BOOKS.

CHURCH HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.*

Mn. CinisrNamur, in his History of the Church of Scotland, has endeavoured to furnish a continuous narrative of the events which mark its progress, from the commencement of the Christian era to the present century. Ecclesiastical writers, he complains, have, in general, carried back their researches only to the Re- formation period, as though the nation's church before that time was only the Church of Rome, and not the Church of Scotland too ; but "to appreciate the present institutions, the present habits of thought, the present likings and dislikings" of the Scotch, we must revert to their correspondents in ante-Reformation times. Mr. Cunningham contends, and not without reason, that the Church of Scotland, from its republican constitution and repre- sentative courts, has a well marked and peculiarly instructive history of its own—a history similar to what the Church of Rome has had within Christendom. This idiosyneraey was shared by the Jewish Church, and for a season by that ot Geneva, and by no others. Mr. Cunningham has produced a full, flowing, and in- teresting narrative ; recognizing the heroes of the old Catholic period, as well as the worthies of the Protestant period, of his Church's History. He is patriotic, but not exclusive ; he has his preferences, but he is not bigotted. His prepossessions are all Presbyterian ; he is anti-Episcopalian ; anti-Anglican ; has little admiration for the English Reformation or those who were its presidents and organs. The High Churchman will find expressed in this work opinions antagonistic to his own ; the enthusiastic eulogist of Covenanting or Puritan heroism will complain that its greatness is not adequately celebrated. On the other hand, the " nil-admirari " and tolerant reader will be pleased with what he will consider the perfect impartiality which our historian ex- hibits.

The History of the Church of Scotland is best presented under the triple division of the Catholic, the Reformation, and the post- Revolution (1688) period. "For more than two hundred years after North Braga had become accessible to the Romans its inhabitants are called Cale- donians and never Picts." In the sixth century, the age of St. Columba, the Picts and Scots shared between them the whole of the North of Scotland ; the district to the South of the Forth and Clyde was probably then peopled by Britons. The present High- landers are the descendants of the ancient Caledonians, mingled with the Irish Scots. To this day they know no other name for Scotland than Albion, the precise designation given it by the real or Pseudo-Aristotle more than two thousand years ago. It was not till the eleventh century that Scotland was called by its present name. Previously to that period Scotia was the exclusive appellation of Ireland. The cause of this designatory transfer cannot now be discovered ; the knowledge of the fact, however, enables us to accredit the sister island with all of fair or ill desert that till then belongs to that venerable name. Passing over the legendary period of St. Andrew, St. Rule, and St. Patrick ; passing over the disputed claim of Scotland to the honour of having given birth to Pelagius ; and the early labours of St. Ninian, the first preacher of Christianity in North Britain whose name has come down to us (A.D. 400) ; passing too over the history of St. Columba and his monastery of Iona; glancing at the establishments of those religious recluses called Culdees, from a Gaelic word denoting persons fond of retirement, "monks without monkish vices," though not free, as has been hastily asserted, from the errors and superstitions of the Church of Rome ; we come, in the twelfth century, to the first institution in Scotland of diocesan prelacy and a parochial clergy. After the Norman invasion of England the royal Edgar fled into the North- ern Kingdom, with his mother and two sisters. The elder sister became the wife of Malcolm Canmore, and proved an able sup- porter of Church reform and extension. Under the influence of the Saxon immigration, an ecclesiastical hierarchy was established and endowed in Scotland. David, the youngest son of Malcolm, alone founded the bishoprics of Glasgow, Brechin, Dunkeld, Dun- blane, Ross, and Caithness ; besides numerous abbacies, priories, and nunneries. In fact, however great a friend to the Church, he was, as an envious successor remarked, "a sore saint to the crown." "The division of the land into dioceses was quickly followed by its division into parishes." A passion to found and endow monasteries inspired Scotland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Before the Reformation one half of the whole national wealth had passed into the hands of the clergy ; which is proved by the fact that they paid one half of every tax imposed upon land. However prejudicial to the interests of the community in our own day of rapid exchanges this determination of riches to one part of the body politic might be, it was no evil four hundred years ago, when our merchants were represented by pedlars, and capital was not in demand. It was surely well for the country, Mr. Cunningham goes on to observe, that so many rich manors were transferred from the men of war to the men of peace. The clergy were confessedly the best landlords ; they gave their tenants long and easy leases, and so encouraged the reclaiming of moors and marshes ; their retainers, unlike those of the great barons, enjoyed an immunity from military duty, except on urgent occasions,—an immunity which greatly fa-

The Church History of Scotland, from the commencement of the Christian Era to the Present Century. By the Reverend John Cunningham, Minister of Crieff. n two volumes. Published by Adam and Charles Black.

