76.About the same time, the precise date is uncertain, Crail, where Sharpe had been a Presbyterian minister, was visited by Mr John Dickson; and the unhappy apostate was tormented by the sound of the gospel on his right hand and on his left, while he vainly strove by military force to destroy the faith which once he preached.
76.About the same time, the precise date is uncertain, Crail, where Sharpe had been a Presbyterian minister, was visited by Mr John Dickson; and the unhappy apostate was tormented by the sound of the gospel on his right hand and on his left, while he vainly strove by military force to destroy the faith which once he preached.
76.About the same time, the precise date is uncertain, Crail, where Sharpe had been a Presbyterian minister, was visited by Mr John Dickson; and the unhappy apostate was tormented by the sound of the gospel on his right hand and on his left, while he vainly strove by military force to destroy the faith which once he preached.
Some time after this, Mr Blackadder had another meeting at Kinkel, where vast numbers from St Andrews attended as hearers, and even some of the militia. Sharpe, who was that Sabbath day at home, hearing of it, sent for the provost and commanded him to order out the military, disperse the conventicle, and apprehend the minister. “My lord,” replied the provost, to the prelate’s dismay, “the militia are gone there already to hear the preaching, and we have none to send.” And among them was the soldier that had refused drink from Lady Kinkel, who was especially marked to be moved and wept beyond the rest; so wonderfully did the Lord countenance the persecuted gospel, even bloody enemies being overcome with conviction.
Exasperated at the multiplication of these meetings, the Episcopalian clergy added the foulest and the falsest calumnies to their other modes of opposition, and the synod of Glasgow, October 22, had the unblushing effrontery to charge these assemblies with crimes of which they themselves could never have believed them guilty—“incest, bestiality, murder of children, besides frequent adulteries, and other acts of wickedness after which, it is little that they should have been accused of fanaticism, disloyalty, andcursing the king. Towards the end of March, before Lauderdale left Scotland, he published an indemnity, although like many others with which the nation was insulted during this reign, almost only so in name, was received by the people as a license for frequenting conventicles, which continued to multiply in consequence, and especially as a report was assiduously circulated of his having secretly promised that an ample liberty would be granted to Presbyterian ministers soon after his arrival at court. Few were held in the west where the indulged ministers were settled, but on the borders, in the Merse, Lothians, Stirlingshire, and Fife, they greatly abounded, in houses, fields, and vacant churches. The more private worshippers in houses were overlooked, the vast assemblages in the mountains, and mosses, and muirs chiefly attracting the attention of government; and “at these great meetings,” says Kirkton, “many a soul was converted to Jesus Christ, but far more turned from the bishops to profess themselves Presbyterians.”
Mr Welsh was among the most diligent and successful of the labourers, particularly in Fife, where many thousands were wont to assemble. His preaching was attended with a visible blessing in the conversion of many to the Lord; and among them were some in the higher ranks, especially ladies; for it is somewhat remarkable that in these days of peril and danger, the weaker sex were distinguished for their intrepid zeal; and there is reason to believe that not a few, conspicuous for their piety, were brought to the obedience of faith at these assemblies. The Countess of Crawford, daughter of the Earl of Annandale, was one of the number, and dated her first impressions from a sermon preached by him at Duraquhair, near Cupar, where about eight thousand persons were present, and the power of God was manifested to the checking of the conscience and the awakening of the hearts of many. On the same Sabbath three other conventicles were held, and it was computed not less than sixteen thousand persons heard the gospel plainly and earnestly preached by Mr Robert Lockhart at Path-head, near Kirkcaldy; Mr Blackadder, near Dunfermline; and Mr Welwood on the Lomond Hills. This last meeting was fired upon by the soldiers, but although their bulletslighted among a crowd of men, women, and children, and brake the ground beside them, not one was wounded. They, however, took about eighteen prisoners, and then marched for Duraquhair to attack Mr Welsh; but the people got notice and hurried him away, a great body escorting him as far as Largo, where they procured a boat, and he and his wife, with some others, crossed the frith under night safely, and landed at Aberlady Bay, whence he got undiscovered to Edinburgh. Even the capital itself and the neighbourhood were sorely infested with these noxious meetings. Kirkton had long had regular house-preaching in the city, but this year, emboldened like others by the expectation of favour, he, along with Mr Johnston, again ventured upon sacred ground, and Cramond Kirk being vacant, they bad both been repeatedly guilty of declaring the truth from that pulpit to large and attentive auditories.
