Assembly, and desiring this our protestation to be inserted in the synod books 1." We see schism and division always going hand in hand with presbytery. Balfour's account of this synod is, that "in November the ministers of the west that had made and still maintained a very great schism in the church, and disavowed the last General Assembly, holden at St. Andrews and Dundee, set out at this time a pamphlet, called 'A Discovery, after some Search, of the Sins of the Ministers ;' which is divided into nine sections. Thir westland

renters of the church held a meeting at Edinburgh about the latter end of the same month, by the name of the commission of the kirk; the prime actors in it were the two firebrands, Mr. James Guthrie and Mr. Patrick Gillespie, both of them deprived by the late General Assembly at Dundee 2."

1652.-THE POWER of the kirk was now reduced to insignificance; for although they had still the privilege left them of excommunication, yet the civil pains and penalties were removed from following their sentence. Cromwell would not permit any oaths or covenants to be imposed except with his own consent. He did not disturb the presbyterians in their opinions on church government, nor restrict them in the exercise of their public worship; but this discipline occasioned a great commotion among the ministers, who exclaimed against toleration, although they themselves were enjoying the benefit of it, as open ing a door, they said, to all kinds of error and heresy ; but all they could now do was to mourn over a broken covenant and a backsliding kirk. They had threatened Mr. Irvine, of Drum, with excommunication for abusing the kirk and refusing to swear that its holy discipline was of divine authority. This threat having been made before excommunication had been deprived of the sting which it had inherited from popish times, he fled to England to avoid the penal consequences, where he wrote to the commission that their oppression was greater than what had been complained of under the prelates, but that the commonwealth of England would not permit men's consciences to be any longer enslaved. "The presbytery would have proceeded to extremities with him, but Monk brandished his sword over their heads, and threatened to treat them as enemies to the state, upon which they desisted for the present 3."

On the 2d of January, a meeting of the remonstrators broke up at Edinburgh, with reference to the settlement of public affairs.

1 Baillie's Letters, iii. 173, App. 561.

VOL II,

2 Balfour's Annals, iv. 330. Neal's Puritans, ii. 591. 2 z

"It was composed of them who are called ministers and laymen [lay-elders], whereof Mr. James Guthrie was moderator; who, as he was chosen to moderate, so, in his old wonted presbyterian zeal, would proceed in nothing, till he first knew whether any were present who were accessory to the shedding of the blood of the saints. Quasi vero, he had been free of any such thing: though most instrumental in drawing on an engagement at Dunbar, he may remember his accession to his spilling of blood at Hamilton; but we know the Pharisees can bewail the death and sufferings of the prophets, though apt to persecute Christ and his disciples. It is remarkable this meeting was not called without cunning, for upholding the presbyterian interest. The matter is this: about six weeks ago and above, some godly and well-affected men in this land, taking a course (beside the priests not heeding them in the business) in order to the good of the nation, with no less purpose than to remonstrate and petition (whose proceedings as yet we hope shall take effect) against coercive restraint, and for incorporating the two nations into one commonwealth. But the presbyterian ministers, with their grandee, Warriston, finding this prejudicial to their craft, Demetrius like, called together such as were of their own stamp, cunningly breaking off the meetings of those who intended to bring to nought their craft, in making silver shrines for their presbyterian Diana, did withdraw themselves altogether from such meetings: the result of which is confusion; for nothing is now to be heard after this convocation but crying out-great is the presbytery! Now they have drawn up a letter, though with great debate, not knowing well to whom to send it, or how to call those to whom they should direct it, and are about to send it to the general; testifying against all our proceedings, and with a full pretence (I should say purpose) of suffering, do earnestly beg religion in Scotland may be preserved and established according to the covenant, which, in their account, is nothing but presbytery. Mark their ingenuity; they resolve to suffer, and yet would have power to persecute. Verily, I think they are justly sufferers, who go about to be persecutors. In the interim, I suppose they shall not receive a satisfactory answer in petitioning him (viz. Cromwell), against whom they testify; this bewrayeth their policy, though presbytery be usually attended therewith. Howsoever, as they convened cunningly, with a full purpose to maintain their craft, that their idol presbytery perish not, so they are dismissed confusedly, crying outgreat is the presbytery! We have only to add to it, that Warriston, in face of the meeting, contrary to experience, with

a full purpose to deceive the simple (ex ungue Leonem) denied any treaty to have been offered by the English before Dunbar to the Scots. But we know it is a Machiavelian policy, fortiter calumniarii 1.”

