The Book of Discipline

As the fruits of the Confession of Faith towards God were provided — for in the Book of Common Order, so were those towards man in the Book of Discipline. As has been already remarked, the latter document originated in the same year as the Confession of Faith — 1560 — and proceeded from the same authors, who, in their preface, introduce themselves in the following terms:

“To the Great Council of Scotland, now admitted to the regiment by the providence of God, and by the common consent of the estates thereof, your Honours’ humble servitors and ministers of Christ Jesus within the same wish grace, mercy and peace from God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the perpetual increase of the Holy Spirit.

“From your Honours we received a charge dated at Edinburgh, 29 April, in the year of God

1560, requiring and commanding us in the name of the Eternal God, as we will answer in His presence, to commit to writing and in a book to deliver unto your Wisdoms our judgments touching the reformation of religion, which heretofore in this realm, as in others, has been utterly corrupted. Upon the receipt thereof so many of us as were in this town did convene, and in unity of mind do offer unto your Wisdoms these heads subsequent for common order and uniformity to be observed in this realm concerning doctrine, administration of sacraments, election of ministers, provision for their sustentation, ecclesiastical discipline and policy of the Kirk: most humbly requiring your Honours, that, as ye look for participation with Christ Jesus, that neither ye admit anything which God’s plain Word shall not approve, neither yet that ye shall reject such ordinances as equity, justice and God’s Word do specify: for, as we will not bind your Wisdoms to our judgments further than we be able to prove the same by God’s plain Scriptures, so must we most humbly crave of you, even as ye will answer in God’s presence, before whom both ye and we must appear to render account of all our deeds, that ye repudiate nothing for pleasure nor affection of men, which ye be not able to improve by God’s written and revealed Word.”

The treatise thus introduced is in some respects the most remarkable document of that age in Scotland; and to this day it remains readable in the highest degree, being written with extraordinary vivacity and directness. One would be inclined to say that nothing else bears quite so distinctly the impress of Knox’s genius. It comes away in a single gush, and it causes a dazzling image of national prosperity to rise before the mind. Unfortunately it was only an ideal, never destined to be changed into actuality. But for this Knox was not to blame. And ever since it has remained, and it will remain, as a finger pointing forward to possibilities still to be realised. An omission which must strike every reader is the almost total absence of the Presbyterian system of Church government. But for this the conditions were not yet ripe; and this was amply provided for in the Second Book of Discipline — a monument of the genius of Melville, dating from 1578 — which in some minor respects repealed the provisions of this First Book of Discipline, but was in general intended only to expand and confirm its principles.

The Book of Discipline is not a manual of morals, as the Confession of Faith is of doctrine; although it deals largely with the character and conduct of the members and especially the office-bearers of the Church, as might be gathered from its very name. On discipline proper, in the sense of ecclesiastical censure, it contains two or three chapters; the contents of which signalise a prominent feature of the order which Knox and his assistants were setting up in Scotland. The ecclesiastical officials were intended to take a very sharp oversight of the morals of the community. “Blasphemy, adultery, murder, perjury, and other crimes capital, worthy of death, ought not properly to fall under the censure of the Church; because all such open transgressors of God’s law ought to be taken away by the civil sword. But drunkenness, excess, be it in apparel or be it in eating or drinking, fornication, oppression of the poor by exactions, deceiving of them in buying or selling by wrong weights or measures, wanton words and licentious living tending to slanders, do properly appertain to the Church of God, to punish the same as God’s Word commandeth.”

The handling of such offenders by the officials of the Church was to be slow and circumspect, a door of repentance being always left open as long as possible; but the punishments were intended to be severe in case of obstinacy; the culminating one being excommunication; “after which sentence may no person, the wife and family of the culprit only excepted, have any kind of conversation with him; except it be at the licence and commandment of the ministry for his conversion; that he, by such mean confounded, seeing himself abhorred of the faithful and godly, may have occasion to repent and so be saved.” These arrangements were intended to extend to all ranks and conditions, no respect of persons being allowed: “To discipline must all estates within the realm be subject, if they offend, as well the rulers as they that are ruled; yea, and the preachers themselves, as well as the poorest within the Church.” In another place it is added: “Not only may the life and manners of the ministers come under censure and judgment of the Church, but also of their wives, children and family: judgment must be taken that he neither live riotously nor yet avariciously; yea, respect must be had how they spend the stipend appointed to their living. If a reasonable stipend be appointed, and they live avariciously, they must be admonished to live so as they receive; for, as excess and superfluity is not tolerable in a minister, so is avarice and the careful solicitude of money and gear utterly to be condemned in Christ’s servants.”

In addition to this censureship from other office-bearers, the ministers were to hold a weekly meeting, at which they were to review one another’s conduct.

under warning that, if they spared from fear or favour to point out one another’s faults, they would incur the righteous judgment of God. This idea appears to have been borrowed from the Church of Geneva; and it suggests that the good men were perhaps a little defective in the sense of humour. With this entire section, indeed, of the Reformers’ plans there is connected to the modern mind a suggestion of espionage and disregard of the rights of personality. In practice it has long been curtailed and modified. Yet it is impossible to look at the state of the country at the present time without seeing that we have gone to the opposite extreme in the recognition of the freedom of the subject, and this not to the country’s advantage. There is a large class not fit to make a good use of as much personal liberty as is allowed. The members of this class fill our prisons and workhouses at the expense of the public or, if occupying lodgings that are paid for, keep up habits of savage or nomadic life, converting their houses into centres of disease and infection both physical and moral. All who are acquainted with the facts about this class are aware that drastic measures, not unlike those recommended by John Knox, are still required for the protection of society.

It has been suggested that the proper name for the Book of Discipline would have been the Book of Policy, because its proposals extend far beyond discipline proper to subjects for which “policy “is now the proper term. In the book itself this word appears, however, to be employed in a narrower sense, to denote the external arrangements for the various functions of the Church, such as worship, marriage and the like.” Thus, not only was thex^ Sunday to be observed with preaching, the catechis-^-^ ing of children and the administration of the sacraments — the Lord’s Supper being celebrated four times a year — but on week-days in large towns there was to be daily sermon, or else the reading of Common Prayers with the Scriptures; and in smaller places at least one week-day service, during which business was to be suspended. The Scripture was to be read in church in order — “that is, that some one book of the Old and the New Testament be begun and orderly read to the end. And the same we judge of preaching, where the minister for the most part remaineth in one place; for this skipping ^’’ and divagation from place to place of the Scripture, be it in reading or be it in preaching, we judge not so profitable to edify the Church as the continual following of one text.” In private houses the heads

McCrie, life Worship of Presbyterian Scotland. 2 History, ii. 237.

of families were exhorted to use the Common Prayers morning and evening; and, under pain of discipline, they were commanded to instruct the young beneath their roof, in order that these might be fit for admission to the communion; none being considered fit for this ordinance who were not familiar with at least the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Creed. Marriages were to take place in Church and on Sunday; and young people were not permitted to marry without the consent of their parents, although, if the parents’ objections were unreasonable, the young people could appeal to the Church. Burials in Church were not permitted; and there was to be no religious service at funerals — an arrangement considered necessary to counteract the superstitions of Popery, but surely erring itself as far on the opposite side. One interesting service, too soon allowed to fall into desuetude, was the weekly Prophesying, at which all and sundry were encouraged to propound their difficulties or give their comments on the passage selected. This was not unlike a modern American prayer-meeting; and it revealed and developed the spiritual gifts of the laity to the general advantage. “For no man may be permitted to live as best pleaseth him within the Church of God; but every man must be constrained, by fraternal admonition and correction to bestow his labours, when of the Church they are required, to the edification of others.”

So much of the Book of Discipline is taken up with the qualifications, the appointment and the functions of the various office-bearers of the Church that these may appear to be its principal topics.

Elders and deacons were to be elected by the free votes of the members, but only for one year, “lest that by long continuance of such officers men presume upon the liberty of the Church. It hurts not that one man be retained in office more years than one, so that he be appointed yearly by common and free election.” But deacons could be re-elected only after an interval of three years. The office of the elders consisted in “judging and decerning of causes; in giving of admonition to the licentious liver; in having of respect to the manners and conversation of all men within their charge “; of the deacons “to receive the rents and gather the alms of the Church, to keep and distribute the same. They may assist in judgment wdth the ministers and elders, and may be admitted to read in the assembly, if they be required and be found able thereto.”

Naturally a large amount of space is devoted History y ii. 245.

to ministers. “In a Kirk reformed or tending to reformation none ought to presume either to teach or minister the sacraments till that orderly they be called to the same.” Those who presumed to take these functions, especially the latter of them, upon themselves without such qualification were worthy of death.^ No doubt this severe judgment was aimed first of all at sectaries, like the Anabaptists, but it was extended also to those who had received no licence but that of a corrupt Church:” The papistical priests have neither power nor authority to minister the sacraments of Christ Jesus; because that in their mouth is not the sermon of exhortation. And, therefore, to them must straight inhibition be made, notwithstanding any usurpation which they have had in that behalf in the time of blindness. It is neither the clipping of their crowns, the crossing of their fingers, nor the blowing of the dumb dogs called the bishops, neither yet the laying on of their hands, that maketh them true ministers of Christ Jesus. But the Spirit of God, inwardly first moving the hearts to seek Christ’s glory and the profit of His Church, and thereafter the nomination of the people, the examination of the learned and public admission, as before is said, make men lawful ministers of the Word and sacraments. We * History i. 274.

speak of an ordinary vocation, where Churches are reformed or at least tend to reformation, and not of that which is extraordinary, when God, by Himself and by His only power, raiseth up to the ministry such as best pleaseth His wisdom.”

Ample directions are given as to the calling, examining and ordination of ministers. “It appertaineth to the people, and to every several congregation, to elect their own minister.” “For altogether this is to be avoided that any man be violently intruded or thrust in upon any congregation.” Yet, in the event of the election not being completed in forty days, the authority of the Church could step in and carry out the appointment; though evidently even in such a case the feelings and wishes of the people were to be considered. The ministers of the neighbourhood were entitled to test the qualifications of the man chosen by the people, and public notice of the proceedings was widely spread, lest anyone should have any complaint to bring against the character of the minister-elect. But, these ordeals being safely passed, he was ordained without laying on of hands — a restriction repealed in the Second Book of Discipline. The appointment was ad vitam aiit ciilpam in the sense not only that the congregation was not at liberty to reject or change the pastor without being able to convict him of crime worthy of deposition, but that he was not at liberty to leave the flock at his pleasure to which he had promised his fidelity and labours.

Ministers of the right stamp were scarce, yet an earnest warning was given against allowing this to interfere with the testing of the qualifications of applicants: “We are not ignorant that the rarity of godly and learned men shall seem to some a just reason why that so straight and sharp examination should not be taken universally; for so it shall appear that the most part of the kirks shall have no minister at all. But let these men understand that the lack of able men shall not excuse us before God, if by our consent unable men be placed over the flock of Christ Jesus, as also that among the Gentiles godly, learned men were also rare as they be now among us when the Apostle gave the same rule to try and examine ministers which we now follow: and last, let them understand that it is alike to have no minister at all and to have an idol in the place of a true minister; yea, and in some cases it is worse; for those that be utterly destitute of ministers will be diligent to search for them; but those that have a vain shadow do commonly without further care content themselves with the same, and so remain they continually deceived, thinking that they have a minister when in very deed they have none. For we cannot judge him a dispenser of God’s mysteries that in no wise can break the bread of life to the fainting and hungry souls; neither judge we that the sacraments can be rightly ministered by him in whose mouth God has put no sermon of exhortation.”

To meet, however, the difficulties created by the greatness of the field and the paucity of the labourers two extra offices were recognised, neither of which has maintained its place in the Presbyterian system. Of these the first was that of Readers, who were to read prayers and the Scriptures, but were unable to exhort. They were, however, encouraged to attempt a few words of exhortation and instruction; and, if these efforts succeeded, they might look forward to ultimate promotion to the superior office. The other was that of Superintendents. These were to be ten in number, and areas were allotted to them severally, not unlike in extent to the sees of bishops, within which they were to erect the fabric of the Reformed Church, in so far as this had not been already done, and watch over its development where it already existed. They were not only to plant new charges, but to examine the life, diligence and behaviour of ministers, as also the order of their churches and the manners of the people. “They must further consider how the poor be provided; how the youth be instructed; they must admonish where admonition needeth; redress such things as by good counsel they may be able to appease; and, finally, they must note such crimes as be heinous, that by the censure of the Church the same may be corrected.”

