writer of studied moderation is constrained to say that it is vain to allege political matters as the sole cause of the persecution, "and that religious liberty was not interfered with. The boot and the thumbscrew were used for the purpose of enforcing submission to bishops, as certainly as ever the rack and the stake were used for the purpose of enforcing submission to the pope.' In fact the use of torture alone, which was employed so ruthlessly by the agents of Anglicanism in Scotland-and that in the last quarter of the seventeenth century-adds to the infamy of the attempt to destroy the Scottish Church." The ordinary method of the Episcopal persecution was not death. A devout and learned Presbyterian pastor received notice to give up his parish. He and his family became exiles and wanderers, though it was a criminal offense for anyone to receive them or give them aid. An Episcopal minister, ignorant and perhaps vicious-that is Burnet's contemporary description-succeeded him. The people would not attend his ministrations. The authorities sent down dragoons to compel them. These were quartered upon them, inflicted heavy fines, and thus ruined some. Others were banished or sold as slaves. MARTYRS Some were shot without trial. A pious carrier, John Brown, of Priesthill, Muirkirk, for refusing to attend the services of some worthless curate's ministry, was arrested by Claverhouse while working in the field, taken to his own house, and ordered to pray, for he must die. After praying, Brown kissed his wife and children good-bye, and Claverhouse ordered his soldiers to fire. They refused. Then he shot him through the head with his own hand, and said to the widow, "What thinkest thou of thy husband now, woman?" "I ever thought much good of him, and so much now as ever," she answered. "It were but justice to lay thee beside him," said the persecutor. "If you were permitted," replied she, "I doubt not but your cruelty would go that length; but how will you answer for this morning's work?" "To man I later effort to do justice to the Covenanters was due to a change of view, to a conviction that he had not done them justice in his earlier writings. 1 Pearson McAdam Muir, The Church of Scotland, p. 48. 2 Torture was not legally abolished in Scotland until 1709.-Lea, Superstition and Force, 4th ed., rev., p. 574. Lea says that no trace of torture in England can be found later than 1640, though the equally barbarous custom of peine forte et dure-torture to make a prisoner plead-was not abolished until 1772. Ibid., pp. 569, 574, note. In fact the persistence of torture in the legal procedures of Christian states is one of the discouraging revelations of history. can be answerable," said Graham of Claverhouse, of whom Aytoun sings in eulogistic lays, "and as for God I will take him in my own hand." Then the brutal Claverhouse wheeled away with his troops, leaving the desolate widow to gather up the brains of her husband and compose his body to its eternal sleep. 1 HISLOP, AR- Another victim was Andrew Hislop, of County Dumfries, whom the soldiers requested to cover his eyes with his bonnet before they fired. "Raising it higher on his dauntless brow, and stretching out his hand, in which he held his Bible, he replied that he could. look his death-bringers in the face without fear, charging them to answer for what they had done and were about to do in the Great Day, when they should be judged by that Book-and so fell a dreadless martyr for the truth." Sometimes the persecutors in their search for some hapless Presbyterian would gather the children together, draw them up in a line, place soldiers before them, and tell them to pray, for they were now to be shot. Then, while they were in mortal fear, they were promised that on revealing the hiding places of their relatives and friends their lives would be spared. A promising young minister, Thomas Archer, was swung from the gallows. Another young preacher-the eloquent and devout Hugh McKail -had been associated with some efforts at self-defense, but only for a short time. He told frankly his whole relation to the movement, but this was not enough. The persecutors wanted to know more, and applied the torture of the boot. Harder and harder did they screw that horrible instrument, crushing his flesh and bones, but he repeatedly declared that he had nothing more to say. Finally a swoon relieved him. When he was brought to execution his face shone with the joy of Christian triumph. He closed his speech on the scaffold with these words: "And now I leave off to speak any more to creatures, and turn my speech to thee, O Lord. I begin my intercourse with God, which shall never be broken off. Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations; farewell, the world and all delights; farewell, meat and drink; farewell, sun, moon, and stars. Welcome, God and Father; welcome, sweet Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant; welcome, blessed Spirit of grace, and God of all consolation; welcome, glory; welcome, eternal life; welcome, death. O Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit; for thou hast redeemed my soul, Lord God of truth." The imprisonment of two hundred men and women in one vault in Dunnottar Castle for almost one whole summer (1685), all 'Hetherington, Hist. of Church of Scotland, pp. 280, 281. crowded together in a mass, some happily relieved by death from that long agony, and others later sold as slaves, equals in inhumanity the famous incident of the Black Hole of Calcutta.' ARMED RE- In regard to the armed resistance which the Anglican persecutors aroused, it may be said that this resistance was never formidable, but rather pathetically feeble, and that on any just principles of government it was both righteous and necessary. For far less provocation England was convulsed with civil war, Charles I was beheaded, and James II was dethroned. The Revolution of 1688 is the complete vindication of Argyll and Richard Cameron. These defensive movements, however, were never national, but rather sporadic and short-lived. The murder of Archbishop Sharp is also alleged as palliation for the "Killing Times." This was cruel and impolitic. Sharp had been professor at St. Andrew's, and was intrusted by the Presbyterians with responsible missions. But he