Page "History of Scotland" Paragraph 123

After prolonged years of struggle, in 1834 the Evangelicals gained control of the General Assembly and passed the Veto Act, which allowed congregations to reject unwanted " intrusive " presentations to livings by patrons.

The following " Ten Years ' Conflict " of legal and political wrangling ended in defeat for the non-intrusionists in the civil courts.

The result was a schism from the church by some of the non-intrusionists led by Dr Thomas Chalmers known as the Great Disruption of 1843.

Roughly a third of the clergy, mainly from the North and Highlands, formed the separate Free Church of Scotland.

The evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly in the Highlands and Islands, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.

Chalmers's ideas shaped the breakaway group.

He stressed a social vision that revived and preserved Scotland's communal traditions at a time of strain on the social fabric of the country.

Chalmers's idealized small equalitarian, kirk-based, self-contained communities that recognized the individuality of their members and the need for cooperation.

That vision also affected the mainstream Presbyterian churches, and by the 1870s it had been assimilated by the established Church of Scotland.

Chalmers's ideals demonstrated that the church was concerned with the problems of urban society, and they represented a real attempt to overcome the social fragmentation that took place in industrial towns and cities.