The Killing Time was a period of conflict in
Scottish history
The recorded begins with the arrival of the Roman Empire in the 1st century, when the province of Britannia reached as far north as the Antonine Wall. North of this was Caledonia, inhabited by the ''Picti'', whose uprisings forced Rome ...
between the
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
Covenanter
Covenanters ( gd, 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 '' Covena ...
movement, based largely in the south west of the country, and the government forces of Kings
Charles II and
James VII. The period, roughly from
1679
Events
January–June
* January 24 – King Charles II of England dissolves the "Cavalier Parliament", after nearly 18 years.
* February 3 – Moroccan troops from Fez are killed, along with their commander Moussa ben Ahmed be ...
to the
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
of 1688, was subsequently called ''The Killing Time'' by
Robert Wodrow in his ''The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution'', published in 1721–22. It is an important episode in the
martyrology of the Church of Scotland.
Background
In the century following the
Reformation Parliament of 1560, the question of church government had been one of growing tension between popular opinion and the Monarch. While the
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
was Presbyterian in its legal status according to various acts of Parliament,
King James VI had developed a compromise which tended towards an
Episcopalian
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
church government, but
Calvinist
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...
theology.
When
King Charles I acceded to the throne in 1625, his policy increasingly antagonised the nation by imposing
High Church Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...
and
Erastian
Thomas Erastus (original surname Lüber, Lieber, or Liebler; 7 September 152431 December 1583) was a Swiss physician and Calvinist theologian. He wrote 100 theses (later reduced to 75) in which he argued that the sins committed by Christians shou ...
state control over spiritual matters of the church. This culminated in the 1638
National Covenant
The National Covenant () was an agreement signed by many people of Scotland during 1638, opposing the proposed reforms of the Church of Scotland (also known as '' The Kirk'') by King Charles I. The king's efforts to impose changes on the church ...
which was a widespread popular expression of the nation's protest at the King's policy. Ultimately the
Bishops' Wars
The 1639 and 1640 Bishops' Wars () were the first of the conflicts known collectively as the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which took place in Scotland, England and Ireland. Others include the Irish Confederate Wars, the First ...
resulted in the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, then separate entities united in a personal union under Charles I. They include the 1639 to 1640 Bi ...
. On 5 February 1649, six days after the
English Parliament executed the King, the
Covenanter
Covenanters ( gd, 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 '' Covena ...
Parliament of Scotland
The Parliament of Scotland ( sco, Pairlament o Scotland; gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland from the 13th century until 1707. The parliament evolved during the early 13th century from the king's council o ...
proclaimed
Charles II "King of Great Britain, France and Ireland" at the
Mercat Cross, Edinburgh
The Mercat Cross of Edinburgh is a market cross, the structure that marks the market square of the market town of Edinburgh. It stands in Parliament Square next to St Giles' Cathedral, facing the High Street in the Old Town of Edinburgh.
Descr ...
, but refused to allow him to enter Scotland unless he accepted
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
throughout Britain and Ireland.
In order to protect the
Presbyterian polity
Presbyterian (or presbyteral) polity is a method of church governance ("ecclesiastical polity") typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session o ...
and
doctrine of the
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
, the pre-Restoration
government of Scotland signed the 1650
Treaty of Breda to crown him king and support him against the English
Parliamentary forces.
However, at his
Restoration in 1660, the King renounced the terms of the Treaty and his
Oath of Covenant, which the Scottish Covenanters saw as a betrayal. The
Rescissory Act 1661 repealed all laws made since 1633, effectively ejecting 400 Ministers from their livings, removing patronage in the appointment of Ministers from congregations and allowing the King to proclaim the restoration of Bishops to the Church of Scotland. The Abjuration Act of 1662 ''…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 an oath of abjuration not to take arms against the king, and rejecting the Covenants. This excluded most Presbyterians from holding official positions of trust.'' Essentially, this returned church governance to the situation that existed prior to the expulsion of the bishops by the Glasgow
General Assembly
A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company.
Specific examples of general assembly include:
Churches
* General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of pres ...
in 1638 and overthrew the Presbyterian form of organisation favoured by the Covenanters.
Situation
Church ministers were confronted with a stark choice: accept the new situation or lose their livings. Up to a third of the ministry refused. Many ministers chose voluntarily to abandon their own parishes rather than wait to be forced out by the government. Most of the vacancies occurred in the south-west of Scotland, an area particularly strong in its Covenanting sympathies. Some of the ministers also took to preaching in the open fields in
conventicles, often attracting thousands of worshippers.
The
Scottish Privy Council
The Privy Council of Scotland ( — 1 May 1708) was a body that advised the Scottish monarch. In the range of its functions the council was often more important than the Estates in the running the country. Its registers include a wide range of ...
attempted to end the dissent in the form of the First Indulgence of 1669, followed by a Second in 1672. These allowed ministers to return to their churches on condition that they remained silent on the issues dividing the
Kirk. The English spy
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel '' Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...
, who studied the period, listed the reasons why the more intransigent clergy refused to countenance the offer:
# They would not accept of our Indulgence for worshipping God by the licence of the bishops; because they said they had abjured Prelacy in the Covenant, and had declared the bishops to be anti-scriptural and anti-Christian; and to take licence from them was to homologate their authority as legal, which they detested and abhorred.
# They would not take the Oath of Supremacy because they could not in conscience allow any king or head of the Church but Jesus Christ.
