ry.
These latter belonged to that section of the Church afterwards known as
Protesters, and whose opposition to the use of the Lord's Prayer and
the Creed, as well ay to prescribed forms of prayer, was most
pronounced. Events soon occurred which exerted a strong influence in
favor of absolute liberty in worship, and which effectively
strengthened the Protesters in the position which they had assumed.

In 1651 there took place at Scone the unhappy crowning of Charles the
Second by the Scots. This act placed Scotland in open opposition to
Cromwell, and as a result the land was brought under his iron-handed
rule during the remaining years of the Protectorate. The effect of
this on the worship of the Church was to introduce into Scotland the
methods of worship approved by the Independents, to whom those parties
in Scotland which were opposed to all prescribed forms or regulation of
worship, now attached themselves. Worship after the Presbyterian form
was not disallowed, but the preachers of Cromwell's army, with the
approval of an increasing party in the Scottish Church, forced
themselves into the pulpits of the land and conducted worship in a
manner approved of by themselves. In these services preaching occupied
the most prominent place, and to worship, as such, but scant attention
was given, so that in 1653 the ministers of the city of Edinburgh,
finding complaints among the people that in the services of the Sabbath
day there was no reading of Scripture nor singing of Psalms, took steps
to have these parts of worship resumed. While the public worship of
the Church of Scotland during the period of the Commonwealth cannot be
said to have had any general uniformity, it is evident that the
influence of Independency upon it was toward the curtailment of form
and the granting of absolute liberty to every preacher to conduct
worship in whatever way seemed good to himself. It was the swing of
the pendulum to the opposite extreme from the enforced order of Laud's
Liturgy. It is doubtful if this erratic period would have left any
permanent effect upon the religious life and worship of Scotland, had
it not been for the formation of a party in sympathy with the political
principles of the Protector. This party, being forced into political
opposition to the supporters of royalty, naturally found themselves,
through their associations, prejudiced in favor of the religious
principles and practices of those with whom they stood