page_title: Disruption of 1843
section_title: The Disruption
hierarchical_section_title: Disruption of 1843 / The Disruption
caption_attribution_description: English: The scene of the Disruption in 1843 which led to the creation of the Free Church of Scotland. "The Commissioner then proceeded to St. Andrew's Church, where the Assembly was to be held. The streets, especially those near the place of the meeting, were filled, not so much with the boys who usually gaze at the annual show, as by grave and well-dressed grown people of the middle rank. According to custom, Welsh [the previous year's Moderator] took the chair of the Assembly. Their very first act ought to have been to constitute the Assembly of this year by electing a new Moderator, but before this was done, Welsh rose and announced that he and others who had been returned as members held this not to be a free Assembly - that, therefore, they declined to acknowledge it as a Court of the Church - that they meant to leave the very place, and, as a consequence of this, to abandon the Establishment. In explanation of the grounds of this step he then read a full and clear protest. (...) As soon as it was read, Dr. Welsh handed the paper to the clerk, quitted the chair, and walked away. Instantly, what appeared to be the whole left side of the house rose to follow. Some applause broke from the spectators, but it checked itself in a moment. 193 members moved off, of whom about 123 were ministers, and about 70 elders. (...) They all withdrew slowly and regularly amidst perfect silence, till that side of the house was left nearly empty. They were joined outside by a large body of adherents, among whom were about 300 clergymen. As soon as Welsh, who wore his Moderator's dress, appeared on the street, and people saw that principle had really triumphed over interest, he and his followers were received with the loudest acclamations. They walked in procession down Hanover Street to Canonmills, where they had secured an excellent hall, through an unbroken mass of cheering people, and beneath innumerable handkerchiefs waving from the windows. But amidst this exultation there was much sadness and many a tear, many a grave face and fearful thought; for no one could doubt that it was with sore hearts that these ministers left the Church, and no thinking man could look on the unexampled scene and behold that the temple was rent, without pain and sad forebodings. No spectacle since the Revolution [of 1688] reminded one so forcibly of the Covenanters." -- Henry, Lord Cockburn, Journal 1843
context_page_description: The Disruption of 1843 was a schism or division within the established Church of Scotland, in which 450 evangelical ministers of the Church broke away, over the issue of the Church's relationship with the State, to form the Free Church of Scotland. It came at the end of a bitter conflict within the established Church, and had major effects not just within the Church, but also upon Scottish civic life.
context_section_description: On 18 May 1843, 121 ministers and 73 elders led by Dr David Welsh, the retiring Moderator, left the Church of Scotland General Assembly at the Church of St Andrew in George Street, Edinburgh, to form the Free Church of Scotland. After Dr Welsh read a Protest, they walked out and down the hill to the Tanfield Hall at Canonmills where their first meeting, the Disruption Assembly, was then held, Thomas Chalmers being the first Moderator. A further meeting was held on 23 May for the signing of the Act of Separation by the ministers. Eventually, 474 of the about 1200 ministers adhered.
  In leaving the established Church, however, they did not reject the principle of establishment. As Chalmers declared: "Though we quit the Establishment, we go out on the Establishment principle; we quit a vitiated Establishment but would rejoice in returning to a pure one. We are advocates for a national recognition of religion – and we are not voluntaries."
  Perhaps a third of the Evangelicals, the 'Middle party', remained within the established Church – wishing to preserve its unity. However, for those who left, the issue was clear. It was not the democratising of the Church (although concern with power for ordinary people was a movement sweeping Europe at the time), but whether the Church was sovereign within its own domain. Jesus Christ and not the King or Parliament was to be its sole head. The Disruption was basically a spiritual phenomenon – and for its proponents it stood in a direct line with the Reformation and the National Covenants.
  Splitting the Church had major implications. Those who left forfeited livings, manses and pulpits, and had, without the aid of the establishment, to found and finance a national Church from scratch. This was done with remarkable energy, zeal and sacrifice. Another implication was that the church they left was more tolerant of a wider range of doctrinal views.
  There was also the issue of needing to train its clergy, resulting in the establishment of New College, with Chalmers appointed as its first principal. It was founded as an institution to educate future ministers and the Scottish leadership, who would in turn guide the moral and religious lives of the Scottish people. New College opened its doors to 168 students in November 1843, including about 100 students who had begun their theological studies before the Disruption.
  Most of the principles on which the protesters went out were conceded by Parliament by 1929, clearing the way for the re-union of that year, but the Church of Scotland never fully regained its position after the division.
caption: St Andrew's Church, Edinburgh, scene of the Disruption
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