FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. In one sense the Free Church of Scotland dated its existence from the Disruption of 1843, in another it claimed to be the rightful representative of the National Church of Scotland (see SCOTLAND, CHURCH OF) as it was reformed in 1560. In the ecclesiastical history of Scot land the Free Churchman saw three great reforming periods. In each of these the inherent scriptural right of the church to exercise a spiritual jurisdiction in which she is responsible to Christ alone, was asserted and practically maintained. The first reformation extended from 1560, when the church freely held her first General Assembly, and of her own authority acted on the First Book of Discipline, to 1S92, when her Presbyterian order was finally and fully ratified by the parliament. The second period began in 1638, when, after 20 years of suspended animation, the Assembly once more shook off Episcopacy, and terminated in 1649, when the parliament of Scotland confirmed the church in her liberties in a larger and ampler sense than before. The Westminster standards were ratified, lay-patronage was abolished, and the coronation oath itself framed in accordance with the principles of Presbyterian church government. The Revolution Settlement of 1690 was not so entirely favourable to the freedom of the church as the legislation of 1649 had been. Presbyterianism was re-established, and the old rights of patrons were again discon tinued ; but the large powers which had been conferred on con gregations by the act of 1649 were not wholly restored. Never theless, the great principle of a distinct ecclesiastical jurisdiction, embodied in the Confession of Faith, was accepted without re servation, and a Presbyterian polity effectively confirmed both then and at the ratification of the treaty of Union. This settle ment, however, did not long subsist unimpaired. In 1712 the act of Queen Anne, restoring patronage to its ancient footing, was passed in spite of the earnest remonstrances of the Scottish people. For many years afterwards (until 1784) the Assembly continued to instruct each succeeding commission to make applica tion to the king and the parliament for redress of the grievance. But meanwhile a new phase of Scottish ecclesiastical politics com monly known as Moderatism had been inaugurated, during the prevalence of which the church became even more indifferent than the lay patrons themselves to the rights of her congregations with regard to the "calling" of ministers.
The result was a protracted struggle which entered on its final stage with the passing in 1834 of the "Veto" Act, by which it was declared to be a fundamental law of the church that no pastor should be intruded on a congregation con trary to the will of the people, and by which it was provided that the simple dissent of a majority of heads of families in a parish should be enough to warrant a presbytery in rejecting a presentee. The question of the legality of this measure soon came to be tried in the civil courts ; and it was ultimately answered in a sense unfavourable to the church by the decision (1838) of the court of session that a presbytery had no right to reject a presentee simply because the parishioners protested against his settlement, but was bound to disregard the veto (see CHALMERS, THOMAS). This decision elicited from the Assembly of that year a new declaration of the doctrine of the spiritual independence of the church. The "exclusive jurisdiction of the civil courts in regard to the civil rights and emoluments secured by law to the church and the ministers thereof" was acknowledged without qualification. At the same time it was insisted that "in all matters touching the doctrine, discipline and government of the church her judicatories possess an exclusive jurisdiction founded on the Word of God." And it was resolved to assert, and at all hazards defend, this spiritual jurisdiction, and firmly to enforce obedience to the same upon the office-bearers and members of the church. The decision of the court of session having been confirmed by the House of Lords early in 1839, it was decided in the Assembly of that yeas that the church should reaffirm the principle of "non intrusion" as an integral part of the constitution of the Reformed Church of Scotland, and that a committee should be appointed to confer with the government with a view to the prevention, if possible, of any further collision between the civil and ecclesias tical authorities. Yet the conference with the government had no practical result, and grave complications were arising over other cases where congregations objected to ministers "intruded" by patrons. In the circumstances it was resolved by the Assembly of 1842 to transmit to the queen, by the hands of the lord high commissioner, a "claim, declaration and protest," complaining of the encroachments of the court of session, and also an address praying for the abolition of patronage. The home secretary's answer (received in January 1843) gave no hope of redress.
