Five Articles of Perth

1618. A drastic innovation in Scottish Presbyterian ritual and worship passed by the general assembly under the direct coercion of James VI, who held that Episcopacy was more congenial to his policies. These Articles decreed kneeling at Communion, private Communion in cases of necessity, private baptism in similar cases, observance of the great annual festivals of the church, and confirmation by bishops. The Articles were abolished by the Covenanting assembly of 1638, but after the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 an even more stringent Episcopacy was forced upon Scotland. Such was the eventual reaction to the article on private Communion, nevertheless, that it was not until 1954 that the Church of Scotland general assembly revoked the Act of 1690 which, after the deposition of the Stuart dynasty, prohibited the private celebration of Communion.