Presbyterian
- Grew from
- Reformed / Presbyterian
- From
- 1560 AD
- Origin
- Scotland
- Confession
- Westminster Confession 1646 AD
The Reformed church as settled in Scotland under John Knox in 1560, and carried by Scots and Ulster Scots emigration to North America and beyond. Its long argument with the Crown over who governs the church produced the Covenanters, and its assembly at Westminster produced the confession that most English-speaking Reformed churches still measure themselves against.
What marks it out
Government by courts of elders rather than bishops: the session in a congregation, the presbytery over a district, the general assembly over all — which is what the name means and what the argument was about. Ministers and ruling elders sit together in each court. A high regard for preaching and for an educated ministry, and historically for parish schooling alongside it.
Figures
- John Knox
c. 1514–1572
The Scottish Reformation
Alongside it
Also from Reformed / Presbyterian.
In the record
-
1517 AD Reform
The Reformation begins
Luther's objections to indulgences opened a wider argument about authority, scripture and justification that divided western Christendom.
This body appears in the history but does not carry recorded doctrinal positions here, so it is absent from the comparison panels.