Disruption (1843). On 18 May 1843, a majority of the Church of Scotland's General Assembly left St Andrew's church, Edinburgh, for Tanfield Hall, Canonmills, to hold the Free Church of Scotland's first assembly, under the presidency of Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847). Thus culminated ten years' conflict between those who asserted their church's spiritual independence and those who accepted its apparent subordination to the civil power. The conflict, which focused on whether a minister could be forced on an unwilling congregation, was precipitated by the House of Lords' ruling in the Auchterarder case (1838–9) confirming statute law's supremacy over ecclesiastical courts. Consequently 474 out of 1,203 ministers seceded from the established church, accompanied by a proportionate number of members.

Clyde Binfield

disruption XVII. — L. disruptiō, -ōn-, f. disrupt-, pp. stem of disrumpere; see DIS- 1, RUPTURE.
So disrupt intr. XVII; trans. XIX. f. the L. pp.