(determined by Church law) of the appointment of a Minister. The treaty and the acts came into force in 1707. Patronage Act 1711 Patronage was a much less disputed issue in the Anglican Church, and the dispossessed Scottish lay patrons were able to persuade the united, and mainly Anglican, Parliament of Great Britain that they had unjustly lost a purely civil right. Their case may have been strengthened by the fact that Article 20 of the Treaty of Union had preserved all heritable rights and jurisdictions of pre-Union Scotland. It also helped that the British Government distrusted popular participation in matters of importance, as the selection of parish ministers certainly was. Consequently, the Church Patronage (Scotland) Act 1711 was passed, restoring to their original owners the right to present suitably qualified candidates to Presbyteries in the event of a vacancy. Only those Patron's who had renounced their claim in writing in return for compensation were excluded from this, of which there were only three in 1711, Cadder, Old and New Monklands. The effect was the restoration of the situation as it was in 1592. Patrons were required to swear allegiance to the Hanoverian kings, and abjure the claims of the Stuart Pretenders; a patron who refused was to appoint commissioners to exercise the patronage on his behalf. Patrons did not need to be members of the Church of Scotland. The Act came into force on 1 May 1712. Disputes Moderates acquiesce reluctantly The Church of Scotland mainly acquiesced in this restoration, though it felt aggrieved and the General Assembly protested to Parliament almost every year that it was contrary to the Treaty of Union. The congregation of a Parish could only legally object to a presentee on the grounds of his suitability, so the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland laid down increasingly stringent educational, moral and practical qualifications for candidates for the ministry. Moreover, few patrons dared to suggest scandalously unqualified candidates. Appointments were, however, regularly contested through the church courts - Kirk Session, Presbytery and Synod finally to be decided at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. As most objections were on the acceptability of the candidate, rather than his suitability, the Assembly usually decided in favour of the Patron, particularly as he could seek civil damages in the Court of Session otherwise. The civil courts were involved because disputes related to the stipends and