UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (OF SCOTLAND). The United Secession Church and the Relief Church, which had existed as separate organisations for a considerable period, formed a junction in 1847, under the designation of the United I'reehyterian Church. The original secession from the Scottish establishnieut, which took place in the year 1733,'svas occasioned by two acts of the General Assembly; the first, passed in 1730, for putting an end to the practice of ing the protests, or reasons of dissent, given in by individual members against the decisions of church judicatories ; the other, passed in 1732, providing that in cases in which what is called the jus devolatunz, or right of the presbytery to nominate to vacant livings in consequence of no qualified person being presented by the patron within six months, came into operation, the presbytery should always appoint the person chosen by the heritors and elders. The act of 1732 was not satisfactory to some members of the church because it did not restore (in the cases in which the appointment fell to presbyteries) the more democratic practice which had been established in 1649, placing the election with the elders, or members of the kirk session, alone.
The clergyman who took the lead in the movement against the acts of 1730 and 1732 was Ebenezer Erskine, then one of the ministers of Stirling, who had the co-operation of his brother, Ralph Erskine, minister of the parish of Dunfermline. [ERSKra, EBENEZER, in BIOG. Dry.] Fifteen members of Assembly protested against the passing of the act of 1732. As the Assembly refused to record this protest, Ebenezer Erskine, in a sermon which he preached a few months later, as moderator of the synod of Perth and Stirling, denounced the pro ceeding as arbitrary and tyrannical. Upon this sermon the synod passed a resolution of censure, from which Erskine appealed to the General Assembly ; but the sentence was confirmed by that supreme court in 1733, and he was rebuked and admonished at the bar of the house. He protested, three other clergymen adhering to him, against this decision, and declared he would continue the conduct for-which he had been censured ; upon which the Commission of Assembly was authorised to proceed against the four protesters, and they were sus pended in August, 1733, and deposed on the 16th of November following. This sentence of the Commission however was removed by the Assembly of 1734, which at the same time repealed both the act of 1730 and that of 1732. But in the meantime the deposed brethren, baying been joined by four other clergymen, had constituted themselves into a separate presbytery, under the name of The Associate Presbytery ; the eight clergymen continuing to officiate in their several churches as usual, till the affair was once more brought before the Assembly of 1739. Even in that house the motion for proceeding to a sentence of deposition was lost ; but they were finally deposed, and their parishes declared vacant by an act of the next Assembly, passed 15th May, 1740, by a majority of 140 to 30.
The Seceders, or Associate Synod, as they called themselves, remained a united body till the 9th of April, 1747, when they split into two on a quarrel about a clause in the oath required to be taken by the burgesses or freemen of some of the burghs in Scotland, declaratory of their profession and hearty allowance of "the true religion at present professed within the realm, and authorised by the laws thereof." The larger division, who held that the oath might con scientiously be taken by Seceders, kept the name of the Associate Synod, but were popularly designated Burghers ; while those who held that it would be wrong to take the oath took the name of the General Associate Synod, and were known as Anti-burghers. In 1820 the Burghers and Anti-burghers coalesced again into the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church. In 1847, this body, when it united with the Relief Church, consisted of 24 presbyteries, representing about 400 congregations.
The practice of subscribing the Solemn League and Covenant was made imperative upon all members of the Secession by the Associate Synod in 1744; but fell into desuetude after a few years. One chief cause of this was the growth among the Seceders of opinions adverse to the principle of national religious establishments altogether, a principle strongly maintained, and placed on very high ground, in the Covenant. But this change of sentiment subsequently gave rise to the separation of small sections from both divisions of the body who, adhering to the principle of an established church, called themselves Original Seceders, on the ground that the first Seceders from the Established Church held that principle. Tho members of these sections were known as Old Light Burghers, and Old Light Anti burghers. [Sscarnais.] The Relief Church originated in the secession of a clergyman, Mr. Gillespie, from the Established Church in 1752, on a question of church patronage. Mr. Gillespie did not, for a considerable time, attempt to form any separate ecclesiastical organisation, but kept on friendly terms with many ministers and members of the establishment who sympathised with his views. Others who left the establishment for similar reasons erected places of worship, which were known as Relief Churches, because affording relief from the grievances of Lay patronage in the Established Church. From these scattered congrega tions at length arose several Presbyteries, constituting the Relief Synod. This body, in 1817, at the time of its junction with the United Secession Synod, comprised nine presbyteries, representing 114 congregations.
The United Presbyterian Church now consists of about 550 con gregations, constituting :;1 presbyteries. The Synod meets annually in May, usually at Edinburgh.