FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. This was the name assumed by the large body of ministers and their adherents who gave up their livings and separated from the Established Church of Scotland at the Disruption (q.v.) on 18 May 1843. They seceded in vindication of the °Headship of Christ," that is, to gain liberty to obey what they deemed the will of their Divine Lord in all church arrangements (includ ing the election of ministers to charges) free from the control or interference of the civil power. No new article of faith was adopted, all the forms and rights of the national Church being retained in their integrity. The Church prospered in the face of formidable financial difficulties which were largely overcome by the institution of a sustenation fund, and by the excellent arrangements made for its distribution and employment. After 1867 there was a move ment for an incorporating union with the United Presbyterian Church, which represented the voluntary principle in Scottish non-con formity. That union was formally compelled by the constitution at Edinburgh, on 31 Oct. 1900, of the first general assembly of the United Free Church of Scotland, which represented 1,149 ministers and 296,089 communicants be longing to the Free Church, and 637 ministers and 199,089 belonging to the United Presby terian Church. A protesting minority, consist ing of 27 ministers and 500 elders', who claimed to represent a total strength of 50,000 members and adherents, refused to join the union. The union of the Free Church with a voluntary body appeared to them to be a surrender of the principle of national religion and of the Con fession of Faith, subscription to which had been already qualified by two declaratory acts. They
were also opposed to the toleration in the Church of the higher criticism, and to the use of organs and human hymns. They were ex truded from the of the buildings and funds of the Church; the parties went to law; and after the protesting minority had been non suited in the Scottish courts, the case was taken on appeal to the House of Lords, which by a majority judgment, given in August 1904, re versed the decision of the Scottish courts. The effect of the judgment was that the whole of the funds and property of the Free Church became vested in the non-uniting minority, or °Wee Frees," as they were popularly called. Lord Halsburg, who gave the leading judgment, decided that the Free Church had °lost its iden tity') in its incorporation with the United Presby terian Church, a voluntary body. The decision was received with dismay and indignation in Scotland. It was at once perceived that the Free Church, whose stronghold was in the Gaelic-speaking Highlands and Islands, and was almost totally unrepresented alike in the rural districts throughout the country and in the great urban centres, was in no position to administer the trust that had been imposed upon it. Relief had to be sought in legislation; a royal commission was appointed and follow ing on its report an act of Parliament was passed in 1905, under which an executive commission was set up to allocate the property as between the two churches. The Free Church had in 1916 5 synods, 12 presbyteries, 97 ministers and 178 congregations. See PRESBYTERIANISM, United Free Church.