The Five Articles of Perth was an attempt by King James VI of Scotland to impose practices on the Church of Scotland in an attempt to integrate it with those of the Church of England. [1] This move was unpopular with those Scots who held Reformed views on worship, and with those who supported presbyterian church governance.
The articles required
The articles met with a mixed reception. [3] The Secession historian Thomas M'Crie tries to hint at the leading objections against them. [4] Others like Robert Baillie accepted the liturgical changes even elaborating an exhaustive defence of kneeling at communion in protracted correspondence with David Dickson, the minister for the parish of Irvine. The articles were reluctantly accepted by the General Assembly of the Church at Perth in 1618, and were not ratified by the Scottish Parliament until July 1621; it was known by some as Black Saturday and was accompanied by a thunderstorm. [5] The approving Act was repealed by the Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1690. In 1619 the Pilgrims who were in exile in Leiden published a critical tract about the Five Articles, entitled the Perth Assembly , which nearly led to William Brewster's arrest. [6]
John Welsh was a Scottish Presbyterian leader. He was born in Dumfriesshire and attended the University of Edinburgh to obtain his MA in 1588. He became a minister in Selkirk and married Elizabeth Knox, a daughter of John and Margaret Knox, before leaving Selkirk. Welsh later ministered at Kirkcudbright and Ayr, the latter of which was where he spent five years. His preaching resulted in his imprisonment by the order of King James VI of Scotland. The lawyer Thomas Hamilton wrote to James VI about Welsh, John Forbes, and others; the case was important because many Scottish subjects of James were devoted to the ministers. In 1606 Welsh was exiled to France, where he continued to preach. John Welsh of Ayr was the father of Josias Welsh and the grandfather of John Welsh of Irongray.
Ebenezer Erskine was a Scottish minister whose actions led to the establishment of the Secession Church.
Alexander Henderson was a Scottish theologian, and an important ecclesiastical statesman of his period. He is considered the second founder of the Reformed Church in Scotland. He was one of the most eminent ministers of the Church of Scotland in the most important period of her history, namely, previous to the middle of the seventeenth century.
John Spottiswoode was an Archbishop of St Andrews, Primate of All Scotland, Lord Chancellor, and historian of Scotland.
The Killing Time was a period of conflict in Scottish history between the Presbyterian Covenanter movement, based largely in the south west of the country, and the government forces of Kings Charles II and James VII. The period, roughly from 1679 to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, was subsequently called The Killing Time by Robert Wodrow in his The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution, published in 1721–22. It is an important episode in the martyrology of the Church of Scotland.
Robert Boyd of Trochrig (1578–1627) was a Scottish theological writer, teacher and poet. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and after attending lectures by Robert Rollock, prosecuted his studies in France, and became a minister in the French Church. All accounts represent him as a most accomplished scholar. A friend said of him, with perhaps some exaggeration, that he was more eloquent in French than in his native tongue; and Livingstone tells us that he spoke Latin with perfect fluency, but that he had heard him say, if he had his choice, he would rather express himself in Greek than in any other language. The Church of Boyd's adoption, which had given Andrew Melville a chair in one university, and Sharp a chair in another, was not slow to do honour to their brilliant countryman. He was made a professor in the protestant Academy of Saumur; and there for some years he taught theology. He was persuaded, however, in 1614 to come home and accept the Principalship of the Glasgow University. Though he was far from extreme in his Presbyterianism, he was found to be less tractable than the king and his advisers expected, and was obliged to resign his office. But he was long enough in Glasgow to leave the impress of himself on some of the young men destined to distinction in the Church in after years.
Calvinism originated with the Reformation in Switzerland when Huldrych Zwingli began preaching what would become the first form of the Reformed doctrine in Zürich in 1519.
James VI and I, King of Scots, King of England, and King of Ireland, faced many complicated religious challenges during his reigns in Scotland and England.
The history of the Scottish Episcopal Church is traced by the church to ancient times. The Church today is a Christian denomination in Scotland and a member of the Anglican Communion. It has enjoyed a distinct identity and is neither Roman nor English. It is therefore not a Daughter Church in the Anglican communion.
Patrick Galloway was a Scottish minister, a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. "The King wold needis have Mr Patrik Galloway to be his minister." He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1590, and again in 1602. Having been completely gained over by the Court party he used all his influence in forwarding the views of the King for the introduction of Episcopacy.
John Fergushill (1592–1644), was a 17th-century Minister of the Church of Scotland who supported the 1638 National Covenant and was an associate of Presbyterian fundamentalists, including Archibald Johnson. He died on 11 June 1644.
The Renaissance in Scotland was a cultural, intellectual and artistic movement in Scotland, from the late fifteenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late fourteenth century and reaching northern Europe as a Northern Renaissance in the fifteenth century. It involved an attempt to revive the principles of the classical era, including humanism, a spirit of scholarly enquiry, scepticism, and concepts of balance and proportion. Since the twentieth century, the uniqueness and unity of the Renaissance has been challenged by historians, but significant changes in Scotland can be seen to have taken place in education, intellectual life, literature, art, architecture, music, science and politics.
