In the year 1712. an net was passed by the British parliament which restored to patrons ID Scotland their right of presentation to benefices. This statute excited great discontent among the members of the Established chervil, and for many year's attempts were made to obtain a repeal of it. These attempts were unsuccessful, but its provisions were long practically disregarded. When at length the ,general assembly to act upon it, the dissatisfaction increased among tho'se who held thedivine right of the people to choose their own ministers. The leader of the discontented party was a minister named Ebenezer Erskine, and he with his adherents, in the year 1733, finally separated front the Establishment, and formed a communion which took the title of the Associate Presbytery, though its members were popularly known as the Seceders. The Seceders themselves were soon divided by a very absurd dispute into two bodies, called the Burgher and the Antiburglter Synods. In the veil!. 1761, another secession from the Establishment took place in connection with the law of patronage; rand the separated body assumed the name of the Presbytery of Relief.
There were no further secessions from the church; but its members Were divided into two parties, known as the moderates and the Evangelicals (q.v.), the former of whom were favorable, the latter hostile to the law of patronage. For many years time 3Lxlerates, headed by Dr. Robertson the historian and others of his school, and sup ported by the influence of the government, maintained an ascendency in Ihe assembly and throughout the country. In the 'tat o- years of George III. and timing the reign of George IV., this ascendency began to decrease. The political excitement which prevailed in the beginning of the reign of William IV. strongly affected the Scottish Establishment, which from its very constitution is peculiarly Hale to he moved by the impulses of popular feeling. The two parties in time general assembly engaged in a struggle more fierce than any in which they had yet met; and the subject of dispute, as before, was immediately connected with the law of patronage. Dr. Chalmers, the most distinguished minister in Scotland, added the whole weight of his influence to the popular party, and in 1834 an interim act of assembly was passed, known as the Veto act, which declared it to be it fundamental law of the church that no pastor should be intruded on any congregation contrary to the will of the people, and laid down certain rules fur carrying out this principle. The legality of this act was doubted; and in COO nection with a presentation to the parish of Auchterarder, the presentee, on being rejected by the presbytery in terms of the Veto net, appealed, with concurrence of time patron, to the court of sessiou—the civil court in Scotland. 9 hat court decided that the conduct of the presbytery in rejecting the present t e was Mph and their judgment was affirmed by the house of lords. Other rinses of a similar nature followed, and something like it conflict took place between the civil and ecclesiastical courts, the former enforcing their sentences by civil penalties, the latter suspending t.11d deposing the ministers who obeyed the injunctions of the court of seise n. In the general assembly of 1843 the dispute came to a crisis. A large number of ministt rs and elders of the popular party left the assembly, and met apart in a similinr body, of which Dr. Chalmers was chosen modulator. They formed themselves into a separate communion under the title of "The Free Church of Scotland," and gave up their benefices in the Established church, and all connection whatever with that body. The Free church carried off about one-half of the members of the Establishment, and became a rival communion In most of the parishes.' See FREE Cituucia. By an act of parliament in 1874, patronage was abolished in the Established Church and the right of choosing the minister transferred to the congregation. See PATRONAGE, III 1820 the Burgher and Antiburgher Seceders were united under the name of the Associate Synod of the Secession church, end in 1847 this associate synod and the relief synod were united under the name of " The United Presbyterian Church," (q.v.).
The recent negotiations for a union of the United Presbyterian church and the Free church have led to no practical result.
A few remarks may he added on the history of Scottish episcopacy subsequently to the revolution. It is a common but erroneous opinion that almost t.11 the Episcopal clergy were Jacobites from the time of the accession of William and The bishops were so; but a large number, probably it considerable majority of the clergy, had at first no objection to take the oath of allegiance to the new government. During the reign of queen Anne, the Episcopal clergy were well disposed to the government, knowing the queen's good wishes to their communion. They were frequently harassed by the courts of time Establishment; but all who were willing to take the oaths obtained an ample protection for their worship on time pasting of the Toleration act of 1712. Oa the death of time queen, almost all the clergy, and most of the laity, were involved directly or indirectly in time attempts to overthrow the Hanoverian dynasty, and it was this which finally matle the names of Episcopalil'in and for many nears to be convertible terms. - In the meantime. the succession of bishops liad been kept up by new confect'ations, and after some years the dioceses, though diminislual in number, were regularly tilled. Au important change took place in the forms of worship. No longer trammeled by their connection with the state, they adopted liturgical forms similar to those in the English prayer-book. and in almost all cases identical, except that many of the •ongre gations used an office for the communion modeled on that of the Scottish liturgy of Ring Cha•let I. The Episcopalians took no such open part in the insurrection of i745 as they did in that of 1715 but their sympathies were known to be with the house of Stewart; and the government carried through parliament some intolerant acts, which were put in execution with great harshness, and which for many years suppressed all public worship in the Episcopal communion. It NV FIS only after the accession of George III. that these statutes ceased to be actively enforced; and it was not till 1799 that the Episcopalians, who from the death of prince Cnarles had acknowledged the reigning dynasty, were relieved from the penal laws. The act which gave this relief imposed restrictions on their clergy officiating in England, and prohibited their holding benefices in the En!list) church. In 1804, the bishops and clergy agreed to adopt the thirty-nine articles of the church of England, and in 1803. the prayer-book was adopted as the authorized service-book of the Episcopal church, permission being given in certain cases to use the Scottish communion office. The restrictions imposed on the Scottish clergy by the act of 1702 were modified by an act passed in 1840; and in 1804 they were entirely removed. the right being reserved to bishops in England and Ireland to refuse institution to a Scottish clergyman without assigning. any reason, ou his first presenta tion to a benefice in England or Ireland, but not after he should have once held such benefice.
The dioceses of the Scottish Episcopal church are seven in number, viz., Moray, Aberdeen. Breehin, Argyle, St. Andrews, Edinbtirgh, and Glasaow. The bishops are chosen by the clergy of the diocese, and by representatives of the lay communicants, a majority of both orders being necessayy to a valid election. One of the bishops, under the name of prim us, chosen by the other bishops; presides at all meetings of the bishops, and has certain other vrivileges, but possesses no metropolitan authority. The highest judicial body is the episcopal college, composed of all the bishops. 'I he highest leek ',dive body is it general synod, composed of two houses, the one of the bishops, the other of the deans and the representatives of the clergy.
The chief original authorities for the ecclesiastical history of Scotland down to the revolution are the same as those mentioned m .the article on the civil history (q.v.). The chief modern authorities are: Cook's History of the Reformation and history of the Church of Scotland; Cunningham's Church History of Scotland; Grub's Ecclesiastical _His tory tf Scotland.