The Scottish Reformation Part 13

[228] Melville's Diary, Wodrow Society, p. 26.

[229] [Archibald Hamilton's letter or protestation is in Bannatyne's Memoriales, pp. 262, 263.]

[230] [According to Martine, it was built, not for the reception of Mary of Guise, but when James V. was married to Magdalene, the fair daughter of Francis I., in 1537, the tradition being that the physicians chose this place as peculiarly suitable for such a delicate creature; and that "so many artificers were conveened and employed, and the materials so quicklie prepared, that the house was begun and finished in a month"

(Reliquiae Divi Andreae, p. 190). There is better evidence to show that Mary of Guise spent her honeymoon within its substantial walls in the summer of 1538 (Lesley's History, pp. 155, 156; Pitscottie's History, 1778, pp. 250, 251).]

[231] Melville's Diary, p. 26.

[232] Ibid.

[233] Bannatyne's Memoriales, p. 256.

[234] Melville's Diary, p. 32.

[235] [In the rather scurrilous Legend of the Bischop of St Androis, it is said:--

"Ane baxters sone, are beggar borne, That twyse his surnaime hes mensworne; To be called Constene he thocht shame, He tuke up Constantine to name.

Thinking that poore professione vaine, He changed his surname ower agane; Now Doctor Adamsone at last, Whairthrow he ower to Paris past."

--Dalyell's Scotish Poems, 1801, ii. 309, 310.

He inherited both names from his ancestors, who were called Constantine or Adamson (M'Crie's Melville, 1856, p. 461).]

[236] Melville's Diary, p. 32.

[237] Laing's Knox, vi. 481, 482.

[238] [This a.s.sembly met on the 6th of March 1571-72.]

[239] Melville's Diary, p. 31.

[240] [This convention was held in January 1571-72. See Booke of the Universall Kirk, i. 203-236; Calderwood's History, iii. 168-196.]

[241] Bannatyne's Memorials, p. 223.

[242] Calderwood's History, iii. 206.

[243] [Dr Laing has not only indicated that there has long been much uncertainty and speculation as to the parentage and social status of John Douglas, but has stated that he "was descended from the Dougla.s.ses of Pettendreich" (Laing's Knox, i. 286 n.) Princ.i.p.al Lee has said: "All the accounts of Douglas which I have ever seen in modern books abound with errors. He is represented as having been an obscure Carmelite friar whom the Earl of Argyle chose to employ as his chaplain, and for whom the Archbishop of St Andrews expressed the strongest aversion. He was quite a different man--a man of family undoubtedly, and most probably related to James Douglas the Earl of Morton, son of Sir George Douglas of Pinky, and, like him, a branch of the great family of Angus" (Lee's Lectures, ii. 3). When working in the Register House, I found unimpeachable evidence concerning his parentage. On the 2nd of January 1563-64, letters of legitimation were granted in favour of Mr John Douglas, Rector of the University of St Andrews, b.a.s.t.a.r.d son natural of quondam Robert Douglas in Langnewtoune (Register of Privy Seal, x.x.xii.

23).]

[244] Melville's Diary, p. 32; Calderwood's History, iii. 206.

[245] These honest men earnestly implored their pastor to return also to Edinburgh, if he could do so without serious injury to his health.

[246] Melville's Diary, p. 33.

[247] [Dr Cameron Lees says that the Tolbooth, in which Knox preached for some little time and where he delivered his last sermon, was "the portion of St Giles which had been cut off the western part of the nave, and was used for meetings of the Council" (St Giles', 1889, p. 157).]

[248] M'Crie's Knox, 1855, p. 269.

[249] Melville's Diary, p. 33.

[250] [In the opinion of Dr David Laing, Lawson was the author of the Vera Historia extremae vitae et obitus eximii viri Joannis Knoxii, appended to Smeton's Responsio ad Hamiltonii Dialogum, in 1579 (Laing's Knox, vi. 646).]

