Covenanters

Covenanters (Scottish Gaelic: Cùmhnantaich) were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. The name is derived from covenant, a biblical term for a bond or agreement with God.

The origins of the movement lay in disputes with James VI and his son Charles I over church structure and doctrine. In 1638, thousands of Scots signed the National Covenant, pledging to resist changes imposed by Charles on the Kirk; following victory in the 1639 and 1640 Bishops' Wars, the Covenanters took control of Scotland, and the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant brought them into the First English Civil War on the side of the English parliament. After his defeat in May 1646, Charles surrendered to the Scots Covenanters, rather than to the Parliamentarians. By doing so, he hoped to exploit divisions between Presbyterians and English Independents.

During the 1648 Second English Civil War, a faction of Covenanters known as Engagers supported Charles. After the king's execution in 1649, the Covenanter government, in order to protect the Presbyterian polity and Calvinist doctrine of the Church of Scotland, signed the Treaty of Breda, an agreement to restore Charles' son to the Scottish throne and support him against the English parliamentary forces. Charles II was crowned King of Scots in Scone in January 1651, but by then the terms agreed at Breda were already a dead letter. The army associated with the Kirk party under David Leslie, 1st Lord Newark, was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Dunbar in September 1650, while the English parliamentarian New Model Army occupied Edinburgh and much of Lowland Scotland. Scotland was subsequently annexed by the Commonwealth of England which abolished Scotland's legislative institutions and disestablished Presbyterianism. There was freedom of religion under the Commonwealth, except for Roman Catholics, but the edicts of the Kirk's assemblies were no longer enforced by law.

At his restoration in 1660, the king reneged on the terms of the treaty and his oath of covenant; the Scottish Covenanters saw this as a betrayal. The Rescissory Act 1661 repealed all laws made since 1633, effectively ejecting 400 ministers from their livings, restoring patronage in the appointment of ministers to congregations and allowing the king to proclaim the restoration of bishops to the Church of Scotland. The Abjuration Act of 1662^[2] was a formal rejection of the National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. These were declared to be against the fundamental laws of the kingdom. The act required all persons taking public office to take the Oath of Abjuration to reject the Covenants and not to take arms against the king. This excluded most Presbyterians from holding official positions of trust.

The resulting disappointment with Charles II's religious policy became civil unrest and erupted in violence during the early summer of 1679 with the assassination of Archbishop Sharp and the Battles of Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge. The Sanquhar Declaration of 1680 effectively declared the people could not accept the authority of a king who would neither commit to his previous oaths nor recognise their religion. In February 1685, the king died and was succeeded by his Roman Catholic brother, the Duke of York, as James VII.

After the 1660 Restoration, the Covenanters lost control of the Kirk and became a persecuted minority, leading to several armed rebellions, notably during the Killing Time from 1679 to 1688. Following the 1688 Glorious Revolution in Scotland, the Church of Scotland was re-established as a wholly Presbyterian structure and most Covenanters readmitted. This marked the end of their existence as a significant movement, although dissident minorities persisted in Scotland, Ireland, and North America. These exist today as the Reformed Presbyterian communion of churches.