A final appeal to parliament by petition was made in March 1843, when, by a majority of
the House of Commons declined to attempt any redress of the grievances of the Scottish Church. At the first session of the following General Assembly (May 18, 1843) the reply of the non-intrusion party was made in a protest, signed by upwards of 200 commissioners, to the effect that since, in their opinion, the recent decisions of the civil courts, and the still more recent sanction of these decisions by the legislature, had made it im possible at that time to hold a free Assembly of the church as by law established they therefore "protest that it shall be lawful for us, and such other commissioners as may concur with us, to withdraw to a separate place of meeting, for the purpose of taking steps for ourselves and all who adhere to us—maintaining with us the Confession of Faith and standards of the Church of Scotland as heretofore understood—for separating in an orderly way from the Establishment, and thereupon adopting such meas ures as may be competent to us, in humble dependence on God's grace and the aid of His Holy Spirit, for the advancement of His glory, the extension of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour, and the administration of the affairs of Christ's house according to His holy word." The reading of this document was followed by the withdrawal of the entire non-intrusion party to another place of meeting, where the first Assembly of the Free Church was constituted, with Dr. Thomas Chalmers as moderator. This As sembly sat from the 18th to the 3oth of May, and transacted a large amount of important business. On Tuesday the 23rd, 396 ministers and professors publicly adhibited their names to the Act of Separation and deed of demission by which they renounced all claim to the benefices they had held in connection with the Establishment, declaring them to be vacant, and consenting to their being dealt with as such. By this impressive proceeding the signatories voluntarily surrendered an annual income amount ing to fully £ I oo,000.
The first care of the voluntarily disestablished church was to provide incomes for her clergy and places of worship for her people. Dr. Chalmers had already prepared a carefully matured scheme, according to which "each congregation should do its part in sustaining the whole, and the whole should sustain each congregation"; and at the first Assembly it was announced that upwards of £17,000 had already been contributed. Each successive year showed a steady increase in the gross amount of the fund. To provide for the erection of the buildings which, it was foreseen, would be necessary, a general building fund, in which all should share alike, was also organized, and local building funds were as far as possible established in each parish, with the result that at the first Assembly a sum of 1104,776 was reported as already available. At the end of four years considerably more than 700 churches had been provided. During the winter session 1843-1844 the divinity students who had joined the Free Church continued their studies under Dr. Chalmers and Dr. David Welsh
1 845) ; and at the Assembly of 1844 arrangements were made for the erection of suitable collegiate buildings. The New College, Edinburgh, was built in 1847 at a cost of £46,506; and divinity halls were subsequently set up also in Glasgow and Aberdeen.
During the conflict preceding disruption the "non-intrusion" party strenuously denied that in any one respect it was departing from acknowledged principles of the National Church. It continued to do so after the disrup tion. In 1846, however, it was found to have become necessary, "in consequence of the late change in the outward condition of the church," to amend the "questions and formula" to be used at the licensing of probationers and the ordination of office bearers. These were amended accordingly ; and at the same time it was declared that, "while the church firmly maintains the same scriptural principles as to the duties of nations and their rulers in reference to true religion and the Church of Christ for which she has hitherto contended, she disclaims intolerant or persecut ing principles, and does not regard her Confession of Faith, or any portion thereof when fairly interpreted, as favouring intolerance or persecution, or consider that her office-bearers by subscribing it profess any principles inconsistent with liberty of conscience and the right of private judgment." The main difference between the "formula" of the Free Church and that of the Established Church (as at the year 1900) was that the former referred to the Confession of Faith simply as "approvers by General Assemblies of this Church," while the latter described it as "approven by the General Assemblies of this National Church, and ratified by law in the year 169o, and frequently confirmed by divers Acts of Parliament since that time" ; and the Free Church inserted an additional clause,—"I also approve of the general principles re specting the jurisdiction of the church, and her subjection to Christ as her only Head, which are contained in the Claim of Right and in the Protest referred to in the questions already put to me"; and also added the words which are here distinguished by italics,-"And I promise that through the grace of God I shall firmly and constantly adhere to the same, and to the utmost of my power shall in my station assert, maintain and defend the said doctrine, worship, discipline and government of this church by kirk-sessions, presbyteries, provincial synods and general assemblies, together with the liberty and exclusive