ates" had lost position,
and "zeal" or enthusiasm pervaded the Kirk. The question of lay
patronage of livings had passed through many phases since Knox wrote, "It
pertaineth to the people, and to every several congregation, to elect
their minister." In 1833, immediately after the passing of the Reform
Bill, the return to the primitive Knoxian rule was advocated by the
"Evangelical" or "High Flying" opponents of the Moderates. Dr Chalmers,
a most eloquent person, whom Scott regarded as truly a man of genius, was
the leader of the movement. The Veto Act, by which the votes of a
majority of heads of families were to be fatal to the claims of a
patron's presentee, had been passed by the General Assembly; it was
contrary to Queen Anne's Patronage Act of 1711,--a measure carried,
contrary to Harley's policy, by a coalition of English Churchmen and
Scottish Jacobite members of Parliament. The rejection, under the Veto
Act, of a presentee by the church of Auchterarder, was declared illegal
by the Court of Session and the judges in the House of Lords (May 1839);
the Strathbogie imbroglio, "with two Presbyteries, one taking its orders
from the Court of Session, the other from the General Assembly" (1837-
1841), brought the Assembly into direct conflict with the law of the
land. Dr Chalmers would not allow the spiritual claims of the Kirk to be
suppressed by the State. "King Christ's Crown Honours" were once more in
question. On May 18, 1843, the followers of the principles of Knox and
Andrew Melville marched out of the Assembly into Tanfield Hall, and made
Dr Chalmers Moderator, and themselves "The Free Church of Scotland." In
1847 the hitherto separated synods of various dissenting bodies came
together as United Presbyterians, and in 1902 they united with the Free
Church as "the United Free Church," while a small minority, mainly
Highland, of the former Free Church, now retains that title, and
apparently represents Knoxian ideals. Thus the Knoxian ideals have
modified, even to this day, the ecclesiastical life of Scotland, while
the Church of James I., never by persecution extinguished (_nec tamen
consumebatur_), has continued to exist and develop, perhaps more in
consequence of love of the Liturgy than from any other cause.

Meanwhile, and not least in the United Free Church, extreme tenacity of
dogma has yielded place to very advanced Biblical criticism; and Knox,
could he revisit Scotland with all his old opinions, m