Perth Assembly was a controversial book published by the Pilgrims in Leiden in 1619 the year before they departed in the Mayflower for Massachusetts; the book was smuggled into Scotland in wine vats. King James I was offended by the book which was critical of the Five Articles of Perth which had been ratified by the General Assembly in Perth in 1618 and forced the episcopacy form of church governance on Scotland. The printer was Johannes Sol ("Soule") and the primary publishers were Thomas Brewer and William Brewster who went into hiding in 1619 before surreptitiously departing for Plymouth to escape threat of arrest. Other Pilgrims, such as George Soule, were also believed to have been involved in the printing of the book, and the controversy caused them to flee on the Mayflower and disguise their origins. Johannes Sol's apprentice, Edward Raban, fled to Scotland in 1620 with Sol's pregnant widow after his death in a printing ink accident.
David Black was educated at the University of St Andrews. He was admitted to the ministry of the church as minister of St Andrews in November 1590. Having offended James VI by "certain unreverent, reproachfull and infamous speeches in his sermons", he was summoned before the Privy Council on 18 November 1596, but declined its jurisdiction "in matters spiritual". In this he was supported by "his whole brethren of the ministrie". Twelve days later he lodged a second declinature, but was found guilty on 2 December, and "the penaltie referred to the King's will and pleasure". On 9 December he was ordered to enter his person in ward. The Synod of Fife petitioned the King to restore Black to his charge, but that was not done, and he was translated, and admitted to Arbirlot in 1597. He was presented to the vicarage by James VI on 15 May 1598. "While on his way to Perth he died suddenly at Dundee, of apoplexy, immediately after having given thanks at a meal, Tuesday 12 January 1603. He had preached and dispensed the Communion on the preceding Sunday.
William Row (1563–1634) was a Scottish presbyterian divine.
Patrick Simson (1566-1618) was a presbyterian minster who served in Stirling during the reign of James VI of Scotland. Despite his opposition to Episcopalianism, he had the respect of king James and several of his court. He was born in Perth in 1556. He was from a prominent church family and was the son of Andrew Simson, minister of Dunbar. He was educated at St. Mary's College, St Andrews, graduating with an M.A. in 1574. He became a reader at Borthwick and completed his education at Bridgestock in England stopping there while intended for Cambridge as he met a gentleman who allowed him use of his library. He was admitted to Spott in 1577 and translated to Cramond in 1582. He was admitted to the vicarage there on 30 August 1586. He was translated and admitted to Stirling on 7 August 1590. He was presented by James VI on May 1591. When preaching before the King in 1598 he exhorted him to beware "lest he drew on himself secret wrath by setting up manifest idolatry." Immediately after the sermon his Majesty arose and "forbade him to meddle in these matters." He was a member of twelve out of fifteen Assemblies held prior to 1610. Simson was proposed by Assembly of 1606 "Constant Moderator" of Presbytery, but he lost to James Nicolson. He drew up a Protest to Parliament against the introduction of Episcopacy on 1 July 1606. He was chosen as Moderator of Conference at Falkland on 15 June 1608. Simson was offered a bishopric and pension by the King, but frequent attacks of disease broke down his constitution, and he died on 31 March 1618.
Andrew Duncan was a Latin scholar and Church of Scotland minister at Crail. He achieved notoriety for his presbyterian principles which brought him into conflict with James VI who wished to impose an episcopalian system. He attended the General Assembly of Aberdeen in 1605 which had been proscribed or prorogued by royal authority and was one of six ministers who were imprisoned and later exiled as a result. He was allowed to return after several years in France but was subsequently banished again following further controversy in failing to comply with the Five Articles of Perth. He died in exile in Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1626.
John Sharp was a theologian and Church of Scotland minister. He achieved notoriety for his presbyterian principles which brought him into conflict with James VI who wished to impose an episcopalian system. Sharp graduated with an M.A. from St Andrews in 1592. He was admitted to Kilmany in 1601. He was one of those who, in opposition to the Royal command, attended the General Assembly of Aberdeen. For this he and five other ministers were committed to the Castle of Blackness on 2 August. He was brought before the Privy Council at Perth on 27 August and interrogated as to the constitution of the Assembly. Not giving satisfactory answers they were tried before the Justiciary Court at Linlithgow on 10 January 1606, on a charge of treason, found guilty, and banished for life. On 23 October Sharp went to Bordeaux and became Professor of Theology in the University of Die, but would probably have returned to Scotland had honourable terms of reconciliation been offered him. In 1630 he was compelled to leave France at the instance of Cardinal Richelieu, the Prime Minister, who had grown jealous of Sharp's reputation as a Protestant teacher. Sharp was appointed Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh on 17 November 1630. He died about 1647, aged 75.
John Scrimgeour, was a Presbyterian minister at Kinghorn in Fife. He went as a minister with King James to Denmark, when the monarch went there to fetch home Anne, his young bride to be. He is best remembered for his opposition to the Five Articles of Perth. He would not for example observe holy days other than the sabbath and would not have his congregation take the knee for communion; this led to his being deposed from the ministry of the church. He is also remembered having a verbal exchange with John Spottiswoode in which the archbishop is recorded as saying about King James "I tell you, Mr Johne, the king is Pope now, and so sail be." to which Scrimgeour is said to have replied: "It is an evill [title ?] ye give him." Scrimgeour was banned from taking church services, put out of his parish and put under house arrest but nevertheless he did occasionally help officiate at communion services.
James Lawson was the Church of Scotland minister who succeeded John Knox at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh. Lawson's great educational achievement was the founding of the University of Edinburgh. He may be said to have been its principal promoter, and its best and wisest friend during the first year of its history, 1583.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .  | This article related to religion in Scotland is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
  | This Scottish history-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This Christianity-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |