wards. Thus Sir James Ogilvie mentions one hundred and sixteen in 1695, in his letter to Carstairs. In the same year, Mr. David Blair proposes to have an assembly to check the intemperance of the young ministers, Carstairs being afraid of calling one.[1] The clergy thus comprehended were called Protected ministers: and as they had no share in the government of the Church, it was also understood, that they should not be subjected to the Church judicatories. Yet the Presbyterians attempted to bring them under their Church courts. Thus the Lord Advocate, writing to Carstairs in 1699, mentions two cases in which clergymen had been charged with crimes, and cited before the Presbytery. He condemns the Presbyterians: and it appears, that their purpose was defeated. The Lord Advocate observes, "I wrote to the Presbytery, that, though it were not provided in the Act of Parliament, that the Protected should be exempted; yet the Parliament, on the other hand, did expressly wave the making them subject to Presbyteries, and other Church judicatories; but provided, that upon their application, the Church might assume them or not; and therefore it was by my advice, that the Presbytery should look upon them as persons without, and pass from the judgment and censure they had pronounced by letting it fall to the ground."[2] So that the Presbytery actually censured
- ↑ Castairs, 263, 264. Laing, iv. 259.
- ↑ Carstairs, 495, 496. It may be remarked, that until this Act of Comprehension passed, the Clergy were constantly harassed by the Presbyterian Church courts. By the Act of 1695, therefore, their condition was bettered, inasmuch as they were protected from the Church courts, provided they took the Oaths. Some "embraced their peace on these conditions, and qualified themselves on terms of law." See Representation of Church, &c. p. 17.