Against these there were many grievous complaints by the prelates, of which Lauderdale took advantage to lower the credit of the Duke of Hamilton and his party with the king, and in this he was so successful, that, about the end of May, the privy council was re-modelled, and those only who were entirely devoted to his interest permitted to remain. On the 4th of June, when they first assembled, they were assailed in rather an unusual manner.
Reports of increased severities being about to be resorted to against conventicles having reached Edinburgh, as men durst not appear with any petition under pain of being fined or imprisoned, fifteen women, chiefly ministers widows, resolved to present as many copies of “a humble supplication for liberty to the honest ministers throughout the land to exercise their holy function without molestation,” to fifteen of the principal lords of council. Attended by a crowd of females, who filled the Parliament Close, they awaited the arrival of the councillors. Sharpe came along with the Chancellor, and when he saw the ladies, in great bodily fear he kept close by his lordship, who seemed to enjoy the primate’s terrors, and complacently allowed Mr John Livingstone’s widow to accompany him to the Council-Chamber door, conversing as they went along, while others very unceremoniously saluted Sharpe with the epithets of Judas and traitor; and one of them more forwardthan the rest, laid her hand upon his neck, and told him “that neck behoved to pay for it before all was done.” The whole of the lords to whom the papers were presented, received them civilly, except Stair, who threw his scornfully upon the ground, which drew upon him a sarcastic remark—“that he had not so treated the remonstrance against the king which he helped to pen.” When the council met, the petition was voted a libel, and about a dozen of the subscribers were called and examined. They declared severally that no man had had any hand in the matter, and that their sole motive was a sense of their perishing condition for want of the gospel, having no preachers except ignorant and profane persons whom they could not hear; upon which they were ordered into confinement, and the Lord Provost and the guard sent to disperse the ladies at the door; but they refused to depart without their representatives, who were in consequence politely liberated, and the tumult ended. Next day, however, they were again summoned, when three were sent to prison—Margaret, a daughter of Lord Warriston’s; a Mrs Cleland; and a Lilias Campbell. The former, with Lady Mersington and some others, were banished the town and liberties of Edinburgh; and so ended this affair.
The fears of the ladies were not unfounded. A letter from the king to the council was read at the same meeting, requiring them “to use their utmost endeavours for apprehending preachers at field conventicles, invaders of pulpits, and ringleading heritors, and to make use of the militia and standing force for that end, leaving the punishment of the other transgressors to the ordinary magistrates according to law.” In obedience to which, a committee was appointed with full powers to meet when and where they should think convenient, to make the necessary inquiries, apprehend whom they should think proper, and the standing force and militia were placed under their immediate direction. At the head was the Archbishop of St Andrews, the Lord Chancellor, and other servants of the crown, assisted by the Earls of Argyle, Linlithgow, Kinghorn, Wigton, and Dundonald. The Duke of Hamilton was named; but in present circumstances possessed little power, and seldom attended. Orders were at the same timeissued for apprehending the following ministers:—John Welsh, Gabriel Semple, Robert Ross, Samuel Arnot, Gabriel Cunningham, Archibald Riddel, John Mosman, John Blackadder, William Wiseheart, David Hume, John Dickson, John Rae, Henry Forsyth, Thomas Hogg, Robert Law, George Johnstone, Thomas Forrester, Fraser of Brea, John Law, Robert Gillespie. And to encourage the parties sent out on this duty, for the two first, as the most notorious offenders, a reward of four hundred pounds sterling each was offered; for the others, one thousand merks; and the soldiers and others who might assist in their seizure, were previously pardoned for any bloodshed that might occur—such was the inveteracy the rulers of Scotland betrayed against men whose only crime was preaching the gospel. They then proceeded to show nearly equal abhorrence for those who heard it, by punishing with fines or imprisonment the most obstinate of the heritors. The town of Edinburgh was amerced in one hundred pounds sterling for conventicles in the Magdalene Chapel, to be exacted from the chief citizens present; Mr John Inglis of Cramond, for hearing sermon six times in his parish church, a thousand and thirty-six pounds Scots; a gentleman in Fife, for allowing Mr Welsh to lodge in his house one night, was fined two thousand merks; and eleven heritors, upwards of five thousand five hundred for attending field-preachings—all which monies were ordered to be summarily levied, and the offenders kept in prison till the same should be paid. Nor were persons, even of high rank, and against whom no charges of very intrusive piety are known to have existed, exempt from being harassed by any vile, petty, clerical informer. Lord Balmerino and Sir John Young of Leny, neither of whom had been present at any such preaching, were brought before the council; and when they denied the fact, were insultingly tendered the oath of allegiance, which both must have already repeatedly sworn, before they were dismissed.