It is undeniable that such an official bore a close resemblance to a bishop; and it was this that led to the speedy discontinuance of the office. But a superintendent differed essentially from a bishop in this respect, that he was not supposed to belong to a third order above ministers and elders. Besides, the most stringent measures were taken that he should not act like the idle bishops of preceding times, but be a harder worker than any minister; and it was expressly stipulated that he should be liable to the censure of the elders and ministers, who were at liberty to depose him in case of need.

It is not forgotten that a proposal to revive this office was recently made by one of the most eminent ministers of Scotland when preaching before the General Assembly of his Church; his contention being that there are ministers who require superintendence in order to make the most of their talents but, without it, fall into habits of idleness or vain and aimless energy. The actual proposal did not take much hold of the mind of the country; but something was done in his own denomination towards dealing with inefficiency; and a widespread impression was produced that in every Church there is requisite an episcopal function, whether this is to be lodged in a single person or in such a body as the presbytery.

There is another subject that occupies so much space in the Book of Discipline that it also might almost be designated the theme of the whole; and this is the disposal of the funds accruing from the disestablishment and disendowment of the old Church. These were of vast extent, including the revenues of the abbeys, cloisters, nunneries, chapels, chantries, cathedral churches, canonries and the like, which were swept away by the Reformation. It was the desire of Knox and his fellow-labourers that these funds should flow into the treasury of the new Church and be employed first of all for the support of ministers and superintendents. For these a rate of remuneration is fixed in the Book of Discipline on a modest scale, but, as the ministry was no longer to be celibate, a more liberal allowance than formerly was required. “Provision must be made not only for their own sustentation during their lives but also for their wives and children after them. .For we consider it a thing most contrarious to reason, godliness and equity, that the widow and children of him who in his life did faithfully serve the Kirk of God and for that cause did not carefully make provision for his family should after his death be left comfortless of all provision.” Elders and deacons were not to receive any monetary remuneration.

But the wealth proceeding from the old Church ought far to have exceeded the necessities of the ministry of the new body, on however liberal a scale these had been calculated; and accordingly Knox and those who shared his ideas were able to contemplate other objects of national importance to which the surplus might be devoted.

One of these was provision for the poor; and such sentences as the following on this vital subject have not yet lost their virtue: “Every several kirk must provide for the poor within itself; for fearful and horrible it is that whom not only God the Father in His law, but Jesus Christ in His evangel, and the Holy Spirit speaking by St. Paul hath so earnestly commended to our care, are universally so contemned and despised. We are not patrons for stubborn and idle beggars, who, running from place to place, make a craft of their begging, whom the civil magistrate ought to punish; but for the widow and fatherless, the aged, impotent or lame, who neither can nor may travail for their sustentation, we say that God commandeth His people to be careful; and therefore for such, as also for persons of honesty fallen into decay and penury, ought such provision to be made that of our abundance should their indigence be relieved. How this most conveniently and most easily may be done in every city and other parts of this realm, God shall show you wisdom and the means, so that your minds be godly thereto inclined. All must not be suffered to beg that gladly so would do; neither yet must beggars remain where they choose; but the stout and strong beggar must be compelled to work, and every person that may not work must be compelled to repair to the place where he or she was born (unless of long continuance they have remained in one place), and there reasonable provision must be made for their sustentation as the Church shall appoint. The order nor sums in our judgments cannot be particularly appointed unto such time as the poor of every city, town or parish be compelled to repair to the places where they were born, or of their residences, where their names and number must be taken and put in roll; and then may the wisdom of the Kirk appoint stipends accordingly.”

