1809-1909 Centennial Souvenir

THE COVENANTERS The Covenanter is a monument of the Reformation in Scot– land in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Four centuries ago the Roman Catholic Church held sway as a world power, although that power was antagonized by both kings and people in Northern Europe. Nowhere was this antagonism more .pro– nounced than in the island of Great Britain. I,t may seem strange that Protestantism in England took the £oh~ of Episcopacy, while in Scotland the prevailing system was Presbyterian. · The explanation is simple. The English Reformation was taken in hand .by the sovereigns and made over into .a state church, the King being the head. It was virtually the Catholic church with a pope at London instead of at· Rome. The English Puritans and Independeqts who later fought under Cromwell and the Parlia– ment never constituted a real majority of the nation, and orily under exceptional circumstances did they get control of affairs. In S~otlancl it was. different: .The Scotch Reformation was a popular movement. Refugees retllrning from Calvin's theocratic republic at Geneva disseminated Calvin's theology ·and Calvin's presbyterian system o.f church government, and had gained con– siderable headway by the time that Mary Stuart resolved to crush the movement. The Scot~h nobles responded with the National Covenant which effectually stopped the persecution for over half a century. Then came the political struggle with Charles I. Not content with trying to destroy the civil liberties of Ei;igland, he tried to force Episcopacy upon Scotland. This brought on the Solemn League and Covenant of 1638, ratified by the Patliaments of England and Scotland, and also by the Westrriinstet Assembly of 1643; according to which Presbyterianism was to be maintained in the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, ahd popery ,22