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Subsections
Spiritual Conferencing of Elders
Head Coverings in Public Worship
Psalm Singing
Communion Tokens
Tithing
Offering is not an Element of Worship
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Order of Contents
Intro
Sabbath
Holy Days
Reading the Word
Preaching
Prayer
Instrumental Music
Sacraments
Architecture
Episcopal Worship
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Intro
For more on the topics below, see our page The History of Scottish Worship. Many of the works in ‘The Main Works’ section have sections on the special topics below.
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Sabbath
Much more about the Sabbath in Scotland can be found on our page
‘The Lord’s Day’.
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Articles
Nicholas Dickson – Ch. 1, ‘On the Auld Scottish Sabbath’ in The Kirk & its Worthies, p. 3 ff. (1914)
Norman Campbell – ‘The Sabbath Protest at Strome Ferry in 1883’ Ref in Scottish Reformation Society Historical Journal, vol. 3 2013
Brackenridge, R. Douglas – Scottish Church History Society
‘The Enforcement of Sunday Observance in Post-Revolution Scotland, 1689-1733’ (1972)
‘The ‘Sabbath War’ of 1865-66: the Shaking of the Foundations’ (1968)
Muirhead, Andrew T.N. – ‘We have an Anchor that Keeps the Soul; Religious Observance on Glasgow’s Anchor Line & other Scottish Emigrant Ships, 1870-1900’ Scottish Church History Society (2010)
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Holy Days
A number of Scottish quotes and articles on this topic may be found on our page: ‘Religious Holidays’.
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Lamb, John A. – ‘The Kalendar of the Book of Common Order: 1564-1644’ in Scottish Church History Society (1956)
About half of the seventy editions of the Book of Common Order (from 1560-1644) contained calendars of church seasons and festival days, in spite of the fact that the First Book of Discipline (1560, First Head: ‘Of Doctrine’) explicitly called for the abolishing of such holy-days, they having no warrant in God’s Word. The General Assembly, in their letter to Theodore Beza in 1564 (in Works of John Knox, vol. 6, pp. 547-8) concerning the Helvetic Confession also exclude such holy-days for the same reason.
Lamb, who was part of the Liturgical Renewal and was for such holydays, analyzes these calendars in the BCO (some of which information is helpful). Strangely, he neglects to investigate the most obvious reason for this phenomenon: the episcopal influence and push of the certain printers that published these calendars, and the presbyterianism of the printers who did not.
McMillan, William
‘Festivals and Saint Days in Scotland after the Reformation’ Scottish Church History Society (1927)
Ch. 24, ‘Festivals and Saints’ Days. Special Services. Lent.’ in The Worship of the Scottish Reformed Church, 1550-1638, pp. 299-329 (1930)
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Reading the Word
Gillespie, Raymond – ‘Lay Spirituality & Worship, 1558-1750: Holy Books & Godly Readers’ in The Laity & the Church of Ireland, 1000-2000: All Sorts & Conditions Buy (2002) 196 pp.
Though this deals with Ireland, it casts significant light on the Scottish context.
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Preaching
Excerpts
Leishman, Thomas – ‘The Ritual of the Church’ in ed. Robert Story, The Church of Scotland, Past & Present, vol. 5 (1890 ff.)
pp. 334-5 The length of the sermon at the Reformation was about an hour.
pp. 392-3 On the new style of preaching in the mid-1600’s.
middle of p. 405 On the reading of sermons beginning in the 1700’s by the Moderates.
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Articles
Currie, David R. – ‘The Order of Friar Preachers in Scotland’ Scottish Church History Society (1950)
Spicer, Andrew – “‘Accommodating of Thame Selfis to Heir the Worde’: Preaching, Pews and Reformed Worship in Scotland, 1560–1638” Ref in History, vol. 88, no. 3 (291) (July, 2003), pp. 405-22
M’Crie, Charles – ‘Covenanting Preaching’ in Religious Life in Scotland, from the Reformation to the Present Day (1888)
Henderson, G.D. – Ch. 9, ‘The Scottish Pulpit in the Seventeenth Century’ in Religious Life in Seventeenth Century Scotland Buy (Cambridge, 1937)
Philip, R. G. – ‘The Life and Preaching of John Livingston, 1603-1672’ Scottish Church History Society (1931)
Vogan, Matthew – ‘Samuel Rutherford & the Theology & Practice of Preaching’ in Scottish Reformation Society Historical Journal, vol. 1
Ross, William – Ch. 5, ‘The Minister’s Labors in the Preaching of the Word and Catechizing’ in Glimpses of Pastoral Work in the Covenanting Times, a Record of the Labors of Andrew Donaldson, 1644-1662 (1877) 255 pp. Ross was in the Free Church of Scotland.
Langley, Christopher R. – Ch. 2, ‘The Word, Politics & Sufficiency’ in Times of Trouble & Deliverance: Worship in the Kirk of Scotland, 1645-1658 Pre unpublished PhD thesis (University of Aberdeen, 2012)
Christie, George – Scottish Church History Society
‘Scripture Exposition in Scotland in the Seventeenth Century’ (1924)
‘James Durham as Courtier & Preacher’ (1932)
Fawcett, Arthur – ‘Scottish Lay Preachers in the Eighteenth Century’ Scottish Church History Society (1956)
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Prayer
Book
ed. Calhoun, David – Prayers on the Psalms: From The Scottish Psalter of 1595 (Pocket Puritans) Buy 2010 152 pp. These were prayers of Augustine Marlorate translated into English, and they were not officially sanctioned by the Church of Scotland.
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Articles
Fleming, David Hay
pp. 246-9 of ‘The Moulding of the Scottish Reformation’ Being a review of Thomas Leishman’s Lee Lecture of 1897 of the same name.
Sometimes the discretionary forms for prayer in the Book of Common Order are construed to be an historical example of the near equivalent of ministers regularly relying on reading prayers in the administration of public worship (as in a liturgy). On pp. 246-249 Fleming gives the abundant evidence that many or most of the ministers of that day freely inputted their own free prayer apart from the forms.
‘Remembering the Dead in Prayer’ in Critical Reviews Relating Chiefly to Scotland, p. 496 ff. (1912)
Fleming (1849–1931) was one of the greatest historians of the Scottish Church. Here he surveys the Church of Scotland’s teaching against praying for the dead, in relation to an incident contemporary to him.
Charles I – On James I, early-1600’s, as given by Rev. Alexander Irwin in The British Magazine, 1845, vol. 28, p. 28
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On the History of the Lord’s Prayer
Summaries
Sprott, George W. – ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, pp. 40-43 in The Worship & Offices of the Church of Scotland… (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1882)
Leishman, Thomas – pp. 102-103 of The Westminster Directory (Church Service Society) (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1901)
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1638-1640’s
Quote
A Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland – ‘Animadversions on the [Anglican] Service Booke’, p. 61 (Session 14, Dec. 6, 1638) in ed. James Gordon, History of Scots Affairs, vol. 2 (Aberdeen: Spalding Club, 1841), bk. 3, ch. 50
“Tenth, ‘The presbyter, clerk and all the people together, must repeat the Lord’s Prayer with a loud voice,’ p. 42. How much confusion is there here, and are not the presbyters of the clergy?” [‘Clergy’ is the plural form of ‘clerk’, which meant any officer.]
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Article
Gordon of Rothiemay, James – p. 250, Ch. L of History of Scots Affairs… vol. 3 (Aberdeen: Spalding Club, 1841)
Gordon (1615?-1686) was a parson and conformist to both presbyterianism and episcopacy. He gives the practical rational why around 1640 the Lord’s Prayer fell into disuse, along with most forms of prayer.