jurisdiction thereof ; and that I shall, in my practice, conform myself to the said worship and submit to the said discipline [and] government, and exclusive jurisdiction, and not endeavour directly or indirectly the prejudice or subversion of the same." In 1863 a motion was made and unanimously carried in the Free Church Assembly for the appointment of a committee to confer with a corresponding committee of the United Presbyterian Synod, and with the representatives of such other disestablished churches as might be willing to meet and deliberate with a view to an incorporating union. Formal negotiations between the repre sentatives of these two churches were begun shortly afterwards, which resulted in a report laid before the following Assembly. From this document it appeared that the committees of the two churches were not at one on the question as to the relation of the civil magistrate to the church. While on the part of the Free Church it was maintained that he "may lawfully acknowledge, as being in accordance with the Word of God, the creed and jurisdiction of the church," and that "it is his duty, when neces sary and expedient, to employ the national resources in aid of the church, provided always that in doing so, while reserving to him self full control over the temporalities which are his own gift, he abstain from all authoritative interference in the internal government of the church," it was declared by the committee of the United Presbyterian Church that, "inasmuch as the civil magistrate has no authority in spiritual things, and as the em ployment of force in such matters is opposed to the spirit and precepts of Christianity, it is not within his province to legislate as to what is true in religion, to prescribe a creed or form of worship to his subjects, or to endow the church from national resources." Thus in a very short time it had been made per fectly evident that a union between the two bodies, if accom plished at all, could only be brought about on the understanding that the question as to the lawfulness of state endowments should be an open one. The Free Church Assembly, by increasing majorities, manifested a readiness for union, even although una nimity had not been attained on that theoretical point. But there was a minority which did not sympathize in this readiness, and after ten years of fruitless effort it was in 1873 found to be expedient that the idea of union with the United Presbyterians should for the time be abandoned. Other negotiations, however, which had been entered upon with the Reformed Presbyterian Church at a somewhat later date proved more successful; and a majority of the ministers of that church with their congregations were united with the Free Church in 1876.
The mind of the Free Church was by no means absorbed only in questions of ecclesiastical polity. The Colleges of the Church have been the home of the most active interest in theological and historical questions. There was a stormy period, however, when extreme conservatism appeared to gain a victory. In 187o W. Robertson Smith (see SMITH, WILLIAM ROBERTSON) was ordained to the office of professor of oriental languages and Old Testament exegesis in the Free Church College, Aberdeen. Here from the first he advocated views which though now widely accepted, were then regarded with apprehension. In 1876 a com mittee of the Free Church reported so adversely on his writings that Smith demanded a formal trial. The indictment failed; but a vote of want of confidence was passed, and in 1881 he was re moved from his chair. This event, however, was no adequate expression of the real mind of the Church. During the last quarter of the 19th century the Free Church continued to be the most active, theologically, of the Scottish Churches. The College chairs were almost uniformly filled by theologians and historians of progressive views, inspired more or less by Professor A. B. David son of New College, Edinburgh. Dr. A. B. Bruce, author of The Training of the Twelve, etc., was appointed to the chair of apolo getics and New Testament exegesis in the Glasgow College in 1875; Henry Drummond (author of Natural Law in the Spiritual World, etc.) was made lecturer in natural science in the same college iu 1877 and became professor in 1884; and Dr. George Adam Smith (author of The Twelve Prophets, etc.) was called to the Hebrew chair in 1892. Attempts were made between 1890 and 1895 to bring all these professors except Davidson (similar at tacks were also made on Dr. Marcus Dods, afterwards principal of the New College, Edinburgh) to the bar of the Assembly for unsound teaching or writing ; but in every case these were abor tive, the Assembly never taking any step beyond warning the accused that their primary duty was to teach and defend the church's faith as embodied in the confession. In 1892 the Free Church, following the example of the United Presbyterian Church and the Church of Scotland (1889), passed a Declaratory Act relaxing the stringency of subscription to the confession, with the result that a small number of ministers and congregations, mostly in the T-Iighlands, severed their connection with the church and formed the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, on strictly orthodox lines. Meanwhile other changes were taking place. The standard of parochial and congregational activity was raised, a new method of operation devised. The use of instrumental music was sanctioned and special attention given to the promotion of the ends of edification, order and reverence in public worship. And the establishment principle was from then onwards almost entirely abandoned.
