Nine
How was the position of the Kirk affected by the `15 Rising?
How and when did the issue of popular election grow to importance?
How was it possible to influence the decisions of the Kirk’s superior courts?
Chapter Ten
How did politics affect church settlements?
Did the legislation of 1719 provide a means of nullifying the issue of presentations?
What was it that inflamed so much anger in the 1720s?
Chapter Eleven
What led to the Secession of 1733?
Chapter Twelve
How did the supremely powerful Earl of Ilay and his chief agent, Lord Milton, appear to lose control in 1734–6?
How did they regain it?
How did they then lose office?
What was the English experience of lay patronage?
Chapter Thirteen
How did patronage affect vacancy-filling in disaffected areas like Angus?
Having assumed power, how did the vacancy-filling policy of Scotch Secretary Tweeddale differ from that of Ilay?
Chapter Fourteen
Why was the filling of Edinburgh churches the perennial cause of controversy?
Chapter Fifteen
After the fall of Tweeddale, did the Argathelian regime continue as before?
Was there a change in the Kirk’s response to patronage?
Conclusion
1. Church Patronage (Scotland) Act 1874, c.82. The key factor in finalising this abolition was that (unlike before) patrons were to be bought out whether they wished to sell their right of presenting or not. Even then, all private patrons had to apply for the money (one year’s stipend) by 30 June 1875, or lose the right to it forever. Of the 626 private patrons, 242 made claims totalling £59,160. Those, like the crown, who held the other 373 rights of patronage, were not compensated. see Cormack, Alexander A., Teinds and agriculture, an historical survey. (Oxford: 1930), 187.
2. W. M. Hetherington, History of the Church of Scotland, 7th. Edn. (Edinburgh: 1848), 601.
3. The Disruption was the name given to the moment when in 1843, resistance to the principle of lay patronage climaxed, and 474 out of 1203 ministers of the Kirk, while still mostly adhering to the concept of establishment, seceded to form the Free Church of Scotland.
4. G. N. M. Collins, The Heritage of our Fathers (Edinburgh: Knox Press, 1974), 40.
5. Patronage, Presbyterian Union and Home Work of the Church of Scotland: A Chronicle of the General Assembly of 1870 (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1870). Speech by Dr Smith of Leith, 163.
Chapter One
Religious issues in Scotland have frequently been the cause of strong emotions. What is perhaps surprising, however, is that, of all the impassioned controversies since the Reformation, the most enduring concerned something as seemingly unexceptionable as the admission of approved candidates to parish churches. Disturbance, intimidation and even violence repeatedly accompanied this event from early in the eighteenth century until 1843, when the national church experienced its final and most spectacular split as a result of the accumulated bitterness. Clearly then, it was an issue which stirred up intense feelings, yet what prompted them? How could mere concern over the identity of a parochial appointee give rise to so much anger, litigation and expense?
As will be seen, a wide variety of factors played their part. These would include different viewpoints over the relationship between church and state, between church and people, between landowner and people, and between those who held opposing theological or political convictions, to list but a few. Fundamental to countless controversies, however, was one issue: property ownership, or, to be specific, ownership of land, the fruits arising from it and the rights attaching to it. From the moment that the first Christian congregations moved out of makeshift accommodation into purpose-built buildings, these became matters of inescapable importance. This was because virtually all churches had to be built on land that ultimately belonged to someone, and whatever may have been an owner’s goodwill at the time of construction, it was always likely that the attitude of his successors might change, particularly if in the selection of an incumbent, the congregation seemed to acquire a disagreeable degree of autonomy. Either way, from the earliest centuries, church and patrons can frequently be found wrestling and bargaining with each other to maximize whatever of income or influence each could claim as theirs.
It is this tension between sacred and secular interests which gives lay patronage its particular fascination as a subject for study. In the selection of an entrant to a territorial ministry, territorially financed, the question remained: which interest, landed or ecclesiastical, should have what privileges, and, no less importantly, who should determine how those privileges should be apportioned, the state or the church? By the eighteenth century in Scotland, church and society had failed to find a satisfactory resolution to this conundrum, and so paid the price in the disputes which followed.
This study will look at the controversies surrounding patronage in Scotland during the first half of the eighteenth century. In order to do so, however, it is necessary to look back to the first appearance of patrons, and from there observe how their role and status evolved.
The Beginning of Lay Patronage
The origins of patronage are not especially clear. However, it would seem that, after the official legalization of Christianity by Emperor Constantine in 313, property–owning Christians came forward to aid the Church’s building programme either by giving money to endow a church, by personally erecting it or by donating the ground for one. In so doing, they received the title of that church’s patronus, that is, its protector, defender or advocate. This general principle endured through the following centuries, summarized in the maxim incorporated in canon law: Patronum faciunt, dos, aedificatio, fundus (gift, building, land make the patron).
Naturally, the patron was not always above looking for something in return for his generosity, and this usually took the form of certain privileges. At first, they were in effect, simply marks of respect, as in the honor processionis (place of honor in religious processions), the honor precum (special place in the prayers), the honor sedis (privileged seat) and the honor sepulturae (privilege of burial within the church’s precincts). However, with the fifth century, an entirely different opportunity presented itself. From this time onwards, the stability of the Roman empire weakened and bishops increasingly found themselves unable to ensure that their congregations were adequately protected and cared for. It became obvious that more reliance upon the protective role of patrons was necessary, and, as an incentive for defending existing foundations and erecting new ones, the right to choose the church’s incumbent was allowed. Dating is difficult, but it would seem that, by the close of the sixth century, the
