatioun for present or immanent dangers, but the like for sinne and defectioun was there never seen.’
On this day all of the ministers, except for one, raised their hands in a solemn covenant with God, and determined to live wholly for Christ. The ministers spread out through the nation, calling their congregations to repentance and reform, in which scenes like that at St Giles’ were witnessed amongst Christians in places like Dunfermline, for ‘The Lord steirit upe sic a motioun of hart, that all war forcit to fall down befor the Lord, with sobbes and teares in aboundance, everie man mightelie commovit with affectionnes of their conscience in the presence of their God.’ How we need such a revival in the Church of Scotland today, and in all the churches in this nation, which are riddled with compromise and complacency. But such a revival surely begins with us!
‘Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca [weeping], they make it a spring; the rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion’ (Psalm 84:5-7, NKJV).
Image: St Giles’ on the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Paul James-Griffiths. It was here, in the east section, that the 1596 revival broke out among the ministers.
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 25, 2024 | The Reformation
In popular books and films Mary, Queen of Scots, is usually depicted as the beautiful, innocent young woman, who is pitched against John Knox, the grumpy old religious bigot. It has become a caricature moulded by myth. Certainly, Mary was beautiful and full of charm with her French accent, and certainly her life was full of tragedy, drawing great sympathy from us. When she was first seen by the crowds on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, many fell in love with this fairy-tale queen. Even the Lords, stating that they would stand firm in their convictions, were usually melted by her, especially as she seemed to be promoting toleration. Not so with John Knox: she was a Jezebel in his eyes, a serpent in the grass, and he must keep blowing the trumpet as a watchman of the city, even if he stood alone. For him, the allowance of her private Mass in her own palace was a major setback, for ‘one Mass… was more fearful to him than if ten thousand armed enemies had landed in any part of the realm, of purpose to suppress the whole religion.’
It might seem to us in our post-modern time, that Knox was becoming extreme in his view, and even many of his Protestant friends refused to stand with him in this opinion. For Knox though, Mary was a dyed-in-the-wool de Guise, using her charm and pretended tolerance to deceive the Protestants, and when the time was right would rise up and destroy the reformers and bring Scotland back to the papacy and tyranny. In the meantime, her Masses were multiplying. Was Knox right? Or was he really overreacting? ‘Madam,’ he said to Queen Mary, after hearing that the night before she had celebrated the news of the de Guise massacre of French Protestants with dancing, ‘I am assured that your uncles are enemies to God, and unto his Son Jesus Christ; and that for maintenance of their own pomp, they spare not to spill the blood of many innocents.’
We do know that in the same year the religious war erupted in France between the Romanists and Huguenots in 1562, that Nicolas de Gouda, a Jesuit, was sent by Pope Pius IV to meet with Queen Mary to seek a way forward to bring Scotland back to Rome. On 31st January 1563, she wrote to Pope Pius IV expressing her hope that the Scottish people would ‘worthily acknowledge the holy Roman Catholic Church, in the obedience of which we wish to live your most devoted daughter. To which end we shall spare no effort in our power, even life itself, if need be.’
Queen Mary sent a letter to her uncle, Cardinal of Lorraine, deploring the fact that she was unable to send any delegates in support of the Council of Trent because of the situation in Scotland. Her desire to bring back Scotland to Rome, even if she lost her life in the process, delighted the Council there, but only two months later she made plans to make sure that forty-eight Roman Catholics were imprisoned for celebrating Mass. What was she doing? It would appear that she was acting with the same duplicity as her mother, to deceive the Protestant Lords. Again, in May 1565, when she was preparing for her second marriage to Darnley, she promised the Lords that the Protestant religion would be established, but at about the same time she and Darnley promised the pope that ‘they would defend the Catholic religion to the utmost of their power.’
About seven weeks later she made four proclamations telling the Scottish people that the Protestant faith would be safe, but only three weeks after this she wrote to Philip II, King of Spain, beseeching his help to prevent the demise of Catholicism in Scotland. This was the same king who was known to be a fanatical Romanist, and who later sent the Spanish Armada in 1588 to invade England! Mary had even sought, unsuccessfully, to marry his son and heir, Don Carlos, after the death of her first husband, Francis II, causing Knox great consternation, and leading to Mary’s angry retort, ‘What have ye to do with my marriage?’ The thought of Mary potentially becoming the Queen of Spain, France, Scotland, and England, filled him with dread.
