The ministers had discharged
their trust, and the result of their labors was laid before the estates
which met in Edinburgh on January 15, 1561.
The document presented to the estates was the famous _Book of
Discipline_--the most interesting and in many respects the most
important document in the history of Scotland. If any proof were needed
that the revolt against the ancient Church was no ill-considered act of
irresponsible men, we assuredly possess that proof in this extraordinary
book. Though in its primary intention the scheme of its ecclesiastical
polity, it is in fact the draft of a "republic," under which a nation
should live its life on earth and prepare itself for heaven. It not
only prescribes a creed, and supplies a complete system of church
government: it suggests a scheme of national education, it defines the
relation of church and state, it provides for the poor and unable, it
regulates the life of households, it even determines the career of such
as by their natural gifts were especially fitted to be of service to
church or state. As we shall see, the suggestions of the _Book of
Discipline_ were to be but imperfectly realized; yet, by defining the
ideals and moulding the temper and culture of the prevailing majority
of the Scottish people, it has been one of the great formative
influences in the national development.
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