[251] Walsingham's abuse of Wycliffe. [Thomae Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, ii. 119, 120; and Ypodigma Neustriae a Thoma Walsingham, p.

340; Rolls series. Translations will be found in Vaughan's John de Wycliffe, 1853, pp. 468, 469; and in Lechler's Wycliffe, Relig. Tract Soc., p. 423.]

[252] [For the substance of Archibald Hamilton's account, see M'Crie's Knox, 1855, p. 405. Bannatyne's account is in both editions of his work (Journal of Transactions, 1806, and Memoriales of Transactions, 1836).

It is likewise in Laing's Knox, vi. 634-645; and there (pp. 649-660) is also given a translation of Smeton's (or Lawson's) account. The accounts of Bannatyne and Smeton do not always agree as to the exact day on which certain events happened.]

[253] [Morton was elected regent on the 24th of November 1572, the day on which Knox died (Acts of Parliament, iii. 78; Bannatyne's Memoriales, p. 280). Bannatyne places Morton's visit on the 19th; Smeton leaves the day uncertain.]

[254] For a defence of Kirkaldy see Barbe's Kirkaldy of Grange, Famous Scots Series, pp. 108-124.

[255] For a different interpretation see Taylor Innes's John Knox, Famous Scots Series, pp. 30, 31.

[256] [Morton's testimony to Knox, as recorded by Melville, was: "That he nather fearit nor flatterit anie fleche" (Diary, p. 60). As recorded by Calderwood: "Here lyeth a man who in his life never feared the face of man; who hath beene often threatned with dag and dager, but yitt hath ended his dayes in peace and honour. For he had G.o.d's providence watching over him in a speciall maner, when his verie life was sought"

(History, iii. 242).]

CHAPTER X.

THE SECOND BOOK OF DISCIPLINE.

In a previous lecture I have endeavoured to give a pretty full account of the First Book of Discipline. It remains yet to say a few words about the Second Book of Discipline.

[Sidenote: The Two Books Compared.]

Princ.i.p.al John Cunningham has said: "The First Book exhibited a system of polity sagaciously suited to the circ.u.mstances of the country and the church: it seemed to grow out of the times."[257] I will add that it was not only suited to the times, but to many of the practical needs of the church of all times. I therefore hold that even yet it is worthy of a higher place than to be deemed merely a "collection of parchments and coins deposited beneath it [_i.e._, the Second Book] by which future generations may read the story of the times in which the building was begun."[258] The Second Book is more a book of const.i.tutional law; and aims, as the Princ.i.p.al says, at elaborating a system from the New Testament without reference to circ.u.mstances, and bears far more resemblance to the Ordonnances of Calvin than to the less ambitious and more comprehensive Church Order Books of Germany. But the Second Book of Discipline has even fewer practical details than the ordinances of Geneva. Of course, so far as it actually abolished or modified the regulations of the First Book, these fell to be disused; but in so far as it did not actually do so, they still had a certain validity: and even in the Covenanting times it is generally the Books, not the Book of Discipline, to which reference is made in Acts of a.s.sembly.

No one in our times, perhaps, has shown a more thorough appreciation of the real merits of the First Book than the Duke of Argyll in his well-known essay on "Presbytery." Mr Hill Burton, who depreciates it in comparison with the Second, makes far more than is warranted of the strong language in which it occasionally indulges against the old church, with which he contrasts the more restrained and balanced utterances of the Second Book.[259] I do not yield to many in my admiration of the courage and calmness of Melville; but I could no more think of placing him, scholarly and bold, yet calm, as he generally was, nor the Book attributed to him, more logical and unimpa.s.sionately didactic though it be, before the eager, impetuous, yet sagacious Knox, with his wealth of rude eloquence and thrilling tenderness, and his Book in which these qualities of head and heart are so clearly mirrored, than I would think of placing Calvin, highly as I honour him, before Luther, or his Catechism before the Wittenberg hymn-books.