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After 1662
Morer, Thomas – ‘A Short Account of Scotland… London, 1715’, p. lxviii, top in Selections from the Records of the Kirk Session, Presbytery & Synod of Aberdeen (Aberdeen: Spalding Club, 1846)
Anderson, James – ‘The History of the Introducing the Usage of the Lord’s Prayer in Dumbarton’ (1705) in Transactions of the Scottish Ecclesiological Society, vol. 1, part 2 (1904-5), p. 159 ff.
This a documentary account of how Rev. James Anderson, an eminent defender of presbyterianism after the Revolution Settlement and minister of Dumbarton, introduced the unison (it appears, top of p. 166) recitation of the Lord’s Prayer into his congregational worship. The article gives helpful background on the history of the use and disuse of the Lord’s Prayer in Scotland.
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Instrumental Music in Worship
There is a mass of Scottish material on our Musical Instruments in Worship page.
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McMillan, William – Ch. 7, ‘Instrumental Music’ in The Worship of the Scottish Reformed Church, 1550-1638, pp. 94-101
McMillan documents and emphasizes the many instances he is able to quote of musical instrumentation attending the singing of psalms in Scotland during that era. This however is not necessarily a balanced survey of the type of worship that was generally happening in presbyterian churches (numerous examples he gives have associations with the Erastian, and sometimes prelatic, civil government).
McMillan states that ‘our great Reformer Knox nowhere in his History, pamphlets or letters has a word to say on the matter [of instruments in God’s sung praise].’ This, however, is not true:
“Matt. 18:20 condemns all such as contemn the congregation gathered in his name. But mark well this word “gathered;” I mean not, to hear piping, singing, or playing; nor to patter upon beads, or books whereof they have no understanding; nor to commit idolatry, honouring that for God which is no god indeed. For with such will I neither join myself in common prayer, nor in receiving external sacraments; for in so doing I should affirm their superstition and abominable idolatry, which I, by God’s grace, never will do, neither counsel others to do, to the end.” – A Treatise on Prayer (1553) in Works (Laing), 3.103, also in Selected Writings of John Knox (Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1995), p. 95.
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Sacraments
Article
Dotterwiech, Martin Holt – ‘Sacraments & the Church in the Scottish Evangelical Mind, 1528-1555’ Scottish Church History Society (2006)
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Book
Spinks, Bryan – Sacraments, Ceremonies & the Stuart Divines: Sacramental Theology & Liturgy in England & Scotland, 1603-1662 (Ashgate, 2002) 255 pp. ToC
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Baptism
Articles
Burns, Thomas – Ch. 5, ‘Old Baptismal Vessels’ & ‘Appendix 5: Extracts… Relative to Baptismal Customs…’ in Old Scottish Communion Plate, pp. 469-532 & 633-34
Edgar, Andrew – ‘Lecture 4: Baptism and Burials in Olden Times’ in Old Church Life in Scotland: Lectures on Kirk Session and Presbytery Records, vol. 2 1885-6 about the 1500’s-1700’s
MacInnes, John – ‘Baptism in the Highlands’ in Scottish Church History Society 1959
Ramsey, D. Patrick – ‘Baptismal Regeneration & the Westminster Confession’ (2008) 61 paragraphs, from the Confessional Presbyterian, #4
In demonstrating that the Westminster documents do not teach Baptismal Regeneration, Ramsey expounds the baptismal theology of Gillespie and Rutherford, amongst others.
McMillan, William – ‘The Baptismal Record of the Rev. John MacMillan’ MacMillan was the lone minister of the United Societies for 36 years (1706-1743).
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Book
Various – The Divine Life in the Church: An Affirmation of the Doctrine of Holy Baptism with Contributions Relating to the Scottish Church, her History, Work & Present Need, vol. 1 (1895) Scottish Church Society Conferences, Second Series
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Lord’s Supper
For much more historic, Scottish material, see our pages: ‘Administration of the Lord’s Supper’, ‘Frequency of Communion’, ‘Communion Seasons’ & ‘Communion Tokens’.
