n of Faith and to give in his adhesion to the new form
of Church government, [774] The other settled the important and delicate
question of patronage. Knox had, in the First Book of Discipline,
asserted the right of every Christian congregation to choose its own
pastor. Melville had not, in the Second Book of Discipline, gone quite
so far; but he had declared that no pastor could lawfully be forced on
an unwilling congregation. Patronage had been abolished by a Covenanted
Parliament in 1649, and restored by a Royalist Parliament in 1661. What
ought to be done in 1690 it was no easy matter to decide. Scarcely any
question seems to have caused so much anxiety to William. He had, in his
private instructions, given the Lord Commissioner authority to assent to
the abolition of patronage, if nothing else would satisfy the Estates.
But this authority was most unwillingly given; and the King hoped that
it would not be used. "It is," he said, "the taking of men's property."
Melville succeeded in effecting a compromise. Patronage was abolished;
but it was enacted that every patron should receive six hundred
marks Scots, equivalent to about thirty-five pounds sterling, as a
compensation for his rights. The sum seems ludicrously small. Yet,
when the nature of the property and the poverty of the country are
considered, it may be doubted whether a patron would have made much more
by going into the market. The largest sum that any member ventured to
propose was nine hundred marks, little more than fifty pounds sterling.
The right of proposing a minister was given to a parochial council
consisting of the Protestant landowners and the elders. The congregation
might object to the person proposed; and the Presbytery was to judge
of the objections. This arrangement did not give to the people all the
power to which even the Second Book of Discipline had declared that they
were entitled. But the odious name of patronage was taken away; it was
probably thought that the elders and landowners of a parish would seldom
persist in nominating a person to whom the majority of the congregation
had strong objections; and indeed it does not appear that, while the Act
of 1690 continued in force, the peace of the Church was ever broken by
disputes such as produced the schisms of 1732, of 1756, and of 1843,
[775]

Montgomery had done all in his power to prevent the Estates from
settling the ecclesiastical polity of the realm. He had incited the
zealous Co