It was clearly the Romanist intention to remove Queen Elizabeth I and place Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne. Alexander Renwick, a former professor of Church History in Edinburgh wrote: ‘Philip II had indeed given instructions in 1568 to his commander-in-chief, the Duke of Alva, to do his utmost to aid the proposed rebellion in Scotland in favour of the dethroned Queen Mary.’In 1572, as Knox was stricken with a terminal sickness, he broken-heartedly heard of the brutal St Bartholomew massacre of an estimated 30,000 Protestants in France in one month. But the Romanist revolution never came to Scotland, thanks largely to the trumpet-blowing John Knox.
‘Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain!’ (Joel 2:1, NKJV).
Image: St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, 1572, François Dubois, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 25, 2024 | The Reformation
It is fashionable in our comfortable age to verbally attack the Scottish reformers, accusing them of being fanatics, or extremists, akin to the Islamic State. But were they really? David Hume, the celebrated Edinburgh sceptical philosopher of the Enlightenment, once wrote that ‘Of all modes of Christianity Popery is the best, and the reformation from thence was only the work of madmen and enthusiasts [fanatics].’ It is interesting to note however, that after the Reformation settlement of 1560, the Romanists braced themselves for revenge killings because of the thousands of Protestants who had been slaughtered in Europe, but there were none. Even the fervent Romanist bishop of Ross had to admit that ‘the clemency of the heretic nobles must not be left unmentioned, since at that time they exiled few Catholics on the score of religion, imprisoned fewer, and put none to death.’ It is true that the Protestant leaders outlawed the Romanists’ Mass as idolatry, with a punishment of confiscated goods for the first offence, banishment for the second, and execution for the third, but in reality, it was never fully carried out. The Romanist priests and monks were pensioned off and treated decently.
It is true that the reformers purged the church of pagan idolatry, which included the removal of all glass windows and statues of the saints, because the people had been praying to them and worshipping them. We may decry this as an act of vandalism against our precious artistic heritage, but for the reformers it was a return to proper biblical worship for the church, free of paganism, which was of far greater worth to Scotland. As such, they said they were following an Old Testament precedent. It has been also said that the reformers pulled down churches all over Scotland in their puritanical zeal. The reality is not so exciting however, as historians realise that most of the Scottish church buildings were either falling down through neglect before the Reformation, or had been burnt down by invading armies. A few buildings were demolished by the reformers, but they were exceptions. The church at Restalrig in Edinburgh was mentioned in the Minutes of the first Assembly of 1560, and it was agreed that the chapel dedicated to St Triduana should be pulled down because it had become a major place of pilgrimage for her worshippers.
Indeed, the benefits of the Reformation far outweighed any negatives. This has been shown in previous articles and videos in this series, but thanks to the reformers we saw a Scotland emerging out of a tyrannical system to develop democracy, national education, healthcare and welfare, based on a more Christian foundation. A.M. Renwick, former Professor of Church History, had this to say about the fruit of the Reformation: ‘In the year 1800, there were 1000 students in Oxford and Cambridge combined, the only universities in England… in Edinburgh alone [a university which came out of the Scottish Reformation] there were 993 students. In 1830, the English universities had less than 3,000 students, while the Scottish universities had 4,400 in spite of the fact that the population of England was eight times that of Scotland.’ Professor Renwick continues: ‘The truth [of Christ’s gospel] moreover, was making men free, and a strong democratic nation was emerging after centuries of dictatorial oppression and spiritual darkness.’ Thus, rather than the reformers being extremists or fanatics, they were the pioneers of many of the benefits we have inherited today.
‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people’ (Proverbs 14:34, NKJV).
Image: A reformer pulling down a statue of St Andrew, from the museum at St Andrews, Paul James-Griffiths
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 25, 2024 | The Reformation
Although Romanism had been banished from Protestant Scotland, it would be naïve to say that there was no threat of its re-emergence. Despite the watchdogs for the reformed cause being alert, it was said that the Romanists were swarming home to Scotland ‘like locusts’, after the Romanist Council of Trent (1545-1563) had condemned the Reformation and had reinforced its unbiblical papal beliefs. Esmé Stuart was the favourite friend of the young King James VI, and although James had been nurtured in the Protestant faith, there were fears that Esmé’s Romanist inclinations might lead the young king astray. To allay any suspicions King James commissioned his chaplain, John Craig, to produce a short confession of faith which no Romanist would be able to sign with a clear conscience. For this reason, the Negative, or King’s Confession, as it was called, might sound more aggressive to us in its tone, than previous reformed documents. The original document was signed in 1580 by King James, Esmé Stuart, and the courtiers, and was accepted fully by the Assembly of the Church of Scotland the following year.
