The Five Articles of Perth was an attempt by King James VI of Scotland to impose practices on the Church of Scotland in an attempt to integrate it with those of the Church of England. This move was unpopular with those Scots who held Reformed views on worship, and with those who supported presbyterian church governance.
Summary
The articles required
- kneeling during communion
- private baptism
- private communion for the sick or infirm
- confirmation by a bishop
- the observance of Holy Days "enjoined the ministers to celebrate the festivals of Christmas and Easter" (see Christmas in Scotland)
Reception
The articles met with a mixed reception. The Secession historian Thomas M'Crie tries to hint at the leading objections against them. Others like Robert Baillie accepted the liturgical changes even elaborating an exhaustive defence of kneeling at communion in protracted correspondence with David Dickson, the minister for the parish of Irvine.
United Kingdom legislation| Act of Parliament | |
 Parliament of Scotland | |
| Long title | A Ratificatioun of the fyve articles of the General Assemblie of the kirk haldin at Pearthe in the moneth of August 1618. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 1621 c. 1 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1690 |
| Status: Repealed | |
The articles were reluctantly accepted by the General Assembly of the Church at Perth in 1618, and were not ratified by the Scottish Parliament until the Articles of Perth Act 1621 (c. 1) in July 1621; it was known by some as Black Saturday and was accompanied by a thunderstorm. The approving act was repealed by the Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1690.
In 1619 the Pilgrims who were in exile in Leiden published a critical tract about the Five Articles, entitled the Perth Assembly, which nearly led to William Brewster's arrest.
See also
References
- Kishlansky, Mark (1997). A monarchy transformed : Britain 1603-1714. London: Penguin Books. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-14-014827-5.
- The Reformed Presbyterian Church (2010). "The Five Articles of Perth (1618)". Reformation History. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
- Mackay, P. H. R. (1977). The reception given to the Five Articles of Perth. Edinburgh: Scottish Church History Society.
- M'Crie, Thomas (1875). The story of the Scottish church : from the Reformation to the Disruption. London: Blackie & Son. pp. 113-117.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- Stewart, Laura A. M. (2007). "The Political Repercussions of the Five Articles of Perth: A Reassessment of James VI and I's Religious Policies in Scotland". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 38 (4): 1013–1036. doi:10.2307/20478626. JSTOR 20478626.
- Vol.43 No.4, Autumn 2009, pg 4 https://soulekindred.org/resources/Documents/Newsletters/PDF-Newsletters/Vol.-43-No.-4-Autumn-2009.pdf
External links
Further reading
- Alan R.MacDonald, "James VI and I, the Church of Scotland, and British Ecclesiastical Convergence," Historical Journal, 48 (2005), 885–903.
- Laura A.M.Stewart, "'Brothers in treuth': Propaganda, Public Opinion and the Perth Articles Debate in Scotland," in Ralph Houlbrooke, ed. James VI and I: Ideas, Authority and Government (Ashgate: Aldershot, 2006), 151–68.
- Jenny Wormald, "The Headaches of Monarchy: Kingship and the Kirk in the Early Seventeenth Century" in Julian Goodare and Alasdair A.MacDonald, eds., Sixteenth Century Scotland: Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch (Brill: Leiden, 2008), 367–93.
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