UPON THE ADVANCE and consequent success of Cromwell, the regalia, or, "the bonours of Scotland," as they were called, ran considerable risk of falling into the hands of the invader. They were therefore deposited in the strong baronial castle of Dunnottar, near Stonehaven, under the charge of Mr. George Oglevie, of Barras, as lieutenant-governor, with a company of soldiers and some artillery. General Lambert invested this castle, and summoned Oglevie to surrender it, who still held out; but it was evident that he must soon be starved into a surrender. In this emergency female ingenuity discovered a remedy where masculine valour and prudence might have totally failed. The dowager countess Marischall probably planned the enterprise; but it was executed by the wife of the Rev. James Grainger, minister of Kinneff, a small parish church within five miles of Dunnotter. She obtained permission from Lambert to visit the governor's lady, who acted in concert. On her return Mrs. Grainger took the crown in her lap, and Lambert himself helped her to mount her horse, which had been left in the camp, as the castle cannot be approached on horse-back. Her maid followed on foot, bearing the sword and sceptre concealed in lint, which, Mrs. Grainger assured the general, was to be spun into yarn. They reached the parsonage without discovery, and Mr. Grainger gave a receipt to lady Marischall, and described the places where he had deposited them. "For the crown and sceptre," says he, “I raised the pavement-stone just before the pulpit in the night-time, and digged under it a hole, and put them in there, and laid down the stone just as it was before, and removed the mould that remained, that none would have discovered the stone to have been raised at all. The sword again, at the west end of the church, amongst some common seats that stand there, I digged down in the ground betwixt the foremost of these seats, and laid it down within the case of it, and covered it up, as that removing the superfluous mould it could not be discovered by any body." The honours were thus deposited in the month of March, and in May the castle was surrendered, and they lay in the church of Kinneff till after the Restoration, when the worthy minister and his patriotic spouse delivered them up in safety to the proper officers of state. The governor and his

1 Mercurius Scoticus, cited in Balfour's Annals, iv. 346-349.

lady, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Grainger, were treated with great severity by the republicans when they found they had been outwitted, and they were all subjected to torture, without making any discovery. Lady Marischall gave out that her youngest son, sir John Keith, had conveyed them abroad; and he himself, in order to keep up the deception, wrote home to several parties, congratulating himself that he had conveyed the honours safely out of the kingdom, and consigned them to the king's own hands at Paris 1.

CROMWELL sent a set of commissioners of the independent sect into Scotland to visit the universities, and to settle what he called liberty of conscience against the extravagant and coercive claims of the kirk. The Assembly met this year, according to the appointment of the last, on the 26th of July, where the same contentions betwixt the remonstrator faction and the resolutioners still continued to disturb their dignity, and the former party presented a protest against the lawfulness and orthodoxy of this meeting. The English commissioners presented a declaration in favour of the congregational discipline, and for liberty of conscience; but the stubborn Assembly-men, as Neal calls them, instead of yielding to the declaration, published a paper called a " Testimony against the present encroachments of the civil power upon the ecclesiastical jurisdiction," in which they express as much indignation as they dared at the appointment of visitors for their universities, which they considered a special flower in the garland of the kirk's prerogatives. The disputes and wranglings of the protestors prevented all business from being transacted, and there is no printed account of their acts, except a small tract entitled "Three Acts of the General Assembly for observing the grounds of Salvation, and observing the Rules of Discipline," and which is now very scarce; but the titles of the three acts were " Overture for ordering of Lecturing and Catechising, to be observed while [until] the next General Assembly;-Act concerning admitting Expectants to their Trials, and rulingelders to act in presbyteries and synods;-Act for putting in execution former acts and constitutions of General Assemblies, anent trying, admitting, removing, and deposing of church officers, censuring scandalous persons, receiving penitents, and debarring of persons from the Lord's table. 2"

THE SYNOD OF FIFE protested against the public Resolutions

1 Wood's Peerage, art. Kintore; cited in Sir Walter Scott's Description of the Regalia of Scotland.

Session 17, August, 1650.-Session 19, August 3.-Session 20, August 3.

and the encroachments of the civil power; but they were kept in check by the secular arm, which they found was more vigorous and reached further than that of Charles the martyr, whom, nevertheless, they denominated a tyrant. The synod of Perth cited several persons before them for slighting their admonitions; but on the day of their appearance, the wives of the delinquents, to the number of about a hundred and twenty, besieged the church where the synod sat, with clubs in their hands. The synod sent out a deputation to appease the amazons, and to threaten them with excommunication if they continued contumacious; but they beat them, and dispersed the meeting, when the ministers adjourned to a village about four miles off, and having agreed that no more synods should be held in that place, they shook the dust off their feet, and pronounced it accursed1.

THE PRESBYTERIANS, who had been so rebellious and unreasonable to their natural sovereign, now began to feel by experience that their crimes against Charles were, by an act of retributive justice, to be punished by the sword of a stranger. Cant, and others of the rabid breed, began to prepare their followers for suffering for the covenant, as their new master would not allow them to fight for it. And he began the custom of requiring a promise from parents when they brought their children to his so-called baptism, to educate them in the belief and practice of that stern engine of evil, the covenant, a thing of men's invention, because it was esteemed more sacred and indissoluble than their baptism, which is an institution of God, and the water of which represents the blood of Christ; it was of more consequence to what he called the true faith than any of the ancient means of grace, which had been instituted by the Lord of glory himself. The resolutioner ministers had now learnt some degree of moderation from the effects of their own folly, and the increasing audacity and overbearing conduct of the remonstrators; of whom Baillie complains, that" our usurping brethren, through their unnatural divisions, have added much to our calamities: the lamentable evils of that breach increase daily.” Retributive justice now made Baillie feel the usurpation that the whole presbyterian party practised on the bishops and the episcopal clergy, yet he makes no sign of repentance: but rebellion is seldom or ever repented of; there is a sort of witch craft in it, which blinds the transgressors with the delusion that they are true patriots, and the only people of God. "To expect an union," he continues, " on the smallest submission of these

Whitelock's Memoirs, cited by Neal, ii. 591.