Presbyterianism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Presbyterian identity== {{further|History of Christianity in Scotland|Christianity in Medieval Scotland}} [[File:Iona Abbey, Entrance and St John's Cross. - geograph.org.uk - 113441.jpg|upright=0.9|thumb|[[Iona Abbey]] in Scotland was founded by [[Saint Columba]]]] ===Early history=== {{main|Christianisation of Scotland}} Presbyterian tradition, particularly that of the [[Church of Scotland]], traces its early roots to the Christian Church founded by [[Saint Columba]], through the 6th-century [[Hiberno-Scottish mission]].<ref name="Atkins2016">{{cite book|last=Atkins|first=Gareth|title=Making and Remaking Saints in Nineteenth-Century Britain|date=1 August 2016|publisher=Manchester University Press|language=en |isbn=978-1-5261-0023-8|page=104|quote=For many Presbyterian evangelicals in Scotland, the 'achievements of the Reformation represented the return to a native or national tradition, the rejection of an alien tyranny that had suppressed ... Scotland's true character as a Presbyterian nation enjoying the benefits of civil and religious liberty'. What they had in mind was the mission established by Columba at Iona and the subsequent spread of Christianity through the Culdees of the seventh to eleventh centuries. For Presbyterian scholars in the nineteenth century, these communities of clergy who differed in organisation and ethos from later monastic orders were further evidence of the similarity between early Christianity in Ireland and Scotland and later Presbyterianism. This interpretation of the character of the Celtic Church was an important aspect of Presbyterian identity in global terms. At the first meeting in 1877 of the Alliance of the Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian System (later the World Alliance of Reformed Churches), Peter Lorimer (1812–79), a Presbyterian professor in London, noted 'that the early Church of St. Patrick, Columba, and Columbanus, was far more nearly allied in its fundamental principles of order and discipline to the Presbyterian than to the Episcopalian Churches of modern times'.}}</ref><ref name="TaylorAnderson1852">{{cite book|last1=Taylor|first1=James |last2=Anderson|first2=John |title=The Pictorial History of Scotland|year=1852|language=en|page=51|quote=The zealous Presbyterian maintains, that the church established by Columba was formed on a Presbyterian model, and that it recognized the great principle of clerical equality.}}</ref><ref name="Bradley2013">{{cite book|last=Bradley|first=Ian|title=Columba|date=24 July 2013|publisher=Wild Goose Publications|language=en|isbn=978-1-84952-272-4|page=29|quote=Columba has found favour with enthusiasts for all things Celtic and with those who have seen him as establishing a proto-Presbyterian church clearly distinguishable from the episcopally governed church favoured by Rome-educated Bishop Ninian.}}</ref> Tracing their apostolic origin to [[John the Apostle|Saint John]],<ref name="DickensLewis1920">{{cite journal|last=Dickens-Lewis|first=W.F.|year=1920|title=Apostolicity of Presbyterianism: Ancient Culdeeism and Modern Presbyterianism|journal=The Presbyterian Magazine|publisher=[[Presbyterian Church (USA)]]|volume=26|issue=1–7|page=529|quote=The Culdees who claimed at the Synod of Whitby apostolic descent from St. John, as against the Romish claim of the authority of St. Peter, retired into Scotland.}}</ref><ref name="Thomson1896">{{cite book|last=Thomson|first=Thomas|title=A History of the Scottish People from the Earliest Times|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryscottis00annagoog|year=1896|publisher=Blackie|language=en|page=[https://archive.org/details/ahistoryscottis00annagoog/page/n181 141]|quote=...for the primitive apostolic church which St. John had established in the East and Columba transported to our shores. Thus the days of Culdeeism were numbered, and she was now awaiting the martyrs doom.}}</ref> the [[Culdees]] practised [[Christian monasticism]], a key feature of [[Celtic Christianity]] in the region, with a [[presbyter]] exercising "authority within the institution, while the different monastic institutions were independent of one another."<ref name="Mackay1902">{{cite book|last1=Mackay|first1=John|last2=Mackay|first2=Annie Maclean Sharp|title=The Celtic Monthly|year=1902|publisher=Archibald Sinclair|language=en|page=236}}</ref><ref name="Atkins2016"/><ref name="HannrachainArmstrong2014">{{cite book|last1=Hannrachain|first1=T. O'|last2=Armstrong|first2=R.|last3=hAnnracháin|first3=Tadhg Ó|title=Christianities in the Early Modern Celtic World|date=30 July 2014|publisher=Springer|language=en|isbn=978-1-137-30635-7|page=198|quote=Presbyterians after 1690 gave yet more play to 'Culdeeism', a reading of the past wherein 'culdees' (derived from céli dé) were presented as upholding a native, collegiate, proto presbyterian church government uncontaminated by bishops.}}</ref> The Church in Scotland kept the Christian feast of Easter at a date different from the [[See of Rome]] and its monks used a unique style of [[tonsure]].<ref name="Rankin1884">{{cite book|last=Rankin|first=James|title=The Young Churchman: lessons on the Creed, the Commandments, the means of grace, and the Church|year=1884|publisher=William Blackwood and Sons|language=en|page=84|quote=For seven whole centuries (400–1100 A.D.) there existed in Scotland a genuine Celtic Church, apparently of Greek origin, and in close connection with both Ireland and Wales. In this Celtic Church no Pope was recognized, and no prelatical of diocesan bishops existed. Their bishops were of the primitive New Testament style—presbyter-bishops. Easter was kept at a different time from that of Rome. The tonsure of the monks was not, like that of Rome, on the crown, but across the forehead from ear to ear. The monastic system of the Celtic Church was extremely simple—small communities of twelve men were presided over by an abbot (kindred to the Patriarch title of the Greeks), who took precedence of the humble parochial bishops.