Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

contrary to God's holy word, and were set out to bind men's conscience to obey them under the pain of deadly sin.

'And in especial, I renounce the Pope to be the head of the Church, and also, I renounce him and all his traditions and laws, repugnant in any sort, or making derogation to God's laws, and the liberty of the same.

'Also, I renounce the Mass, as it has been used in times bypast, and the feigned and invented Purgatory, as pestiferous and blasphemous things, and as contrary to the merits and passion and omnisufficient sacrifice offered upon the cross by our Saviour Christ for the redemption of mankind.

'Also, I grant that no graven image should be made and worshipped in the Church of God, and that no honour should be given thereto, and that all exhibition of such honour, exhibited or to be exhibited to such stocks or stones is very idolatry, and against the express command of God.

'Also, I grant that we have no command of God bidding us pray to any saints that are departed, but only to Him who is Saint of all saints, Christ Jesus, our only Saviour, Mediator, and Advocate everliving, and perpetually making intercession to His Father for His faithful people and members of His body; and so also I grant that we have no command to pray for them that are departed.

[ocr errors]

Also, as I grant that to them that have the gift of chastity it is good and godly to live in chastity, even so I grant, according to St. Paul's doctrine, that it is lawful to all men and women to marry who have not the gift of chastity, notwithstanding any vow made to the contrary; but if they be vexed and wearied with the urgent appetites of the flesh, they are bound by the commandment of the Lord to marry. Also, I deny all Transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ Jesus, and that

T

Auricular Confession is necessary for the salvation of

man.

'The foresaid and all other ungodly opinions and inventions of men, which are contrary to God and His holy word, I detest, abhor, and renounce for now and ever. And of my long adherence to the same I ask God mercy, and this holy congregation forgiveness.'

On the 1st day of August 1560, a memorable parliament met in the Old Tolbooth of Edinburgh. Among the ecclesiastics there were present the Archbishop of St. Andrews, the Bishops of Dunkeld, Dunblane, and Argyle, and the Bishopselect of Galloway and the Isles. The Chancellor, William Maitland of Lethington, presided. In name of the barons, gentlemen, burgesses, and other Protestants, a petition was presented to the Parliament craving for reformation in the usual terms. The Reformed were desired to produce a summary of their doctrines, and in four days there appeared "The Confession of the Faith and Doctrine believed and professed by the Protestants of the Realm of Scotland.' This document was read before the whole Parliament, and to the deep shame of the Scottish clergy, not a voice was raised in defence of the ancient faith. On the 17th of August it was put to the vote whether the new Confession should henceforth be the established creed of the kingdom. The Archbishop of St. Andrews, and the Bishops of Dunkeld and Dunblane, and the Abbot of Kilwinning, then expressed dissent; the Earls of Atholl, Crawford, Caithness, Cassilis, and Eglinton, and the Lords Home and Gray had declined to be present; and the Lords Somerville and Borthwick said, 'We will believe as our fathers believed ;' but all the other members of the Three Estates voted for the Confession, and it was formally ratified by the Parliament. On the 24th of August the Papal authority was abolished within the realm of Scotland, all former Acts of Parliament con

trary to the Scriptures and the Confession of Faith were annulled, and the celebration of mass or of baptism according to the Roman ritual was forbidden, and all persons were forbidden to say or hear mass under pain of confiscation of goods and personal punishment for the first offence, banishment from the kingdom for the second, and death for the third. When, on the afternoon of the same day, the Three Estates rose and left the old Tolbooth, the faith of their fathers, the creed which for twelve hundred years had been the glory of the Scottish nation, was to them an existence of the past, and the Catholic hierarchy was abolished by the law of the land.

