THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
came into play, and 1638 saw the enthusiastic and almost universal subscription to the National Covenant inaugurated in the Greyfriars' churchyard. This covenant consisted of the King's Confession of 1580 followed by a lengthy legal remonstrance and statement by Johnston, of Warriston, and a popular religious conclusion by Henderson, of Leuchars (see Henderson, Alexander). As before, loyalty to king and religion were carefully intcrwound, " the true worship of God and the king's authority being so straitly joined as that they did stand and fall together." The organized Presbyterians are at this time referred to in royal correspondence as "Covenanters." During two years Charles's attempts to use unwilling English forces against the Scots were thwarted by the skill of Alexander Leslie, a great ex-general of Gustavus Adolphus. Leslie avoided any vigorous invasion which would rouse English sentiment, and the peace (1641) saw the Scotch army established quietly in Northumberland and Durham and subsidized by the Long Parliament.
In 1643, in their darkest hour, the Long Parliament sought a definite alliance with the Scots. The latter suggested a religious covenant instead of the civil league favored by English 4. The Independents, and the Solemn League Solemn and Covenant was drawn up in Edin- League and burgh by Henderson, there approved, Covenant, and sent up to be adopted at West- 1643. minster by the Assembly, Lords, and Commons, the majority of the English Parliament being disposed to make trial of Presbyterianism as the only visible alternative to episcopacy. This league, which was signed throughout the length and breadth of Britain, pledged subscribers to the maintenance of the Reformed Church of Scotland and the Reformation in England and Ireland, to the extirpation of popery and prelacy, to a common endeavor after uniformity of discipline and doctrine according to the Word of God and the example of the best Reformed churches, and to loyalty to Parliament and crown. It was renewed in Scotland in 1648 and signed with the National Covenant by Charles II. in 1650 and 1651.
But rigid Presbyterianism made itself impracticable in England, and the execution of Charles I. completed the alienation of the Scots. A party in Scotland signed an " engagement " with Charles with a view to his liberation, and Hamilton led an army to defeat by Cromwell at Preston in 1647 The " non-Engagers " headed by Ar- 5. Divisions gyll, who had protested against this Among treachery to the English Parliament, the Cove- now came into power, and while turnnanters. ing against Cromwell by proclaiming Charles II., whom they kept nevertheless in strict tutelage, they passed the Act of Classes excluding " malignants," or " engagers," from all offices and from the army. Cromwell's victorious march from Dunbar made it seem expedient to a short-sighted majority to pass " resolutions " rescinding this Act, for every soldier was wanted. The stricter party protested. A remonstrance was signed in the West. The increased
army availed nothing against Cromwell, who forced upon Scotland a period of profound peace and! prosperity, reproaching Presbyterians with their divisions Lnd hostility to himself and favoring the more Evangelical and zealous party of the Protesters. In these days true religion made great advances, but the strife of " Resolutioners and Protesters " continued to divide the Covenanters into bitterly opposed factions. This schism and the fact that the Resolutioners had admitted many half-hearted into place and power account for the strange facility with which Charles H. at the Restoration in 1660 was able to impose his agents on the Scotch kirk and nation.
The Resolutioners were betrayed at the outset by their chosen agent, James Sharp (q.v.), who got himself made archbishop of St. Andrews. The Court of High Commission was set up and, without effective protest, episcopacy and the machinery for enforcing it. The Solemn League and 6. Persecu- Covenant was burned in London and tion Under Linlithgow. A packed Scotch Parlia- Charles II. ment rescinded all the Acts of the and preceding twenty years. One new James II. Act commanded abjuration of the Covenant. Another voided all ministerial appointments since 1649, ordering such ministers now to request presentation from the patron and the bishop. Four hundred, chiefly in the West and South, heroically chose ejectment. The country awoke at the spectacle. Few waited on the ministrations of the new curates. Rolls of parishioners were therefore made up and soldiers sent to enforce attendance by fines. The people flocked with increasing numbers and enthusiasm to conventicles in barns or on the moors. Three successive "indulgences" to "outed" ministers being accepted by a few in spite of the compromise involved fulfilled in slight degree their aim of sowing dissension. At the same time measures against the faithful became ever harsher, and Argyll and Guthrie had been executed in 1661. Men like Graham, of Claverhouse, and Lauderdale earned immortal infamy. A long roll-call of martyrs follows during these twenty-eight years of the "killing time" — Hugh Mackail, Cargill, John Brown, of Priesthill, the two dauntless women who were slowly drowned in the rising tide at Wigtown (see Wilson, Margaret), the preacher Renwick, nameless ones without number. Hundreds were sold into slavery in Barbados, among them many women. Others died of exposure or rotted in dungeons. Many were horribly tortured. Altogether many thousands perished. The offenses were refusals to abjure the Covenant or attend the parish kirk, and the frequenting of conventicles and " intercommuning " with those who did. It was punishable to let a child remain unbaptized by the parish curate. Fighting took place at Rullion Green, Drumclog, and Bothwell Bridge. Richard Cameron (q.v.), who proclaimed a definite rebellion at Sanquahar in 1680, was defeated and slain at Ayrsraoss. On the other hand, Sharp had been killed in 1679 by nine Covenanters. Every soldier of the government was allowed to kill, and their cruelty was directed on women and children as