A.D. 1674-1676.
Divisions among the ministers respecting the church and
self-defence—Armed meetings—Severities increase—Lord
Cardross—Religious revivals in the North—Mr M’Gilligan—Civil
oppression—Home of Polwart—Finings—Durham of Largo—Magistrates of
Edinburgh—Sufferers sent to France as recruits—Proclamation to expel
the families of gospel-hearers from the Burghs, and enforce the
conventicle act—Instructions for the indulged—Progress of the
gospel—Rage of the prelates—Mitchell tortured.
Unhappily the seeds of division which the indulgence had sown among the
Presbyterian ministers, were beginning to take root; and the different
opinions that afterwards reached so great and ruinous a height, showed
themselves in the discussions which took place during this year upon
that important question—How the Presbyterian church was to be continued
and supplied? The documents preserved are very scanty; only it appears
that the propriety of ordaining a minister, except to a settled
charge—of preaching within the nominal bounds of an unsettled
presbytery—and the authoritative right of synodical meetings, were among
the questions about which differences had sprung up among the brethren.
And from the care with which they endeavour to provide against one
minister noticing the conduct of another “in their preaching, and
warning the people of the evils of the times,” it seems pretty evident
that this baneful practice had already commenced.
At the close of the year, the state of feeling and anticipation among
the suffering Presbyterians was extremely dissimilar, as we find by the
writings both of public men and private Christians which have been
preserved. Numbers rejoiced in the bright and sunny side of the cloud,
in the increase of faithful preachers of the gospel—in the desire for
hearing that seemed to be abroad—and in the delightful and not rare
instances of the power of the Spirit that accompanied the publication of
the word; and they anticipated a speedy and a glorious renovating morn
for the church. Those that studied the signs of the times, saw in the
apostacy of some, and in the falling away of others who had been
esteemed pillars; in the mournful waxing cold of the love of many; in
the bitter dissensions of professors; and in the general abounding
iniquity—the dark and dismal tokens of a deserted church; and, although
they knew and believed that the cause of Christ could never fall, and
hoped and rejoiced in the hope that a glorious day would yet arise upon
Scotland, wept and made mournful supplication for the sins of the people
among whom they dwelled, and anticipated heavier judgments for
unimproved mercies, until a returning to Him against whom they had
offended should again draw down the blessing.
The increasing severities which now began to be used towards the
conventicles likewise occasioned a difference of opinion among the godly
ministers and people as to the right of self-defence in hearing the
gospel. The injunction of Christ as to individuals is clear, when
persecuted in one city, flee into another; but in Scotland, where the
throne of iniquity framed mischief by a law, and where the whole
Presbyterians, who formed a large majority, were at once deprived of
their civil rights, as well as their religious privileges—and where a
constitution as solemnly ratified, and as sacredly sworn to, as any
mutual agreement between rulers and people ever was, or ever can be, had
been wantonly destroyed by a wretched minority of riotous unprincipled
sycophants, and place-hunting apostates—the question involved, in the
opinion of many, not only their duty as Christians, but as citizens.
Paul had taught them that these were not incompatible, and their fathers
had vindicated both in the field. The young men were generally of this
opinion, and began to come armed to sermons about the commencement of
this year [1675], and talked of imitating the example of the days of the
congregation. The elder and most esteemed among the ministers were
divided; while, in general, they allowed the soundness of the principle,
they differed as to the propriety of the time. Among these appear to
have been Mr Welsh, Mr Blackadder, and Gabriel Semple; others, at the
head of whom stood Fraser of Brea and Kirkton, were entirely averse to
any resort to arms. The former thus states his views of the subject:—
“A violent persecution had broken out; and then there began to be
fining, imprisoning, taking, and summoning of persons, disturbing of
conventicles with soldiers. But yet the gospel prevailed more and more,
and we were like the Israelites in Egypt, the more we were afflicted,
the more we grew and multiplied. Some hot heads were for taking the
sword and redeeming of themselves from the hands of the oppressors; at
least I had ground to fear it. But I opposed rising in arms all I could,
and preached against it, and exhorted them to patience, and courageous
using of the sword of the Spirit; and I did not see they had any call to
the sword, and their strength was to sit still; and if they did stir and
take the sword, they would therewith perish; but if they patiently
suffered and endured, God would himself either incline to pity or some
other way support and deliver them. I had influence with the people,
being popular, and whilst I was at liberty I did what I could to keep
the people peaceable. The truth is, there were great provocations given,
so that we concluded it was the design of some rulers to stir us up that
we might fall. Ministers still preached and laboured among the people;
conventicles increased; many were brought in; the work of God, in the
midst of persecution, did always prosper, until we destroyed ourselves,
first by needless divisions and difference of opinion, happening by
reason of the indulgence; and thereafter by rash and unwarrantable
taking up of arms.”
