Maitland Club > Register of ministers, exhorters and readers, and of their stipends, after the period of the Reformation

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" of the cuntre, and samekle thairof to the Ministeris and sustentatioun
" of the Ministerie as may ressonablie sustene the samyn, at the sycht
" and discretionn of the Quenis Majestie and counsale foirsaid, and
" the excrescence and superplus to be assignit to the auld posses-
" sonris." *
The machinery provided by this Act of Convention, as well as by an
explanatory Act of the Secret Council, in February thereafter, must have
been but little calculated to ensure the due execution of their avowed
objects; for the well-known Act of the Parliament holden in December
I067, under the regency of the Earl of Murray, proceeds on a recital,
that " the Ministeris lies bene lang defraudit of thair stipendis, swa
" that thay ar becumin in greit povertie and necessitie : And notwith-
" standing lies continewit in thair vocatioun without payment of thair
" stipendis be ane greit space ; quhairthrow thay ar, and salbe con-
" stranit to leif thair vocatioun, without remeid be provydit." By
this Act, the whole of the thirds of all benefices was to be paid to the
Ministers ; " ay and quhill the Kirk cum to the full possessioun of thair
" propir patrimonie, quhilk is the teindis :" — " Provyding alwayis that
" the Collectouris of the saidis Ministeris mak yeirlie compt in the
" Chakker of thair intromissioun : Swa that the Ministeris may be first
" answerit of thair stipendis, appertening to everie ane of thame : And
" the rest and superplus to be applyit to our Soverane Lordis use."t
• Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, Vol. II. p. 607.
f lb. Vol. III. p. 24.
b