Church of Scotland

I

Introduction

Church of Scotland, national Scottish church, organized during the Reformation in Scotland, also called the Auld Kirk (Scot., “Old Church”). Calvinist in doctrine and Presbyterian in polity, the Church of Scotland numbers among its communicants the majority of Presbyterians in Scotland.

II

History

The earliest step toward the establishment of the Protestant faith in Scotland was the drawing up of the First Covenant (see Covenanters), otherwise known as the Congregation of the Lord, signed at Edinburgh on December 3, 1557. In 1560, following the deposition of Mary of Guise, the Roman Catholic regent of Scotland, the Scottish Parliament abolished the Roman Catholic form of worship and ratified the so-called Scots Confession, a confession of faith composed for the most part by the Scottish reformer John Knox and resembling the Confessions adopted by the Reformed churches on the Continent. Knox likewise took the lead in drafting the First Book of Discipline (1560), a comprehensive constitution for the Scottish reformed church.

On December 20, 1560, the first general assembly of the Church of Scotland was convened in Edinburgh. As a result of the efforts of Knox and another religious reformer, Andrew Melville, Presbyterian Calvinism was recognized as the established religion of Scotland. The Second Book of Discipline was adopted in 1577. In 1592 the Scottish king, James VI, later King James I of England, consented to the passage by the Scottish Parliament of the so-called Golden Act, which gave legal standing to the Presbyterian ecclesiastical courts and revoked the king's absolute jurisdiction over church government. After the union (1603) of the crowns of Scotland and England, however, James took steps to reimpose his episcopal authority on his Scottish subjects. In this policy he was followed by his successors Charles I, Charles II, and James II.

During the English Revolution the Scottish Presbyterians and English Presbyterians joined forces. In 1643 a body of English and Scottish Presbyterian clergymen, known as the Westminster Assembly, formulated the Westminster Standards, comprising the Westminster Confession and the Westminster Catechisms, which contains a clear and authoritative exposition of Calvinist theology and Presbyterian church government. The episcopal system, reestablished in the Church of Scotland in 1661, after the restoration of Charles II to the British throne, was again replaced by Presbyterianism as part of the Act of Settlement (1701), and the Westminster Standards were adopted. See Settlement, Act of.

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III

Formation of The Modern Church

A number of dissident groups, objecting to the patronage system of church appointments and the worldliness of some church officials, broke away from the church in the 17th and 18th centuries. Among them were the Cameronians, who seceded in 1681 and later became known as the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Another dissident body, the Associate Presbytery, withdrew in 1733 and was reorganized (1745) as the Associate Synod and again (1842) as the Synod of United Original Seceders. Most of its members became affiliated in 1852 with the Free Church of Scotland. A third group, calling itself the Relief Presbytery (subsequently the Relief Synod), separated in 1761.

In 1847 the Relief Synod joined with the United Secession, a coalition of seceding denominations, to form the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. In 1900 the United Presbyterian Church merged with the Free Church to form the United Free Church of Scotland, which 29 years later was joined to the Church of Scotland.

See also Scotland.