}}</ref> The [[Synod of Whitby]] in 664, however, ended these distinctions as it ruled "that Easter would be celebrated according to the Roman date, not the Celtic date."<ref name="Skinner1999">{{cite book|last=Sawyers|first=June Skinner|title=Maverick Guide to Scotland|publisher=Pelican Publishing|year=1999|language=en|isbn=978-1-4556-0866-9|page=57|quote=The Celtic Church evolved separated from the Roman Catholic Church. The Celtic Church was primarily monastic, and the monasteries were administered by an abbot. Not as organized as the church in Rome, it was a much looser institution. The Celtic Church celebrated Easter on a different date from the Roman, too. Life within the Celtic Church tended to be ascetic. Education was an important element, as was passion for spreading the word, that is, evangelism. The Celtic brothers led a simple life in simply constructed buildings. The churches and monastic buildings were usually made of wood and wattle and had thatched roofs. After the death of St. Columba in A.D. 597, the autonomy of the Celtic Church did not last long. The Synod of Whitby in 664 decided, once and for all, that Easter would be celebrated according to the Roman date, not the Celtic date. This was the beginning of the end for the Celtic Church.}}</ref> Although Roman influence came to dominate the Church in Scotland,<ref name="Skinner1999"/> certain Celtic influences remained in the Scottish Church,<ref name="Eggins2015">{{cite book|last=Eggins|first=Brian|title=History & Hope: The Alliance Party in Northern Ireland|date=2 March 2015|publisher=History Press|language=en|isbn=978-0-7509-6475-3|page=15|quote=After the Synod of Whitby in about 664, the Roman tradition was imposed on the whole Church, though remnants of the Celtic tradition lingered in practice.}}</ref> such as "the singing of metrical psalms, many of them set to old Celtic Christianity Scottish traditional and folk tunes", which later became a "distinctive part of Scottish Presbyterian worship".<ref name="Bowden2005">{{cite book|last=Bowden|first=John Stephen|title=Encyclopedia of Christianity|year=2005|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|language=en|isbn=978-0-19-522393-4|page=242|quote=A distinctive part of Scottish Presbyterian worship is the singing of metrical psalms, many of them set to old Celtic Christianity Scottish traditional and folk tunes. These verse psalms have been exported to Africa, North America and other parts of the world where Presbyterian Scots missionaries or Emigres have been influential.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hechter|first=Michael |title=Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development|year=1995|publisher=Transaction Publishers|language=en|isbn=978-1-4128-2645-7|page=168|quote=Last, because Scotland was a sovereign land in the sixteenth century, the Scottish Reformation came under the influence of John Knox rather than Henry Tudor. The organization of the Church of Scotland became Presbyterian, with significant Calvinist influences, rather than Episcopalian. Upon incorporation Scotland was allowed to keep her church intact. These regional religious differences were to an extent superimposed upon linguistic differences in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. One of the legacies of the Celtic social organization was the persistence of the Celtic languages Gaelic and Welsh among certain groups in the periphery.}}</ref> ===Development=== [[File:John Knox woodcut.jpg|thumb|[[John Knox]]|upright=0.9]] Presbyterian history is part of the [[history of Christianity]], but the beginning of Presbyterianism as a distinct movement occurred during the 16th-century [[Protestant Reformation]]. As the [[Catholic Church]] resisted the Reformers, several different theological movements splintered from the Church and bore different denominations. Presbyterianism was especially influenced by the French theologian [[John Calvin]], who is credited with the development of [[Reformed theology]], and the work of [[John Knox]], a Scottish Catholic Priest who studied with Calvin in Geneva and brought back Reformed teachings to Scotland. An important influence on the formation of presbyterianism in Britain also came from [[Jan Łaski|John a Lasco]], a Polish reformer, the founder of a [[Stranger churches|Stranger's Church]] in London, based on the Geneva models.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kang |first=Min |title=John Calvin and John a Lasco on Church Order |year=2011 |pages=6, 44}}</ref> The Presbyterian church traces its ancestry back primarily to Scotland. In August 1560, the [[Parliament of Scotland]] adopted the ''[[Scots Confession]]'' as the creed of the Scottish Kingdom. In December 1560, the ''[[First Book of Discipline]]'' was published, outlining important doctrinal issues but also establishing regulations for church government, including the creation of ten ecclesiastical districts with appointed superintendents which later became known as [[Presbytery (church polity)|presbyteries]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Established Church of Scotland|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13627a.htm|encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia|access-date=26 September 2010|archive-date=20 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120000221/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13627a.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> In time, the Scots Confession would be supplanted by the [[Westminster Confession of Faith]], and the [[Westminster Larger Catechism|larger]] and [[Westminster Shorter Catechism|shorter catechisms]], which were formulated by the [[Westminster Assembly]] between 1643 and 1649. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page