Qwhilks haill premisses above specifeit the said noble Lord protests and declares that he hes made and subscrivit truely and with ane honest heart, butt any equivocatione, mentall reservatione, or subterfuge qwhatsoever, devysit be the Romish Kirk and their supposts. Attour, the said noble Lord faithfully promised to plant his whole kirks qwhereof his Lordship hes the teinds in tack positiones or utherwayes, at the sicht and conclusione of my Lord Archbischop of St Androis, the Bischop of Murray, and the Laird of Corse, unto qwhois modificatione the said noble Lord submitts himself; be the tennor of thir presents, givand them power to modifie compleit steipends to the saids kirks, and as they shall be modified be them he oblisses him to make payment of the same to the ministers provydit or to be provydit to the saids kirks.
And in respect of the premisses, the Assemblie ordaynit the said noble Lord to be absolvit from the sentence of excommunicatione led and deducit against him before conformyng hereto, the Right Reverend Father, John Archbischope of St Androis, moderator, in face of the Assemblie, absolves the said George Marques of Huntlie from the said sentence, led and deducit against him, and receavit him againe into the bosome of the Church.
The quhilk day, the Generall Assemblie of the Kirke of Scotland presently convenit, having interest in consideratione of the cause of the defection and falling away of many from the trew religione, and having found the laike of the competent maintainance to ministers not to be the leist cause of the evills quhilks lyes upon the Kirke presently, the ground and fundament quhairof for the maist pairt hes proceedit from the dilapidatione of benefices, with the quhilk, if some solide order be not taken in tyme, the same is apparent to bring furth greater evill and desolatione in this Kirke: And seeing the King’s Majestie hes requyrit that order may be taken with the saids dilapidationes, Therefore, in respect the same cannot suddenly be done, but will requyre ane lang tyme and mature deliberatione, the Assemblie hes given, granted, and committed, lykeas they, be the tennor heirof, gives, grants, and committs their full power and commission to the brethren underwritten; they are to say, the Reverend Father in God, John Arch Bischop of St Androis, James Arch Bischop of Glasgow, Alexr. Bischop of Dunkeld, Alexander Bischop of Murray, Patricke Bischop of Ross, Wm. Bischop of Galloway, Andrew Bischop of Brechine, Andrew Bischop of Dumblaine, Andrew Bischop of Argyle, Andrew Bischop of the Isles, Patricke Forbes of Corse, Mr George Douglass, minister at Cullen, John Reid, minister at Logybuchan, George Hay, minister at Turreffe, Doctor Henry Philipe, minister of Arbroath, David Lindsay, minister at Dundee, William Scott, minister of Coupar, Doctor Robert Harvie, Rector of St Androis, John Mitchellsone, minister at Bruntisland, Patrick Galloway, John Hall, Wm. Struthers, ministers at Edinburgh, Robert Scot, minister at Glasgow, Edward Hepburne, minister at Hawick, Doctor John Abernethie, minister at Jedburgh, William Birnie, minister at Air, William Erskine, minister at {blank space}; Givand, grantand, and committand to them, or the most part of them, their full power and commission to conveen at Edinburgh the first day of December nixt to come, in this instant year of God 1616, and there to take order with the dilapidatione of benefices, and to sett downe solide grounds how the progresse of that mischief might be stayed, and to advyse upon some meanes to recover and restore the estate of these benefices qwhilks be iniquitie of tyme hes been lossit; and if need beis to call and persew before them qwho hes made the saids dilapidationes, and punische them therefore; and as they shall conclude, the same to be inactit, and have the force of this present Assemblie; with power lykewayes to the saids commissioners, or maist part of them, as said is, to take order anent the planting of sufficient and qualified pastors in burrowtownes presently vaickand, and are not plantit at this present Assemblie; with power also to receave from the Richt Reverend Father, James Archbishop of Glasgow, and Mr William Struthers, minister at Edinburgh, the cannons of church discipline committit to their charge, to revise the same, allow and disallow thereof, and to direct ane supplicatione to his Majestie desyring that it wald please his Heines to ratifie and approve the samen, and to warrant the printing thereof be his authoritie royall.