The Church of Scotland, whose history we have traced from that misty legend about St. Rule and his holy retinue landing in the year 307 in St. Andrews Bay, has received its terrible chastisement. The Scottish Church occupied no unimportant place in Christendom; and in the great histories of this country's civil and ecclesiastical affairs there will be found in full what is here briefly narrated. Each period will prove, more or less, intensely interesting. In the old Celtic ages-the Roman and Pictish periods of our temporal history, the pre-Columban and Columban periods of our Church-we have seen that the Catholic faith, as contained in the Bible and expressed in the creeds, was preached in its integrity; and that, while in holy similarity with the Church of Christ scattered in all lands, the Columban branch had a striking individuality; and the religion which is equal in its adaptability to all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, was presented in external forms best suited to win hearts wild and unfettered as the winds of their native mountains, and to draw into Christian union the shy proud natures of the Caledonians. There is a wonderful simplicity, both in the scanty history, and in the innumerable legends

of those early days. There is a mighty witness to the power of faith in the life of St. Columba, and in the lives of others like him, whether in Ireland or in the converted districts of Caledonia. These men of illustrious parentage and high intellectual culture, tearing themselves from their birthright and their engrossing studies, went forth to toil as missionaries among the heathen Picts; for the sake ‘of the Gospel and of the promises,' they undertook a life of forlorn privation, preaching in isle and glen, baptizing whole tribes, and feeding them with the Bread of Life; and, while they were very strict with themselves, and practised the most extraordinary austerities, they made wise allowance for the newly converted, and, by firm gentleness, taught a fierce race the religion of Jesus Christ. The tracery in the faded pages of the Book of Deer, the hymns of the Celtic saints, carry us back to the library in the rude 'creel house' of Iona, and testify to the intention of dedicating the best gifts of Almighty God to His special service. The caves, which along our rugged coasts are assigned as the residences of saints, remind us of those who, feeling within them a mysterious call to be alone with God, retreated thither, or to the desert islands of the Atlantic, and, amid the roar of the northern tempest, sang the praises of the Most High, and filled their souls 'in loneliness with the great thought of God.' The early Church was in her greatest power when she sent St. Aidan on the Northumbrian mission. After the Council of Whitby, those peculiar and defective usages which her abbots and bishops strove hard to retain were gradually abandoned for that which was found to be better;' a link with the past was broken; and when, about the year 710, Nectan, King of the Picts, sought and obtained masons to build a church in Pictland after the Roman model, when there was frequent intercourse with England, at a time when England was maintaining a constant intercourse with

Rome, the individuality of the Convent of Hy began to lose ground.

After the close of the ninth century the self-indulgence and the slovenly rites of the 'comfortable Culdees' exhibit the Columban age in its decay. About this time the incursions of the Vikings necessitated the removal of the primatial seat from Iona. In 854 the last Primate Abbot of Iona died, and about 890 Kellach I. was the Primate Bishop of the Scottish Church. In the eleventh century St. Margaret effected her reformation ; and, in the reigns of her sons, regular diocesan episcopacy gradually superseded the abbatial discipline, and the Culdee establishments were filled with Benedictines, or with Canons-regular of the order of St. Augustine. From this time till the Reformation Scotland was at one with the rest of Europe, both as regards her religious and political institutions. The feudal system was established, and the youthful aristocracy were brought up under the discipline of chivalry. Whatever affected Europe generally was felt in this far-away corner of the world. Scotland took part in the Crusades, and their beneficial as well as their coarse influence penetrated here. The gigantic oak of the Holy Empire spread a branch even over this remote land; the Scottish Church was by 'special grace the daughter of Rome;' her bishops, not unfrequently, proceeded thither; and her clergy of all ranks, who studied at the Continental universities, partook of the religious thought which distinguished the age. When the Great Schism proclaimed that the glories of the mediæval Papacy were over, Scotland, in close alliance with France, tendered her obedience to the Court of Avignon. Throughout the middle ages the ecclesiastical and temporal histories are intimately associated. The transfer of the primacy from Iona is contemporary with the accession of Kenneth M'Alpin to the united thrones of the Picts and Scots.

« AnteriorContinuar »