The document firstly reaffirms the Scots Confession of 1560, which had been ratified by the Church of Scotland, ‘the King’s Majestie’, and the three Estates of Scotland (the church leaders, nobility and burgesses), which had all been confirmed by Acts of Parliament. After this it launches into a diatribe against ‘the usurped authoritie of that Romane Antichrist upon the scriptures of God, upon the Kirk, the civill Magistrate, and consciences of men… againis our Christian libertie…’ The King’s Confession lists the unbiblical practices of the Romanist Church, such as transubstantiation, celibacy of the priests, praying to angels, Mary and the saints, worshipping images, relics and the cross, purgatory, prayers for the dead, performing the church service in Latin, which most people did not understand, justification by good works, rather than by Christ, the worldly papal pyramid power structure, and other such things. These the King’s Confession document roundly condemns.
Mention is made of the Pope’s ‘erroneous and bloodie Decreets made at Trente’, and all beliefs and practices which are contrary to the plain word of God. Most of the decrees made at the Council of Trent, which contained anathemas, or curses for those who would not accept them, were seen by the reformers as a total betrayal of Christ, the biblical New Testament teaching, and Christ’s gospel. The King’s Confession would also be copied out in its entirety and placed later in the first section of the National Covenant of 1638.
‘Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3, NKJV).
Image: Unknown artist of the Scottish school; attributed to Adrian Vanson or the school of Alonso Sánchez Coello, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. King James was 20 at this time, in 1586.
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 25, 2024 | The Reformation
Six years after the death of John Knox, Andrew Melville led the Assembly in Magdalen Chapel in Edinburgh, in 1578. After much discussion the Second Book of Discipline was put together, which focused mostly on reforming the Protestant Church on a proper Presbyterian basis. It would be this Presbyterian form of governance, which was democratic in nature, that would cause a serious clash with royal tyranny, leading to civil war, and ultimately to our democratic Parliament. The divine right of a monarch to be Head of the Church had been accepted in England from the time of Henry VIII onwards, but the system of papal control had simply been replaced by the control of the monarchy. The wording of the 1578 document was very clear and exact:
‘For this ecclesiastical power flows immediately from God, and the Mediator Jesus Christ, and is spiritual, not having a temporal head on earth, but only Christ, the only spiritual King and Governor of his kirk. It is a title falsely usurped by Antichrist to call himself head of the kirk, and ought not to be attributed to angel nor man, of what estate that ever he is, saving to Christ, the only Head and Monarch of the kirk.’
With this radical and restored New Testament church governance came a desire for casting aside all remnants of Romanism in the Church of Scotland. The Romanist version of autocratic bishops was abandoned, along with its title of ‘lords’, and secular power and abuses. The church leaders were now simply referred to as disciples, ministers, or servants, and ought to emulate the servant-leadership example of Christ. They were determined to obey Christ’s call ‘and to take away all occasion of tyranny’, for ‘he will that they should rule with mutual consent of brethren, and equality of power, every one according to their functions.’ With the utter demolition of the papal structure came the New Testament roles of pastors, teachers, elders and deacons in the church. The leaders of the church must be chosen by the people, for ‘in the order of election, it is to be eschewed [abstained] that any person be intruded in any of the offices of the kirk contrary to the will of the congregation to whom they are appointed, or without the voice of the eldership.’
During the next century we would go through a dark night of the soul as successive kings would seek to control the Scottish church through their lords, the bishops, and forcibly and violently intrude both church and nation. The 1578 document also rejected the patronage system, by which the landowner or wealthy person could appoint the pastor of the local church. It states that ‘patronages… have flowed from the Pope and the corruption of canon law’, so that people intruded unbiblically into the church to control it, and that such a practice ‘has no ground in the word of God, but is contrary to the same, and to the said liberty of election’. It would be the patronage system that was thrust on the Church of Scotland in 1812 by Parliament as a form of State Control, which would lead to the Disruption of 1843, thus causing a major division in the Church of Scotland, and ushering in the Free Church of Scotland. The Presbyterian model of church governance would have an incisive impact, not only in biblical church practice, but also in our UK Parliament. It would be this model of Christian democracy which would spread to much of the world in the following centuries.
‘Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock’ (1 Peter 5:2-3, NKJV).
Image: Elected elders praying, John Henry Lorimer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 25, 2024 | The Reformation
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
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 25, 2024 | The Reformation
In the aftermath of the French and English leaving Leith near Edinburgh, the Protestant movement in Scotland became a reality. One of the first steps Parliament took in 1560 was to commission some leading ministers to put together a document outlining the Protestant faith in our nation. This document, known as the Scots Confession, was rapidly put together by six Johns: John Knox, John Spottiswood, John Willock, John Row, John Douglas and John Winram. The reason for its rapid production in just four days is because the leaders had already thrashed out the key beliefs over many years. When it was read out to the Scottish Parliament it was ratified by the Three Estates (the lords, burgesses and clergy) with little opposition, and so became official on 17th August, 1560, being also afterwards confirmed by Acts of Parliament.