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Articles
Stevenson, R. – ‘The Communion & Some Other Matters in Dunfermline, in the Seventeenth Century’
Edgar, Andrew – ‘Lecture 2: Communion Services in Olden Times’ in Old Church Life in Scotland: Lectures on Kirk Session and Presbytery Records, vol. 1 1885-6 about the 1500’s-1700’s
Spufford, M. – ‘The Importance of the Lord’s Supper to Seventeenth-Century Dissenters’, The Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society, 5 (1993)
Hunter, Mitchell – ‘The Celebration of Communion in Scotland Since the Reformation’, pt. 1, 2 Scottish Church History Society 1929
Henderson, G.D. – Ch. 2, ‘The Elder at Communion’ in The Scottish Ruling Elder (London, 1935)
Vogan, Matthew – ‘The Origins of John Willison’s Emphasis on the Lord’s Supper’ in Scottish Reformation Society Historical Journal, vol. 7, pp. 105-138
Langley, Christopher R. – Ch. 3, ‘Communion, Reform & Conflict’ in Times of Trouble & Deliverance: Worship in the Kirk of Scotland, 1645-1658 Pre unpublished PhD thesis (University of Aberdeen, 2012)
Cant, Alan – ‘The Communion in Creich Parish, Fifeshire, 1761-1834’ Scottish Church History Society 1932
Watt, Hugh – ‘David Smyton & the Lifters’ Scottish Church History Society (1959)
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Books
Burns, Thomas – Old Scottish Communion Plate (1892) 650 pp.
Wood, L. Ingleby – Scottish Pewter-Ware & Pewterers (1907) 380 pp.
Much of the supplies used in the Lord’s Supper was made out of metal, specifically pewter. See especially ch. 10 on ‘Scottish Church Vessels Before and After the Reformation’.
Burnet, G.B. – The Holy Communion in the Reformed Church of Scotland, 1560-1960 Buy (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1960) 345 pp. ToC
Hughes, Kenneth Grant – Holy Communion in the Church of Scotland in the Nineteenth Century (1987) PhD thesis Univ. of Glasgow 350 pp.
Schmidt, Leigh Eric – Holy Fairs: Scottish Communions & American Revivals in the Early Modern Period Buy (Princeton, 1989)
Kornahrens, Wallace D. – Eucharistic Doctrine in Scottish Episcopacy, 1620-1875 Download (2008) PhD thesis 300 pp.
Abstract:
“This thesis is an examination of the eucharistic doctrine of ten Scottish theological writers in the tradition of Scottish Episcopacy…
The argument of this thesis is that all of the writers, rejecting the Tridentine, Lutheran, Bezan-Calvinist, and Zwinglian definitions of the Eucharist, maintained a material sacrifice in the Eucharist, which is an offering to God the Father of bread and wine as the propitiatory memorial of Christ’s death on the Cross, commanded by Christ Himself at the Last Supper.
The sacrifice is propitiatory because it is the means of representing the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross to God the Father, thereby pleading the benefits of the cross for the communicants. The bread and wine do not change substance, but become effectively the body and blood of Christ.”
ed. Leaver, Robin – A Communion Sunday in Scotland, ca. 1780: Liturgies & Sermons Pre (Scarecrow Press, 2010)
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Architecture
Articles
Pre-Reformation
Articles
Sprott, George – ‘The Ancient Cathedrals of Scotland’ in Transactions of the Scottish Ecclesiological Society, vol. 2, part 1 (1906-07), p. 1 ff.