Gentlemen in Scotland at this time, it requires to be remembered, always
wore arms as a part of dress; and the substantial heritors and yeomen
were in general accustomed to be accoutred when they went from home, so
that part of the meetings at field-preachings had always consisted of
armed men, who, before this, had offered upon several occasions to
defend their ministers at the risk of their lives, but had been refused,
and who now thought that in protecting their assemblies from robbery and
dispersion, and themselves from imprisonment, fining, or slavery—the
inevitable consequences of being seized upon these occasions—that they
were doing no more than was required by the law of God, and authorized
by the law of their country, of which the prelatic party, and not they,
were the invaders and violaters.
Many contests had already ensued. The Episcopalian myrmidons in
Linlithgowshire, and even in Fife, had repeatedly drawn blood, while the
patient hearers of the gospel had only fled before them. The rough
borderers were not equally submissive.[79] At Lilliesleaf, and
throughout some of these districts, they had stood upon the defensive
and beaten off their assailants; and affairs were in this situation
during the greater part of this year. Upon the complaints of the
prelates, troops were ordered to scour the country in different
directions. Edinburgh and Glasgow were again fined each in the sum of
one hundred pounds sterling; and in addition, a detachment both of horse
and foot were quartered in the latter city. Mr John Greg, for preaching
at Leith mills, was sent to the Bass; and a Mr John Sandilands, for
hearing a sermon near Bathgate, was fined three hundred merks. Nor were
the nobility themselves spared. One of the most cruelly oppressive cases
was that of Lord Cardross.
Footnote 79:
Let it be always borne in mind, that the whole crowd who attended
field-preaching, were not influenced by gospel principles, nor could
be considered godly men, any more than that able disputers and fierce
contenders for the pure faith, are always themselves believers. It is
an awful consideration, that the most strenuous fighters for the
purity of God’s word—the Jews—were infidels, and thus addressed by our
Saviour—“Ye have one that condemns you, even Moses, in whom ye trust;”
and the best written “Plea for the Divinity of Christ,” was written by
a man who turned a Socinian. Beware of zealots!
His lordship being confined in Edinburgh in the month of May, his lady,
who was far advanced in pregnancy, remained at home, with only a few
attendants. Sir Mungo Murray, taking advantage of this circumstance,
under cloud of night, accompanied by a posse of retainers, went to his
residence, and outrageously demanded that the gates should be opened to
him, else he would force his way and set fire to the house. Situated
near the borders of the Highlands, the inmates naturally supposing them
banditti, refused admission and demanded who they were? To this no
answer could be obtained, but “Scottishmen,” which increased their
alarm; yet fearing the worst, as there were no means of defence, and no
defenders, the gates were opened, when the ruffians rushed in; and,
after searching the whole apartments in the most tumultuous and
indelicate manner—forcing Lady Cardross to rise from her bed that they
might search her chamber—and ransacking his lordship’s private closet,
they seized Mr John King, his chaplain, and Mr Robert Langlands,
governor to his brother, afterwards Colonel John Erskine, and carried
them off. Langlands was dismissed after being marched ten miles; Mr John
King was rescued by some countrymen who had profited by his ministry.
For this proceeding they had no warrant; and Lord Cardross, immediately
upon being informed of the outrage, presented a complaint and petition
to the privy council; but, instead of receiving any satisfaction for the
gross violation, not only of his privileges as a nobleman, but his
rights as a subject, he was charged with having been guilty, art and
part, in the rescue of Mr John King, although he was sixty miles
distant. For harbouring him in his house, and for his lady’s having been
present at many conventicles, and for these complicated crimes, he was
sentenced to be imprisoned during his majesty’s pleasure in Edinburgh
Castle, to pay a fine of one thousand pounds sterling, besides various
sums for the delinquencies of his tenants.
