A Great Grievance. Laurence A.B. Whitley. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Laurence A.B. Whitley
Издательство: Ingram
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isbn: 9781621896449
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whilk being composed of some delegatis from the Kirk-Session of every pareoch, importis in thair Actis the consent of the haill.”48 It must be allowed that Johnston’s claim has validity when applied to those settlements where the presbytery was, from the start, the prime mover in the vacancy process, perhaps sending a leet of candidates to the parish and thereafter canvassing opinion upon it. In such instances, it might actually seek a presentation from the patron as its final step before admission. As A.I. Dunlop has pointed out in his article on the polity of the Kirk between 1600 and 1637, this was not uncommon.49 Indeed, as was the case in the planting of Calder (Edinburgh) in 1617, and St. Andrews (St. Andrews) in 1639, the presentation might even be made weeks, or even years, after the admission had taken place.50 Clearly, in such situations, a congregation’s sentiments would have been reflected in the presbytery’s actions. However, Johnston is noticeably uncertain on the matter of what the presbytery was to do when (as became more common) the patron took the initiative and issued a presentation first. Having said that there should not be an intrusion problem if the presbytery’s privileges are observed, he then, in effect, contradicts himself by conceding that determined, parochial opposition can indeed happen. In such a case, his solution is that the presbytery should not admit the presentee. He then goes a step further, by adding: “And to tell yow my thochtis, as they ay come into my head....I think the pareoch hes quandam speciem vocis negativae [something akin to a negative voice] at the leist, quhilk yit takis no wayes away the patrones right of patronage.”51 He does not, however, provide any references to confirm his view, which itself is complicated by his additional opinion that congregational refusals should be overruled if redolent of obstinacy. Even this statement fits awkwardly with the succeeding argument, which likens the patron’s role to that of a matchmaker: “quhither any freind to the partie, or the partie to thair freindis, be the first proponer of the match, I think thair is no so essentiall a difference...gif the match be maid with consent of parties.”52 The difficulty, of course, with the analogy was that, in the ecclesiastical domain, consent was not unrestricted, nor was there guidance for presbyteries as to what constituted unreasonable refusal.

      To sum up, the flaw of Johnston’s main argument is that he accepts that patronage is a “thraldome” which the Kirk would be better without, yet, instead of simply saying that it is something which must be endured for reasons of expedience, he also attempts to convey that it is not a burden at all, if properly exercised. This contradiction is one indication that the statement’s author is not entirely confident that he has a sufficient answer to all the issues raised by the Glassford complaint. His declared ill-health and the necessity for haste would possibly have had a bearing on this, but, almost certainly, there were other contributory factors.

      Secondly, it would have occurred to Johnston that Glassford’s challenge to the Kirk’s working relationship with the patrons might well be repeated in other parishes. Glassford’s patronage was in private hands, but the worrying thought was that, since many parishes still had the king as patron, these too might now be emboldened to complain about the level of attention paid to their preferences, thereby creating the possibility of much damage to the Covenant’s professions of respect for the Crown.

      These two concerns would have fuelled Johnston’s anxiety to produce a rebuttal which was both swift and assertive. In the immediate term, he was probably successful, but, as will be seen in the next section, the issues which had risen to the surface at Glassford were not to disappear. If anything, Johnston’s treatise served to stimulate debate about patronage rather than dissipate it. Nonetheless, what is significant about his essay is that it provides not only a revealing insight into the thinking of the Covenanters’ leading legal adviser, but also emerges as the Kirk’s first serious discussion of the tensions involved in attempting to reconcile the ideal of congregational consultation with the interests of a landowning elite, jealous of their rights.

      Attitudes to Lay Patronage in the 1640s