IN view of the centenary of the Disruption being commemorated this year a list of works that may be helpful to get an understanding of the great principles and doctrines involved in the controversy which raged a hundred years ago may be presented to our readers.
I. The Free Church View.
This view is stated in Dr. Hetherington’s History of the Church of Scotland. The author lays great stress on the history of patronage. Among works dealing more particularly with Free Church history may be mentioned Dr. Norman L. Walker’s Chalmers Lectures—Chapters from the History of the Free Church of Scotland; Prof. Blaikie’s After Fifty Years; Ryley and McCandlish’s Scotland’s Free Church and Bayne’s The Free Church of Scotland. Dr. J. R. Fleming’s The Church of Scotland 1843-47 is written with the modern view outlook and may be consulted to get an idea of how the Disruption is viewed from this standpoint by one whose sympathies are decidedly on the side of the party which brought disturbance and disunity into the Free Church of Scotland at a later date. Annals of the Disruption by Rev. Thomas Brown, D.D., is a very interesting work. The author in his preface says: “The object of these Annals is to recall the circumstances of the Disruption as described by the men who took part in the struggle. . . . Fortunately we have from various parts of the country narratives written immediately after the event, and portions of these may now be available to tell in their own words what it was that led the men of the Disruption to separate from the State, and what difficulties were encountered by the Church in taking up her new position. The idea of collecting these narratives originated with Rev. Robert Craig, M.A., Rothesay. In 1845 it was taken up by the General Assembly which met in the autumn of that year. The compilation of the book took considerable time and it was not until 1884 it was issued. Dr. Brown made admirable use of the vast amount of material placed at his disposal and did his editorial work with commendable skill. This is no dry-as-dust record but a book telling the story from the lips of those who passed through the controversies and trials of the Disruption.
The fullest historical account of the great controversy—The Ten Years’ Conflict—is Dr. Robert Buchanan’s Ten Years’ Conflict (2 vols.). The story of the various cases which brought the Church into deadly conflict with the Law Courts is given at considerable length. If any one has the idea that the decisions of even the highest courts of law and the opinions of eminent lawyers’ are infallible he should read these volumes and he will be disillusioned. Another very useful book is Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, etc. edited by Rev. John Baillie. It contains the proceedings of the May and October Assemblies of the Free Church in 1843 with notes and sketches of the Proceedings of the Residuary Assembly i.e. the Church of Scotland Assembly. As the members of this Assembly faced their deserted benches and endeavoured to deal with the ultra vires Veto Act and the Protest of 1843 they appeared as if somewhat staggered after the shattering blow that had fallen upon them. The printed Proceedings of both Assemblies for some years after the Disruption may be consulted with advantage.
There are also the Chalmers’ Lectures—including Sir Henry Wellwood Moncrieff’s The Free Church Principle: Its Character and History; Dr. Thomas Brown’s Church and State in Scotland; and Dr. William Wilson’s Free Church Principles.
Dr. Taylor Innes’ Law of Creeds in Scotland (1st and 2nd Edits.) may also be consulted. One advantage, among others, that will accrue to the reader is that the interpretation of the law even by a very clever lawyer who is supposed to be a leading authority on the subject is anything but final. It will also throw some light on Dr. Chalmers’ phrase—”the fathomless obscurities of the law.” Those who have spent the greater part of a life-time in studying a certain phase of civil or ecclesiastical law will be very careful not to take up a Roma locuta; causa finita attitude.