Fining, imprisonment, and exile being found inadequate to the
suppression of conventicles, other and more rigorous methods were
resorted to. The houses of some of the principal gentlemen in the most
infected counties were seized, and garrisoned by parties of horse and
foot, that the least appearance of any gathering for hearing sermon
might at once be put down, with as much care and celerity as the
gathering of a civil, or the landing of a foreign, enemy; and a number
of the most faithful, diligent, and able ministers this country was ever
favoured with, were “intercommuned,” their presence declared infectious
as the plague, and every loyal person prohibited from conversing with or
doing them any office, not of kindness, but of common humanity, under
the pain of being placed themselves without the pale of society.[80]
Footnote 80:
The names of these were—“David Williamson, Alexander Moncrief, William
Wiseheart, Thomas Hogg in Ross, George Johnstone, Robert Gillespie,
John M’Gilligan, John Ross, Thomas Hogg, Stirlingshire, William
Erskine, James Donaldson, Andrew Anderson, Andrew Morton, Donald
Cargill, Robert Maxwell, elder and younger, James Fraser of Brea, John
King; and with these a good many ladies and gentlemen were joined,
besides many of lower rank, altogether upwards of one hundred
persons.” _Wodrow_, vol. i. p. 394. This revival of a dormant and
iniquitous law was peculiarly oppressive, as all who conversed with
the intercommuned being liable to the same punishment, thousands might
he unwittingly implicated, and laid at the mercy of their rapacious
rulers.
But one of the persecuted themselves remarks—“Although this seemed to be
the first storm of persecution that yet had fallen upon us, and that now
the adversaries had boasted of an effectual mean for suppressing
conventicles, and establishing prelacy and uniformity, and the good
people feared it; yet the Lord did wonderfully disappoint them, and made
and turned their witty councils into folly—for this great noise harmed
not at all, it was powder without ball. For, as for myself, never one
that cared for me shunned my company; yea, a great many mere carnal
relations and acquaintances did entertain me as freely as ever they did;
yea, so far did the goodness of the Lord turn this to my good, that I
observed it was at that time I got most of my civil business expede. And
as the Lord preserved myself in this storm, so I did not hear of any
intercommuned, or conversers with intercommuned persons, that were in
the least prejudiced thereby; nay, this matter of the intercommuning of
so many good and peaceable men did but exasperate the people against the
bishops the more, and procured to them, as the authors of such rigid
courses, a greater and more universal hatred; so that the whole land
groaned to be delivered from them.”
Danger, indeed, seemed to endear the ministers to the people; and the
risks they ran, and the many providential occurrences which attended
their meetings, produced a high degree of excitement, that tended in no
small measure to secure large and attentive audiences, and prepared
their minds for a solemn reception of the doctrines they heard, at the
peril of their lives.
North of the Tay there were but few Presbyterian ministers, and they had
not hitherto been very closely pursued; but among them were some of the
most excellent, and these of course were included in the act of
intercommuning—for their labours had been equally abundant with the
rest. Mr John M’Gilligan of Alness, was one of not the least
conspicuous, either for success or for suffering. On September, the very
month following his being denounced, he dispensed the ordinance of the
Lord’s Supper at Obsdale, in the house of Lady Dowager Fowlis, assisted
by Mr Hugh Anderson, minister of Cromarty, and Mr Alexander Fraser,
minister of Teviot. According to the account preserved of it, it seems
to have been one of those heart-enlivening seasons which the Lord
sometimes vouchsafes to his church in the day of her visitation. “There
were,” says the narrator, “so sensible and glorious discoveries made of
the Son of Man, and such evident presence of the Master of assemblies,
that the people seemed to breathe the very atmosphere of heaven; and
some were so transportingly elevated, that they could almost use the
language of the apostle—‘whether in the body or out of the body, I
cannot tell.’ The eldest Christians there, declared they had not been
witnesses to the like. They also remarked that the Lord wonderfully
preserved them in peace.”