We have now accomplished the main part of the task in which for some months past we have been engaged, namely, to print for the first time, in a complete and connected state, all that now remains of the earliest record of the Reformed Church of Scotland. That record extends from 1560 to 1616 inclusive. And as stated in previous notes, the proceedings in the Assemblies, during the period now referred to, constitute what has been long denominated “The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland.” The concluding part of our undertaking still remains to be performed in such illustrative notes and documents as are requisite for giving coherence and full effect to these important fragments of our ecclesiastical records; and this portion of our labours shall hereafter be prosecuted as speedily and comprehensively as the nature of the case admits of, with a due regard to fidelity in its accomplishment. In the meanwhile, “The Booke,” forming of itself a volume of sufficient size, it is now given in that shape to the public.
The reader of the preceding pages is already aware, that all the proceedings of the Episcopal Assemblies (subsequently to that of 1602) were rescinded by the Presbyterian Conventions which took place during the reign of Charles I. in 1638 and 1639. Even in the proceedings of the Assemblies soon after 1592, when Presbyterianism was established, there are various indications of the intentions of King James VI. to insinuate Episcopacy into the constitution of the Church; and after his accession to the throne of England, in March 1603, his policy in this respect became more manifest. Indeed, by an act of Parliament in 1597, (19th December,) the insidious propositions which had been made in the Assemblies, for the introduction of clergymen into Parliament, were given effect to, and formed the first step in the series of encroachments on the Presbyterian polity. Without at present going minutely into the detail of events which followed, it may be noticed, with reference to the rescinded acts of Assembly, that even before the Assembly of 1602, Prelacy was virtually introduced into the Church, and after that date it was openly established by a series of acts of Parliament. The Assemblies of 1606, 1608, 1610, and 1616, were all Episcopalian, as is evinced by the whole course of procedure in those Conventions, which were one and all convoked and packed by the King, and were held merely for the purpose of registering his edicts, and giving a colourable aspect to these as clothed with ecclesiastical sanction. There were two other Assemblies of like character held in the years 1617 and 1618—in the latter of which the celebrated Articles of Perth were adopted by the Bishops and subservient Clergy; but of the proceedings in these two Assemblies, there is no fragment in the MS. copies of “The Booke” to which we have had access; nor, although the nature of these proceedings is described by Calderwood and other historians, have we been able to discover any detailed record similar to that which has been preserved of the preceding Assemblies of the Church. After 1618, General Assemblies were entirely discontinued for the space of twenty years, until, in 1638, in consequence of the great revulsion which then took place in Scotland under the guidance of the Covenanters, another General Assembly was convoked by authority of King Charles the First.
In conformity with the course which we have already adopted with reference to particular epochs of our Church history, and in order to illustrate the relation which subsisted betwixt the Church and the State, we shall now, at the close of “The Booke,” subjoin in an Appendix the principal Acts of Parliament which were passed in regard to the Church, betwixt 1592 and 1638, when Presbyterianism was re-established—thus presenting, in connexion with the Acts of the Church, all the leading statutory enactments of the State by which the Church polity was established, modified, and subverted, during a period of seventy-eight years. And with these few explanatory remarks, we commit “The Booke of the Kirk” into the hands of our countrymen, being well assured that its pages contain much important matter, which merits careful examination and study at the present day.
July 1839.
And now the most grateful part of our task (for the present) only remains—to record our thanks for the friendly assistance we have received while engaged in the present undertaking. We owe our acknowledgments especially to Thomas Thomson, Esq. Deputy Clerk-Register; to the Rev. Dr Lee; and to Messrs A. M‘Donald of the Register House, D. Laing and Ferguson, Librarians for the Writers to the Signet; Mr Haig of the Advocates’ Library; Mr Rowan of the Theological Library in the University of Edinburgh; to the Rev. W. B. Smith, Chaplain of Edinburgh Castle; and to the Rev. Thomas M‘Crie, for many facilities and much useful information, without which the present publication would have been altogether impracticable at present.