Abstract
As the title indicates, this is & survey of the Presbyterian-Episcopalian
controversy in Scotland fim the Revolution settlement
till the accession of George I. From the Reformation onwards
through the 17th century there had "been a continuing conflict as to
what was to he the ecclesiastical polity of the Scottish Church.
Both forms of church government had alternating terns of ascendancy
find rejection. There were periods when "pure" i'oms of Episopacy
and Presbyterianism were asserted and attempted and other periods
when the Church polity was an amalgam of Presbyterian and Episcopal
practice. with the Revolution Settlement, Presbyterianism was
established by the Parliament of 1690. "Prelacy and the superiority
of any office in the Church above Presbyters" was dismissed as "a
groat and insupportable grievance ... and contrary to the
inclinations of the people ever since the Reformation.The
victory seemed to be with Presbyterianism as the established Church
Government. So indeed it has proved in the event, but for a long
time the issue was much more uncertain than many modern writers seem to allow. This is evident in the contemporary pamphlets on which
this study is based and which arc a feature of this period.
Immediately after the Revolution and for a period extending till the
accession of the Hanoverians, there poured out of the printing-presses
a spate of these pamphlets. To read them is to obtain a most vivid
picture of the period and the hopes and fears of the ecclesiastical
rivals. So great was this outpouring of pamphlets that it has seemed
worth while to set out as many of these as possible in a bibliography
with indications of their contents and biographical notes on their
authors. This Bibliography comprises the chief part of this study.
Several considerations, however, may be briefly noted by way of
introduction
