Series 5 > Religious Controversy in Scotland 1625-1639

HISTORIE OF CHURCH AND STATE
45
celebrateinge of mariage, ofvisiteinge the sicke, ordinatione of ministers. Insteade
of these accustomed formes, [they] brought in foure bookes of there owne—of
service, of psalmes,106 of ordinatione,107 of homihes.108 And all this they did at
Canterburie s directione as our comissioners made good by presentinge his owne
hand to the parliment of England for that effect. Scairclie can Rome itselfe in
anie age paralell this worke which our bishopps broght forth in litle more nor
one yeare.
The Booke of Cannons was sett forth to make way for the rest, and in that
unhappie booke,page 8,109 there is a sore cannon. Let it speake itselfe, and honnest
men judge of it:
Whosoever shal hereafter affirme.That the Doctrine of the Church of Scotland, the forme
of worship contained in the booke of Common Prayer (and witt yee this Booke of Common
Prayer is not as yet corned from the presse), and administration of the Sacraments;The Rites
[21] and Ceremonies of the Church;The government of the Church by Archbishops, Bish¬
ops, and others which beare office in the same; The forme of making and consecrating
Archbishops, Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons, as they are now established under His
Majestie’s Authoritie, doe contayne in them anie thing repugnant to the Scriptures, or are
corrupt, superstitious, or unlawful in the service and worship of God; let him be excommu¬
nicated, and not restored, but by the Bishop of the place, or Archbishop of the Province,
after his Repentance, and publicke Revocation of such his wicked Errours.
And in the 43 page is to be scene, that cannon in all the Booke of Cannons,
‘where-so-ever there is no Penaltie expresslie set downe, it is to bee understood,
That (so the Cryme or Offence bee proved) the Punishment shall bee arbitrarie,
106 The Psalter, or, Psalmes of David: According to the lastTranslation in King James his time (Edinburgh,
1636).
107 Indeed such would have been a necessity in order to establish a three-fold ministry. George Grub
cited contemporary sources to support his assertion that ‘before the end of the year 1636, a Book of
Ordination was printed.’But in a note (3) he had to add:‘I have not been able to discover the existence
of any copy of this Book of Ordination.’ An Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, 4 vols. (Edinburgh, 1861),
ii,368. It is not listed in H.G.Aldis, A List of Books printed in Scotland before [ 1701] (2nd edn.,Edinburgh,
1970); nor is there an entry in STC. However, it must surely have been published, even if not widely
distributed, as James Gordon includes portions of it translated back into Engfish from William Spang,
Rerum mper in Regno Scotiae Gestarum Historia (Danzig, 1641),229-30.The running tide of this work is
Historia Motuum in Regno Scotiae, not to be confused with Spang’s other relevant work. Brevis etfidelis
Narratio Motuum in Regno &Ecclesia Scotica (Danzig, 1640).Both were published under the pseudonym
Irenaeum Philalethen,‘Peaceable Lover of Truth’. See James Gordon,History of Scots Affairs,from 1637
to 1641,3 vols. (Spalding Club, 1841), ii, 92-4; RKS, 163-4.
108 John Row wrote in his History of the Kirk of Scotland,from theYear 1558 to August 1637 (Wodrow
Society, 1842), 401, that he anticipated the appearance ofBooks of Homilies, but Gordon stated that
such a work ‘saw never the fight, but was stiffled in the very birth therof’: History of Scots Affairs, ii, 93.
109 I have corrected a somewhat informal quotation from Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticallgath¬
ered and put in Forme,for the Governement of the Church of Scotland (Aberdeen, 1636).These quotations
were lifted from Baillie, LadensiumAutokatakrisis, 107n.