Since 1909—when the quater-centenary of the birth of Calvin brought the Church of Scotland and United Free Church Assem blies together in a memorial service in St. Giles's, and a joint-com mittee on union was appointed—the two bodies have been moving towards reunion. The negotiations, interrupted by the War, have been resumed, and the main causes of keeping the Churches apart have been removed.
The leaders of the Church of Scotland have already twice gone to Parliament in order to secure Acts which might remove the scruples of the other Church; the first Act (in 1921) ratified a Constitution drawn up by the Church declaring her spiritual free dom, with Nine Articles outlining an acceptable doctrinal basis; the second (in 1925) ratified a financial arrangement between the Church and the heritors, relating to the teinds. Finally the Gen eral Assemblies of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church, at their meetings held in Edinburgh in May, 1929, both resolved on an incorporating union of the two Churches. The incorporating resolution was passed by the Assembly of the Church of Scotland with practical unanimity and by the Assembly of the United Free Church with an overwhelming majority. The union was consummated at a meeting of the Assemblies held on October 2, 1929, at the Cathedral of St. Giles, according to the plan formulated in May.
authorities are the histories of Knox, Calderwood, Baillie's Letters, and Wodrow's History: Knox's liturgy has been edited by Dr. Sprott, and on the Westminster Standards the reader may consult Dr. Mitchell's Minutes of the Westminster Assembly, and Baird lectures on the same subject. Modern histories of the church have been written by Cook, Hetherington and Principal Cunningham; Dr. Story's Church of Scotland in 5 vols. contains information on every side of the subject. Among books professedly dealing with the Free Church question, the most valuable are Sydow's Die Schottische Kirchenfrage (Potsdam, and The Scottish Church Question (London, ; Buchanan's Ten Years' Conflict (1849) ; Hanna's Life of Chalmers (1852) ; and Taylor Innes on The Law of Creeds in Scotland (1867). See also Cockburn, Memorials of His Time (Con tinuation, 1874) ; Walker, Dr. Robert Buchanan: an Ecclesiastical Biography (1877) ; Annals of the Disruption (published by authority of a committee of the Free Church (1876-77). On the United Presby terian Church see McKerrow, History of the United Secession Church (1845); Struthers, History of the Relief Church (1843) ; McKelvie, Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church (1873) ; and on re-union, A. Martin, Church Union in Scotland (Dpo).
(A. Ms.; X.)