Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

GLASGOW
annoy those belonging to Henry VIII., the Queen's
grand-uncle.
Subsequent to the Reformation the glimpses of the
social and moral condition of the people, which pre-
viously were drawn mostly from the archives of the see,
come to be taken from the records of the presbytery,
kirk-session, and town council, and the picture they
present is certainly very curious, though fresh and
truthful. There is no doubt that, notwithstanding the
amount of suffering caused by the change, the citizens
adhered firmly to the doctrines they had embraced with
such cordiality and sincerity, for in 1581 the negative
Confession of Faith, with the National Covenant an-
nexed, was signed at Glasgow by 2250 persons, men as
well as women — a total which, considering the probable
number of the population, must have included almost
every one above the condition of childhood. As the old
bishops and archbishops had never been legally divested
of tTieir temporalities, it became necessary to employ a
legal fiction in order to get possession of the revenues ;
and for this purpose the bishops known as the 'Tulchans'
— since they were employed merely as dummy calves,
while the court favourites or the great officers of state
milked the benefices — were appointed. In 1581 the king
promoted Robert Montgomery, minister at Stirling, to be
Protestant Archbishop of Glasgow, on the understanding
that the larger portion of the temporalities were to be paid
to the Lennox family, an appointment and arrangement
in the highest degree distasteful to the people. It was
resolved to oppose his induction by sending Mr Howie,
one of the Presbyterian preachers, to take prior occupa-
tion of the pulpit of the cathedral. Howie went, but
while he was, on the day set apart for the induction of the
prelate, engaged in the ordinary service of the day, Sir
Matthew Stewart of Minto, provost of the city, deter-
mined to enforce the royal warrant, pulled him out of
the pulpit, and in the course of the struggle a handful
of hair was torn from the minister's beard, some of his
teeth were knocked out, and his blood was shed. This
assault was regarded by the citizens of Glasgow as a
^ most sacrilegious one ; and as Mr Howie denounced the
judgment of God upon Sir Matthew and his family, it
was remarked that in seventy years this once potent race
had been reduced to impoverished circumstances in the
city in which for many generations they had been lords.
How much of this was due to Mr Howie's curse it is un-
necessary to inquire, but it may be remarked in passing
that this was the first sign of that stubborn opposition
to Episcopacy which the western shires afterwards so
strongly exhibited. Montgomery was forced to resign,
and he afterwards became minister of the parish of
Stewarton, where he died, but his retirement did not
prevent the appointment of other episcopal prelates in
due season. The power of the Presbyterian clergy hav-
ing been meantime fairly established, they proceeded to
exercise a system of discipline which now-a-days would
be considered of a very stringent and oppressive charac-
ter, but, considering the superstition and looseness
which marked the former papal rule, there is no doubt
that it was necessary for the regeneration of the people,
especially those of what were termed 'the meaner sort.'
If the sacerdotal power were supreme before the Refor-
mation the Church power, cleric and lay, now became
equally so, and even if possible still more so. There
are cases of Church interference and discipline which
might hardly be credited had we not the records before
us, and curiously enough we find the general kirk-
session — a body appointed in 1572, and possessing a
power as despotic and secret as that of the Venetian
Council — so powerful as often to set presbytery and
corporation alike at defiance. In perusing the eccle-
siastical injunctions and sentences, the large number of
cases in which jurisdiction usually belonging to the
civil power was exercised by the Church courts is very
remarkable. In 1582 it was ordered that 'the booth
doors of merchants and traffickers were to be steaked
[shut] on Wednesdays and Fridays in the hour of ser-
mon, and the masters of booths were enjoined to keep
the hour of preaching under the penalty of twenty
GLASGOW
pounds Scots, without a lawful cause admitted by the
session.' On 26 Dec. five persons were appointed to
make repentance, because they kept the superstitious
day called Yuil [Christmas]. ' The baxters [bakers] to
be inquired at, to whom they baked Yuil bread.' In
15S7 the session laid down the following tariff in Scots
money to meet cases of immorality : — 'Servant women,
for a single breach of chastity, twenty pounds for her
relief from cross and steeple ; men servants, thirty
pounds, or else to be put in prison eight days and fed
on bread and water, thereafter to be put in the jugs
[stocks]. ' As for the richer sort of servants, the fines
were to be exacted at the arbitrament of the Kirk.
' This act not to extend to honest men's sons and
daughters, but they to be punished as the kirk shall
prescribe.' The Kirk could, however, afford to be tender
when it had to deal with a transgressor whose rank was
above the common sort ; for in 1608 the laird of Minto,
a late provost, was in trouble by reason of a breach of
chastity, but it was resolved to pass him over with a
reprimand. Harlots were to be carted through the
town, ducked in the Clyde, and put in the jougs at the
cross on a market-day. The punishment for adultery
was to ' satisfy six Sabbaths on the cuckstool at the
pillar, barefooted and barlegged, in sackcloth, then to
be carted through the town and ducked in the Clyde
from a pulley fixed in the bridge.' The presbytery
enjoined the ministers to be serious in their deportment
and modest in their apparel, ' not vain with long ruffles
and gaudy toys in their clothes.' The session directed
that the drum should go through the town to intimate
that there must be no bickerings or plays on Sundays,
either by young or old. Games — golf, alley-bowls, etc.
— were forbidden on Sundays, and it was enjoined that
no person should go to Rutherglen to see the plays on
Sunday. Parents who had children to be baptized were to
repeat the commandments distinctly, the articles of faith,
and the Lord's Prayer, or to he declared ignorant, and
some other godly person present their bairn, with further
punishment as the Church shall see fit. In 1588 the
session intimated to the presbytery that, the latter body
could not hold ' exercise ' in Blackfriars' church on Fri-
day, as it interfered with the regular Friday sermon,
and the presbytery had to yield. The time of assembling
on the Sabbaths of the communion was four o'clock in
the morning, and it must have been rather hard on the
magistrates who had to 'attend the tables,' and keep
order. The collectors assembled on these occasions in
the High Kirk at three o'clock in the morning. On 3
March 1608 the session enacted that there should be no
meetings of women on the Sabbath in time of sermon,
and that no hostler should sell spirits, wine, or ale in
time of sermon, under pain of twenty pounds, and that
there should be no buying of timber on the Sabbath at
the Water of Clyde from sunrise to sunset. In 1588 a
number of ash trees in the High Kirk churchyard were
ordered to be cut down to make forms for the folk to sit
on in the church. Women were not permitted to sit
on these, but were directed to bring stools with them.
It was also intimated that ' no woman, married or un-
married, should come within the kirk door to preachings
or prayers with their plaids about their heads, neither
to lie down in the kirk on their faces in time of prayer,
with certification that their plaids be drawn down, or
they be raised by the beadle.' The beadles were to
have ' staves for keeping quietness in the kirk and
comely order ; ' for each marriage they were to get 4d. ,
and for each baptism 2d. On 9 March 1640 the session
intimated that all masters of families should give an
account of those in their families who have not the Ten
Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, Creed, etc., and
that every family should have prayers and psalms
morning and evening ; and some of the fittest men were
appointed to assist the elders in promoting this work.
On 13 July 1643 the kirk-session appointed some of
their number to go through the town on the market-day
to take order with banners, swearers, etc. (till the magis-
trates provide one for that office) ; swearers were to
pay twelve pence, and, along with blasphemers and
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