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Usagers and Collegers

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Urwick, William, D.D.

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two parties existing in the Church of Scotland in the reigns of George I and George II. As the bishops who had been ejected from their sees during the Revolution were gradually removed by death, others were consecrated in their stead, without diocesan authority, to preserve the apostolic succession until the former condition of affairs should be restored. On the death of bishop Rose of Edinburgh, in 1720, the last of the old diocesan prelates, it was proposed that the Church should henceforth be governed by a college of bishops. The proposal was supported by the lay party and opposed by the clergy; Another cause of division arose in view of the fact that: some of the; diocesan party favored the adoption of certain usages into the Church of Scotland which had been lately revived in England, viz. (1) mixing water with the wine; (2) commemorating the faithful departed; (3) the invocation in the prayer of consecration; (4) oblation before administration. Bishop Gadderar, one of the defenders of the usages, being subsequently chosen bishop of Aberdeeni, the party opposed to the college system became identified with the usages. Hence the terms Usagers and Collegers. Use, the form of external worship peculiar to any Church; also the ritual of a Church or diocese arranged by authority and generally followed. In England each bishop formerly had the power of making some improvements in the liturgy of his Church; in process of time different customs arose which were so distinct as to receive the name of "uses." We thus have the uses of Sarum, Bangor, York, Hereford, Durham, Lincoln. The Use of Sarum became the most general. All were practically abolished in the 16th century.