'Approved by the judgement of the best divines in the reformed Church': the Articles of Perth, the Jacobean Church of Scotland, and festival days

An enduring theme of these posts on the defence of the Articles of Perth given by David Lindsay, Bishop of Brechin (1619-34 and Bishop of Edinburgh 1634-38) - in his 1621 account of the 1618 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Perth - has been how he interprets the Articles as standing fully within the mainstream of the continental Reformed tradition. This is also particularly evident in his approach to the Articles restoring to the Church of Scotland the five principal festivals - Our Lord's "birth, passion, resurrection, ascension, and sending down of the Holy Ghost". 

Referring to his opponent who sought to invoke "the iudgement of the reformed Churches", Lindsay declares "he reiects the doctrine and practise of the reformed Church, which stands wholly in his contrarie". Lindsay, therefore, points to the practice of both continental Reformed and Lutheran churches: 

They in Geneua who obserue the day of Natiuitie, and Easter, approue the practise and order of the Church of Heluetia, who obserue all the fiue ... The late Councell holden at Dort, Anno1618. did celebrate the Feast of Christs Natiuitie most solemnely for the space of three dayes: so the practise of these Churches and of Luther shewes that they agree in iudgment with vs touching the obseruation of the fiue dayes.

The inclusion of Lutherans churches here does not mark out Lindsay and the Articles of Perth as somehow beyond the mainstream of the continental Reformed. There was a significant eirenic stream in continental Reformed thought that continued to seek reconciliation with the Lutherans. Lindsay's willingness to point to Lutheran practice places him and the Articles of Perth within this stream.

In addition to the practice of continental Reformed churches, Lindsay also invokes the teaching of Reformed divines. Whereas Lindsay's opponent adhered to an ideological rejection of the festival days, continental Reformed divines were characterised by an emphasis on liberty and edification:

If forreine Diuines had esteemed the obseruation of these fiue dayes a Iudaicall Pedagogie, a rudimentary instruction, a superstitious wil-worship, as ye doe, they had spoken no more sparingly thereof, then they do of other like things in the Papisticall Church. Where yee say, that they neuer aduised Churches to resume them, who had once remooued the same, Caluine in his one and fiftieth Epistle aduises the Monbelgardens not to contend against the Prince for not resuming of all Festiuall dayes, but only such as serued not to edification, and were seene to be superstitious, such as the Conception and Assumption of the blessed Virgin.

Quoting from Calvin's correspondence regarding the abolition of festival days by the magistrates of Geneva, Lindsay notes Calvin's caution and moderation:

By these words it is manifest, that in Caluines iudgement, the obseruation, and abrogation of these dayes consists in the power and libertie of the Church; and that the obseruation of them in it selfe, is not vnlawfull, but a thing indifferent, to be vsed, and not vsed, as the edification of the Church requires; which iudgement wee imbrace and follow.

Indeed, Calvin, well aware of the unease with which the abolition in Geneva had been received in Reformed Bern and Zurich, made clear his moderation in the letter to Johanes Haller in Bern:

Besides the abolition of the feast-days here has given grievous offence to some of your people, and it is likely enough that much unpleasant talk has been circulating among you. I am pretty certain, also, that I get the credit of being the author of the whole matter, both among the malevolent and the ignorant. But as I can solemnly testify that it was accomplished without my knowledge, and without my desire, so I resolved from the first rather to weaken malice by silence, than be over-solicitous about my defence. Before I ever entered the city, there were no festivals but the Lord's day. Those celebrated by you were approved of by the same public decree by which Farel and I were expelled; and it was rather extorted by the tumultuous violence of the ungodly, than decreed according to the order of law. Since my recall, I have pursued the moderate course of keeping Christ's birth-day as you are wont to do ... Yet there is no reason why men should be so much provoked, if we use our liberty as the edification of the Church demands; just as, on the contrary, it is not fair to take a prejudice against our custom.

Added to this, Lindsay notes, is the teaching of Zanchi,

And therefore Zanchius said well ... That albeit the reformed Churches haue liberty to sanctifie what dayes they thinke good, yet it is more laudable, honest, and profitable, to sanctifie these which the most pure, Apostolick, and Primitiue Church sanctified. So to conclude, we obserue no day for mystery, or with opinion of necessitie, but only for commodity and policie. And this obseruation is approued by the iudgement of the best Diuines in the reformed Church.

'No mystery or necessity, but commodity and policy': it is an excellent description of how Lindsay and the Articles of Perth, within the mainstream of the continental Reformed tradition, understood the observation of the principal festivals. By contrast, the opponents of this provision of the Articles of Perth offered an ideological opposition to such observances that stood apart from the moderation of the continental Reformed. And it only adds to my sense of nostalgia for the Jacobean Church of Scotland and the eirenic example it offered Protestant Christendom.

(The first picture is of a late 17th century drawing of Brechin, Lindsay's See. The second is taken from @semperadiuvans on X, an indication of the eirenic promise of the Jacobean Church of Scotland.)