quently exercised.[1] The Bill, though in favour of the Book of Common Prayer, was opposed by Burnet. It was carried in 1712.
From this period until the year 1716, the Episcopalians enjoyed the liberty of public worship. The toleration also removed the odium, under which the Scottish Kirk had been placed: and the Act for restoring patronage to the men of property, gave them an interest in the established Church, which they did not previously feel. Though, therefore, both measures were opposed by the Presbyterians, yet both tended to advance the interests of the Kirk.[2] Still many mourned over the loss of that spiritual tyranny which they had formerly exercised. Another Act was passed, which provided for the discontinuance of the sittings of the Courts of Law at Christmas, as in England: and this also gave great offence to the Presbyterians. The benefits of the changes have been abundantly reaped by the Church of Scotland: but the rigid Presbyterians conceived that their Church was shorn of its chief glory–the power to persecute others. Accordingly one of her Advocates, alluding to the three Acts, thus closes his very partial and onesided history. Speaking of what he calls the "Church's Grievances," he says: "The Acts are particularly,
1. The Act for restoring Patronages.
2. The Act for Tolerating Episcopal Ministers.
- ↑ Life of Queen Anne, ii. 508–512. Swift's Four Last Years, &c. 226–230. Boyer's Life of Queen Anne, 543. There is great truth in the remark; "the severest penalties ever inflicted in a Protestant country met with most submission," from the Episcopal Clergy of Scotland. Keith, by Russell. Life, p. xxiii.
- ↑ Swift's Works, Scott's Ed. vol. v. 141.
