John Caird, Glasgow, 1874
Principal John Caird It took less than a month from the first intimation that an accusation of heresy could be laid against John Caird, Principal of Glasgow University, to its evaporation. The aftermath played out for a couple of months longer. Intimation of a charge On January 7 1874, Mr William Wallace, an elder at Kirkintilloch, told an ordinary meeting of the Glasgow Synod of the Church of Scotland that he would like to see Rev Caird, Principal of Glasgow University, summoned to the following meeting. He wished to discuss Caird's sermon on “Unbelief” which he had recently preached in Govan and, slightly modified, in Dundee. These had been reported in the Glasgow News on December 22, 1873 and January 5, 1874. Wallace had already been in communication with Professor Caird by letter. He had suggested to Caird that the tenet that a person was not responsible for his religious belief was at the root of his teaching; Caird had denied that he held such a doctrine. Despite this denia