During the last four or five years of the 19th century the Free and United Presbyterian churches, which after the failure of their union negotiations in 1873 had been connected together by a Mutual Eligibility Act enabling a congregation of one church to call a minister from the other, de voted their energy to the arrangement of an incorporating union. The Synod of the United Presbyterian Church resolved in 1896 to "take steps towards union," and in the following year the Free Assembly responded by appointing a committee to confer with a committee of the other church. The joint committee discovered a "remarkable and happy agreement" between the doctrinal stand ards, rules and methods of the two bodies, and with very little concessions on either side a common constitution and common "questions and formula" for the admission of ministers and office bearers were arranged. A minority, always growing smaller, of the Free Church Assembly, protested against the proposed union, and threatened if it were carried through to test its legality in the courts; nevertheless the union was carried through. The supreme courts of the churches met for the last time in their respective places of meeting on the 30th of October 1900, and on the follow-. ing day the joint meeting took place at which the union was com pleted, and the United Free Church of Scotland (q.v.) entered on its career. The protesting and dissenting minority at once claimed to be the Free Church. They met outside the Free Assembly Hall on the 31st of October, and, failing to gain admission to it, with drew to another hall, where they elected Mr. Colin Bannatyne their moderator and held the remaining sittings of the Assembly. It was reported that between 16,000 and 17,000 names had been received of persons adhering to the anti-unionist principle. At the Assembly of 1901 it was stated that the Free Church had twenty five ministers and at least sixty-three congregations. The charac ter of the church is indicated by the fact that its office-bearers were the faithful survivors of the decreasing minority of the Old Free Church, which had protested against the disestablishment resolu tions, against the relaxation of subscription, against toleration of the teaching of the Glasgow professors, and against the use in wor hip of organs or of human hymns. Her congregations were mostly in the Gaelic-speaking districts of Scotland. She was confronted with a very arduous undertaking ; her congregations grew in num ber, but were far from each other and there were not nearly enough ministers. The church met with no sympathy or assistance at the hands of the United Free Church, and her work was con ducted at first under considerable hardships, nor was her position one to appeal to the general popular sentiment of Scotland. But the little church continued her course with indomitable courage and without any compromise of principle. The Declaratory Act of 1892 was repealed after a consultation of presbyteries, and the old principles as to worship were declared. The desire of the Church of Scotland to obtain relaxation of her formula was de clared to make union with her impossible.
The decision of the House of Lords in 1904 did not bring the trials of the Free Church to an end. In the absence of any arrangement with the United Free Church, she could only gain possession of the property declared to belong to her by an appli cation in each particular case to the Court of Session, and a series of law-suits began which were trying to all parties. In the year 1905 the Free Church Assembly met in the historic Free Church Assembly Hall, but it did not meet there again. The urgent task confronting the church was that of supplying ordinances to her congregations. The latter numbered 200 in 1907, and the church had as yet only 74 ordained ministers, so that many of the manses allocated to her by the commissioners were not yet occupied, and catechists and elders were called to conduct services where pos sible. The problem has been faced with energy and enthusiasm, but it is still serious.
See SCOTLAND, CHURCH OF, and UNITED FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
