Disruption of 1843

The Disruption of 1843 was a schism 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 huge effects not only within the Church, but also upon Scottish civic life.

Despite being 'the national church of the Scottish people' as recognised by Acts of Parliament, the Church of Scotland, particularly under John Knox and later Andrew Melville (and unlike the Church of England), had always claimed an inherent right to exercise independent spiritual jurisdiction over its own affairs. To some extent, this right was recognised by the Claim of Right of 1689, which brought to an end royal and parliamentary interference in the order and worship of the Church. This was ratified by the Act of Union in 1707.

However, the right of 'patronage', that is the right of a wealthy patron to install a minister of his choice into a parish, became a point of contention between those who held that this infringed on the spiritual independence of the church, and those who regarded it as a matter of property under the state's jurisdiction. As early as 1712 this right of patronage had been restored in Scotland, in spite of the remonstrances of the Church. For many years afterwards the General Assembly sought redress of the grievance, but the dominant 'moderate' party within the church acted in such a way as to avoid any confrontation with the state.

In 1834, however, the Evangelical party attained a majority in the General Assembly for the first time in a century. One of their actions was to pass the Veto Act, which gave parishioners the right to reject a minister nominated by their patron. The intention was to prevent the intrusion of ministers on unwilling parishioners, and to restore the importance of the congregational 'call'. But the effect of the act was to polarise positions in the church, and set it on a collision course with the state.

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