Book Description

Excerpt from The History of Civilisation in Scotland, Vol. 3 At the opening of this period, it may be recalled that it was not the head of the Government who reformed the Church in Scotland. The change of religion was carried through in opposition to Queen Mary and the representatives of her rights; while her son only accepted the reformed doctrines. From his youth, indeed, he had manifested a strong aversion to the polity of the Reformed Church of his kingdom. In past times the Crown had always found support from its connection with the hierarchy; and nothing was more natural than that James VI. should endeavour to restore Episcopacy whenever he could command the power to do so. He was inflexibly possessed with the idea that Episcopacy must be established in Scotland; but the means which he employed to attain this end were unwise and short-sighted. He was convinced that kingly government could not exist side by side with a Presbyterian Church; and he had mused so long on this view of the matter, that at last it assumed the place of an idol in his mind. This unfortunately became the foremost tenet in the political creed of the Stuarts, and eventually issued in the fall of their dynasty. The influence of the union of the Crowns was soon felt. In the hands of a really wise ruler, this union might have been rendered highly beneficial to both nations; but James had too much faith in his own opinion and in his royal prerogatives; his adherence to these in face of the adverse elements of thought and feeling among the people, led on to a course of policy which tended to extinguish the freedom and the rights of the nation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.