Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-dtkg6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-05T22:18:16.219Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Covenant Idea as a Revolutionary Symbol: Scotland, 1596–1637*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

S. A. Burrell
S. A. Burrell
Affiliation:
Barnard College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

I should like to call attention once again to the old home truth that ideas, while they may not be completely independent of their environment, are still possessed of a heredity of their own that can and often does transform the material circumstances of man and affect the course of history. the course of history. I have chosen for purposes of illustration the covenant or federal theological conception, which worked a powerful influence in Scottish society during the early decades of the seventeenth century and which, in turn, was peculiarly influenced and reshaped by that society until it evolved into a symbol for the revolution which terminated in the overthrow of the monarchy of Charles I. In brief, it is my conviction that this rebellion against Charles and his government was primarily and mainly, though not solely, the result of a religious ferment that had been brewing for forty years.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , December 1958 , pp. 338 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1958

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Cf. Hewison, James K., “‘Bands’ or Covenants in Scotland, with a list of Extant Copies of the Scottish Covenants,” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 4th Ser., VI (1907–1908), 166–7.Google Scholar

2. Innes, Cosmo, ed., The Black Book of Taymouth (Edin., 1855), 162–72Google Scholar. The records of great Scottish families are filled with contracts of this kind. For other examples see MacLeod, R. C., ed., The Book of Dunveagan (Aberdeen, 1938), 43–50Google Scholar, and The Miscellanies of the Spalding Club (Aberdeen, various dates), particularly vols. 2 and 4.Google Scholar

3. Lumsden, John, The Covenants of Scotland (Paisley, 1914), 77.Google Scholar

4. Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, IV, 783–7.Google Scholar

5. Lumsden, op. cit., 13–20; Johnston, J. C., A Treasury of the Scottish Covenant (Edin., 1887), 23–4.Google Scholar

6. Bannatyne, Richard, Memorials of the Transactions in Scotland, 1569–1573 (Edin., 1836), 47–9.Google Scholar

7. Cunningham, W., ed., Sermons of the Reverend Robert Bruce (Edin., 1843), 70.Google Scholar

8. Rollock was in regular correspondence with Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor at Geneva, and the eminent theologian, John Piscator of Herborn. The extent to which Rollock's writings were published on the Continent is alluded to in a letter written to him by the Geneva divine, Simon Goulart. See William, Gunn, ed., The Select Works of the Reverend Robert Rollock (Edin., 1844–1849), I, 10, and II, vi–vii.Google Scholar

9. Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland, from the Year MDLX (Edin., 1845)Google Scholar, Part Third: MDXCIII-MDCXVIII, 862, 869–70. See also Calderwood, David, The History of the Kirk of Scotland (Edin., 1844), V, 407–8.Google Scholar

10. Kinloch, G. R., ed., Melville's, JamesDairy (Edin., 1829), 234, 239–40Google Scholar; Calderwood, op. cit., V, 436–7.

11. Rutherford, Samuel, A Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist (1648)Google Scholar. Part II: “A Survey of Antinomianisme,” 50–51. See also Durham, James, Commentarie on the Book of the Revelation (1660), 234–35Google Scholar; A Practical Exposition of the X. Commandements (1675), pp. 5 ff.Google Scholar; The Law Unsealed (1676), p. 5.Google Scholar

12. See Calderwood, David, The Speach of the Kirk of Scotland to Her Beloved Children (1620), p. 5Google Scholar, and The Altar of Damascus or the Paterns of the English Hierarchie, and Church-Policie obtruded upon the Church of Scotland (1621), passim, as well as Gillespie, George, A Dispute Against the English-Popish Ceremonies obtruded upon the Church of Scotland (1637)Google Scholar, introduction. For this belief the leaders of the kirk had the warrant of King James himself, who, in 1590, had praised the Church of Scotland for its purity above all others. See Calderwood, , History, V, 106.Google Scholar

13. Pearson, A. F. Scott, Church and State in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 1928), pp. 79 ff.Google Scholar

14. For examples of the thought of Covenanting leaders in this connection see Henderson, Alexander, Government and Order of the Church of Scotland (1641), 68Google Scholar; Sermon to the House of Lords, May 28, 1645, p. 12; Laing, David, ed., Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie (Edin.: Bannatyne Club, 1841–1842), III, 18Google Scholar; and the statements contained in two famous Covenanting manifestoes: An Information to all good Christians within…England (1639), p. 5Google Scholar, and A Remonstrance Concerning the Present Troubles (1640), p. 5Google Scholar. Even Rutherford, Samuel, whose livre de circonstance, Lex Rex: the Law and the Prince (1644)Google Scholar, was the most extreme political statement made by any Covenanting leader, advocated at most only a vague kind of elective monarchy and that only in certain cases. See Rutherford, S., Lex Rex, p. 82.Google Scholar

15. Rutherford, Samuel, A Peaceable and Temperate Plea for Paul's Presbyterie in Scotland (1642), Introduction, p. 2.Google Scholar

16. Gillespie, George, CXI Propositions Concerning the Ministrie and Government of the Church of Scotland (1647), 19–20Google Scholar; Aarons Rod Blossoming (1646), introduction; A Sermon Preached before the House of Lords, August 27, 1645, p. 48; and Henderson, Alexander, Reformation of Church Government in Scotland (1644), 12–13.Google Scholar

17. Calderwood, , History VII, 108.Google Scholar

18. Laing, David, ed., Row's, JohnHistorie of the Kirk of Scotland. 1558–1637 (Edin., 1842), 239.Google Scholar

19. Tweedire, W., ed., Select Biographies (Edin., 1845), I, 25.Google Scholar

20. Bonar, A. A., ed., Fourteen Communion Sermons by Samuel Rutherford (Glasgow, 1878), 2nd ed., p. 116.Google Scholar