Background to the 1679 Covenanter Rebellion

"Russell, having broken his sword, got one from George Fleming, and repeated Balfour's cry of "Come forth Judas" and added, they were sent to execute God's vengeance on him that day, and that he should die. The Bishop cried, "Save my life and I will save yours." [...] but was answered "No bloody villain, betrayer of the cause of Christ; no mercy." A History of the Rencounter at Drumclog, pg. 47-48.

As the prelude to a series of posts on the 1679 Covenanter Rebellion, here I present a personal view of the progress of the Scottish Reformation and the British Civil Wars in Scotland. 

The Protestant Reformation spread generally across Northern Europe and Britain in the 16th Century, a fundamental rejection of the corruption and error of the Roman Catholic Church. It was presaged by local reform movements, the Waldensians in northern Italy, the Hussites of Bohemia, and Lollardy in England. But the printing press allowed Martin Luther's protests in 1517 to grow into an international movement. Protestant literature was translated, transmitted, and smuggled into neighboring countries, spreading amongst a literate middle-class. But much more than this, it also began to fundamentally change the way society was structured. Protestantism succeeded in some countries by spreading from the bottom of society upwards, it succeeded in other countries by being imposed from the top down, and it failed in other countries despite the popular or political support it may have had. While most historians today discount the sincerity of religious belief in ages past in favor of political explanations, I believe this is an imposition of our modern worldview on the period. Politics alone does not explain what led believers on all sides of the conflict to go to the scaffold and the stake rather than compromise on their beliefs, and this faith is best understood by people who share it, rather than cynical modern scholars.

The English Reformation was embraced by King Henry VIII, whose personal aims it suited, but it was spread among the people by a sincere and literate middle class. But Henry's reformation only went so far, and for a time in England the ashes of radical Romanists were mingled with the blood of radical reformers. Above all else, Henry desired to keep the Church of England under royal control, being supreme head of a national church which, while casting off Roman Catholic doctrines, preserved much of its ceremony and liturgy, the mass included, as well as episcopacy, the rule of the church by bishops. Despite periods of continued reformation, Puritan ascendancy, and Papist persecution, the Church of England has remained consciously both reformed and catholic. 

The Scottish Reformation however was strongly Presbyterian almost from its inception, following in the footsteps of Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation. This meant that leadership of the Church of Scotland, or the "Kirk" was in the hands of church elders (presbuteros in Greek). However, King James VI made the decision in 1584 to appoint two bishops over the Kirk (episcopos in Greek). His goal was to impose more direct royal control over the church like his Tudor cousins, but he unintentionally created a schism between the Presbyterians and the Episcopalians that would not be healed without the shedding of much blood. King James' ascent of the English throne in 1603 perhaps relieved some of this pressure in Scotland, but left the conflict unresolved to his son Charles.

50 years later, the Kirk was still an uneasy hybrid of local Presbyterian leadership with overall Episcopalian governance, but King Charles' attempts to impose the Book of Common Prayer on the Scottish church was met by national resistance. The Scots were by no means united in what they believed the Kirk should be, but for a time public opinion was united in its outrage at these impositions of the English church. The uproar that this caused perhaps is unfathomable to a modern person, but just suppose what outrage there would be for one country to impose a constitution on another, and add to that all the emotion of sincere religious belief. All ranks and classes in Scotland united in ascribing to a document known as the National Covenant, making no reference to bishops but committing the people to resist impositions from a foreign church. This started the Bishops' Wars, two small campaigns against England that were both handily won by the Scots and swiftly led to a negotiated peace. Two years later, England itself was embroiled in a bitter civil war between King and Parliament.

