The Leith Convention
The Leith Convention has been considered by many the first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1572. Strictly, speaking it was more a convention then an Assembly and consisted of twelve men, six privy Councillors and six ministers and its effect was to continue with Episcopate and the recognition of Bishops and Archbishops along with the existing Parish boundaries as they were before the Reformation.. However they were to be answerable to the Kirk and General Assembly.
The resolution was in the following terms;
“ That the names and Titles of Archbishops should not be changed nor the bounds of the diocese not be changed but stand and continue in time coming as they did before the Reformation at least till the Kings majority that all Archbishops and Bishops that should be admitted thereafter exercise no further jurisdiction than the Superintendent till the same be agreed upon and that they be subject to the Kirk and General Assembly “ In Spiritualibus” as they ate to the King “ In temporalibus etc, etc,”
This led to the “Tulchan Bishops” However they never held any great power. The term “Tulchan” coming from a “Dummy Calf, Calf skin filled with straw and put beside a cow to induce the cow to produce milk. The nobles held the revenues of the Church which they got at the Reformation and weren’t going them up.
To this limited Episcopacy John Knox was agreeable to as he thought it would secure the Old Roman Churches and lands to the new and Reformed Church of Scotland and in this it failed.
This Episcopacy led to simony, misappropriation. The people of Scotland had be to well grounded in true religion by the old Roman Catholic Church to have any toleration of what was false and sham. Eventually the crown declared all the possessions of Bishops to be the property of the Crown. Servility could only go so far and Episcopacy was doomed by the rising forces led by Andrew Melville. Parliament abolished the “Black Acts” which limited the powers of the Assembly and Presbyterianism was established in 1592
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