Moderate party in the Scottish church

Moderates, in church terms is, normally, though not exclusively, used to refer to an important party of clerics in the Church of Scotland during the 18th century. They are often contrasted with Evangelicals, though this is very much a simplification. Most members of both parties considered themselves orthodox Christians and the leaders – Principal Robertson for the Moderates and his Edinburgh University colleague, John Erskine for the Evangelicals – had a very warm and mutually respectful relationship.

The right of the landowning gentry to nominate Ministers to Parishes, and their consequent influence on Church matters, underlay the various Secessions (of 1733 and 1752, in particular) from the Church of Scotland which took place in the 18th Century. However, the theological differences between what became known as Moderates and Evangelicals were significant indeed. (See the case of The Reverend Doctor James Meek, a typical Moderate who had been nominated by the Duke of Hamilton and opposed by his Cambuslang Parishioners on aspects of his preaching).

On the other hand, the significant achievements and stature of many Moderate clerics – such as Principal William Robertson of Edinburgh University and one-time Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; his successor as Principal (and also Moderator) George Baird, who set up the Church's education system; Thomas Reid, philosopher; George Campbell, theologian; Adam Ferguson, philosopher and historian; John Home, dramatic poet; and Hugh Blair, literary scholar – makes it difficult to dismiss them as insincere .

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