The Scottish Covenanters and the English Parliamentarians then became bedfellows in their opposition to King Charles. Religion had played no small part in sparking the English Civil War, as English Puritans objected to the Arminian reforms of Archbishop Laud, whom many thought was putting the Church of England on the road back to Rome. However, Laud's reforms only led him to the scaffold in 1645, but in the meantime the English and Scottish coreligionists signed the Solemn League and Covenant. This allowed the Scots to intervene in the English Civil War, while committing the Church of England to adopt a Presbyterian form of government. By 1646, King Charles was flushed from his last strongholds, but rather than surrender to Parliament, he fled to the Scots occupying the north of England. A rift had been forming between the Covenanters and the Parliamentarians, who came to be dominated by Independents, opposed both to Episcopalian and Presbyterian church government. Displaying typical Stuart perfidy, Charles exploited this rift by signing an engagement with the Covenanters, agreeing to impose Presbyterianism on England if the Scots would join a royalist uprising to restore him to power.

This "Second" English Civil War was bloody and brief, and led to King Charles losing his head in 1649. The English at this point had abolished their monarchy, but the Scots declared Charles' son to be their King, on condition that he uphold the National Covenant. Young King Charles II, much like modern historians, probably doubted the sincerity of the Covenanters and eagerly accepted, with only his restoration to the English crown in mind. However, the Scots were crushed by Cromwell at Dunbar in a victory of Biblical proportions, and the English Royalists were wiped out at Worcester the following year, 1651, ending serious royalist efforts for good. In 1652, Scotland itself was incorporated into the English Commonwealth. Other than a small royalist uprising in Scotland the following year, there was uneasy peace for a time.

When the British Commonwealth fell to the decisive movements of General Monck in 1660, he gave into popular support and political reality and allowed Charles Stuart to return to England as King Charles II. His restoration which had cost thousands of lives and untold amounts of treasure in failed uprisings was accomplished at last without a blow being struck. Once in power however, he pursued a policy of vengeance against the architects of the political chaos that had overwhelmed the Three Kingdoms the past twenty years. The House of Lords was restored to Parliament, the Bishops restored to the Church of England, while Puritan ministers were banished from the established church in the "Great Ejection" and forbidden to lead services.

The Covenanters in Scotland had never ceased to support the King, and he had been King Charles II of Scotland since 1649. The Covenanters also had never forgotten his ascribing to the Covenant in 1650, but his restoration to power in 1660 resulted in the destruction of everything which he had before promised to uphold. Episcopacy was restored to the Scottish Kirk, and James Sharp, a former Covenanter, was ordained as Archbishop of St. Andrews. Ministers who could not renounce the 1638 Covenant were removed from their pulpits, and Covenanters began meeting and worshipping in fields. This led immediately to a small Covenanter uprising in 1666, but unrest continued even after this was dispersed at Rullion Green. Attempts were made several times to allow the ousted Covenanting ministers to return to their churches if they would only renounce politics, but it remained their firm conviction that King Charles had broken his covenant. 

Covenant is a concept directly from the Bible and forms an integral part of Reformed Theology. Salvation from a Reformed understanding of scripture rests on God's unbreakable, unchangeable covenant of grace, whereby He swears by His own infallible nature to save a chosen people through the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. The laws set forth in God's covenant with Moses made at Sinai were often broken, but Christ's New Covenant is unbreakable because it is based on his sinless and perfect life, whose righteousness is credited to people by their faith in Him. This covenant of grace was not just a personal bond, it bound whole families and households too, and envisioned entire nations being converted and joining the covenant of grace. It was this holy concept of covenant that the Covenanters had in mind when they wrote the National Covenant in 1638, and its maintenance was approached with the same seriousness and solemnity.

This was the mindset that led nine men to intercept Archbishop Sharp on May 3rd, 1679 and brutally put him to death in the sight of his daughter. The man had formerly ascribed to the Covenant, but had abjured that bond, and had helped install a form of government over the church that was repugnant to their faith. More than that, the Archbishop had presided over the persecution of Covenanters, had seen them imprisoned, transported, and executed, and had upheld the authority of a King who had broken covenant too, and persecuted Christ's church. This mindset is far removed from that of modern people, both Christians and non-Christians alike, but it must be grasped if one is to understand the motivations of the men who rebelled in 1679.

Soli Deo Gloria!