Two rigorous proclamations followed. By the first, all masters were required to prevent their servants from being present at any house or field conventicle, and to retain none in their employment for whose conduct they would not be answerable; heritors were ordered to require their tenants to subscribe a bond, obligingthemselves, wives, cottars, or servants, to abstain from all such meetings, which, if they refused, they were to be put to the horn, and their escheat given to their landlords; but masters and landlords were responsible for the conduct of their inferiors to the extent of the fines their disobedience might incur; and all magistrates were empowered to oblige such as they chose to suspect, to give bond for their good behaviour. The second was directed against ministers, in terms of the orders already issued for their apprehension. Still further to stimulate the magistrates, another letter was procured from the king, informing them that his majesty had heard of the alarming increase of conventicles, for repressing which, together with the other seditious movements in Scotland, he had ordered his troops in Ireland and at Berwick to hold themselves in readiness, to march on the first alarm; and, in the mean time, required them to bring to punishment the authors of these insolent and seditious practices. But the difficulty of obtaining proof forming some small impediment in the way of conviction, the council therefore proposed that, when a suspected person was apprehended, against whom they had not sufficient evidence, he should be interrogated to answer upon oath, and if he refused to answer, he should be held as confessed, and proceeded against accordingly, only the punishment should be restricted to fining, imprisonment, exile, or the loss of a limb—most merciful judges!—to which his majesty was graciously pleased to consent, and the council proceeded to act.
They summoned a number of the “outted” ministers to appear, not in the usual mode by leaving written copies at their dwelling-places, but at the market-crosses of Edinburgh, Lanark, Stirling, and Perth, and that within such a time, that, had they been willing, they could not have complied. As the latter knew, however, that if they appeared, they were certain of being sent either to the Bass or into banishment, they declined, and were in consequence denounced as rebels.[77]When the council rose, on the lastday of July, they reported to the secretary, that forty “outted” ministers had been cited before them, none of whom having appeared, they were all ordered to be denounced; and that eighty persons, for hearing sermon in the fields of Fife, had also been delated, of whom all that answered had been found guilty and imprisoned, the remainder declared fugitives, and their escheats appointed to be taken for his majesty’s use.[78]The magistrates of Glasgow, also, had been fined one hundred pounds sterling; and the magistrates of burghs, south of the Tay, had been ordered to press upon the citizens the bond against keeping conventicles.
77.The names of these worthies who deserve, and who will, be had in everlasting remembrance, when those of their persecutors must rot, are thus given by one of themselves:—Alexander Lennox, David Williamsone, Alexander Moncrieff, John Rae, David Hume, Edward Jamieson, James Fraser, William Wisehcart, Thomas Hogg in Ross, Robert Lockhart, John Wilkie, George Johnstone, Patrick Gillespie, James Kirkton, John Weir, Nathaniel Martin, Andrew Morton, Andrew Donaldsone, John Crichton, William Row, Thomas Urquhart, Thomas Hogg in Larbert, William Arskine, James Donaldson, Robert Gillespie, John Gray, James Wedderburn, John Wardlaw, Thomas Douglas, George Campbell, Francis Irvine, John Wallace, Andrew Anderson, John Munniman, George Hamilton, Donald Cargill, Alexander Bertram, James Wilson, Robert Maxwell—in all 39. These were the stock of the preaching church that was driven into the wilderness—their ministry was a sort of outlawry—and, by the bishop’s activity, these, with the ministers formerly forfaulted, and those who afterwards joined that body of people, who first caused the separation from bishops and their curates, thereafter overthrew their party, and wrought the Reformation.