turned traitor, and in 1661 was consecrated archbishop of St. Andrew's. With the zeal of a convert he entered into the work of persecution, sending nine persons to death, it is said, after the king had desired the bloody work to cease. A company of desperate men intercepted his carriage on Magus Muir, near St. Andrew's, May 3, 1679, and dispatched him before the eyes of his daughter. This single murder by a company of enthusiasts crazed by oppression can hardly excuse the horrible barbarities executed in cold blood on Hackston, the chief of the murderers." MURDER OF UNDER WIL- William of Orange, king 1689-1702, believed in the divine right of neither presbytery nor episcopacy, and was indifferent as to which was established by law, providing that both were fully loyal to him and to the constitutional government for which his name stood. As the Episcopalians were the disaffected in Scotland-many of them being the partisans of the deposed James, and as presbytery was the national polity, the Presbyterian Church was established in Scotland, but with large provision for toleration. As early as 1712, with the memories of the Anglican Reign of Terror still fresh, an act of toleration was passed giving freedom to the Episcopal Church in Scotland. For the large and broad lines on which the Scottish Church was reconstituted credit is due not only to a liberal sovereign, but to Principal Carstares of the University of Edinburgh, one of the most illustrious names of modern times. 1 On Dunnottar see Wodrow, v, 322-328, 333; Hetherington, 282, 283. ? See N. L. Walker, Scottish Church History, p. 82. CHAPTER XII. IRELAND FROM ELIZABETH TO ANNE. WHATEVER the shortcomings of the Irish Reformation there were no burnings. During the reign of Elizabeth the Roman Catholics were not molested, nor were any severe acts passed by the Irish parliament. The presence of a large number of Roman Catholic peers there, and the fact that most of the inhabitants of the country were still of the old faith, made persecuting measures impossible. But this did not prevent suffering under the guise of treason. Patrick O'Hale, bishop of Mayo, and priest O'Rourke were hanged for supposed complicity in rebellious designs, but without proof. Archbishop Creagh of Armagh was kept in prison in the Tower of London until he died. His loyalty was suspected, though even Killen mentions no proof. Archbishop Dermot O'Hurley of Cashel was supposed to be in touch with some rebel chiefs, but as no substantial evidence could be obtained he was subjected to frightful tortures. Even this method of eliciting UNDER POLIT evidence did not avail; but under the impression that he knew more than he confessed he was hung in Dublin in June, 1584. The activity of the Anglican archbishop of Dublin, Loftus, in these inquisitorial horrors, is an admirable commentary on the apostle's directions to ministers in regard to opponents (2 Tim. ii, 24, 25). PERSECUTION ICAL GUISE. MORAL AND Under the barbaric treatment of England, with the attendant disturbances, destruction of crops and cattle, wars and massacres, Ireland was being reduced to desolation. The poet Spenser thus describes the wretchedness of the people of Munster: "Out of every corner of the woods and glens they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them; they looked like anatomies of death, they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves; and if they found a plot of watercresses or shamrocks there they flocked as to a feast for a time; that in short space of time there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man and beast."1 The old Irish annalists confirm the testimony of Spenser as to the 1 View of State of Ireland, probably written 1590 ff., though not printed until 1633, ed. 1809, p. 166. desolation of the country. "At this period it was commonly said that the lowing of a cow or the voice of the plowman could scarcely be heard from Dunqueen [the most western part of Kerry] to Cashel in Munster." "There hath died by famine only," said a government official, "not so few as thirty thousand in this province [Munster] in less than half a year, besides others that are hanged and killed." The country was in a state of moral and spiritual degradation as well as of physical suffering and destitution. Superstition was everywhere and crime was rampant. It is evident that the English occupation brought no cessation to Erin's woes. FOUNDING OF It is pleasant to turn from this to the founding of Trinity College, Dublin. The English authorities-to their credit be it said. —were anxious for a Protestant university, and in 1591 their plan was carried out. The site of an old monastery was chosen, by the aid of personal subscriptions buildings were erected, and on January 9, 1594, students were admitted. "Josephus reports," says Thomas Fuller, "that during the time of the building of the temple it rained not in the daytime, but in the night, that the showers might not hinder the work. I say what by him is reported, hath been avouched to me by witnesses without exception, that the same happened here, for from the founding to the finishing of this college-the officious heavens always smiling by day, though often weeping by night, till the work was completed." The Roman Catholics were not idle in the matter of education for their priests. Irish colleges were established in Spain in 1582 and 1590, and in Douay in Flanders in 1595, by the French government in Paris, and perhaps in other places in France and the Netherlands. EPISCOPAL The Episcopal clergy in Ireland were in a sorry condition. Many had conformed to the new religion in a purely mechanical fashion, and brought over with them their greed and impiety. "Whatever disorders," says an eyewitness, "you see in the Church of England you may find there [Ireland], and many more, namely, gross simony, greedy covetousness, fleshly incontinence, careless sloth, and generally all disordered life of the common clergymen. And besides all these they have their particu CLERGY. 'O'Donovan, ed. of Annals of the Four Masters, sub A. D. 1582, v. 1785. 2 Sir Warham St. Leger to Sir John Perrot, April 22, 1582; Froude, Hist. of England, xi, 249. 3 Church Hist. of Britain, iii, 123 (book ix, cent. xvi, §§ 43-47). The queen's object was a safeguard against popery. |