Reception
The Confession was first subscribed by the King and his courtiers (including Ésme Stewart), hence the name King's Confession. [5] [4] According to Calderwood "almost all citizens of all ranks followed" James in subscribing to the Confession. [7] The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland approved of it and declared it "a true and Christian Confession to be agreed unto by such as truly profess Christ and his true religion". [4] The Church also received orders to prosecute "refusers" and university graduates were required to subscribe to it. The Confession was frequently renewed throughout Scotland and John Craig included it in his popular Catechism. [4]
In 1637 Charles I ordered the use of a new prayer book in Scotland, which was similar to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. This was met with widespread resistance and many Scots believed that Charles's Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, was trying to re-introduce Catholic practices. Scottish Church leaders took the Negative Confession, with its strident anti-Catholicism, as their inspiration in the campaign against Charles's ecclesiastical policies. [8] In 1638 Archibald Johnston and Alexander Henderson reprinted the Confession in the National Covenant, which was signed across Scotland. [9]
In 1831 Edward Irving said the Confession "is one of the most nervous protestations against the Papacy that was ever penned". [10] The 19th-century Protestant theologian Philip Schaff called it "the most fiercely anti-Popish of all Confessions". [11] In 1902 W. L. Mathieson spoke of "that exhaustive execration of all things papal which the Presbyterians of the next century were content to revive as the confession of their faith". [12] Hugh Pope in the Catholic Encyclopedia described it as the "most violent condemnation of Papistry that ever issued from a Calvinistic pen". [13]
George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly was a Scottish nobleman who took a leading role in the political and military life of Scotland in the late 16th century, and around the time of the Union of the Crowns.
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.
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Earl of Lennox, 6th Seigneur d'Aubigny of the Château d'Aubigny at Aubigny-sur-Nère in the ancient province of Berry, France, was a Catholic French nobleman of Scottish ancestry who on his move to Scotland at the age of 37 became a favourite of the 13-year-old King James VI of Scotland. Esmé Stewart was the first cousin of James' father, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. Despite his conversion to Calvinism he was never trusted by the Scots and returned to France where he ended his days. Sir James Melville described him as "of nature upright, just and gentle". He was the first to popularise the firstname Esmé in the British Isles.
The Scots Confession is a Confession of Faith written in 1560 by six leaders of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. The text of the Confession was the first subordinate standard for the Protestant church in Scotland. Along with the Book of Discipline and the Book of Common Order, this is considered to be a formational document for the Church of Scotland during the time.
The Raid of Ruthven, the kidnapping of King James VI of Scotland, was a political conspiracy in Scotland which took place on 23 August 1582. It was composed of several Presbyterian nobles, led by William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, who abducted the king. The nobles intended to reform the government of Scotland and limit the influence of French and pro-Catholic policy, and to prevent or manage the return of Mary, Queen of Scots from England to rule with her son in an "association". Their short-lived rule of around 10 months is known as the "Ruthven" or "Gowrie Regime".
The Book of Discipline refers to two works regulative of ecclesiastical order in the Church of Scotland, known as The First Book of Discipline (1560) and The Second Book of Discipline (1578), drawn up and printed in the Scottish Reformation. The first was drafted by a committee of "six Johns", including leading reformer John Knox. It set out a system of Presbyterian polity on the Geneva model, but the lack of funds meant its programme of clerical organisation and education was largely abandoned. The second book was adopted after the forced abdication of Mary Queen of Scots and was much more clearly Presbyterian in outlook. It placed church supervision fully in the hands of groups of elected church leaders in presbyteries.
The Scottish Reformation was the process whereby Scotland broke away from the Catholic Church, and established the Protestant Church of Scotland. It forms part of the wider European 16th-century Protestant Reformation.
The Scottish Reformation Parliament was the assembly elected in 1560 that passed legislation leading to the establishment of the Church of Scotland. These included the Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1560; and Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560. The legislation was not formally approved until 1567, when it was ratified by James VI.
John Winram was a 16th-century Scottish priest and ecclesiastical reformer. He was born in 1492, the son of one James Winram of Ratho and his wife Margaret Wilkie. He obtained a Bachelor's Degree (1515), a Master's Degree and a Doctorate (1541) from St Leonard's College, University of St Andrews.
