ABSTRACT
The ecclesiastical disturbances, whose beginnings have been noticed, were by this time becoming of the gravest in import. Scotland was affording as complete an exemplification as the world has seen of the perplexities attendant on an alliance between the Church and the State. By an Act of 1711, the power of free choice, the liberum arbitrium, as to the appointment of pastors in the Scotch Church, was taken from the Church courts, by subjecting the power of the presbytery to the interpretation, and even control, of the civil courts. There were secular persons, however, who were not satisfied to see the power of appointment to parishes dependent on the pleasure of the majority of the communicants. This dependence lessened the value of patronage, and, as these persons thought, its dignity; and they were by no means clear, that the power given to the communicants by the Veto Act was compatible with the Act of Queen Anne.
