Two Acts were quickly
passed: one reversing many of the acts of its predecessors and
confirming the considerations: the other, known in history as the Act of
Classes, defining the various misdemeanours which were to exclude men
from sitting in Parliament or holding any public office, for a period
measured by their offences, and practically to be determined by the
judicatories of the Kirk.
This Mauchline Convention was popularly known at the time as the
Whiggamores' Raid, a name memorable as the first introduction into
history of a word soon to become only too familiar, and still a part of
our political vocabulary.[8] Its immediate result was to throw the
direction of affairs still more exclusively into the hands of the
clergy: indirectly, but no less surely, it was the cause of the Pentland
Rising and the savage persecution which followed, of the murder of
Archbishop Sharp, of the battles of Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge, and of
those terrible years still spoken of in Scotland as the "killing-time."
It was, in short, like the wrath of Achilles, the spring of unnumbered
woes.
Then followed the execution of Charles. Against this the whole body of
Presbyterians joined in protesting. The hereditary right of kings was,
indeed, as much a principle of the Covenant as their divine right was
opposed to it; and the execution at Whitehall on January 30th, 1649, was
regarded with as much horror by the Presbyterians of England as by the
Presbyterians of Scotland.
Pages:
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40