Some rumours of an intended communion having got abroad, the
sheriff-depute was ordered by the bishop to prevent or disperse the
meeting. He accordingly sent a party to apprehend the minister; but he
not knowing the spot, directed them to proceed to his house at Alness,
naturally supposing the meeting would be there. The soldiers, upon
finding the nest empty, attacked the orchard—a much more pleasant
amusement, that detained them till the forenoon’s service was over at
Obsdale, where, before they arrived, Mr M’Gilligan had got notice, and
was under hiding, which, when they found, they retired without
disturbing the congregation; and the sacred solemnities proceeded
without any further interruption. Mr M’Gilligan, however, was obliged to
abscond; and one of his neighbours, Mr Thomas Ross, being apprehended at
Tain for a similar offence, was sent to the Bass.
Civil tyranny is always so interwoven with ecclesiastical persecution,
that it is seldom we are able to separate the two. But the sufferings of
Sir Patrick Home of Polwart, although they undoubtedly originated from
his religion, were ultimately effected through the medium of his
patriotism: he legally, by a bill of suspension before the Court of
Session, resisted a wanton stretch of power in the privy council, and
endeavoured to rouse the opposition of the gentry of Berwickshire
towards an oppressive, unjust tax for planting garrisons among them in
time of peace; and for this undoubted exercise of his right, was
committed, by order of the king, prisoner to Stirling Castle, and
declared incapable of holding any place of trust; and the heritors
succumbed, although the other fines extorted from the shire this year
amounted to nearly twenty-seven thousand pounds Scots.
Nor were the indulged suffered to enjoy their limited and precarious
pardon quietly; their stipends were withheld or tardily paid, and that
only upon their producing certificates from the sheriffs that they had
kept no conventicles for the last twelve-month; but their most vexatious
trials were the natural consequences of their acknowledging the power of
the civil magistrate in ecclesiastical affairs, and owning his warrant,
rather than the authority of Christ, as the rule in their ministerial
labours. Complaints were brought against them, and they were summoned
before the council for not celebrating the communion on the same day in
all their parishes—for irregular baptisms—and for having preached in
churchyards and other places than the kirks; but, above all, for having
presumed to authorize young men to preach the gospel, and ordained
others to the work of the ministry; and, at a time when a long tract of
unseasonable weather seemed to threaten a famine, they had usurped a
power which belonged to majesty alone, or his delegates, and had
appointed a fast in their several congregations! Through the interest of
Lord Stair, however, these grievances were not pushed to extremities
this year.
[1676.] Whatever circumstances might induce any occasional relaxation in
the severity of the persecution, the spirit remained the same; and no
opportunity was suffered to escape by which the preaching of the gospel
might be put down by men calling themselves Christian bishops. The
soldiers in the garrisons were their willing instruments, and as they
shared in the plunder, were active in the pursuit; yet meetings for
hearing the word continued to increase, and the ordinances of religion
were administered with a solemnity and power, often at midnight, which
rendered them the general topics of interest and conversation among the
people, and still more the objects of aversion to the prelates. Finings
for “conventicles” were therefore inflicted by the council with
unmitigated rigour. Durham of Largo, for offences of this nature, and
harbouring that “notour traitor,” John Welsh, was early in the year
mulcted of nearly four thousand pounds Scots; Colonel Kerr, several
ladies, and some citizens of Edinburgh, were legally plundered in
various sums each, of five hundred merks, two hundred pounds, and one
hundred pounds Scots, for being at house conventicles within the city;
but the magistrates having also suffered for these “enormities,” being
soused for not preventing what they had never previously heard of, they
were allowed to reimburse themselves by fining the culprits, who were
thus punished twice for one crime.
