Editing Church of Scotland (section)

===Establishment and John Knox===

The Church of Scotland, in its current form, traces its origins to the [[Scottish Reformation]] of 1560. At that point, many in the then church in Scotland broke with Rome in a process of Protestant reform led, among others, by [[John Knox]]. It reformed its doctrines and government, drawing on the principles of [[John Calvin]], which Knox had been exposed to while living in [[Geneva]], Switzerland.<ref name="Britannica"/> An assembly of some nobles, [[Laird|lairds]], and burgesses, as well as several churchmen, claiming in defiance of the Queen to be a Scottish Parliament, abolished papal jurisdiction and approved the ''[[Scots Confession]]'', but did not accept many of the principles laid out in Knox's ''[[First Book of Discipline]]'', which argued, among other things, that all of the assets of the old church should pass to the new. The 1560 [[Scottish Reformation#Reformation Settlement of 1560|Reformation Settlement]] was not ratified by the crown, as [[Mary, Queen of Scots|Mary I]], a Catholic, refused to do so, and the question of [[Ecclesiastical polity|church government]] also remained unresolved. {{citation needed|date=February 2020}} In 1572, the acts of 1560 were finally approved by the young [[James VI]], but the Concordat of Leith also allowed the crown to appoint bishops with the church's approval. John Knox himself had no clear views on the office of bishop, preferring to see them renamed as 'superintendents' which is a translation of the Greek; but in response to the new Concordat, a Presbyterian party emerged headed by [[Andrew Melville]], the author of the ''[[Second Book of Discipline]]''. {{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

Melville and his supporters enjoyed some temporary successes—most notably in the Golden Act of 1592, which gave parliamentary approval to Presbyterian courts. James VI, however, believed that [[Presbyterian polity|presbyterianism]] was incompatible with monarchy, declaring "No bishop, no king".<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Established Church of Scotland}}</ref> By skillful manipulation of both church and state, he steadily reintroduced parliamentary and then diocesan [[episcopal polity|episcopacy]]; this approximately mirrored the structure of the [[Church of England]], of which James had become [[Supreme Governor of the Church of England|Supreme Governor]] when he [[Union of the Crowns|succeeded to the English throne in 1603]]. By the time he died in 1625, the Church of Scotland had a full panel of bishops and archbishops. General Assemblies met only at times and places approved by the Crown. {{citation needed|date=February 2020}}