Church Patronage (Scotland) Act 1711

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Church Patronage (Scotland) Act 1711 or Patronage Act is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (10 Ann. C A P. XII). The long title of the act is An Act to restore the Patrons to their ancient Rights of presenting Ministers to the Churches vacant in that Part of Great Britain called Scotland.

Its purpose was to allow the nobles in Scotland to gain control over their parish churches again, having lost that custom in the Glorious Revolution.

[edit] Origin

Only five years after the Parliaments of England and Scotland had united in the Act of Union 1707, the independancy of the parish churches to elect their own minister in the presbyterian belief was threatened by the nobles reinstituting patronage over the parishes of their estates. The Scottish clergy was highly annoyed and thus for the following Jacobite uprising in 1715 easy to convince into supporting the attempt of a Stuart restoration to the throne of Scotland (including the separation of Parliaments).

[edit] Outcome

The Act was highly opposed by the Church of Scotland (both the Presbyterian and Episcopal parties) because of its intrusion into church elections and was considered lay investiture. However, due to the strength of the aristocracy the act was not abolished until 1874 by the Church Patronage (Scotland) Act 1874.