Patrick Sharp (died 1615) was a Scottish theologian and Principal of the University of Glasgow.
He was made master of Glasgow grammar school in 1574. Soon after 1575 he was appointed one of a commission of classical scholars to draw up a new Latin grammar for use in the Scottish schools. In 1585 James VI appointed him Principal of the University of Glasgow. From this time he took an important part in the government and controversies of the Scottish church, He seems to have wished to preserve a position of neutrality between the two parties which divided the kirk, but he gradually inclined to the king's party.
In 1586 he was placed on a commission charged by the general assembly to control the proceedings of the bishops. In 1596 the general assembly appointed him and fifteen others to organise the church in opposition to the government. Consequently, he was ordered by the privy council to return to Glasgow. But in the same year he took part in the reactionary general assembly at Perth, and in 1597 he formed part of the commission to whom were delegated the powers of the general assembly when that body was not in session, and whose appointment paved the way for the re-establishment of episcopacy.
In 1606 Sharp was summoned to Hampton Court with seven other divines, to support the king's side in a debate with Andrew Melville and seven strong presbyterians, on the general questions at issue between king and kirk. In the same year he was appointed constant moderator to the Glasgow presbytery in the absence of the bishop, and encountered such opposition that the privy council ordered the presbytery to receive him under pain of rebellion. The following year he was rebuked for endeavoring to extend the judicial powers of the presbytery to the decision of criminal cases. In 1609 Sharp took part in the Falkland conference, which was intended to make matters easy for the bishops at the general assembly. On 15 May 1610 he was appointed to the Scottish court of high commission, and held the office till 11 August 1614.
He died in May 1615, having been twice married: first, to Mary Fowlls, widow of John Houlden of Balwill, on 1 September 1593, by whom he had two sons, David and Christian, and two daughters; and, secondly, to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Gale of Eastwood, by whom he had a son James.
Sharp was the teacher of John Cameron. Only one of his works survives, Doctrinae Christianae brevis explicatio, printed by Robert Waldegrave in Edinburgh in 1599.
Andrew Melville was a Scottish scholar, theologian, poet and religious reformer. His fame encouraged scholars from the European continent to study at Glasgow and St. Andrews.
John Spottiswoode was an Archbishop of St Andrews, Primate of All Scotland, Lord Chancellor, and historian of Scotland.
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the sovereign and highest court of the Church of Scotland, and is thus the Church's governing body. It generally meets each year and is chaired by a Moderator elected at the start of the Assembly.
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.
George Gledstanes was an Archbishop of St Andrews during the seventeenth century.
Bishop Adam Bellenden was a 17th-century Scottish churchman serving the Church of Scotland and rising to be Bishop of Aberdeen.
James Law was Archbishop of Glasgow. Entering the church after graduation from university, he rose to the position of Bishop of Orkney, reorganising the diocese, before rising to hold the position of Archbishop of Glasgow.
Patrick Lindsay (1566–1644), bishop of Ross, archbishop of Glasgow, son of John Lindsay, and a cadet of the house of Lindsays of Edzell, Angus, was born in 1566, and studied at St Leonard's College, St Andrews, where he was laureated in 1587.
John Maxwell (1591–1647), was a Protestant clergyman serving the Church of Scotland and Church of Ireland as Archbishop of Tuam.
John Hall was the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, meeting in Burntisland in 1601. He was nominated as "Constant Moderator" in 1606.
John Howison was Minister in the Parish of Cambuslang during a turbulent time in Scotland’s history. He was imprisoned several times for his campaign for a Presbyterian, as opposed to Episcopal structure for the Church of Scotland.. He also often reprimanded the King James VI for taking the advice of evil counsellors. He quarrelled with his own parishioners and was convicted of publishing a doctored version of an Act of Parliament, but he died peacefully in Cambuslang, apparently resigned to accepting Bishops in the Kirk.
Patrick Galloway was a Scottish minister, a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. 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.
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.
Charles Ferm, Ferme, Farholme or Fairholm, was a leading campaigning Presbyterian minister in the Church of Scotland, and the Principal of the short lived Fraserburgh University, Scotland.
Scottish religion in the seventeenth century includes all forms of religious organisation and belief in the Kingdom of Scotland in the seventeenth century. The 16th century Reformation created a Church of Scotland, popularly known as the kirk, predominantly Calvinist in doctrine and Presbyterian in structure, to which James VI added a layer of bishops in 1584.
The disastrous General Assembly of Aberdeen was held in 1605. A few ministers of the Presbyterian party met in defiance of royal authority as the general assembly was prohibited by royal proclamation. There was doubt about the legality of the sederunt and the cancelling or the prorogation of the assembly; several of the ministers denied that the king had the authority in what they regarded as a purely spiritual matter. The king disagreed and several who met were tried at Linlithgow for high treason and exiled. They were: John Forbes of Alford; John Welch of Ayr, ; Andrew Duncan; Robert Dury, Anstruther; Alexander Strachan, Creich; and John Sharp, Kilmany. After the assembly King James gave more power to his bishops.
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 Row, born 1598, was the second son of John Row, minister of Carnock, and grandson of John Row, the Reformer. He educated at University of St Andrews graduating with an M.A. in 1617. He was elected schoolmaster of Kirkcaldy 2 November 1619, resigning before 25 November 1628. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Dalkeith 29 September 1631 and became tutor to George Hay, afterwards second Earl of Kinnoul, by whose father, the Lord Chancellor's recommendation, he was appointed master of the Grammar School of Perth in June 1632. He was ordained to Third Charge, Aberdeen, 14 December 1641 and appointed on 23rd November 1642 as lecturer on Hebrew in Marischal College. He was so actively engaged in support of the Covenanting party that on the approach of Montrose to Aberdeen in 1646 he was compelled to take refuge in Dunnottar Castle. Row was appointed by the General Assembly in 1647 to revise the new version of the Psalms from 90 to 120. He was a member of the Commission of Assembly in 1648, and of Commission for visiting the University of Aberdeen 31 July 1649. John Row joined the Independents and was admitted to a church of that persuasion in Edinburgh. He was promoted to Principalship of King's College in Aberdeen in September 1652. He resigned in 1661, and thereafter kept a school in Aberdeen. He died at the manse of Kinellar in October 1672 and was buried at Kinellar.
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.