'Enemies to the peace both of Church and Kingdom': the force of Conformity and the Jacobean Church of Scotland

One of the accusations historians often make of those who defended episcopal conformity in the 17th century Church of Scotland is that their case lacked force. Moderation and eirenicism, we are told, could not hold against the passion and conviction of Covenanters. There are good grounds for doubting this in the latter part of the century. (Indeed, the victory of the Covenanter tradition was the chiefly the result of contingent political circumstances, not force of argument.) And, in his 1621 account of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Perth in 1618, David Lindsay - Bishop of Brechin (1619-34 and Bishop of Edinburgh 1634-38) - demonstrates that this also was not the case in the Jacobean Church of Scotland.

Addressing those who rejected the authority of the Articles of Perth, as accepted by the General Assembly at the request of James VI/I, Lindsay has no hesitation in directly addressing how they disorder both Church and State:

And if any will still oppose themelues thereto, we doubt not to cal them troublers of the Estate, seditious Persons, Schismatickes, louers of Diuision, and direct Enemies to the Weale, and peace both of the Church, and Kingdome.

What is more, those invoke their solemn duty to stand before Christ on the Day of Judgement as justification for their actions in disrupting Church and State, were, Lindsay insisted, merely using that Day as a pretext for their subversion of the good order of church and polity, failing to recognise that these actions will be judged on that Day:

That ye would bee called such men, ye might well prophesie, seeing ye be priuy to your owne intentions; but where ye adiect [i.e. add] that account must be made one day of such contumelies and reproches, I would but aske you, whether yee doe thinke to passe free in the Day of that account, and not be brought to your answere, for calling the Seruants of Christ, mercenarie men, and thereby implying his Maiestie, your Souereigne to be another Balak in giuing the wages of iniquitie, to hirelings: for condemning all, that are obedient to the voyce of the Church in these matters, as men periured, and without all conscience, and diuers others your malicious speeches, vttered in this Pamphlet: or if you thinke it no fault to make a rent in the body of Christ, which is his Church, which it appeares euidently ye are only about ...

It was not, in other words, mere Erastianism that defined those supporting Conformity in the Jacobean Church of Scotland: it was an understanding that, at the end of the ages, standing before the Judgement Seat of Christ, answer would have to be given for rending the peace of Christ's Kirk. An obstinate refusal to conform in things indifferent, duly required by ecclesiastical authority and the magistrate, was not - as the Reformed confessions demonstrated - a small matter which would be overlooked on that Day.

Lindsay also returns to the reality that the Articles of Perth were indeed adiaphora. As he prepares to give a more in-depth defence of each of the provisions of the Articles, he reminds his readers that such adiaphora do not and cannot alter the state of the Church of Scotland as Reformed kirk, and therefore do not in any way mark a departure from the Scots Confession:

The answeres following will cleere to all men, that the estate of our Church is no way preiudged by any Act concluded in the Assembly at Perth, and that the obedience thereof, will not inferre a defection from our former profession.

(The picture is of a late 17th century drawing of Brechin, Lindsay's See.)

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

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