A more revolting case of wanton cruelty was, about the same time,
exercised towards some poor men who had been guilty of attending sermon
in the fields near Stirling. Towards the end of 1674, they had been
seized in the act and carried to jail; eight, by some means or other,
had got out—and the remaining seven sent the following affecting
petition to the council in the month of February:—“The petitioners,
being prisoners in the tolbooth of Stirling, these fifteen months
by-past, some of us being poor decrepit bodies, and all of us poor
creatures with wives and families, we have been many times at the point
of starving, and had long ere now died for want, if we had not been
supplied with the charity of other people: The truth whereof is notour
to all who live near Stirling, and which the magistrates have testified
by a report under their hands: Wherefore, it is humbly desired that your
lordships would compassionate our pitiful and deplorable condition, and
that of our poor starving wives and children, and order us liberty, we
being willing to enact ourselves to compear and answer before your
lordships whenever we should be called.” Of those who signed, one,
Charles Campbell, was upwards of sixty, and one John Adam, near seventy
years of age; the others were labouring under severe bodily
indisposition. Yet, instead of being moved by the pitiful tale of these
harmless, aged, and sickly prisoners, the council, with an inhumanity
which it would not be easy to designate properly, ordered them to be
turned over as recruits! to one of Lauderdale’s minions, a Captain
Maitland, then an officer in the French service; and on Friday, February
18, at midnight, they were delivered to a party of soldiers, fettered
and tied together, and marched off without any previous warning. But
they went cheerfully away, although they knew not whither; for they knew
the master whom they served would never leave them naked to their
enemies in their old age.
These severities were followed up by a fresh proclamation against
conventicles, in which, with the most hypocritical falsehood, after
lauding the king’s princely care and zeal for the interests of the
Protestant reformed religion and the church, and lamenting the sad and
sensible decay religion had suffered, and the great and dangerous
increase of profaneness, through the most unreasonable and schismatical
separation of many from the public and established worship, and the
frequent and open conventicles, both in houses and fields—magistrates
were required rigorously to apprehend all who were intercommuned, and to
expel their families from the burghs, together with such preachers and
their families as did not regularly attend public worship—to enforce the
acts against conventicles and separation, under a penalty of five
hundred merks if they did not annually report their proceedings, and
five hundred or upwards additional, for every conventicle that shall
have been held within their jurisdictions, besides whatever other fine
the council might choose to inflict. All noblemen, gentlemen, and
burgesses were forbid to entertain any chaplin, tutor, or schoolmaster,
under penalties proportioned to their rank, from six hundred to three
thousand merks; and informers were, according to the system of the
times, by the same proclamation, encouraged and rewarded by a share of
the fines. Committees were also appointed to investigate and punish
transgressors, who fined and imprisoned many of the most respectable
heritors and gentlemen, particularly in the west, and outlawed others
who had declined answering their summons.
Enemies to the gospel of Christ, the prelatic rulers did not confine
their opposition to the preaching of the “outted” ministers, the
indulged were at the same time subjected to greater burdens. It was
evidently one of their main objects to produce division among the
Presbyterian ministers; and as we have seen the indulgence was admirably
calculated to effect this, yet the breach being neither so wide nor so
violent as they wished, “instructions” were issued to them by the
council. Assuming that they had accepted of liberty to preach under
conditions, the council accused them of violating their engagements by
baptizing without the necessary certificates, and preaching in other
places than their own kirk, without any license from the bishop; and
they added this injunction, that they should not employ or allow any of
their brethren to preach for them who had not also obtained similar
liberty. The indulged eluded the charges, by alleging that they accepted
of the indulgence as a boon from government, not upon conditions, but as
a favour granted; and the instructions they considered as orders upon
which they were to act at their peril. But this neither satisfied the
council nor their brethren, both of whom concurred in thinking it an
evasion rather than an honest justification of their conduct. With the
injunction they appear to have complied also—a very unsatisfactory
procedure—which induced some, particularly of the younger unindulged
preachers, to visit the boundaries of their parishes, and led to
heart-burnings and mutual accusations between those who thought they
might yield a little to the pressure of the times, and those who in
nothing would recede from their avouched principles. These differences,
which afterwards unhappily led to coldness and estrangement among the
friends of “the good cause,” did not produce their most mischievous
effects till the oldest, stanch, tried worthies were removed from the
field. Meanwhile, the dispersion of the ministers, who, when they were
scattered abroad, went every where preaching the word, was eminently
blessed to promote that gospel it was intended to destroy, and
conventicles multiplied on every side both in houses and fields.
