SECTION IV.-The Protestant Church.

THE gross corruption of doctrine, extreme indolence, most open and scandalous dissolution of manners, and barbarous cruelty of the Romish Clergy, in this kingdom, concurred to bring about the reformation of religion, which was established by Parliament, anno 1560. From that time, as the regular clergy were suppressed, so the secular had no legal establishment, though much connived at by the Royal House of Stuart.

The Protestant religion was gradually propagated, and the number of its Ministers being at first very small, some years must have passed before the northern counties could be planted. I shall not here treat of the doctrine and worship of the reformed church in this kingdom any further, than briefly to consider the changes that happened as Presbytery or Prelacy alternately prevailed in the government of the church; and let me glance at the several periods since the Reformation.

I. PERIOD.

The first period reaches from anno 1560 to 1572, during which Presbytery was the government of the church. It is true, the few Protestant ministers, at the Reformation, were distributed among the Royal Burghs, and made it more their concern to establish and propagate the pure doctrines of religion, than to determine and fix any one model or form of church government. And until the government should be deliberately settled, a few superintendants were appointed. But these could, in no propriety, be called Bishops, such as were under Popery, or in some after-periods of the Reformation; for they had no Episcopal Consecration. They were solemnly set apart to their Office by mere Presbyters. They neither claimed nor exer

cised a sole power of ordination or jurisdiction. They never pretended to be an Order superior to Presbyters. They were accountable to, and censured by the General Assembly; and what shows they were but a temporary expedient, there were but five named, of which number, when one died, there was no successor to him appointed. And when Presbyteries were to be erected, the Superintendant's office ceased.

Where there were no Superintendants, Commissioners were appointed; and Mr Robert Pont, a Senator of the College of Justice, was named Commissioner of Moray, anno 1570 (App. No. XLVI.) But I know not if he acted as such.

not.

General Assemblies began to be kept in 1560, and were continued annually; but how soon Provincial Assemblies were kept, I find It could not have been early, for want of ministers to make such a meeting in some Provinces; and yet the Assembly, 1568, appointed, that the members of Assembly should be elected at the meetings of Synod, which makes it probable, that Synods were generally erected at that time. The oldest Register of a Synod in Moray, of which I can find any account, began in 1606. How long before that time they had Synods, I know not.

There were no Presbyteries, such as they are now, within this period. But there were meetings for exercise very early; and the Assembly, 1579, expressly says, that the exercise may be accounted a Presbytery.

As to Congregational Sessions, they were held from the beginning of the Reformation, and exercised government and discipline. It is no marvel, if, in this infant state of the church, the government was not fully established; yet the constitution of it was plainly Presbyterian, and inconsistent with Prelacy.

II. PERIOD.

The second period runneth from anno 1572 to anno 1592, during

which a sort of Episcopacy obtained in the church. During the Regency of the Earl of Moray, no alteration in the ecclesiastical government was attempted. But how soon the Earl of Morton,a man of insatiable avarice,-became Regent, he brought about a change. The Popish Bishops, who were allowed two-thirds of their revenues during life, were generally dead. Morton obtained a grant of the temporalities of the Archbishopric of St Andrews. Other Noblemen procured, or hoped to procure, the like grants. But they could not enjoy these revenues directly, with any colour in law. Wherefore Morton got it agreed, in a meeting of some ambitious men of the Clergy, and a committee of the Privy Council, that the name and office of Archbishop, and Bishop should be continued during the King's minority, but subject to the Assembly as to their spiritual jurisdiction. These Bishops, introduced anno 1572, were, by way of ridicule, but justly, called Tulchan Bishops. A Tulchan was the skin of a dead calf, stretched on a frame of wood, and laid under a cow, to make her give milk; and these Bishops had the name, that by a private agreement, and allowing them a small Benefice, the dioceses might yield their milk or revenues to the Noble

men.