I do not believe that the principles of the two Books are so widely different as they have sometimes been represented to be, or that the grand ideas of Knox concerning the place of the laity in the church, the education of the young, and the support and kindly treatment of the aged poor, were meant to be rejected or ignored by his great successor; but I do think these matters fall considerably into the background. Some of the n.o.blest conceptions of the earlier Book are narrowed, and the whole system stiffened; and in the contests in which the church had then to engage with the young monarch, in vindication of her independence in her own province, positions were laid down which were soon pressed to consequences from which Knox and his a.s.sociates would have shrunk.

[Sidenote: The Supreme Power.]

They, who had been obliged long to contend with a corrupt and obstinate clergy which would grant no real reform in doctrine, no substantial concessions for the alleviation of practical grievances, boldly laid down the principle that "to kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates ...

chieflie and most princ.i.p.allie the conservation and purgation of the religioun apperteinis; so that not onlie they are appointed for civill policie, but also for maintenance of the trew religioun, and for suppressing of idolatrie and superst.i.tioun whatsoever.... And therefore wee confesse and avow that sik as resist the supreme power doing that thing quhilk appertains to his charge, do resist G.o.ddis ordinance, and therefore cannot be guiltles."[260] Melville, who was called to contend with a king bent on securing autocratic power in the church as well as in the state, laid down, with the utmost precision, the principle in chapter x., "Although kings and princes that be G.o.dlie, sumtymes be their awin authority whan the kirk is corrupt.i.t and all things out of ordor, place ministers and restore the trew service of the Lord efter the examples of sum G.o.dly kings of Juda and divers G.o.dly emperours and kings also in the light of the New Testament; yit quhair the ministrie of the kirk is anes lawfullie const.i.tute and they that are placeit do thair office faithfullie, all G.o.dlie princes and magistratis aucht to heir and obey thair voice, and reverence the majestie of the Son of G.o.d speiking be them";[261] or, as in chapter i., where it is laid down, "As ministeris are subject to the judgement and punishment of the magistrat in externall things if they offend, so aucht the magistratis to submit themselfis to the discipline of the kirk gif they transgresse in matteris of conscience and religioun."[262]

[Sidenote: Limits of Ecclesiastical Power.]

Hill Burton sarcastically remarks that "if we grant that those who prepared it were what they called themselves--the Church of G.o.d, presided over by the Lord Jesus Christ as the representative of the G.o.dhead on earth--it would be difficult to refuse a.s.sent to what follows. Nothing can be more perfect than the a.n.a.lysis by which the two ruling powers are separated from each other, and the ecclesiastical set above the secular."[263] If this is not quite borne out, one can hardly help feeling that more care should have been taken to mark out the limits of ecclesiastical authority, and to show that the power of ministers and elders was as distinctly limited by the laws of Christ as that of kings and magistrates ought to be by the laws of the land; or, in other words, that ministers and elders may err in interpreting the laws of Christ, just as civil rulers may err in interpreting the laws of the land. No doubt the limitation contended for is in words admitted, "the magistrat neither aucht to preich, minister the sacraments, nor execute the censuris of the kirk, nor yit prescrive any rewll how it sould be done; bot command the ministeris to observe the rewll commandit in the Word, and punish the transgressours be civill means. The ministeris exerce not the civill jurisdictioun, bot teich the magistrat how it sould be exercit according to the Word."[264] "It is proper to kings, princes, and magistrates to be callit lordis and dominators over their subjectis, whom they govern civilly; bot it is proper to Christ onlie to be callit Lord and Master in the spirituall government of the kirk, and all utheris that beiris office therein aucht not to usurp dominion therein, nor be callit lordis, bot onlie ministeris, disciples, and servantis. For it is Christis proper office to command and rewll His kirk universall, and every particular kirk, throw His Spirit and Word, be the ministrie of men."[265] But it is not made sufficiently prominent anywhere in the Book that these men are only ent.i.tled to unreserved obedience when they truly speak Christ's mind and truly follow His Word.