A further application of these wholesome sentiments is made in the following words to the poor of another class — those, namely, who, while not receiving poor relief but paying teinds, were unable, without a sense of oppression, to sustain the public burdens they had to bear: —

“We must crave of your Honours, in the name of the Eternal God and of His Son Christ Jesus, that ye have respect to your poor brethren, the labourers and manurers of the ground; who by these cruel beasts the papists have been so oppressed that their life to them has been dolorous and bitter. If ye will have God author and approver of your reformation, ye must not follow their footsteps; but ye must have compassion on your brethren, appointing them to pay so reasonable teinds that they may find some benefit of Christ Jesus now preached unto them. With the grief of our hearts we hear that some gentlemen are now as cruel over their tenants as ever the papists were, requiring of them whatsoever before they paid to the Church; so that the papistical tyranny shall only be changed into the tyranny of the lord or of the laird. We dare not flatter your Honours, neither yet is it profitable for you that so we do; if ye permit such cruelty to be used, neither shall ye, who by your authority ought to gainstand such oppression, neither they that use the same escape God’s heavy and fearful judgments. The Gentlemen, Barons, Earls, Lords and others must be content to live upon their just rents, and suffer the Church to be restored to her liberty, that in her restitution the poor, who heretofore by the cruel papists have been spoiled and oppressed, may now receive some comfort and relaxation.”

But the principal object on which the surplus was to be expended was education. To every church was to be attached a schoolmaster, able to teach grammar and the Latin tongue, if the town were of any reputation. In landward districts the work might be undertaken by the minister or reader, and the subjects might be more rudimentary, but the thorough teaching of the Catechism must be included. So much for elementary education. Then, in every notable town, and especially in the town of the superintendent, there was to be erected a college or, as we should now term it, a high school, in which the Arts, at least Logic and Rhetoric, together with the tongues, should be read by sufficient masters, for whom honest stipends must be appointed; and bursaries were to be provided not only for the poor and clever boys of the place, but also for such from the rural districts. This was the second stage — what we now call Intermediate Education — and the summit of the edifice was to be found in the three universities of St. Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen; Edinburgh not having yet advanced to the dignity of a university city. In St. Andrews there were three colleges, in Glasgow two, and in Aberdeen two, with two or more chairs in each.

The Book of Discipline enters minutely into the arrangements of these great seats of learning, expatiating on the courses to be taken by the students and the duties and emoluments of the professors. The officials, from principals and rectors down to porters and beadles, are carefully described, and the relation of offenders to the civil powers in the cities where the universities are situated nicely discriminated. But here again the essential thing is the search for talent among the poor and the provision for free education, while the sons of the nobility were required to pay according to their several degrees.

The whole sketch, which is detailed and well-informed in every direction, is accompanied with a running comment on the desirability of learning for its own sake and its utility to the commonwealth; and it winds up with the assurance to the nobles, to whom the Book of Discipline was addressed: “If God shall grant quietness and give your Wisdoms grace to set forward letters in the sort prescribed, ye shall leave wisdom to your posterity, a treasure more to be esteemed than any earthly treasure you are able to provide for them!”

This is John Knox’s famous scheme for national education. Its outline was clear and imposing; and the eloquence with which it enforced the claims and advantages of education appealed at once both to the imagination and the common sense of the country. Its accomplishment was delayed and its beneficial results were permanently impoverished by the avarice of the nobility; but it has never ceased to hold its place as an ideal in the public mind; and to it must be ascribed in no small degree the reputation for education which Scotland has attained in the world. Even yet, although the sum of human knowledge has increased enormously in extent, the efforts of educationists are absorbed into Knox’s scheme without completely filling it up; and the very latest developments, such as the Education Bill of Lord Young and the munificent gift of Mr. Carnegie, only serve to perfect the ladder which he began to construct.

The entire Book of Discipline may be called Knox’s vision of a Scotland religious, virtuous, intelligent and happy; and, if it be contended that he laid less stress than is due on the last of these adjectives, it may be replied that he in his own person set an example of happiness, and that a nation is more likely to come out all right at the end of this series of adjectives by taking them in his order than by taking them in the opposite direction. It was not too proud a boast with which the Book of Discipline closed when, after praying the nobles to whom it was addressed to receive its proposals with an open and favourable mind, the authors added: — “This our judgment shall abide to the generations following for a monument and witness, how lovingly God called you and this realm to repentance, what counsellers God sent unto you, and how ye used the same.”