The succeeding decennium is the culminating period of Scot tish Presbyterianism, when, having successfully resisted the crown, it not only was supreme in Scotland but exercised a decisive influence over England. The causes which brought about this state of affairs are to be sought to a large extent in the civil history of England. The English parliament sought the alliance of the assembly, while the Independents, though in the event Presbytery was as little to their liking as Episcopacy, joined in the wish to get rid of the episcopal system. In its period of triumph the Presbyterianism of Scotland displayed its character. After the injustice and persecution it had suffered it could scarcely prove moderate or tolerant ; it showed a vehement determination to carry out the truth it had vindicated with such enthusiasm, to the full extent and wherever possible. The Cove nant, at first a standard of freedom, was immediately converted into a test and made the instrument of oppression and perse cution. All policy was to be determined by the Covenant ; the king and every official was to be obliged to take it. The mind of the nation being so preoccupied with the Covenant, it naturally followed that those who carried their fanaticism farthest were ready to denounce and to unchurch those who showed any incli nation to moderation and political sanity, and that the beginnings of schism soon appeared in the ranks of the Covenanters.
In 1643, when the full legal establishment of Presbytery had just been consummated, the General Assembly, asked by the English parliament to arrange a league to be signed in both countries for the furtherance of reformed religion, agreed, but asked that the league should be a religious one. The result was the Solemn League and Covenant. It did not mention Presby terianism; but the Assembly had refused to hear of any recog nition of independency; if religion were thoroughly reformed, they considered the result must be Presbyterianism in England as in Scotland. In the Westminster Standards also, which were the fruit of the Scottish desire for a religious uniformity, Scot land did not obtain by any means all it desired in its church documents. The Scottish divines in the Westminster Assembly were only five in number, while the assembly contained effective parties of Erastians and Independents. The Confession of Faith contains no approval of any system of church government, and when she adopted it in 1647 the kirk gave up her old confession in which the principles at least of true church order are laid down. In accepting in 1645 the Westminster Directory of Public Worship she tacitly gave up her own liturgy which had been in use till recently, and committed herself to a bald and uninviting order of worship, in which no forms of prayer were allowed to be used.
Struggle Against Episcopacy.—If the mismanagement of Scottish religious affairs under James and Charles I. is a melan choly story, what took place under Charles II. is infinitely sadder. From the first Charles showed himself determined to force Episco palianism on Scotland, and not too scrupulous in the choice of methods for securing his ends. The attempt was nearly successful. In the greater part of the country little change took place in the religious services. The service book was not read nor kneeling at
communion required, and it made no immediate difference to the people that the clergy should be under bishops. The inferior church courts still sat, though not the assembly. At the Restora tion it was a question whether the bulk of the population was in favour of Presbytery or of Episcopacy; but the matter was handled in such a way in the west of Scotland that an extreme Covenanting spirit arose, nourished on intolerable grievances, and the nation as a whole decided against the system which had been promoted by such means.
The Rescissory Act of 1661 swept away the legislation of the preceding twenty years, and so disposed of the Presbyterian polity of the church. Episcopacy was restored by a letter from the king On the 5th of September 1661 (see SCOTLAND, EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF). An act requiring all ministers appointed during the period when patronage was abolished to get presentation from their patrons and institution from their bishops was applied in the west of Scotland in such a way that 30o ministers left their manses. Their places were filled with less competent men whom the people did not wish to hear, and so conventicler began to be held. The attempts to suppress these, the harsh measures taken against those who attended them or connived at them, or refused to give information against them, the military violence and the judicial severities, the confiscations, imprisonments, tortures, expatria tions, all make up a dreadful narrative. Indulgences were tried, and were successful in bringing back about f oo ministers to their parishes and introducing a new cause of division among the clergy. On the other hand, the Covenanting spirit rose higher and higher among the persecuted till the armed risings took place and the formal rebellion of a handful of desperate men against the ruler of three kingdoms.
When William landed in England in 1688, the scene changed in Scotland. The soldiery was withdrawn from the west, and the people at once showed their feelings by the "rabbling" or ejection of the curates who occupied the manses of the ousted ministers, in which, however, no lives were lost. William would have decided for Episcopacy in Scotland, as the great body of the nobles and gentry adhered to it, but only on condition that the Episcopalians agreed to support him and that they had the people with them. Neither of these conditions was fulfilled. On the 22nd of July 1689 the Convention which declared the throne vacant and called William and Mary to fill it, declared in its Claim of Right that prelacy and the superiority of any office in the church above ministers had been a great and insupportable grievance to Scot land. Effect was given to this; and in April 1690 the act was passed on which the establishment of the Church of Scotland rests, the Westminster Confession being recognized, the laws in favour of Episcopacy repealed, though the Rescissory Act remained on the statute book, and the assembly appointed to meet. Three years later the formula of subscription, to be signed by all ministers, was fixed.