St Ninians Cathedral, Perth

However, the Reformed Church faced a growing faction that repudiated the right of the monarch to appoint leaders to Church. This created a delicate balance in Scotland between the established Episcopal doctrine that recognized royal authority and the growing Presbyterian faction that demanded that bishops be elected by “presbyters” or local church leaders. As noted by Fred D. Schneider: “For the Church of Scotland the period between 1575 and 1690 was one of alternating phases of church order: episcopacy in 1585, presbytery in 1592, episcopacy in 1610, presbytery in 1631, episcopacy in 1661, and presbytery in 1690. The practical result, however, was less an oscillation between extremes than a compromise between “establishment” and “opposition…” (Schneider, Fred D.; “Scottish Episcopalians and English Politicians: The Limits of Toleration,” Historical magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Volume 45, Number 3, September 1976.) 

The Jacobite Uprisings of 1689, 1715, and 1719 exacerbated these religious differences. Generally, Catholics and Episcopalians sided with the deposed James II and VII (called “Jacobus” in Latin.) They were opposed by Presbyterians who resisted the Stuart monarch’s abuse of their “divine right” to appoint bishops. As noted by the Reverend George T. S. Farquhar, “...the penal laws, the administration of which had been shewing some signs of relaxation, were rendered more severe than ever. In April an Act was passed by which every Episcopal Minister performing Divine Service in any Meeting House within Scotland, without having taken the oaths, is to suffer six months' imprisonment, and have his Meeting House shut up for six months; and every house where nine or more persons, besides the family, are present at Divine Service, is declared to be a Meeting-House within the meaning of the Act.” (Farquharson, Reverend George T. S.; The Episcopal History of Perth 1689 – 1894, 1894.) 

In 1719, the church split into “Usager” and “Non-Usager” factions, with both sides consecrating their own bishops. “Non-Usagers” promoted the eventual reconciliation with the main Church of England, while “Usagers” wanted to restore traditional liturgies. The Concordate of 1731, indeed (strained as it was at times), availed to keep the "Usager" and "Anti-Usager" Bishops together, and so the unity of the Scottish Church at large was always successfully preserved. But the two parties were still facing one another in Perth with jealous feelings. 

Anti-usagers “looked upon the distinction between the Church and the Presbyterians more as one of taste than of principle, and their conduct leads us to suppose that they rather viewed Bishops and Clergy as the employes of a religious society managed by themselves, than as persons inheriting a spiritual commission derived from Christ.” Usagers “looked upon Bishops of the Apostolical line as essential to the visible Church, and while satisfied to confine themselves to the English Book of Common Prayer for the sake of unity with the others, would prefer that the Scottish Eucharistic Office should come into use.” (Ibid.)

The two sides formally split in 1740 over the celebration of Easter into the “regular” Usage congregation and “irregular” Anti-usage congregations. A hundred years later, the two factions slowly drifted together due to the English education of Scottish leaders. As noted by Farquharson: “Warmer breezes from the south had begun to salute it. Mr. Wordsworth, an Englishman, was presiding over Trinity College ; the members of the Episcopate were no longer of the old-fashioned Aberdeen School, but men influenced by England ; congregations of a similar tone were springing up, not now among the farmers of the north, but amongst the well-to-do inhabitants of Edinburgh and Glasgow. And Bishop Torry himself acknowledged the affinity between his old-fashioned Scottish School and the new light that had arisen at Oxford.” (Farquharson, Reverend George T. S.; The Episcopal History of Perth 1689 – 1894, 1894.)