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given as to the posture of the people, but probably they stood up at prayer. The Confessions are backed by a long array of marginal texts, and the first refers to the "shame" of "our miserable country of England," for it was used at Geneva by an English congregation. A psalm is then sung, "in a plain tune"; then the minister prays as the Spirit moves him; then follows the sermon, usually political or doctrinal, and of great length. Then followed, with such variations as the minister preferred, a prayer for "the whole estate of Christ's Church," directed against "the furious uproar of that Romish idol," but including a petition "for such as yet be ignorant." Next came the Lord's Prayer, then the Creed, then a psalm, and last, one of two benedictions. But "it is

not necessary for the minister daily to repeat all these things, but, beginning with some matter of confession, to proceed to the sermon" (always the main business), "which ended, he either useth the prayer for all estates before mentioned, or else prayeth as the Spirit of God shall move his heart." As a matter of practice, the Creed and the Lord's Prayer came to be omitted. Wodrow (about 1714) has a touching story of a very old minister, who astonished his congregation by using the Lord's Prayer. He explained that, for once, he wished to do what all Christians were doing.

There is a form for baptism, and for the communion, where the minister may use words "like in effect." As a rule, long and many sermons preceded the communion. In burial there are "no ceremonies," but the minister goes, after the interment, to the church, "if it be not far off," and preaches on death and the resurrection. Such was "Knox's Liturgy." It is intended as a mere guide, and there is intentional licence for variation. "Free prayer" came to be preferred. Hence James VI., on his accession to the English throne, could say that "it was a shame to all religion to have the majesty of God so barbarously spoken unto, sometimes so seditiously that their prayers were plain libels, girding at sovereignty and authority; or lies, being stuffed with all the false reports in the kingdom." The prayers, in fact, were political discourses, chiefly against James.34 The prayers, as many of us know, have become not extemporary, but, in great part, a collection of formulæ, derived from oral tradition. When extemporary, they are occasionally "barbarous," as when a probationer said, "O Lord, keep one eye on the minister of this congregation," whereat broad smiles beaconed from the minister's pew. Such were, and such became, the services of "the Trew Kirk."

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PREACHERS, HOW APPOINTED.

They were constructed so as to give the Spirit of God free play, and the bare burials were arranged on purpose to check the superstitious opinion that the departed soul might receive any benefit. As for the organisation of the Kirk, it was based on the Book of Discipline, which, again, rested on the Book of Common Order. All who preach or minister the Sacraments must first be "orderly called." Knox's own call, in St Andrews Castle, has been described. The processes were election, examination, and admission. "It appertaineth to the people, and to every several congregation, to elect their minister," though, as we shall see, a different theory was later put forward. If this be neglected for forty days, the superintendent's church presents a man. Examination was conducted in one of the chief towns, "before men of soundest judgment, . . . and before the congregation." The candidate had to interpret an appointed passage of the Bible. He was then examined in the chief points at issue with the enemies of Christian religion, such as Rome, Anabaptists, and Arians. He then confessed his faith "in diverse public sermons." If the Kirk presented one candidate and the people another, the man of the people's choice, if learned enough, was preferred. No man was to be violently "intruded." The morals of a candidate were carefully examined, in his own district. ceremony was used on admission. The apostles, indeed, practised "the laying on of hands, yet, seeing the miracle is ceased, the using of the ceremony we judge not necessary." Not that miracles had really ceased; the Spirit still moved men, but did not necessarily move, or inspire, or consecrate them, as a result of human imposition of hands. In no long time the "imposition of hands" became the rule. In addition to ministers, there were readers, in cases where no qualified minister could be found.

No

Gouda, the Papal Nuncio, says, "The ministers are either apostate monks or laymen of low rank, and are quite unlearned, being cobblers, shoemakers, tanners, or the like." Yet he admits that the few Catholic preachers "seldom venture to attack controverted points, being indeed unequal to the task of handling them with effect." 35 The fifth head of the Book of Discipline introduces us to a third order, that of superintendents. They were not bishops, and were a purely provisional rank in the Kirk. "Differences between preachers" (the superintendents receiving higher stipends) were only made "for this time." 36 Ten or twelve men were appointed to each of the provinces, to journey

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throughout it, preaching as they went, seeing to the sacraments and church discipline, presiding at meetings of the provincial synod, and at examinations of ministers and readers.37 There was no consecration of the superintendent by other superintendents. In fact, the superintendent, for various reasons, was nothing less than a bishop. There were to be, for these and other officers of the Kirk, due stipends, with pensions, education, and dowries for widows, sons, and daughters. The superintendent, having expensive duties, was to have a higher salary. Provision for the poor and for education was insisted upon. "Fearful and horrible it is that the poor . . . are universally so contemned and despised." This had not been so in the better days of the Church. "In times past," says Latimer, speaking of his youth, before the Reformation, "men were full of pity and compassion, but now there is no pity. . . . When any man died, they would bequeath great sums of money towards the relief of the poor. . . . Charity is waxen cold; none helpeth the scholar, nor yet the poor; now that the knowledge of God's Word is brought to light, now almost no man helpeth to maintain them." 38 The Romish doctrines of Purgatory and of Works had been overthrown, and in Latimer's remarks we see the temporary results.

