The Scottish Parliament Before the Union of the CrownsRait, Robert S. (Robert Sangster)
History
The Scottish Parliament Before the Union of the Crowns
Rait, Robert S. (Robert Sangster)
Scotland. Parliament -- History
But the new sovereigns
must understand the situation. When the acceptance of William
and Mary converted, without any further change, the Convention
into a Parliament, the Estates set themselves to solving the
religious problem. They rescinded the act of Charles II asserting
"his majestie's supremacy over all persons and in all causes
ecclesiastical" as "inconsistent with the establishment of Church
government now desired." They restored the presbyterian clergy to
their churches and manses. They approved the Westminster Confession
of Faith--the sole product of those efforts towards a covenanted
uniformity which had led the Church into somewhat devious
paths--and they established Church government "by Kirk Sessions,
Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies." The more
rigid presbyterians were disappointed. It was not so emphatic
a settlement as they desired. Independent as the Establishment
was, it seemed Erastian to men whose only associations with the
functions of government had been connected with Grierson of Lagg
and Bloody Mackenzie. King William insisted upon the extension of
a toleration to Episcopalian Dissenters in Scotland which, as the
Church more than once complained, was lacking in the treatment of
Presbyterian Dissenters in England. The Revolution Settlement,
therefore, was not accepted by the whole of the popular party,
and the Jacobites were reinforced by ousted episcopalians on the
one hand, and presbyterian malcontents on the other. But the
compromise of 1690 satisfied the majority of the nation. The credit
of the arrangement belongs neither to the Parliament nor to the
king, but to the wise statesman who presided over the University
of Edinburgh. The English Revolution of 1689 was in its origin
religious, but it early assumed the aspect of a purely civil
movement. The Revolution in Scotland suggests to-day only the
Church Settlement, and the course it took was decided by William
Carstares.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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