Dr Ritchie, 1834
This case sits firmly at the trivial end of the scale of heresy accusations. On Friday May 23rd, 1834, at an Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Andrew Johnstone, M.P. ( probably this man ) complained about “the alleged heretical doctrine” in a book by Rev. Dr. David Ritchie, “Lectures on the Epistle of Paul to the Romans ”. ( Ritchie, D., & Blackwood, W. (1831). Lectures: Explanatory and practical, on the doctrinal part of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans . Edinburgh: William Blackwood.) Johnstone called for a committee of inquiry to discover the author and to ascertain “whether it did not impugn the doctrine of justification by faith.” he had given no prior notice of his complaint. ( Report of the proceedings of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, for the year 1834 , Edinburgh, Wm Whyte and Co., p.10 here .) Dr Ritchie immediately declared himself the author, and affirmed “I cordially believe in the doctrine of by faith alone without works, - I tea