This Regent further gratified his avarice at the expense of the clergy. In the year 1561, a part of the Thirds of ecclesiastical Benefices was allowed to the Protestant clergy for their subsistence; but this came to be very ill paid. Morton got the clergy to resign the Thirds in his favour, and he promised duly to pay their stipendiary allowance. But he assigned three or four churches to one minister, with the stipend of only one church, and applied the rest to his own

uses.

These Tulchan or nominal Bishops, had possession of the Episcopal palaces, and had their Chapters, and both Consistorial and Regality Jurisdictions. But they were in no proper sense Bishops. They were admitted or consecrated by Presbyters, and were subject to

and deposed by the Assemblies. The government of the church was really Presbyterian, by General Assemblies and Provincial Synods. And, in 1581, the Assembly declared the office of Bishop, as then exercised within the realm, to have no foundation or warrant in the word of God; and Presbyteries were erected throughout the kingdom, whereof there were three in Moray,-viz. the Presbyteries of Elgin, Forres, and Inverness. Notwithstanding this, the Titular Bishops continued till the year 1592.

III. PERIOD.

The third period, from anno 1592 to 1610, was strictly Presbyterian. The Tulchan Bishops, having titles of honour, a seat in Parliament, with revenues or stipends somewhat greater than other ministers, had neglected their spiritual employments, were despised by the gentry, and considered as profane by the populace. Yet James VI. would gladly have continued them, as a set of men slavishly devoted to him, and to whom they owed their promotion. The King himself, by his partial favour to Papists, and his shameful conduct in the affair of Moray's murder, had sunk greatly in his character, and the Chancellor (Seaton) was become odious, as to him was imputed the King's conduct. For these reasons the King favoured the clergy, and established the Presbyterian government in the most ample manner, by an Act of Parliament, anno 1592.

A new division was now made of the church into Synods and Presbyteries; and in Moray four Presbyteries were appointed,—viz. Inverness, Forres, Elgin, and Ruthven. By this last, I think, is meant the Presbytery of Strathboggie, which might be appointed to meet at Ruthven or Cairnie.

The church did not long enjoy the peaceable exercise of this go vernment. The King wanted much to have Bishops restored to their full power, as some sort of a balance to the Nobles in Parliament; but they were so odious, that he was afraid to revive the Or

der. Yet, by flattery, promises, or threats, he got a majority of the Clergy to agree, anno 1597 and 1598, that some ministers should represent the church in Parliament. After that he obtained to have constant moderators in Presbyteries; and upon his accession to the throne of England, desirous to establish a hierarchy in Scotland, he, by an Act of Parliament, July 9, 1606, restored the temporalities of Bishops, and granted them a Seat in Parliament. In consequence of this Act, those whom the King named, acted as Bishops; but it was not before the year 1610, that a packed General Assembly allowed the office of a Bishop. "I say a packed General Assembly;" for Sir James Balfour, in his M. S. Annals, Vol. I. relates, "that, in the General Assembly held at Linlithgow, anno 1606, the Earl of Dunbar distributed, among the most needy and clamorous of the ministers, 40,000 Merks, to facilitate the work, and obtain their suffrages. And, anno 1610, after the Assembly was up, the Earl of Dunbar paid £5,000 Scots to the Moderators of Presbyteries, for bygone service." Thus, by bribing, banishing, intimidating, and imprisoning ministers, the Presbyterian government of the church was overturned.

IV. PERIOD.

The fourth period, from anno 1610 to 1638. The General Assembly at Glasgow, anno 1610, having enacted, that Episcopacy shall be the government of the church, Spottiswood, Lamb, and Hamilton, ministers, were brought up to London to be consecrated. They objected, that this might be constructed, a subjecting the Church of Scotland to that of England. No, replied the King, for the Archbishops shall have no hand in it. A poor reason, yet it satisfied them. Then Bishop Andrews moved, that they should be first ordained Presbyters, because they had not Episcopal Ordination. Although such re-ordination would be a declaring all their former ministrations null, yet, so forward were they to obtain the