not be made against the discipline by Kirk Sessions, Presbyteries, and Synods which were erected in Scotland. The function which these courts sought to discharge was that of preserving the Christian polity from scandal. Anything which contaminated the religious life of the community marred its effectiveness as a testimony to the world. Since the celebration of Mass had come to be regarded as a blasphemous travesty of Christian rites and a sinful act of idolatry, the Reformers felt that they could not tolerate it even as an exception, without tainting the life of the whole community. On similar grounds they felt that they were lacking as a community in respect to the ordinances of God if they suffered a witch to live. The strictness of the Jewish Code in maintaining the sanctity of the Sabbath was regarded as an injunction for all time as to the manner in which the Lord's Day should be respected; and strenuous efforts were made to prevent the scandal of desecration. Frequent Acts of Assembly were passed against promiscuous dancing and liberty of conduct which were unseemly in a godly community; and every effort was made to put evildoers to public shame, as a means of maintaining the standard of conduct which should be expected from Christian men. The successful enforcement of an external code led to the forma

tion of very definite habits of mind in regard to Christian duty; but it left room, as there had been in the time of Our Lord, for formal compliance with an external standard apart from any deep sense of personal duty.

Just because there was in Scotland such a strong sense of Christian life as organised in a community, there was also a widespread recognition of the duties of the community; and certain activities, which were left in England to be dealt with in a more haphazard fashion, were systematically organised as obligations to be discharged out of ecclesiastical resources.

Of these the most important was the system of parochial schools; a good deal had been done for popular education in the sixteenth century by some of the Scottish Bishops; but it was owing to John Knox that provision was made, out of the remnants of Church property, which were rescued from private hands at the Reformation, for establishing a school in every parish. The education which was thus given was definitely religious in character, and it was designed to fit the child for all the duties of life here, and as a preparation for life hereafter. It was not till the nineteenth century that the duty of the community as a whole towards the up-bringing of children was so gener

ally recognised in England, and then it was undertaken partly by localities independently, and partly by voluntary societies, though these efforts were at first supplemented and subsequently directed and controlled by the State.

The Christian duty of relieving the aged and the impotent poor was also systematically organised and not left to individual tender-heartedness. The collections at church doors supplied the funds, which were applied to this purpose, and continued to be regarded as sufficient till the time of the Industrial Revolution, though in some cases it was found necessary to augment the collections by means of assessment. The power to assess was given by an Act1 of James VI, but a hundred and twenty years later there were only three parishes where these powers had been brought into operation, and the number had risen to about ninety in 1800; 2 throughout the country generally the church collections sufficed, till the whole system was hastily condemned and swept away in 1845. These funds were administered by the parochial ministers and elders, though in some towns, where more than one parish had been created, the practice was adopted of administration

1 Acts of Parliament of Scotland, 1579, c. 12.

* Omond, op. cit., 133.

Ibid., op. cit., 133–44.

by the magistrates. The lines on which relief was given were very similar to those which are advocated by Charity Organisation Societies in the present day. It was the main principle to refuse relief to the undeserving, and thus if possible to force the pauperised to become useful members of society. Dr. Chalmers and the other advocates of retaining the Scottish system pointed to the pauperising effect of the Poor Law as administered in England, and were anxious that their own country should be kept free from the "moral lep"rosy" which the system engendered. On the other hand, there was a widespread sense that the Scottish parochial relief was inadequate, so that hardship was inflicted on the deserving poor; and at the time of the Industrial Revolution the Scottish system seemed quite ineffective for dealing with the masses of the population who were congregated in great towns. Carlyle spoke of the conditions which had grown up as "a "moral gangrene," and insisted that "Scotland "must have a Poor Law if Scotland is not to "be a by-word among the nations." It need

1 The city of Edinburgh formed one parish before the Reformation, but it was divided up into four parishes shortly afterwards. The Church which had been used by Franciscans became a Parish Church and the Collegiate Church of Holy Trinity another. * Chalmers' Political Economy, 5.

Past and Present, 1, i.

cause no surprise that the advocates for dealing with the problem on the lines which had been adopted in the recently reformed Poor Law in England, should have gained the day; but it is a matter of interest that the systematic organisation of Poor Relief as a Christian duty should have been successfully carried on for so long and that such a weight of evidence was adduced as to the possibility of adapting it to the requirements of society in the middle of the nineteenth century.1

There was, however, one serious disadvantage in connection with the Scottish system; it left little scope for the exercise of personal charity to poor neighbours. Suspicion was rife that many of the benefactions which had been made in medieval times were due to superstitious motives and a readiness to try and compound every sin which weighed upon the conscience by monetary gifts to the Church or to the poor. "Alms-giving is papistry"— is a terse expression which embodies a feeling that was widely diffused; and if, as was generally supposed, the Ministers and Elders provided for all the deserving poor, there could be no Christian duty to encourage the

1 The great assertion of the principle of spiritual independence and the consequent division of the Scottish Church by the Disruption in 1843 was at least one of the reasons which made it impossible to carry out the necessary changes in the system of parochial relief.