Donaldson, Gordon – “Scotland’s Earliest Church Buildings” Scottish Church History Society (1974)
Fawcett, Richard – Scottish Medieval Churches: an Introduction to the Ecclesiastical Architecture of the 12th to 16th Centuries in the Care of the Secretary of State for Scotland (Edinburgh: Historic Buildings & Monuments Directorate, 1985) 65 pp. ToC
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Post-Reformation
Sanderson, Margaret – ‘Manse & Glebe in the Sixteenth Century’ Scottish Church History Society (1975)
Edgar, Andrew – ‘Lecture 1: Churches, Manses and Churchyards in Olden Times’ in Old Church Life in Scotland: Lectures on Kirk Session and Presbytery Records, vol. 1 1885-6 about the 1500’s-1700’s
Sefton, H. R., ‘Furnishings in the Reformed church’, in eds. C. Maclean & K. Veitch, Scottish Life & Society: A Compendium of Scottish Ethnology, 12 (Edinburgh, 2006)
Whytock, Jack C. – ‘Scottish Liturgics & Church Architecture: a Study of a Transplanted Kirk on Prince Edward Island’ Covers 1560-1860
Langley, Christopher R. – Ch. 4, ‘Parish Kirks, Space & Lay Influence’ in Times of Trouble & Deliverance: Worship in the Kirk of Scotland, 1645-1658 Pre unpublished PhD thesis (University of Aberdeen, 2012)
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Books
Coltart, J.S. – Scottish Church Architecture Buy (1936) 264 pp.
Hay, George – The Architecture of Scottish Post-Reformation Churches 1560-1843 Buy (1957)
Howard, D. – Scottish Architecture: Reformation to Restoration 1560-1660 (Edinburgh, 1995)
Chernoff, Graham Thomas – Building the Reformed Kirk: the Cultural Use of Ecclesiastical Buildings in Scotland, 1560–1645 (2013) 230 pp. PhD dissertation
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Episcopal Worship
See also above under ‘Texts and Service Books’ under the 1600’s & 1700’s.
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Articles
1800’s
Russell, M. – The Position of the Scottish Episcopal Church with Regard to Liturgical Usage & Communion with the United Church of England & Ireland, a Charge addressed to the Clergy of the City & District of Glasgow (1845) 40 pp.
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1900’s
Maxwell, William – Pt. 4, Section 8, ‘The Liturgy in the Scottish Book of Common Prayer’ in An Outline of Christian Worship, its Development & Forms, p. 154 ff. 1936 This was Laud’s Liturgy in 1637, which was later adapted by the Episcopalians.
MacRae, John – ‘The Liturgy of the Scottish Nonjurors: its Sources & Editions’ Scottish Church History Society
At the Glorious Revolution of 1689, many Scottish Episcopalians (who were quite attached to the Jacobean line of kings in Scotland and England) refused to swear allegiance to the new king (whereas almost all of the Scottish presbyterians were willing to swear allegiance). ‘Non-juror’ means ‘non-swearer’. Hence, this article is essentially about Scottish Episcopalianism.
Knight, Christopher – ‘The Anglicising of Scottish Episcopalianism’ Scottish Church History Society (1989)
Edwards, Roger – ‘Pomp or Circumstance; Glasgow’s Episcopalians & the Uprising of 1745’ Scottish Church History Society
White, Gavin D. – ‘The Nine Lives of the Episcopal Cat; Changing Self Images of the Scottish Episcopal Church’ Scottish Church History Society (1998)
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Book
Kornahrens, Wallace D. – Eucharistic Doctrine in Scottish Episcopacy, 1620-1875 Download (2008) PhD thesis 300 pp.
Abstract:
“This thesis is an examination of the eucharistic doctrine of ten Scottish theological writers in the tradition of Scottish Episcopacy…
The argument of this thesis is that all of the writers, rejecting the Tridentine, Lutheran, Bezan-Calvinist, and Zwinglian definitions of the Eucharist, maintained a material sacrifice in the Eucharist, which is an offering to God the Father of bread and wine as the propitiatory memorial of Christ’s death on the Cross, commanded by Christ Himself at the Last Supper. The sacrifice is propitiatory because it is the means of representing the one sacrifice of Christ on the Cross to God the Father, thereby pleading the benefits of the Cross for the communicants. The bread and wine do not change substance, but become effectively the body and blood of Christ.”
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Related Pages
The History of Scottish Worship