Church and State; who's boss?

Throughout the centuries there has been a continuing power struggle between Emperors and Popes, Kings and churches. In 1843 the issue produced the Disruption and Watchman suggests it could surface again.

'This Church, as part of the Universal Church wherein the Lord Jesus Christ has appointed a government in the hands of Church office-bearers, receives from Him, its Divine King and Head, and from Him alone, the right and power subject to no civil authority to legislate, and to adjudicate finally, in all matters of doctrine, worship, government, and discipline in the Church...'

Extract from Section V of the
'Articles Declaratory' relating to the Church of Scotland and adopted in legal form by the Church of Scotland Act 1921

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IN the turmoil surrounding the Church of Scotland and a gay minister, a clutch of MSPs from three major parties have weighed into the debate.

And this intervention by politicians into the affairs of the church reflects a centuries-old battle between the Christian church and the state.

Ever since the Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity in 312 AD, the power struggle between emperors and popes, kings and prelates has never really gone away.

In 800AD Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Imperator Romanorum (Emperor of the Romans) and in the eyes of the people of that day, the bestowal of the crown was seen as a clear sign of God’s representative holding sway over the kingdoms of the earth. It was a tangible expression of religion holding the superior position over the state.


But at the time of the Reformation, King Henry VIII had his own ideas about who was boss. And history tells us that in 1534 the English sovereign cast off Pope Clement VII’s jurisdiction and declared himself the Supreme Head in Earth of the Church of England.

King James VI
In Scotland it was a different matter, and the Scottish sovereign didn’t have it his way. In 1596, Andrew Melville, a Reformation leader, bluntly admonished King James VI:

“Sir, you are God's silly vassal; there are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland: there is King James, the head of the commonwealth; and there is Christ Jesus, the King of the Church, whose subject James the Sixth is, and of whose kingdom he is not a king, nor a head, nor a lord, but a member."

Meanwhile in France in 1801 the balance swung or, more correctly, was hijacked towards the state. In what was a defiant and revolutionary act 1000 years after Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope, Napoleon turned the tables on the Roman pontiff of his day. As Pope Pius VII waited with his cardinals at the high altar of Notre Dame Cathedral, Napoleon approached.
All those gathered expected him to kneel before the Pontiff and, like Charlemagne before him, accept a blessing from the superior party. But to the amazement of the congregation, Napoleon seized the crown from the Pope’s hands and, turning his back on God’s man, crowned himself as Emperor.

Back in Scotland it was this continuing struggle for autonomy in church government with freedom from interference at national and local level regarding the affairs of the church. This struggle was seldom far from the surface and provoked the Disruption in 1843. In an act of high drama a third of the ministers and members of the Church of Scotland walked out of the national church over the issue of state interference with church affairs. The delicate balance and relationship between the secular political world and the religious sphere was re-addressed as recently as 1926 when the Declaratory Articles re-stated the principles which were adopted into Scottish law via the Church of Scotland Act 1921.

The above provide the national church with immunity from civil jurisdiction in ‘matters spiritual’. In this, the Church of Scotland enjoys a unique legal status in that the Kirk is ostensibly free to govern itself on issues within the spiritual realm. After the passing of the Act, a church historian proclaimed: