САМЕО The Covenant. 1638. sitting. The plans were decided on. At Linlithgow there was the same scene. At Edinburgh not only was jest was remembered! At Aberdeen though the majority were loyal, still the protest was made. The next step adopted by the Tables was what they called the Renewal of the Solemn League and Covenant. The original Covenant, or King's confession, as it was termed, had been made in 1581, when the Roman Catholic Church was the foe most dreaded, and the Pope "his worldly monarchy and wicked hierarchy, his three solemn vows, with all his shamlings of sundry sorts, his erroneous and bloody decrees made at Trent, were abjured.' James had signed it, and there really was nothing in it to denounce either the Liturgy or Episcopacy, and therefore a supplement was added, binding every one to continue in the religion established by the first, and to resist all corruptions and errors expressly the establishment of Bishops and the new Service-book. Therewith were coupled the strongest expressions of loyalty to the descendant of a hundred and seven Kings. The Covenant was read on the 1st of March, in the Cathedral, at Edinburgh, and greeted with shouts and cries of joy and exultation. Tables were set out in the Greyfriars Churchyard, and people of all ranks and ages flocked to sign the paper with a sort of passionate joy. The copies were dispersed all over the country, and signed by crowds with fervent enthusiasm, by many actually with their own blood; while those who were reluctant were forced by no gentle means to accept it. Sermons were preached in support of it, and were so sought after that to secure places the churches were often crammed from Friday to Sunday by crowds, who ate and slept there, without the slightest reverence or even decency. The Primate and all the Bishops but four fled to England. Aberdeen, however, with city, church, and university, remained loyal, and the Highlands were still chiefly Roman Catholic, excepting the Campbells, the clan of Argyll. It was said that when Lord Lorne, the Some heir of the family, had been summoned to London to give information, The great supplication was meantime sent to London by three nobles, who were not Covenanters, Lennox, Huntly, and Morton, but the Tables forbade them to open it unless the King would receive it, and the King would not look at it unless they could assure him that it conformed to his rules about petitions. In June the King decided on sending a commissioner to Scotland to arrange matters. His choice fell on the Marquis of Hamilton, the nearest heir, after the royal children, and the Palatine family, to the Scottish crown, and unfortunately a trusted friend of his own. It is impossible to judge of Hamilton's fidelity. The English loyal party greatly disliked and distrusted him, and thought him a thorough traitor, more especially as his mother was a strong Covenanter, and his sisters all married to Presbyterian nobles; and it is certain that he always had an unfortunate effect on the King's affairs. And yet Charles loved and trusted him to the last, and he evidently had a strong personal attachment to the King. It seems more likely that he was only a weak, unstable man, swayed now by love to the King, now by national impulse as a Scot, and actuated besides by clannish dislikes and jealousies to Montrose and the Grahams, Huntly and the Gordons, and Argyll and the Campbells. Obeying each impulse in turn, his whole behaviour had an uncertainty about it, which might well merit the contempt of more whole-hearted men. The Tables had decreed that no Covenanter should show their King's representative any respect, and forbade his own vassals to meet him at the Border or show him any honour, but on the other hand, two rows of Covenanters, 600 clergy, and 20,000 laity were drawn up on the way to Holyrood House. When there, he spoke of having the English service in the chapel, but the covenanting lords declared that "he who durst read prayers there should never read more," and that a thousand men were ready to prevent it! When he told them in private consultation that they must give up the Covenant if they were to be reconciled with the King, they answered that they would sooner renounce their baptism. In fact, they were beginning to collect money for resistance, and they actually pre САМЕО The Suppli cation sent off. 1638. САМЕО Hamilton in Scotland. 1633. vented the transfer of some arms and ammunition from a vessel at Leith to Edinburgh Castle. Meantime they made their demands,—the abolition of the Court of High Commission, of the Canons and Service Book, a free Parliament, and a free General Assembly. Another proclamation at Edinburgh, and another protestation followed. Then the old Covenant with the King's signature, was put forth, and everybody was required to sign it; but to this the Tables refused consent. Hamilton tried in vain to convince the Scottish nobles of the King's disinclination to Popery, in fact, all the instances by which he hoped to prove to them Charles's piety, seemed to these haters of all form, reverence, or regularity in devotion to be so much papistry. A crazy woman named Mitchelson, was supposed to be inspired when she railed against the Old Covenant and praised the new one. She was taken to a good house in Edinburgh and lodged in the best bedchamber, which was crowded from morning to night with people listening to her ravings and prophecies from heaven. Contributions of money, from twenty-five dollars downwards, were paid by all ranks as a fund for resistance, and hosts of the veteran Scottish soldiers in the armies of Germany were subscribing to the Covenant and promising to bring home their skill and discipline to their own country in case of need. All this was held to be religion, and there was certainly some honest Calvinistic dread of formalism and distrust of Church doctrine at the core, but much more was blind prejudice against the supposed relapse into Popish practices, and what gave passion to the whole was national hatred to English dictation, stirred up to a height by proprietors who dreaded to be made further to disgorge Church property. It is to be remembered likewise that Romanism had been at its very worst in Scotland, and that the traditions of Bishops and abbots were often of dissolute and rapacious men of blood. 