As for schools, each church ought to have a schoolmaster, capable of teaching Latin and grammar at least. All children must be educated, rich and poor, the poor being supported "on the charge of the Church." Those adapted for the higher education (including Greek) must persevere therein till the age of twenty-four. Into the regulations for the universities space does not permit us to enter; for some years the universities suffered from the confusions of the age.

The sixth head of the book is an appeal to the Lords "that ye have respect to your poor brethren, the labourers of the ground, who, by these cruel beasts, the Papists, have been. so oppressed." They should only pay "reasonable teinds," "that they may feel some benefit of Christ Jesus, now preached unto them. With the grief of our hearts we hear that some gentlemen are now as cruel to their tenants as ever were the Papists"; the tyranny is now that of "the lord or laird.” Gentlemen must live "on their just rents." The "teinds" are inherited from "thieves and murderers." The whole revenue of all cathedral churches should be given to the universities and superintendents. The Kirk and the poor were to be the heirs of the Church. This could not be carried.

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FAILURE OF THESE HOPES (1561).

In January 1561 a number of nobles signed the Book of Discipline, but "others, in their mockage," namely, Lethington,-" termed it 'devout imaginations.'" 39 "There was none within the realm more unmerciful to the poor ministers than were they which had greatest rents off the churches." Even the signers of the book guarded "vested interests," only providing that "the bishops, abbots, priors, and other prelates and beneficed men who have adjoined themselves to us, keep the revenues of their benefices during their lifetime, they sustaining the ministry and ministers." "This promise was eluded from time to time." 40

The chapter on Ecclesiastical Discipline was even politically important. The Kirk corrected the faults not reached by civil justice, but she also, in the last result, corrected them by secular means. The State should punish adultery by death the Kirk kept her eye, very sedulously, on simple fornication. An offender was first spied out, and admonished privately, apparently by the elders if impenitent, the minister admonished him if still recalcitrant, he was, after sufficient delays and exhortations, excommunicated that is, universally boycotted, perhaps for profane swearing or drunkenness. All Estates are subject to this discipline; so that the Kirk could cut off from all human intercourse, except that of the family, the queen if she swore, or the Chancellor if he broke the Seventh Commandment. 41 To carry her ideas into action, the Kirk needed a police. This she found in the elders, who had to observe the morals even of the ministers. Finance was the province of the deacons. "Prophesying "—that is, discussion of the Scriptures-was to be done weekly in towns. The organisation of Church government was not yet complete. The General Assembly came to have jurisdiction over the whole Kirk: each province had its synod, and the kirk-session served for "one or more neighbouring congregations." The germ of the presbytery was in the weekly meetings of ministers and elders for "exercise," or "prophesying." The whole scheme was more completely evolved later, but the First Book of Discipline contains the seeds of the organisation. Naturally it included the usual denunciations of idolatry. It involved a system of espionnage, and interference with private life, which (if we may judge from the cases recorded in kirk-session reports) produced little or no effect on sexual morality, always the main subject (with witchcraft and Sabbath-breaking) of inquisition. The Reformation, now organised, gave the Scots a theology in

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which the Brethren could believe. Its austere ethics, more than its "discipline," fostered righteousness of life. Its clergy, far unlike the old churchmen, set admirable examples of private conduct. In the worst ages the Kirk cherished education. But the spirit of gentleness, the detestation of cruel punishments, and the humaner virtues did not rapidly arise under the armed and iron sway of the Kirk. Her ministers arrogated to themselves a kind of infallibility in matters political. No longer members of a miraculous caste, some of them prophesied, and were credited with the power of healing diseases and other supernormal gifts. A long struggle between Kirk and State, king and preacher, lay before Scotland.

After sketching the organisation of the new Kirk, we may glance at a more speculative theme. What was the genesis, what the nature, of the new theology and religion of Scotland? These have exercised strange powers of attraction and repulsion among people of later times. Among believing men, Wesley and Samuel Johnson were at one in regarding Knox and Knox's creed with extreme aversion. On the other hand, men like Mr Froude and Mr Carlyle, whose Calvinism was purely platonic, are constant in praise of the Reformer and his doctrine. Why did Scotland choose Calvinism, and so dig a new and scarcely passable gulf between herself and England, with which the Protestants desired union? It is an easy, and not a wholly untrue, reply that Knox had lived in Geneva, and brought Genevan ideas home. Another opinion is that Calvinism had a kind of elective affinity for the Scottish national genius. "In the theology of the Calvinistic system the Scottish intellect found scope for that dialectic which has always been its natural function." So writes Knox's latest biographer.42 But was "abstract dialectic" the "natural function" of the Scottish intellect? Since very early ages of scholasticism, it is not easy to remember the names of any Scots who were abstract thinkers. Poets they had, diplomatists, scholars, soldiers, and lawyers. But au fond the Scottish mind is practical. The Scottish speculations on man's destiny, and relations to the Supreme Being, soon came to be expressed, with grotesque precision, in the formula of the Scottish law of contract. That is the very reverse of abstract dialectic.

After Wishart's day, and after the day of the English PrayerBook of Edward VI., the Scottish preference for the Calvinistic system was caused by two motives. First, of all eligible