77.The names of these worthies who deserve, and who will, be had in everlasting remembrance, when those of their persecutors must rot, are thus given by one of themselves:—Alexander Lennox, David Williamsone, Alexander Moncrieff, John Rae, David Hume, Edward Jamieson, James Fraser, William Wisehcart, Thomas Hogg in Ross, Robert Lockhart, John Wilkie, George Johnstone, Patrick Gillespie, James Kirkton, John Weir, Nathaniel Martin, Andrew Morton, Andrew Donaldsone, John Crichton, William Row, Thomas Urquhart, Thomas Hogg in Larbert, William Arskine, James Donaldson, Robert Gillespie, John Gray, James Wedderburn, John Wardlaw, Thomas Douglas, George Campbell, Francis Irvine, John Wallace, Andrew Anderson, John Munniman, George Hamilton, Donald Cargill, Alexander Bertram, James Wilson, Robert Maxwell—in all 39. These were the stock of the preaching church that was driven into the wilderness—their ministry was a sort of outlawry—and, by the bishop’s activity, these, with the ministers formerly forfaulted, and those who afterwards joined that body of people, who first caused the separation from bishops and their curates, thereafter overthrew their party, and wrought the Reformation.
77.The names of these worthies who deserve, and who will, be had in everlasting remembrance, when those of their persecutors must rot, are thus given by one of themselves:—Alexander Lennox, David Williamsone, Alexander Moncrieff, John Rae, David Hume, Edward Jamieson, James Fraser, William Wisehcart, Thomas Hogg in Ross, Robert Lockhart, John Wilkie, George Johnstone, Patrick Gillespie, James Kirkton, John Weir, Nathaniel Martin, Andrew Morton, Andrew Donaldsone, John Crichton, William Row, Thomas Urquhart, Thomas Hogg in Larbert, William Arskine, James Donaldson, Robert Gillespie, John Gray, James Wedderburn, John Wardlaw, Thomas Douglas, George Campbell, Francis Irvine, John Wallace, Andrew Anderson, John Munniman, George Hamilton, Donald Cargill, Alexander Bertram, James Wilson, Robert Maxwell—in all 39. These were the stock of the preaching church that was driven into the wilderness—their ministry was a sort of outlawry—and, by the bishop’s activity, these, with the ministers formerly forfaulted, and those who afterwards joined that body of people, who first caused the separation from bishops and their curates, thereafter overthrew their party, and wrought the Reformation.
78.“One day a paper was fixt upon the Parliament House door, containing upwards of one hundred persons, whose escheats were to be sold to any who would purchase them.”Wodrow, vol. i. p. 384.
78.“One day a paper was fixt upon the Parliament House door, containing upwards of one hundred persons, whose escheats were to be sold to any who would purchase them.”Wodrow, vol. i. p. 384.
78.“One day a paper was fixt upon the Parliament House door, containing upwards of one hundred persons, whose escheats were to be sold to any who would purchase them.”Wodrow, vol. i. p. 384.
While the primate was urging the persecution of these excellent men, he was not without trouble from his own underlings. In the beginning of the year, some of the bishops, as well as curates, began to complain of the arbitrary measures of Sharpe, who managed all ecclesiastical affairs without consulting them upon any occasion, and had even the audacity to stamp upon him the opprobrious epithet of Pope. His friends repelled the accusations as the unfounded aspersions of the Hamilton or country party, who, having failed to overturn the Duke of Lauderdale by means of the Presbyterians, now wished to do it by means of the Episcopalians. The others declared they only wished what the act of Parliament allowed, to assemble in a National Synod, and regulate what they considered wrong in the church—the best method of securing its stability. But Sharpe, who, of all things, dreadedthe least interference with his power, wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, entreating him—in a most impious appropriation of Scripture language—to interfere and assist him against those who wished “to break his bands, and cast his cords from them;” and his application was so successful, that the most active of the suffragans were silenced, and Ramsay, bishop of Dunblane, was removed to the Isles—a kind of honourable banishment, which effectually put an end to all attempts for the future at interfering with the supremacy of his Grace of St Andrews. The only other bishop (Leighton) who had ever given him real vexation, but against whom his wiles had been useless, voluntarily withdrawing from the scene of contention, Burnet was restored to Glasgow, and henceforth was content to play second to Sharpe, only rivalling his oppression within the boundaries of his own archiepiscopal territories.