The document itself claims to be ‘wholesome and sound doctrine grounded upon the infallible truth of God’s word.’ In many ways it is no different than other Christian historical documents and reaffirms the essential teachings of the church, such as the trinity, original sin, incarnation of Christ and his death, resurrection and ascension. On the other hand, the document deals with the serious issues caused by the apostate Romanist church, such as papal power and transubstantiation. It lays out the vital teaching that we have eternal salvation through Christ alone, by grace through faith, rather than by our good works; it also champions the Bible as our authority over that of the traditions and ideas of man. Contained within its text is the statement: ‘our Head and only Mediator Jesus Christ’. It is a declaration which would become a bone of contention with kings who would seek to control the church later, even as the papal system had done in their times.
Even though these reformers had tried their best to produce a biblical document of faith, they humbly invited the readers to examine it carefully for themselves, ‘that if any will note in this our confession any Article or sentence repugnant to God’s holy word, that it would please him of his gentleness for Christian charity’s sake to admonish us of the same in writing’. They were acting in the opposite spirit of Rome that dictated to people. Furthermore, they recognized that there were two churches on earth: God’s church, belonging to Christ, and the apostate church.
As such, the Scots Confession was a document crafted by the six Johns in an attitude that was full of grace and truth, and would become influential for the later Westminster Confession of 1647, which would become a rallying call for all evangelically-minded Christians.
‘Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3-4, NKJV).
Image: The Scots Confession, taken from the Church of Scotland Committee on Publications
by Paul James-Griffiths | Mar 25, 2024 | The Reformation
For nine months John Craig had been imprisoned in his cell in the Palazzo dell’ Inquisizone in Rome. At times the River Tiber burst its bank and the water poured into the filthy jail, keeping him awake as it came up to his waist. He was on trial for being a heretic, and he knew that his fateful death by burning would come soon. As he languished in the cell his mind raced back to his early years in Scotland. He had grown up near Aberdeen and had qualified at the University of St Andrews, after which he had been a private tutor, before he joined the order of the Dominicans. After an unsuccessful attempt at trying to obtain a teaching post at the University of Cambridge, he went to Rome. It was here that he personally came to know Cardinal Reginald Pole, who, recognizing Craig’s passion and skill, arranged for him to be promoted to the role of Master of Novices for the Dominicans in Bologna.
It was whilst he was a teacher there that he had access to the Library of the Inquisition. Coming across a copy of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, he read it at first to inform himself about the beliefs of the ‘heretics’ in order to refute them, but as he continued reading, he understood the gospel and was converted to Christ. Being passionate about the revelation of the gospel he could not keep quiet about it, but was soon reported, arrested on the charge of heresy, and imprisoned.
In 1559, on the evening before Craig’s execution, Pope Paul IV died. This man was much hated by the people for his cruelty and avid support of the Inquisition, so when the news spread of his death, a crowd celebrated by ripping down his newly-erected statue, dismembering its head, and dumping it in the River Tiber. Not satisfied with this, they broke into three jails, liberating over 400 prisoners, and then proceeded to ransack the headquarters of the Inquisition, where they freed another 72 prisoners, including Craig.
John Craig travelled as a refugee and escaped convict, hiding by day, and walking by night, seeking a safe haven. He had many adventures on the way, but the most endearing was that of a strange black dog who appeared at a time when he was weak with hunger, having no money, and deposited a bag of gold joins at his feet, then promptly left. It was a story that he would often repeat later as he celebrated God’s miraculous provision. After a time of recuperation in Vienna, he finally reached his home nation via Germany and England, just after Scotland had broken free of Rome and had embraced Protestantism. His learning and zeal for Christ were duly noted by the reformed leaders, and he was appointed as the minister at Holyrood Palace in 1561. Within months Mary, Queen of Scots, settled in the palace, and, as a Roman Catholic, she did not require his services, so he was selected to serve for nine years alongside John Knox as the assistant pastor at St Giles’, the preaching centre of the Scottish Reformation.
Later he served as the chaplain for the Protestant King James VI, and became the key person in drawing up the ‘King’s Confession’ in 1580, a covenant document which exposed the errors of Romanism and promoted the Protestant faith. It was this document that formed the basis of the famous National Covenant in 1638. He was also instrumental in the production of the Second Book of Discipline in 1578, which promoted the Presbyterian form of church government, thus clashing with King James VI.
‘He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps’ (Psalm 40:2, NKJV).
Image: Unknown author, public domain, Wikipedia Commons