Of the period from 1673 to 1679, Shiels gives this animating picture on
reviewing it many years after, when the holy excitement had subsided,
and temporal prosperity had began to diffuse its seductive influence
over the revolution-church:—“When by persecution many ministers had been
chased away by illegal law sentences, many had been banished away, and,
by their ensnaring indulgences, many had been drawn away from their
duty; and others were now sentenced with confinements and restraints if
they should not choose and fix their residence where they could not keep
their quiet and conscience both—they were forced to wander and disperse
through the country; and the people being tired of the cold and dead
_curates_, and wanting long the ministry of their old _pastors_, so
longed and hungered after the _word_, that they behoved to have it at
any rate, cost what it would; which made them entertain the dispersed
ministers more earnestly, and encouraged them more to their duty; by
whose endeavours—through the mighty power and presence of God, and the
light of his countenance now shining through the cloud, after so fatal
and fearful a darkness that had overclouded the land for a while, that
it made their enemies gnash their teeth for pain, and dazzled the eyes
of all onlookers—the word of God grew exceedingly, and went through at
least the southern borders like lightning; or, like the sun in its
meridian beauty, discovering so the wonders of God’s law, the mysteries
of his gospel, and the secrets of his covenant, and the sins and duties
of that day, that a numerous issue was begotten to Christ, and his
conquest was glorious, captivating poor slaves of Satan and bringing
them from his power unto God, and from darkness to light.
“O! who can remember the glory of that day, without a melting heart in
reflecting upon what we have lost, and let go, and sinned away by our
misimprovement—a day of such power that it made the people, even the
bulk and body of the people, willing to come out and venture upon the
greatest of hardships, and the greatest of hazards, in pursuing after
the gospel, through mosses, and muirs, and inaccessible mountains,
summer and winter, through excess of heat and extremity of cold, many
days’ and nights’ journeys, even when they could not have a probable
expectation of escaping the sword of the wilderness. But this was a day
of such power, that nothing could daunt them from their duty that had
tasted once the sweetness of the Lord’s presence at these persecuted
meetings.
“Then we had such _humiliation-days_ for personal and public defections,
such _communion-days_ even in the open fields, and such
_Sabbath-solemnities_, that the places where they were kept might have
been called _Bethel_, or _Peniel_, or _Bochim_, and all of them
_Jehovah-Shammah_, wherein many were truly converted, more convinced,
and generally all reformed from their former immoralities; that even
robbers, thieves, and profane men, were some of them brought to a saving
subjection to Christ, and generally under such restraint, that all the
severities of heading and hanging in a great many years could not make
such a civil reformation as a few days of the gospel in these formerly
the devil’s territories, now Christ’s quarters, where his kingly
standard was displayed. I have not language to lay out the inexpressible
glory of that day; but I doubt if ever there were greater days of the
Son of Man upon the earth, than we enjoyed for the space of seven years
at that time.”[81]
Footnote 81:
_Hind let Loose_, p. 132.
The border districts, so notorious in our earlier history as the fields
of constant plundering and murder, exhibited now amid their wild scenery
a warfare of a very different description. “What wonderful success,”
says Veitch, “the preaching of the word has had by ministers retiring
thither, under persecution, in order to the repressing, yea almost
extinguishing, these feuds, thefts, and robberies, that were then so
natural to that place and people, is worth a singular and serious
observation. These news ought to be matter of joy and thanksgiving to
all the truly godly in Britain, that, though the ark, the glory, and
goings of our God be, alas! too much removed from Shiloh-Ephratah, the
ingrounds, the places of greater outward plenty and pleasure, yet that
he is to be found in the borders of those lands, in the mountains and
fields of the woods. Some of the gentry on both sides of the borders
have been forced both to see and say that the gospel has done that which
their execution of the laws could never accomplish. And is not such a
change worthy of remark? to see a people who used to ride unweariedly
through the long winter nights to steal and drive away the prize, now,
upon the report of a sermon, come from far, travelling all night, to
hear the gospel; yea, some bringing their children along with them to
the ordinance of baptism, although the landlord threaten to eject the
tenant, and the master the servant, for so doing.”[82] Mr Gabriel Semple
gives a similar statement. “These borderers were looked upon to be
ignorant, barbarous, and debauched with all sort of wickedness, that
none thought it worth their consideration to look after them, thinking
that they could not be brought to any reformation. Yet, in the Lord’s
infinite mercy, the preaching to these borderers had more fruit than in
many places that were more civilized.”[83]
Footnote 82:
Memoirs of William Veitch, written by himself, published by Dr M’Crie,
p. 118.
