Churches – Episcopalians in Scotland
The episcopal form of church government is based on the concept of apostolic succession; that is, that bishops, through consecration, are in direct continuity from the original apostles of Jesus Christ and their authority within the church rests on this. Episcopalian church government therefore relies on bishops who have been consecrated by other bishops, clergy who are ordained by bishops, and synods in which bishops meet together to draw up church law and doctrine. Each bishop usually presides over a geographic area, known as a diocese, and calls diocesan synods and councils to govern and advise them. The bishop’s church is known as a cathedral, and the conduct of worship and governance there is delegated to a provost. Clergy serve in congregations, having responsibilities for worship and implementation of church law, while the management of congregations and their buildings are the responsibility of vestries, made up of lay representatives of the congregation, the officiating clergy and church wardens (elected from the congregation or appointed by the clergy).[1]
The membership and functions of synods, councils, vestries and other church bodies, while broadly similar across the worldwide episcopal community, varies between national churches. Scottish bishops, their position within the Church of Scotland legally abolished during the Reformation of 1689-90, lost diocesan responsibilities, but developed a College of Bishops after 1720. Gradually liturgical divisions between the existing and newly consecrated bishops subsided, and the Concordat of 1731 opened the way for a diocesan structure to be reinstated. It gave the clergy of each diocese the right to elect their bishop, subject to approval of the bishops, who in turn could meet in synod to elect a presiding bishop known as the Primus.[2] In 1811 the Provincial Council (later Provincial Synod) was established consisting of a house of bishops and a house of representative clergy. Laity were given a voice in electing bishops from 1863, in 1905 a Consultative Council on Church Legislation was established with lay representatives as well as bishops and clergy, and in 1962 a house of lay representatives was added to the Provincial Synod.[3] Alongside this a Representative Church Council was set up in 1876 to oversee church administration, finance and property, with lay representatives, lay officials, clergy representatives and bishops.[4] In 1982, the Representative Church Council and the Provincial Synod were both abolished and their functions and responsibilities transferred to a General Synod, made up of three houses of bishops, clergy and laity.[5]
These developments in Scottish episcopal church government were impacted by the relationship of Episcopalians to the Church of Scotland and to the state. In Scotland, the Reformation established protestant theology and doctrines, but it did not immediately remove the episcopalian form of church government. From 1560 until 1690, parliament and the church moved back and forth between presbyterian and episcopalian church government and at times used elements of both.[6] In 1560 papal jurisdiction and the mass were abolished but it was not until 1567 that bishops were abolished.[7] Bishops were then reintroduced in 1606.[8] Charles I subsequently ratified this in 1633.[9] Bishops were again abolished at the time of the National Covenant in 1638 and reinstated by Charles II in 1662.[10] In 1689, bishops were abolished and in 1690 Presbyterianism was re-established.[11]
The revolution in church government involved the forced eviction of some episcopal clergy from their parishes and the deprivation by the state of others accused of Jacobitism, while more clergy were removed for ecclesiastical offences by the presbyterian church courts. Bishops were prevented from taking income from their former dioceses, and in 1695 deprived episcopal clergy were prevented from conducting baptisms or marriages without legal qualification.[12] It was unlawful to conduct worship except as approved by the relevant presbytery, but this was challenged on appeal to the House of Lords and in 1712 the Toleration Act declared it lawful for Episcopalians to meet for worship using the Book of Common Prayer, abolished the 1695 Act against irregular baptisms and marriages, and required both episcopalian clergy and parish ministers to take an oath of allegiance to Queen Anne, thus renouncing any Jacobite allegiances.[13] By the early eighteenth century the practice of liturgical worship, one of the defining characteristics of the Episcopalians in Scotland, was well established. Both English and Scottish liturgies were developed and used at different periods by different groups.
The 1712 Toleration Act effectively acknowledged the existence of Episcopalians in Scotland as a separate church from the Church of Scotland, but more importantly it began the division between the ‘qualified’ clergy, who swore allegiance to Anne and her Hanoverian successors, and the ‘nonjurors’ who remained loyal to the exiled Stuarts. No Scottish bishop qualified and only a few clergy.[14] More did so after the 1715 Jacobite rebellion, and qualified congregations were established in many burghs in eastern Scotland in response to penal restrictions. In 1719 it became unlawful for clergy who did not pray for King George and take the abjuration oath, to minister to more than eight people. After the 1745 rebellion a penal law of 1746 prohibited worship unless the clergymen had taken the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, prayed for the monarch and royal family by name in public worship, and registered their letters of orders. No more than four worshippers in addition to a family could gather, and worshippers in places which broke the law were also punishable.[15] Worship was further restricted in 1748 when only clergy who had letters of orders from English or Irish bishops were considered qualified, and clergy who had been ordained by Scottish bishops were disqualified even if they had taken the oaths.[16] These penal laws were repealed in 1792.[17]
In an effort to re-unite with qualified clergy and congregations, in 1804 the bishops and clergy adopted the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England and offered conditions for qualified clergy to accept the authority of Scottish bishops in Scotland. However, clergy ordained by Scottish bishops were not permitted to be appointed to Church of England benefices until 1864.[18] From 1864 onwards, the Scottish Episcopal Church enjoyed an independent and equal relationship with the Church of England within the Anglican Communion, and its legal status in Scotland was the same as other voluntary churches.
