page_title: Scottish religion in the eighteenth century
section_title: Popular religion
hierarchical_section_title: Scottish religion in the eighteenth century / Popular religion
caption_attribution_description: English: Scottish communion token from 1750
context_page_description: Scottish religion in the eighteenth century includes all forms of religious organisation and belief in Scotland in the eighteenth century. This period saw the beginnings of a fragmentation of the Church of Scotland that had been created in the Reformation and established on a fully Presbyterian basis after the Glorious Revolution. These fractures were prompted by issues of government and patronage, but reflected a wider division between the Evangelicals and the Moderate Party. The legal right of lay patrons to present clergymen of their choice to local ecclesiastical livings led to minor schisms from the church. The first in 1733, known as the First Secession and headed by figures including Ebenezer Erskine, led to the creation of a series of secessionist churches. The second in 1761 led to the foundation of the independent Relief Church.
  In 1743, the Cameronians established themselves as the Reformed Presbyterian Church, remaining largely separate from religious and political debate. Of independent churches from England that were established in the seventeenth century only the Quakers managed to endure in to the eighteenth century.
context_section_description: At the beginning of the century, the kirk had considerable control over the lives of the people. It had a major role in the Poor Law and schools, which were administered through the parishes, and over the morals of the population, particularly over sexual offences such as adultery and fornication. A rebuke was necessary for moral offenders to "purge their scandal". This involved standing or sitting before the congregation for up to three Sundays and enduring a rant by the minister. There was sometimes a special repentance stool near the pulpit for this purpose. In a few places the subject was expected to wear sackcloth. From the 1770s kirk session increasingly administered private rebukes, particularly for men from the social elites, while until the 1820s the poor were almost always give a public rebuke. In the early part of the century the kirk, particularly in the Lowlands, attempted to suppress dancing and events like penny weddings at which secular tunes were played. The oppression of secular music and dancing by the kirk began to ease between about 1715 and 1725.
  Strict Sabbatarianism was vital to Presbyterian culture. For members of separatist churches, the Sunday walk to the meeting house, sometimes as much as thirty miles, marked the intensity of dissent and strict keeping of the Sabbath was a mark of true membership. Fast days were also important, particularly in Seeder culture. They often did not involve actual fasting, but focused on stricter observance of the Sabbath. The established kirk had three a year, but the seeders as many as six.
  In Presbyterian worship the sermon, which could be several hours long, was seen as central, meaning that services tended to have a didactic and wordy character. There were also Bible readings and the only participation by the congregation was musical, in the singing of the psalms. From the late seventeenth century the common practice was lining out, by which the precentor sang or read out each line and it was then repeated by the congregation. From the second quarter of the eighteenth century it was argued that this should be abandoned in favour of the practice of singing stanza by stanza. These innovations became linked to a choir movement that included the setting up of schools to teach new tunes and singing in four parts.
  Among Presbyterians, communion was the central occasion of the church, conducted infrequently, at most once a year, often taking a week of festivals as part of a communion season. Communicants were examined by a minister and elders, proving their knowledge of the Shorter Catechism. They were then given communion tokens that entitled them to take part in the ceremony. Long tables were set up in the middle of the church at which communicants sat to receive communion. Where ministers refused or neglected parish communion, largely assemblies were carried out in the open air, often combining several parishes. These large gatherings were discouraged by the General Assembly, but continued. They could become mixed with secular activities and were commemorated as such by Robert Burns in the poem Holy Fair. They could also be occasions for evangelical meetings, as at the Cambuslang Wark.
  Among Episcopalians, Qualified Chapels used the English Book of Common Prayer. They installed organs and hired musicians, following the practice in English parish churches, singing in the liturgy as well as metrical psalms, while the non-jurors had to worship covertly and less elaborately. When the two branches united in the 1790s, the non-juring branch soon absorbed the musical and liturgical traditions of the qualified churches.
  Catholic worship was deliberately low key, usually in the private houses of recusant landholders or in domestic buildings adapted for services. Surviving chapels from this period are generally austere and simply furnished. Typical worship consisted of a sermon, long vernacular prayers and an unsung Low Mass in Latin. Musical accompaniment was prohibited until the nineteenth century, when organs began to be introduced into chapels.
caption: A Scottish communion token from 1750
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