Footnote 83:
Semple’s Life MSS., in Dr Lee’s possession, quoted by Dr M’Crie, as
above.
What ought to have filled the breast of every right-hearted minister of
the gospel with joy, excited the fellest passions in the bosoms of the
prelates, who evinced their filiation by doing the deeds of their
father, (John viii. 44,) furiously seeking to destroy those who declared
the truth; because, wherever a Presbyterian preacher came, the
Episcopalian churches were forsaken, and the curates were left to
harangue to empty pews. Political squabbling for power between Hamilton
and Lauderdale, had diverted the attention of the two parties for a
while from Scottish ecclesiastical affairs, which the ministers eagerly
took advantage of to pursue their sacred vocation, judging wisely that
the respite which they enjoyed would be at best precarious. When
Lauderdale gained the ascendency, they anticipated a longer continuance
of the “blink;”[84] but the clouds soon gathered thicker and darker. He
knew he could only maintain his own elevation by exalting Episcopacy;
and he quickly showed that his repeated declarations were not empty
bravadoes. More correct in their calculations, the bishops improved the
opportunity; and the council, his and their ready tool, issued fresh
proclamations against conventicles, increasing in severity as they
increased in number.
Footnote 84:
“Blink”—a glimpse of sunshine in foul weather.
Averting their eyes from the loveliness of these bright prospects that
shone around them, they mourned withal “the sad and sensible decays
religion had of late suffered, and the great and dangerous increase of
profaneness through the most unreasonable and schismatical separation of
many from the public and established worship, and the frequent and open
conventicles, both in houses and fields, by such as thereby discover
their disaffection to the established religion, and their aversion to
his majesty’s authority and government, endangering the peace of the
kingdom, and dividing the church under pretence of scruple:” therefore,
to manifest their zeal for the glory of Almighty God, the interests of
the Protestant reformed religion, and of the church—to secure the same
by unity in worship, and procuring all due reverence to archbishops,
bishops, and all subordinate clerical officers—the magistrates of the
several burghs were specially required to seize upon all persons who
were, or should be, intercommuned, and to remove the families of such
from all places under their jurisdiction, together with all preachers
and their families who did not attend the public worship! All noblemen,
gentlemen, and others, were strictly forbid to afford shelter or aid to
any intercommuned person, upon pain of being themselves intercommuned;
and whosoever should discover those that transgressed, were to receive
five hundred merks reward immediately. Magistrates were also rendered
liable to severe fining, if they did not rigorously fulfil the
imperative duty of searching out and punishing all such as worshipped
God after the manner they chose to call heresy.
What means they thought lawful for obtaining information from suspected
persons, is evinced in their treatment of James Mitchell, who made the
unsuccessful attempt upon Sharpe. He had left the country at the time,
and did not return till he supposed the affair was forgotten, when he
married a woman who kept a small shop not far from the primate’s town
residence. In passing this way, his Grace observed a person eye him
keenly, which rather alarmed him, as he thought he recognized his foiled
assassin; and he caused him to be arrested. A pistol, loaded with three
bullets, being found in his pocket, increased his terror, and he became
extremely anxious to know the extent of his danger. Accordingly, before
the prisoner was examined, he swore by the living God, if he would
confess the act, he would obtain his pardon; and a committee of the
privy council, consisting of Rothes, Lord Chancellor; Primrose, Lord
Register; Nisbet, Lord Advocate; and Hatton, Treasurer-depute,
authorized by the Commissioner, gave him a similar assurance.
Disappointed, however, by his confession, as they expected to discover a
conspiracy, on finding he had no accomplice, and unwilling that he
should thus escape, they remitted him to the Justiciary Court, evading
their solemn engagement by a jesuitical quibble, that the promise of
securing his life did not guarantee the safety of his limbs. Having
received a hint, as he was passing to trial, he disclaimed his
confession at the bar; and there being no other proof, the judicial
proceedings were abandoned, or, in Scottish law-phrase, the “diet” was
deserted, and he was remanded to prison, where he remained till January
this year, when the spirit of cruelty which appeared to actuate the then
rulers against all who were rigid Presbyterians, especially preachers,
urged them to subject their unhappy victim to the torture.