The records of the Scottish Episcopal Church are mainly held by the National Records of Scotland (reference code CH12). Records of some congregations can be found in Glasgow City Archives, Highland Archives, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives and other local authority archives. Congregational records usually include vestry minutes (or managers’ minutes), registers of services, registers of baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials, accounts and property records.
Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2024); Tristram Clarke (2024)
Related Knowledge Base entries
Churches – Presbyterian Churches in Scotland
Churches – Roman Catholics in Scotland
Bibliography
Bertie, David M., Scottish Episcopal Clergy, 1689-2000 (T & T Clark, 2000)
Goldie, Frederick, A Short History of the Episcopal Church in Scotland from the Restoration to the present time 2nd edition (St Andrew Press, 1976)
Maclean, Allan, ‘Episcopalians’ in Scottish Life and Society: A compendium of Scottish Ethnology, vol. 12, Religion (John Donald, European Ethnological Research Centre & National Museums of Scotland, 2006)
Mullan, David G., Episcopacy in Scotland: The History of an Idea, 1560–1638 (John Donald, 1986)
Strong, Rowan, Episcopalianism in Nineteenth-Century Scotland: Religious Responses to a Modernizing Society (Oxford University Press, 2002)
Wilkinson, A.B., ‘Scottish Episcopal Church; polity, law and governance’ in Legal Systems of Scottish Churches ed. by Marjory A. MacLean, (Edinburgh University Press, 2010), pp. 43-55
White, Gavin, The Scottish Episcopal Church: a new history (General Synod of Scottish Episcopal Church, 1998)
Wormald, Jenny ‘Reformed and Godly Scotland?’ in The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History ed. by T.M. Devine & Jenny Wormald (Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 204-19
References
[1] A.B. Wilkinson, ‘Scottish Episcopal Church; polity, law and governance’ in Legal Systems of Scottish Churches ed. by Marjory A. MacLean, (Edinburgh University Press, 2010), pp. 43-55.
[2] Frederick Goldie, A Short History of the Episcopal Church in Scotland from the Restoration to the present time 2nd edition (St Andrew Press, 1976), pp. 49-55.
[3] Wilkinson, ‘Scottish Episcopal Church’, p.46; Goldie, Short History of the Episcopal Church, p.133.
[4] Goldie, Short History of the Episcopal Church, p.91.
[5] Wilkinson, , ‘Scottish Episcopal Church’, p.46.
[6] Jenny Wormald ‘Reformed and Godly Scotland?’ in The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History ed.by T.M. Devine & Jenny Wormald (Oxford University Press, 2014) pp. 204-19.
[7] Confession of Faith Ratification Act, 1560, The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, [RPS], ed. by K.M. Brown and others (University of St Andrews, 2007-2021), <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1560/8/3 > Concerning the abolishing of the pope and his usurped authority, 1567, RPS, <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1567/12/1>; Concerning the abolition of the mass and the punishment of all that hears or says the same, 1567, RPS, <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1567/12/4 >; Concerning the true and holy kirk and of them that are declared not to be of the same, 1567, RPS, <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1567/12/5> [all accessed 29 December 2021].
[8] Act regarding the restitution of the estate of bishops,1605, RPS, <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1605/6/31> [accessed 29 December 2021].
[9] Ratification of the acts touching religion, 1633 RPS, <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1633/6/19 > [accessed 29 December 2021].
[10] Act for the restitution and re-establishment of the ancient government of the church by archbishops and bishops, 1662, RPS, <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1662/5/9> [accessed: 29 December 2021].
[11] Prelacy Act, 1689 (c.4); Confession of Faith Ratification Act, 1690 (c.7).
[12] Act against irregular baptisms and marriages, 1695, RPS, <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1695/5/118 > [accessed 29 December 2021].
[13] Act to prevent disturbing of those of the Episcopal Communion [Toleration Act] 1712 (10 Anne c.7)
[14] Goldie, Short History of the Episcopal Church, pp. 44-45.
[15] Act for the further security of his Majesty’s person and government…1715 (1 Geo. I, Stat. 2, c.13); Abjuration Act, 1719 (5 Geo. I c.29); Act more effectually to prohibit and prevent pastors and ministers from officiating in episcopal meeting-houses…, 1746 (19 Geo. II, c.38); Act for more effectual disarming of the highlands of Scotland…and for obliging…chaplains…1746 (19 Geo. II, c.39) ss.23-25.
[16] Act to amend and enforce … the more effectual disarming the highlands … 1748 (21 Geo. II c.34).
[17] Relief Act, 1792 (32 Geo. III c.63).
[18] Goldie, Short History of the Episcopal Church, pp.88-90; An Act to make certain provisions and regulations … (3 & 4 Vict. c.33); Episcopal Church (Scotland) Act 1864 (27 & 28 Vict, c.94).