voured both the improvement of the land and those who tilled it. To the clergy our historian attributes not only the introduc- tion of agriculture but the exclusive possession of all the learning of a period in which the knowledge of letters was esteemed dero- gatory to the nobles. On the clergy also devolved the work of

legislation. Out of the fifty-four persons who held the office of Lord Chancellor of Scotland, "from the dawn of history to the death of Beaton, forty-three were churchmen." Churchmen, moreover, were the earliest annalists of the country. The lives of the saints illustrate a period that but for this ecclesiastical biography would have been involved in impenetrable gloom. Adomnan, Bede, Joeelin, Aired, Turgot, serve to exemplify this position. The great monasteries in Scotland, too' contribute valuable material to the resources of the historian. We may re- gard them as so many public offices, each of which preserved three different kinds of registers—one of events, as the Book of Paisley and the Chronicle of Melrose ; one of the deaths of abbots, kings, eminent nobles, and benefactors ; and one in which were transcribed charters bulls, statement of revenue taxes leases,

law-suits, &c., as the Book of Dunfermline and the CharLary of Inchaffiay. Two other important uses were also subserved by the monasteries. They were the earliest educational establish- ments in Scotland, and they were resorted to "as inns and poor's-houses when regular hostelries were scarce and poor-laws unknown.

"To escape from the domination of England, 'Scotland' placed herself under the broad shield of Rome towards the close of the twelfth century, advancing in civilization under the guidance of the old clergy, who laid the foundations of science," and "ever walked first of the men of their generation in that slow and.pain- ful progress which has led to the high and commanding eminence on which we now stand." Mr. Cunningham in his vindication of the clergy, avails himself of the opportunity to defend Andrew Forman, Bishop of Moray in the reign of James IV., cited by Dr. M'Crie and others as a sort of typical dunce, from his de- tractors. Far from deserving this bad eminence, he is pronounced by his present champion to have been a ready wit, an able diplo- matist, and fluent-spoken in French and Italian. The story from which his ignorance is inferred is worth quoting.

"When at Rome he gave a banquet to the Pope and his Cardinals. Re- quired to say a Latin grace, the unexpected responses of the sacred com- pany put him out, and he fairly broke down. Instantly recovering him- self, however, he mumbled in lus own vernacular, AR the false cans to the Devil, in nomine patris, filii et spirit us sancti; ' to which the Pope and Cardinals solemnly responded, Amen.' Forman afterwards took the liberty of explaining the import of his Scoto-Latin petition, which, instead of giving offence, caused the greatest merriment."

Commenting on this incident, our historian asks, "Is it not just possible that even a Presbyterian minister from the Synod of Moray might find his scholarship to fail him if asked to say a Latin grace at one of the Moderator's breakfasts in Edinburgh ? "

Learned or unlearned, the old clergy were soon to see their power pass away. The Lutheran Reformation extended itself to Scotland. Patrick Hamilton was its protomartyr. The Abbot of Ferne, for such was the position he held, was soon followed by Henry Forest and Norman Gourley, both ecclesiastics, for "almost the first martyrs and confessors were monks or parish priests.' About ten years later the celebrated George Wishart passed to his doom of fire. Cardinal Beaton, who was instrumental in bringing this good and eloquent man to the stake, became the object of general resentment. Mr. Cunningham maintains that two years before (17th April 1544) a conspiracy had been formed to assasi- nate the Cardinal. A letter containing a proposal to kill this prelate, who represented and embodied the Papal power in Scot- land, was in consequence transmitted to Henry. the Eighth by a Scotehraan of the name of Wishart. Nearly three months after Wishart's death, Leslie, Melville, Kirkaldy of Grange, and others, entered St. Andrew's at night, and early in the morning forced their way into the prelate's castle, dispersed the workmen and servants, and avenged the death of Wishart by that of the Car- dinal. According to Mr. Cunningham, this great churchman and able statesman was "the victim of a mean and mercenary con- spiracy, originating as much in political as religious reasons, en- couraged by a foreign potentate, and ripened by revenge." Mr. Froude, on the other hand, who sees in Beaton the murderer of Wishart (for the Cardinal had no warrant to proceed against him), regards his assassination as a righteous "punishment which struck down a powerful criminal whose position appeared to se- cure him from it."

With Beaton fell the papacy. i. The conspirators, who received supplies from England, retained possession of the Cardinal's Fortalice. Ere long they were joined by a former friend of Wishart's, the supreme man of the age, John Knox. In July 1547, the garrison surrendered ; and Knox and his associates were " swept into exile with prospects sufficiently cheerless." Knox was compelled to labour for nineteen months as a galley slave. Froude says he remained in the gallies between three and four years.

On the 17th November 1558, Elizabeth succeeded her Romanist sister. Elizabeth once out of the way, Mary of Scotland was the next heir to the throne. Accordingly the house of Guise be- gan their machinations. "They persuaded their niece to assume the title and arms of Queen of England and Ireland, and she did so." Was there not papal France on the South ; the possibility of a papal Scotland on the North ; and "might not the world behold with wonder Popery once more restored to England, and a &ugh- ter of Guise reigning by the Thames and the Liffey as well as by the Forth and the Seine?"

