quhair greittest necessitie salbe knowin; for no man may be permittit to leve idill, or as thame self list, but must be appointed to travell quhair your Wisdomes and the Kirk sall think expedient."

In the great dearth of ministers readers were frequently employed to conduct the service, but they were never allowed to administer the Sacraments. They were encouraged, however, to exercise their gifts, and might ultimately for their merit be raised to the ministry, just as ministers for their incapacity might be reduced to the position of readers. The Church was in

earnest and therefore demanded efficiency. The fifth chapter sets forth their ideas as to a proper provision for those fit to undertake such duties. It must be not only sufficient during their lifetime but also "for thair wiffis and childrene efter

thame." There are to be no equal stipends to those with unequal demands. upon them, so that in any division due

Maintenance of Clergy

respect is to be had to one's responsibilities. Every minister is to be sustained honestly in all things necessary, such as clothes, flesh, fish, books and fuel, out of the rents and treasury of the Church. He should at least have forty bolls of meal and twenty-six bolls of malt to keep his house in bread and beer, more if necessary, "besydes money for buying of other provisioun." These should be given him a quarter of a year in advance. It seems liberal, but the superintendent's horse was to get forty-eight bolls of oats, a more generous allowance by eight bolls than the meal assigned to the minister's family. "I suspect," writes Principal Lee,1 “that the hospitality which was supplied from the stipend of an ordinary minister must have consisted rather in drinking than in eating, if the whole grain allowed for his maintenance and that of his wife and children and domestics, as well as for the

1 History of the Church of Scotland, i. 165.

entertainment of strangers, was a good deal less than is said to have sufficed to feed the superintendent's horse. 'What! but one halfpenny worth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack.' I need not add that there is more of fancy than of reality in the notion of clerical conviviality in the days of John Knox, though we know that the Reformer himself sometimes had a hogshead of wine in his cellar."

The children of ministers should have the freedom of the city in which or near which their fathers laboured. They should share in all the privileges of the school, and if likely to profit by learning, receive bursaries at college, or if not they should be "put to some handycraft, or exercised in some verteouse industrie, quhairby thae may be profitable members in a commounwealth." The daughters should likewise be assisted and "honestlie doted quhen thae come to maturitie of yeiris, at the discretioun of the Kirk." The authors

Virtue Rewarded

are quite serious in these proposals and consider them not merely for the good of the clergy but for "the proffeit of the posteritie to come." Then follows an admirable confession on their part. "It is," they say, "nott to be supposed that any man will dedicat him self and childrene so to God and to serve his Kirk, that thae luyke for no warldlie commoditie. But this cankered nature whilk we beare, is provokit to follow vertew quhen it seith honour and profeit annexit to the same as contrairlie, then is vertew of mony despised, quhen verteouse and godlie men leve without honour. And sorye wuld we be that povertie suld discourage men from studye, and from following the way of vertew, by the quhilk thae mycht edifie the Kirk and flock of Christ Jesus."

Readers were also to teach the children of the parish and would receive forty merks. After two years they might become ex

horters with a stipend of a hundred merks, but if after such trial they had no gift for the ministry they were removed. The office was altogether abolished by the Assembly of 1581.1

The poor have also their right in the patrimony of the Kirk. "We are nott," they say, "patronis for stubburne and idill beggaris, quho, rynning from place to place, mak a craft of their beggyng, quhom the Civile Magistrat aucht to punyshe; but for the wedow and fatherless, the aiged, impotent, or laymed, quho neather can nor may travel for thair sustentatioun, we say, that God commandeth his pepill to be cairfull; and thairfor, for such, as also for personis of honestie fallen into decay and penuritie, aucht such provisioun be maid that of oure abundance should their indi

gence be releaved. How this most convenientlie and most easilie may be done in

1 Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland, p. 219; M'Crie's Life of Knox, p. 369.