CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. (Hansard, 28 March 1843)

Lord Campbell

laid upon the Table the following resolutions relative to the Church of Scotland. 1. That it is the opinion of this House, that the Church of Scotland as by law established, and the securities of the Government thereof by general assemblies, synods, presbyteries, and Kirk sessions, ought to be inviolably maintained, and that this House is desirous that the said Church of Scotland shall freely and peaceably possess and enjoy her rights, liberties, government, discipline, and privileges according to law, in all time coming. 2. That it is the opinion of this House that the church, as established by law in Scotland, has produced the best practical effect on the morals and religious character of the people; that it has well fulfilled, and continues to fulfil, the important purposes for which it was founded, and that any shock which might endanger this great national establishment would be regarded by that House as a great national calamity. 3.That, with a view to heal the unhappy divisions which now exist in the Church of Scotland, and to give contentment to the said church, this House is of opinion, that the demands of the said church contained in the papers laid before this House shall be conceded by the Legislature, as far as the same can be safely conceded consistently with the permanent welfare of the said church and the existence of subordination and good government in the country; and therefore, when any measures for correcting the alleged abuses of patronage in Scotland, and insuring the appointment and admission of ministers properly qualified for the parishes in which they are to officiate, and to edify the congregation to whom they are to minister in holy things, shall be constitutionally brought before this House as a branch of the Legislature, this House will favourably entertain the same, and 38 anxiously endeavour that the end of such measures may be attained. 4. That considering that patronage has subsisted in Scotland from the remotest times, and is recognised in the most venerable authorities of the law of that country; that the preservation of patronage was made an express condition on which the present reformed Church of Scotland was established and endowed by the state; that it has been confirmed by several subsequent statutes; that the present ministers of the Church of Scotland wore introduced into it according to the law of patronage; and that, if this law be under due superintendence and control, there appears to be no other law more likely to secure the introduction as pastors into an endowed church, of men of learning, piety, zeal, good morals, and sound doctrine—the demand of the Church of Scotland, that patronage shall be abolished as a grievance, is in the opinion of this House unreasonable and unfounded, and ought not to be conceded. 5. That this House, acknowledging the independent, exclusive, and supreme jurisdiction of the courts of the Church of Scotland in all matters spiritual, is of opinion that the demand of the Church of Scotland, that the law shall be framed so as to give to the church courts absolute authority in every case to define the limits of their own jurisdiction, without any power in any civil court in any way to question or interfere with their proceedings, decrees, and orders, although they may exceed their jurisdiction, and, in suits professedly spiritual, may treat of civil and temporal matters, and may violate the statute or common law of the land, and that no action or proceeding shall be instituted against any members of the said courts for a refusal to do acts required by the Legislature to be done, by which refusal the Queen's subjects are prejudiced in their civil rights; notwithstanding that such demand be under the qualification that the decrees and orders of the church courts shall not, be binding on other courts, or fetter them in any way in the regulation of their conduct, according to their conscientious conviction in regard to the matters they have to decide—is unprecedented in any Christian church since the Reformation, is inconsistent with the permanent welfare of the Church of Scotland, and the existence of subordination and good government in the country, and ought not to be conceded.