At this critical moment John Knox reappeared. We cannot describe the mission of the great Scotch Apostle, or follow his fortunes further. He was the principal organ of the Northern Reformation, which Mr. Cunningham characterises as baronial, in contradistinction to the English Reformation, which he regards as regal. The barons of Scotland made Knox powerful. With- out their support he was nothing. So, at least, thinks our his- torian. Knox was the author of the Book of Doctrines, which was enthusiastically received; of the Book of Discipline with its

threefold division of the Church's patrimony and its rudimentary sketch of a parochial system of education, a work which was far

from being equally approved. Maitland, not Murray, as Sir Walter Scott insinuates, declared the whole affair to be "a devout imagination." Still, even to this document thirty-three barons and prelates individually subscribed. Knox had never denounced episcopacy as unlawful. Melville, his successor in power, was bitterly hostile to its retention. It is owing to his energy and ability mainly that ecclesiastical govern- ment in Scotland became Presbyterian. His eloquence is for ever memorable, if only for that fine saying, "The Earth is the Lord's ; my fatherland is wherever well-doing is." Under his impulsion the Church in 1580 reverted to the policy of 1560. On the 20th December, in this earlier year, the First General Assembly of the Reformed Church of Scotland met at Edinburgh. It was the most remarkable product of the religious revolution of Scotland. Recognizing no distinction between laity and clergy, it was truly a representative corporation ; its voice, which was heard twice a year, was really the voice of the people. It had a republican vigour, remonstrating with regents ; defying parlia- ments; bearding kings ; excommunicating nobles. It was this institution that made the Scotch Kirk so entirely and potently national.

We must hasten rapidly over the ill-advised attempt of the First Charles to reintroduce episcopacy, when the Scotch army encamped at Dunse-Law, and. the "old little crooked soldier " Leslie kept in order bold barons and raw ploughmen, while "every company had flying at the captain's tent door a brave new colour, with the Scottish arms, and the legend, For Christ's Crown and Covenant,' in golden letters ; " we pass over, too, the restoration of episcopacy under the Second Charles the insurrec- tion of the peasantry ; the assassination of Archbishop Sharp ; the battles of Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge ; the deeds of °laver- house, whom, notwithstanding Professor Aytoun's and Mr. Mark Napier's attempted exculpations, the author of this history refuses to absolve.

The third period of the Church of Scotland commenced with the accession of William of Orange. On 25th April 1690, the Parliament met which abolished the act of Supremacy, repealed all the laws in favour of Episcopacy, and finally established. Pres- byterianism in Scotland. The Church's battles now were no longer against Popery and Prelacy, but against the real or reputed pride of intellect and rebellion of thought which, with the ortho- dox limitations, it had itself initiated and exemplified. We read now of the Arminianism of Professor Simpson ; of his trial for Arianism ; of the scepticism of David Hume and his threatened excommunication ; of the free speculations of Henry Home and Lord Kaines ; of the compelled resignation of John Home, found guilty of writing the admired tragedy of Douglas ; and the cen- sure of the patrons of his play. Questions of patronage too come up • debates upon " calls " vex the quiet of the church ; Erskine is deposed, and a secession is formed. During these and the follow- ing years we catch glimpses of Whitefield preaching at Dunferm- line, and afterwards at Cambuslang, "in the twilight of the autumn eve, amid sighs, sobs, and tears ; " of Rowland Hill, whose rollick- ing manner, racy humour, and eccentric earnestness, drew crowds to hear him in the Edinburgh Circus ; and, later still, of of Edward Irvine "a large-hearted, genial man with a stong dash of genius." Under the Row heresy, inaugurated by Mr. Campbell of Row, de- vout ladies began to speak in an unknown tongue and to talk about walking upon the sea. Shortly before this the canon of scripture came under discussion, and so good a man and so able a scholar as Dr. Pye Smith took part with the Apocryphists, and pointed to more books than one of the Old Testament, the Divine authority of which he declared to be very questionable." Among the principal legislative enactments in which the Church was interested, may be mentioned that which made it im- perative on the heritors of every parish to erect a school and pro- vide a salary for the schoolmaster, passed soon after the revolu- tion; and that which had for its object the augmentation of paro- chial stipends passed in 1810. In Scotland there was no regular as- sessment for the poor before 1755. Pauperism increased as wealth' increased. Less than fifteen years ago an important innovation took place. The present annual impost now amounts to 600,000/. more than double the revenue of the Established Church of the North. With the Reform of 1831, a new ecclesiastical era ap- proached. Liberal tendencies were everywhere observable. The Church felt the movement. The patronage question occupied all minds. "The subject was laid before Parliament, but Parliament did nothing. The General Assembly proceeded to legislate for it- self, and passed the Veto Act." And here our historian, in dangerous proximity to "the region of living men, reverently turns aside : ' an act of delicate devia- tion which we gladly imitate.