The following biographical works contain much material bearing on the Disruption struggle: Dr. Hanna’s monumental work, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Thomas Chalmers, D.D., LL.D., in four volumes, requires some patience in reading through its hundreds of pages describing this noted man’s work and writings.[^1] Among smaller biographies of Dr. Chalmers may be mentioned Mrs. Oliphant’s Thomas Chalmers and Prof. Watt’s Thomas Chalmers and the Disruption, published this year (1943). Other biographies of Disruption leaders are: Dr. Norman L. Walker’s Robert Buchanan: An Ecclesiastical Biography; Rainy and Mackenzie’s Life of Rev. William Cunningham, D.D.; Dr. William Wilson’s Memorials of Robert Smith Candlish, D.D.; Autobiography of Thomas Guthrie, D.D. and Memoir by his Sons, Rev. D. K. Guthrie and Charles J. Guthrie (afterwards Lord Guthrie); Prof. Thomas Smith’s Memoirs of James Begg, D.D., etc. Some of these biographies are disappointing, especially Dr. Thomas Smith’s, but as all these men played a part in the Disruption struggle their biographies are listed here for purposes of reference. Besides these may be mentioned Disruption Worthies: A Memorial of 1843 and Disruption Worthies of the Highlands: A Memorial of 1843. Both these volumes contain short biographies of the men who played an important part during Disruption times. The biographies are short but, in the general, are informative and interesting.
In Dr. W. Ewing’s Annals of the Free Church 1843-1900 we have in miniature Dr. Hew Scott’s Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae. It contains short histories of the congregations of the Free Church and brief biographies of all the ministers from the Disruption down to the Union of 1900. A book that is now rather scarce—The Wheat and the Chaff Gathered into Bundles by James McCosh, editor of “The Dundee Warden”—divides the ministers at the time of Disruption into three divisions—1. The names of the ministers, and of their former parishes, who adhered to the Free Church. 2. Names of the ministers and their parishes who adhered to the Established Church. These in turn, are divided into two classes—(1). The true Moderates; (2). Those who professed the same principles as the adherents of the Free Church and who, throughout the Controversy, were more or less active in advocating the Evangelical principles but who, nevertheless in the day of battle, like Ephraim, faintly turned back. The number of these Ephraimites was 260 according to McCosh. His comments on those whose courage failed them could not be very pleasant reading for them when Wheat and Chaff appeared. The Disruption called forth a flood of pamphlets which may be picked up for a few pence secondhand if one is anxious to get a grip of the issues at stake or to study the controversial methods of the antagonists in the ecclesiastical fray. Lord Cockburn’s Memorials of His Times has interesting references to the Disruption by one who, afterwards, became one of the Lords of the Court of Session and who had taken a kindly interest in the Disruption struggle.
The masterly pamphlet—Remarks on the Twenty-third Chapter of the Confession as bearing on existing Controversies—by Principal Cunningham is of special value in the Controversy and afterwards reprinted in his Discussions on Church Principles. The latter work has also articles on Relation between Church and State; Principles of the Free Church of Scotland; Rights of the Christian People; Principles of Non-Intrusion and Patronage and Popular Election. These articles are from the pen of a master mind and one of the most powerful controversialists in the Disruption struggle.
II. Established Church View.
Among works written from the Established Church point of view may be mentioned Dr. Cunningham’s History of the Church of Scotland (1882 Edition); Rankin’s Handbook of the Church of Scotland; and Bryce’s Ten Years of the Church of Scotland. The latter is the counterpart of Buchanan’s Ten Years’ Conflict written from the Moderate standpoint, and is described by Dr. J. R. Fleming as “a somewhat ponderous work.” Among the biographies throwing some light on the attitude of the Established Church ministers to the Disruption may be mentioned Life of Norman Macleod, D.D. by his brother, Rev. Donald Macleod, D.D.
III. The Middle Party View.
Dr. Turner’s The Scottish Secession of 1843 gives an account of the controversies that raged round the Disruption from the view point of the Middle Party. Leishman’s Matthew Leishman of Govan and the Middle Party of 1843 throws considerable light on this movement. Dr. Leishman in 1842 became the acknowledged leader of “The Forty” which had been originated by Dr. Alexander L. Simpson, Kirknewton. The Middle Party or “The Forty” as claimed by Dr. Leishman held all the Non-Intrusion principles and this was certainly true about himself but there were some of them fairly consistent Moderates. It was felt, however, by this Party that in order to prevent a decision thé Church ought to accept the best terms within the range of practical politics which were embodied in Sir George Sinclair’s amendment of Lord Aberdeen’s Bill. Dr. Candlish delivered a crushing speech against Dr. Simpson’s view in the Edinburgh Presbytery in 1842 (Wilson’s Memorials of R. S. Candlish. pp. 169-177).