# They would not pray for the king, or swear to him, because he was a persecutor of the Church, and thereby an enemy to God, because he had renounced the oath of God in the Covenant, and until he had repented, they would have nothing to do with him.
# Being debarred all manner of liberty to worship God in public, and on the severest penalties forbidden to assemble themselves together, either in the churches or in private families; and believing it at the same time their duty according to the Scriptures, not to forsake assembling, they could not satisfy their consciences to obey man rather than God.
Reaction
The Stuart regime, worried about the possibility of disorder and rebellion and resentful of the Covenanters' having made their fighting for Charles II during the civil wars conditional upon the maintenance of Scottish
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...
, attempted to stamp this movement out, with varying degrees of success. Fines were levied upon those who failed to attend the parish churches of the "
King's curates", the death penalty was imposed for preaching at field conventicles, and torture of suspects using inventive punishments such as hanging people by the thumbs or using
the boot or thumbscrews became a tactic of first resort. In 1678, some 3,000 Lowland militia and 6,000
Highlanders (the 'Highland Host') were
billeted in the Covenanting shires and plundered their unwilling hosts. These policies provoked armed rebellions in 1666 and 1679, which were quickly suppressed.
The early summer of 1679 saw an escalation of civil unrest with the assassination of the Scottish Primate
James Sharp, the
Archbishop of St Andrews, the
Battle of Drumclog
The Battle of Drumclog was fought on 1 June 1679, between a group of Covenanters and the forces of John Graham of Claverhouse, at Drumclog, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
The battle
Following the assassination of Archbishop James Sharp on ...
and the
Battle of Bothwell Bridge. The
Sanquhar Declaration of 1680 effectively declared the people could not accept the authority of a King who would not recognise their religion, nor commit to his previous oaths. Read publicly at
Sanquhar by a group of Covenanters led by the Reverend
Richard Cameron, it renounced all allegiance to Charles II and opposed the succession of his brother
James, Duke of York
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious ...
, a Roman Catholic. In February 1685 the King died and was succeeded by his brother as
King James VII
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
.
In response to these shows of political sedition, the
Scottish Privy Council
The Privy Council of Scotland ( — 1 May 1708) was a body that advised the Scottish monarch. In the range of its functions the council was often more important than the Estates in the running the country. Its registers include a wide range of ...
authorised extrajudicial field executions of those caught in arms or those who refused to swear loyalty to the King and renounce the Covenant by an
Abjuration Oath. This Oath of
Abjuration
Abjuration is the solemn repudiation, abandonment, or renunciation by or upon oath, often the renunciation of citizenship or some other right or privilege. The term comes from the Latin ''abjurare'', "to forswear".
Abjuration of the realm
Abju ...
was specifically designed to be repugnant to Covenanters and thereby act as a "sieve, the mesh of which would winnow the loyal from the disloyal."
John Graham, Laird of Claverhouse was commissioned to carry out the orders of the Privy Council and was responsible for various
summary execution
A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes includ ...
s which earned him the name "Bluidy Clavers" by the Covenanters.
Around 100 executions are recorded as a result of the Privy Council's orders, the majority being of radical
Cameronian
Cameronian was a name given to a radical faction of Scottish Covenanters who followed the teachings of Richard Cameron, and who were composed principally of those who signed the Sanquhar Declaration in 1680. They were also known as Society M ...
s who were executed over a short period of several months in 1685, for civil crimes punishable by death.
Despite the relatively short duration of this action and its limitation to a single faction of the broader Presbyterian community, it has since come to dominate the historiography of the period.
[
Amid rising tensions in both Scotland and England, the Stuart regime descended into chaos and the ]Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
of 1688 ended James's reign in England when he fled on 23 December to exile in France. The ensuing political crisis in Scotland, which, pre-empted by English events, left Scotland without a king and saw the members of the Scottish Privy Council swiftly ask William to take over the responsibilities of government in Scotland on 7 January 1689. Having read the mood of the people that there was a lack of popular support for James' regime and that William's political support grew as the crisis unfolded in a similar way to England, the Scottish Parliament passed the Claim of Right Act, thereby establishing in Scots Law
Scots law () is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Ireland ...
, that the throne was left vacant upon James' departure.
The persecution ended with the accession of William of Orange as King William II of Scotland in 1688 and the acceptance of Scottish Presbyterianism by the Act of Settlement 1690. The execution of James Renwick in 1688 is regarded as closing the period of martyrdom.
Footnotes
Bibliography
* .
* .
* J. D. Douglas, ''Light in the North'' (Exeter, 1964)
* Tim Harris, ''Restoration: Charles II and his Kingdoms, 1660–1685'' (London, 2005).
* Tim Harris, ''Revolution: The Great Crisis of the British Monarchy, 1685–1720'' (London, 2006)
* J D Mackie, ''A History of Scotland'' (London, 1978).
* Raymond Campbell Patterson, ''A Land Afflicted: Scotland & the Covenanter Wars, 1638–90'' (Edinburgh 1998)
* .
External links
''List of Covenanters Executed in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh''
Dunton Cove Covenanters hiding place
{{DEFAULTSORT:Killing Time
History of the Church of Scotland
Presbyterianism in Scotland
Persecution of the Covenanters
1680s in Scotland
17th century in Scotland
Torture in Scotland
Judicial torture in Scotland
Political history of Scotland
Charles II of England
1680s conflicts
Glorious Revolution
Privy Council of Scotland
Church of Scotland