66 Hamilton, after many consultations with the King, all of which were betrayed to the Covenanters, convoked a General Assembly to meet in the grand old Cathedral of St. Mungo at Glasgow. Orders were issued by the King that the delegates sent by each Presbytery should be chosen by the clergy alone, but the Covenanters, disregarding this, sent with each minister an elder with equal powers of voting, and as the ministers put forward did not vote for themselves, the elders, who were all Cov enanters, were sure of carrying their candidate. Moreover, all ministers erroneous in doctrine or scandalous in life" were by order of "the Tables" rejected, and by a liberal interpretation this was made to exclude all the ministers who had not signed the Covenant, or who had been willing to use the Service Book. As to the Bishops, who had of course a right to sit there, the cunning lawyers who managed the tactics of the Tables, decided to disqualify them, by calling them to answer before the Assembly for charges laid against them. Lord Rothes applied to Hamilton for a warrant, but he refused one, whereupon the Presbytery of Edinburgh cited all the fourteen Bishops to appear at the Bar of the Assembly to answer for an array of horrible CAMEO XXV. General crimes that must have been gleaned from the lives of the worst Scottish pre-reformation Bishops, to which was added suspicion of Arminianism, Popery and card-playing. The Marquis of Hamilton sent strict orders hat this abominable calumny should not be published, but the plan had Assembly at been kept so secret that the command did not come till the citation had been read in all the kirks in Edinburgh. A throne with a canopy was erected for the Marquis, and along the whole length of the nave ran a table with seats for the seventeen peers, and the numerous lords of baronies who attended, the ministers sitting in tiers on benches rising behind them. Among these peers was James Graham, Earl of Montrose, and among the Assessors assisting Hamilton was Archibald Campbell, Earl of Argyll, who had just succeeded his father in the title and estates. The Moderator was Alexander Henderson, "a moderator without moderation," as Archbishop Laud called him, and the clerk, Johnstone of Warriston. These were the two men who had devised the additions to the Covenant, and were the very soul of the Tables. The numbers were about 260, and it was noticed that no one wore a clerical gown, and there was a tumultuous throng of outsiders through whom it was very hard to make way, in so much that Principal Baillie declared in his letters, "We might learn from Canterbury, yea, from the Pope, yea, from the Turks, or Pagans, modesty and manners. Our rascals, without shame, in great numbers, make such din and clamour in the house of the true God, that if they offered the like behaviour in my chamber, I would not be content till they were down stairs." Some time was spent in legal questions over the elections; but on the 28th of November, when measures were about to be taken against the Bishops, Hamilton, in the name of the King, withdrew all sanctions from the Assembly, first, on account of the illegal manner of the elections, and secondly, on that of the exclusion of the Bishops and the proceedings against them. At the Market Cross, there was a proclamation read, breaking up the Assembly, and ordering all to repair to their homes; but the protestation instantly followed, and though the Marquis withdrew, the Assembly went on as before, with the cooperation of the Assessors. The Assessors remained, and Argyll became a species of President. The first thing done in the Assembly which, being dissolved by the King, had become entirely illegal, was to annul all Acts passed since 1606, including the Articles of Perth. Then the Prayer-book and the Canons were condemned, and there followed what was called the trial of the Bishops. Lists of crimes to be made out against them were sent to their several dioceses, not merely the doctrinal differences and the "being agents of Canterbury," which might reasonably be expected from these virtuous and dignified clergymen, "bowing to the altar, wearing the rochet, consecrating churches," but outrageous crimes against all the commandments. Swearing was alleged against them, which seems to have consisted of such expletives as on my soul," and Glasgow. 1638. САМЕО 66 on my honour." Sabbath-breaking was a regular charge, probably because they travelled to different churches on Sundays, and also Overthrow because they either accepted, or were supposed to accept, the Book of the Bishops in of Sports. Also some were said to have tolerated "dances of naked Scotland. women," most likely ladies dressed in the prevailing court fashion, 1638. which left the upper part of the neck bare. Far worse and more horrid crimes were mentioned as matters of course in all the indictments, including murder and adultery. Surely these Scottish Bishops belonged to those of whom all manner of evil is falsely spoken! There was no defence. Several were in England, and none acknowledged the authority of the Assembly. Six were deposed, the other eight, who were more obnoxious to the Covenanters, were both deposed and excommunicated. The Bishops of Dunkeld, Orkney, and Argyll submitted, abjured their consecration, and were content to act as Presbyterian ministers, "not respected on either side." They had been accused like their brethren of frightful guilt, but on their submission, no more inquiry was made, and such acceptance was a virtual acquittal of all the rest. Spottiswoode, the Archbishop, died the next year, in 1639, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Lindsay, the other Archbishop, and four more died at different times in England. Maxwell, of Ross, an able and active man, received the Irish Bishopric of Killala, but had to flee for his life from the Romanist rebellion. He joined the King at Oxford, and was appointed Archbishop of Tuam, in 1645, but two years later was found dead on his knees in his closet. Guthrie, of Moray, who had been "the first to put on his sleeves," alone remained staunchly at his post, though fined, imprisoned, and harassed, until the brave old man was worn out, and died at Angus. Sysderf, of Galloway, during the English troubles, retreated to France, and exercised his episcopal office in the house of Sir Richard Browne, the English ambassador at Paris. He was the only one of all the fourteen who lived to return to his see, at the return of Charles II., and to form a link between the first and second restorations of the Scottish Church. The priests who were no Covenanters were treated in the same manner. Mr. Thomas Foster, of Melrose, had declared the Servicebook better than preaching, had, with his own hands, made his altar and rails, and administered the Holy Communion to his people on their knees, and affirmed our Reformers to have brought more damage to the Church in one age than the Pope and his faction in a thousand years. "This monster was justly deposed." The same clearance took place among the Divinity Professors at the Universities, and the Assembly broke up on the 20th of December, 1638, but with the determination that Aberdeen, the great old University city, should be forced into the Covenant. Henderson, Dickson, and Cant, and the Earl of Montrose were sent off to insist that the Covenant should be signed. |