About six o’clock in the evening of January 18th, Mitchell was brought
before a meeting of Justiciary, where the Earl of Linlithgow sat
president, and questioned whether he would adhere to his former
confession. He replied, that the Lord Advocate having deserted the diet
against him, he ought to have been, agreeably both to the law of the
nation and the practice of the court, set at liberty, and therefore knew
no reason why he was that night brought before their lordships. Without
any attention being paid to this strictly legal objection, he was again
asked, if he would adhere to his former confession? He refused to own
any confession; and Hatton most outrageously exclaimed, “that pannel is
one of the most arrogant cheats, liars, and rogues I have ever known!”
Mr Mitchell retorted, My lord, if there were fewer of those persons you
have been speaking of in the nation, I would not have been standing at
this bar. The President said, “We will cause a sharper thing make you
confess.” “I hope, my lord, you are Christians and not Pagans,” was the
prisoner’s response, with which the business of that evening closed.
Upon the 22d, he was brought before them in the lower Council-Chamber,
and the question repeated, the President at the same time pointing to
the boots, said, “You see, sir, what is upon the table; I will see if
that will make you confess.” “My lord,” answered Mitchell intrepidly, “I
confess by torture you may make me blaspheme God, as Saul did compel the
saints; you may compel me to call myself a thief, a murderer, a warlock,
or any thing, and then pannel me upon it; but if you shall, my lord, put
me to it, I here protest before God and your lordships, that nothing
extorted from me by torture shall be made use of against me in judgment,
nor have any force in law against me or any person whatsomever. But to
be plain with you, my lords, I am so much of a Christian, that whatever
your lordships shall legally prove against me, if it be a truth, I shall
not deny it; but, on the contrary, I am so much of a man, and a
Scottishman, that I never hold myself obliged by the law of God, nature,
or the nation, to become my own accuser.” Hatton rudely answered—“He
hath the devil’s logic, and sophisticates like him; ask him whether that
be his subscription.” “I acknowledge no such thing,” said the pannel,
and was remanded to jail.
Two days after, the judges, in formal pomp, arrayed in their robes, and
attended by the executioner with the instruments of torture, like true
inquisitors, first attempted to terrify their prisoner, before they
literally put him to the question. It was in vain. They could not shake
him. Had they not been dead to every nobler feeling of our nature, they
must have quailed when he thus addressed them:—“My lords, I have now
been these two full years in prison, and more than one of them in bolts
and fetters—more intolerable than many deaths. Some in a shorter time
have been tempted to make away with themselves; but, in obedience to the
express command of God, I have endured all these hardships, and I hope
to endure this torture also with patience, on purpose to preserve my own
life, and that of others also, as far as lies in my power, and to keep
the guilt of innocent blood off your lordships and your families, which
you doubtless would incur by shedding mine. I repeat my protest. When
you please, call for the men you have appointed to their work.” The
executioner being in attendance, immediately tied Mr Mitchell in an
arm-chair, and asked which of the legs he should take? The lords said,
“Any of them.” The executioner laid in the left; but Mr Mitchell taking
it out, said, “Since the judges have not determined, take the best of
the two; I bestow it freely in the cause.” He was interrogated about his
being at the battle of Pentland, his meeting with Wallace or with
Captain Arnot—all of which he could veritably answer in the negative.
The tormentor then began to drive the wedges, asking at every stroke if
he had any more to say? To this he generally replied “No.” After a
while, when the pain began to be excruciating, he exclaimed, again
addressing his inquisitors—“My lords, not knowing but this torture may
end my life, I beseech you to remember, that ‘he who showeth no mercy,
shall have judgment without mercy;’ for my own part, my lords, I do
freely and from my heart forgive you who are judges, and the men who are
appointed to go about this horrid work, and those who are satiating
their eyes in beholding. I do entreat that God may never lay it to the
charge of any of you, as I beg that God, for his Son Christ’s sake, may
be pleased to blot out my sin and mine iniquity.” At the ninth, the
sufferer fainted through the extremity of pain. “Alas! my lords,” said
the executioner, “he is gone!” The unfeeling wretches told him “he might
stop,” and coolly walked off. When Mitchell recovered, he was carried in
the same chair back to his prison. Here he continued till January 1677,
when he was sent to the Bass.
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