John Duncanson was a Scottish minister, one of the Roman Catholic clergymen who willingly converted to the Protestant doctrines during the Reformation. He was reputed to have lived to be nearly 100 years old. He was elected President of St Leonard's College, St Andrews in 1556, around the time he accepted the reformed faith. He held this position until 1566. He was also the minister at Stirling in 1560.
David Lindsay (1531–1613) was one of the twelve original ministers nominated to the "chief places in Scotland" in 1560. In 1589 as one of the recognised leaders of the Kirk and as chaplain of James VI of Scotland, Lindsay accompanied James to Norway to fetch home his bride. He was appointed bishop of Ross and a privy councillor in 1600. He was five times Moderator of the General Assembly: 1577, 1582, 1586, 1593 and 1597.
Alexander Cunningham, 5th Earl of Glencairn was a Scottish nobleman and Protestant reformer, prominent in the Scottish Reformation.
Covenanters were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. It originated in disputes with James VI and his son Charles I over church organisation and doctrine, but expanded into political conflict over the limits of royal authority.
The Articles of Leith were the terms of truce drawn up between the Protestant Lords of the Congregation and Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland and signed on 25 July 1559. This negotiation was a step in the conflict that led to the Scottish Reformation. Although its immediate effect was the withdrawal of Protestant forces from Edinburgh, subsequent disputes over the content and observance of the treaty fuelled the crisis in Scotland.
John Craig was a Reformer, and colleague of John Knox. Originally a Dominican, he became a Church of Scotland minister with significant extra responsibilities and played an influential part in the Scottish Reformation.
Elizabeth Stewart, Countess of Arran was a Scottish noblewoman and political intriguer. Several accounts of her actions and ambition were written by her political enemies.
John Row (c1525–1580), was a Scottish reformer, born around 1526 near Dunblane. He was educated at the Grammar School of Stirling and St Leonard's College, St Andrews, where he matriculated in 1544. After graduating with an M.A. he studied Canon Law and practised as an advocate in the Consistory Court of St Andrews. In 1550, he was appointed agent for the Scottish clergy at Rome, where he remained seven or eight years. He was awarded Licentiate of Laws, and LL.D. Padua. The fame of his talents and learning led to his intimacy with Pope Paul IV and some of the cardinals, and would probably have led to his promotion ; but owing to ill-health he was compelled to return to Scotland, when he was appointed nuncio to investigate the causes of the Reformation and to devise means for checking its progress. He reached Eyemouth on 29 September 1558, but finding himself unable to fulfil his injunctions, returned to Rome before 11 May 1559. After a short residence there, he came back by persuasion of James, Prior of St Andrews, afterwards Earl of Moray, and having seen the falsehood and imposition of a pretended miracle at St Allaret's Chapel, Musselburgh, he joined the Reformers. He was admitted to Kennoway in April 1560, before the Reformation was fully established. John Row was one of six ministers appointed by the Lords of the Congregation for "writing in a book their judgments touching the Reformation of religion." These appeared in the Confession of Faith and First Book of Discipline. He was translated to Perth 17 July, and admitted before 20 December 1560. He was appointed by the General Assembly, 10 July 1568, to visit Galloway. He was styled Commissioner of Nithsdale and Galloway, March 1570 and elected Moderator of the General Assembly 21 July and 25 December 1567, 24 April 1576, and 11 June 1578. He died on 16 October 1580, at which time he held the vicarages of Twynholm and Terregles in Galloway. He was regarded as "a cautious and prudent reformer, of moderate views, benevolent disposition, and amiable and winning manners, a wise and grave father, of good literature according to the time." He was skilled in the original languages of Scripture, and did much towards building up the Reformed Church in Scotland. He was married in 1560 to Margaret, second daughter of John Beaton of Balfour.
John Spottiswood (1510–1585) was a religious reformer in 16th century Scotland.
The National Covenant was an agreement signed by many people of Scotland during 1638, opposing the proposed Laudian reforms of the Church of Scotland by King Charles I. The king's efforts to impose changes on the church in the 1630s caused widespread protests across Scotland, leading to the organisation of committees to coordinate opposition to the king. Facing royal opposition, its leaders arranged the creation of the National Covenant to bolster the movement by tapping into patriotic fervour. It became widely adopted throughout most of Scotland with supporters henceforth known as Covenanters.
George David Henderson was a Scottish historian and a minister of the Church of Scotland.
