37. The Ejection.—The promised Act of Indemnity was not passed till 1662, and it was not a free pardon, as had been looked for. Between seven and eight hundred persons were heavily fined. In this same year an Act was passed requiring all persons holding any public office to sign a Declaration that the Covenant was an unlawful oath; and lastly a law was passed that all ministers presented to livings since 1639 should be turned out, unless they would agree to be collated or instituted by the new bishops. The ministers who refused to consent to episcopal collation were required to remove with their families out of their parishes within a month from the date of the passing of this Act. The meeting of the Council in which it was passed was called the Drunken Parliament, from the condition of the members present. Sooner than submit to this, three hundred and fifty ministers resigned. Most of their parishioners followed them, and the churches were left empty, while the people flocked to the open-air services of their former pastors. To prevent this an Act was passed for levying fines on all persons who did not go to their parish church on the Lord's Day. Another Act, called the Mile Act, was also passed, which forbade the recusant or refusing ministers to come within twenty miles of their former parishes, or within three miles of any royal burgh. The Court of High Commission was revived, and empowered to proceed against all dissenters from the Episcopal (now the Established) Church, whether they were Romanists or Presbyterians. But this tyranny drove the people to revolt, and a third Religious War began. In the first the people had taken up arms for a question of doctrine; the second arose from disputes about a form of prayer; this, the third, was caused by enforcing a form of Church-government specially disliked by the nation. In the conduct of public prayer no change was made. As there had been in James's reign a Presbyterian Church with a Liturgy, so now there was an Episcopal Church without one. But, though the cause of dispute seemed this time of less importance than in the two former wars, the zeal on the one side and the persecution on the other were greater than they had been in the former struggles. Then Edinburgh and the Eastern Lowlands had borne the brunt of the battle; now it was in the West, where it was latest kindled, that religious zeal flamed fiercest and lasted longest.
38. Western Rising.—In spite of fines and penalties the churches still remained empty, while the people went long distances to gather round their "outed" ministers. On the hill-sides, wherever in short they were least likely to be dispersed by the dragoons, they met to hear the sermons of their favourite preachers. But so great was the danger incurred by thus worshipping God according to their consciences that sentries were stationed on the hill-tops round to give warning of the approach of danger, and the men stacked their muskets so that they could seize and use them on a moment's notice. Such meetings were called Conventicles, and to hunt them down bands of soldiers scoured the country in all directions. In the south-west the troops were under the command of Sir James Turner, and it was his severity that drove the people to actual revolt. The immediate cause of the outbreak was the rescue of an old man from the clutches of a group of soldiers who were ill-using him. In the scuffle one of the soldiers was wounded. This affair happened at Dalry, in Ayrshire. A large body of peasants soon gathered to protect their conventicles. They seized Turner at Dumfries, and, when their numbers had increased to nearly three thousand, they set out for Edinburgh, expecting the people of the Eastern Counties to show their former spirit by rising to join them. General Thomas Dalziel, who had made himself a reputation by fighting for the Czar of Russia against Turks and Tartars, was sent to bar their way. But they avoided and passed him. He had to come back after them as far as the Pentland Hills, where they were so well posted that the troops could only break and disperse them by repeated attacks. But the feeling of this district had changed so much that the peasantry now turned against these wild Whigs of the Westland, and treated them nearly as badly as the troopers had done.
39. The Persecution.—This rising did no real good, for after the defeat at Pentland in 1666 the tyranny became even more cruel than before. The trials which followed were infamous, from the shameful and constant use of torture. The instruments used for this purpose were the thumbkin, a screw applied to the thumb-joint, and the boot, a cylinder in which the leg of the victim was crushed by hammering in wedges. Both inflicted the most fearful pain without destroying life. Twenty men were hanged in different places. The fines and forfeitures inflicted were given as rewards to soldiers and lawyers who might get them out of the offenders as they best could. At this time certain bonds called law-burrows were originated. These were bonds by which all the principal men in a district pledged themselves to prevent those beneath them in rank from breaking the peace.
40. The Indulgence.—But these measures only increased the disorders they were intended to quiet, and the Government tried a new system of greater toleration. An Indulgence was issued, by which those of the outed ministers who could prove that they had lived peaceably and had not held conventicles since they had been turned out of their livings, were allowed to go back to their parishes, provided no one else had been put in their place. Some few took advantage of it; but the greater number would not, and looked on their indulged brethren as nearly as bad as the prelatists. But this semblance of yielding was more than balanced by new exactions. Intercommuning—that is, having anything to do with any persons who had in any way broken any of the many laws against conventicles—was denounced as a criminal offence. Lauderdale, who succeeded Middleton as Commissioner in 1669, brought an army of Celts down on the Lowlands, which they pillaged at pleasure, carrying back rich spoils to their native mountains.
41. Murder of Sharp.—Sharp, the Primate, who was looked on as the originator of all the persecutions, was bitterly hated. He was shot at in Edinburgh while getting into his carriage, but was not hurt. Some time after he recognized the man who had thus tried to take his life. Mitchell the assassin was tried, and being bribed by a promise of pardon, freely confessed that he had fired the shot. Instead of receiving the promised pardon, Mitchell was sent to prison, tortured, and finally put to death in 1678. But the very next year Mitchell's attempt was repeated with better success. As Sharp was driving with his daughter across Magus Moor, near St. Andrews, he fell into the hands of a party of men who were lying in wait there for one Carmichael, the Sheriff-substitute, a wretch who had made himself specially hated. When they heard that the Archbishop's coach was coming that way, they looked on it as a special act of Providence by which the Lord delivered him into their hands. They fired into the coach, but did not hit him. He sheltered himself behind his daughter, but they dragged him out, and hacked him to death on the heath in a very barbarous way, May 3, 1679. It had long been believed that Sharp was in league with the Devil. To find proof of this they had no sooner slain him than they began to search everything he had with him. At last they opened his snuff-box, when a bee flew out. This they agreed must have been his familiar spirit. Every effort was made to track the murderers, among whom were Hackston of Rathillet and Balfour of Burley, but they escaped to the West.
42. Sanquhar Declaration.—The straitest sect of the Covenanters now put forth a protest called the Sanquhar Declaration. Their leaders were Donald Cargill and Richard Cameron, after whom they were called Cameronians. Their openly avowed intention was to free the country from the tyranny under which it was groaning. They held that Charles had by his perjury forfeited the crown. They excommunicated both him and his brother James, Duke of York, who was the Commissioner, and surpassed both Middleton and Lauderdale in cruelty. To kill either the King or his brother, or both of them, the Sanquhar men declared would be perfectly justifiable. They joined themselves together by one of the old bonds for mutual defence and support. Hackston of Rathillet, who had been present at the death of Sharp, was a chief man among them. With him as their leader they sought a refuge from the troopers who were out after them in Airds Moss, in Ayrshire. There they were attacked, and, though they fought bravely, were overcome by the soldiers.
43. Drumclog.—The hill-country between Lanark and Ayr was the favourite haunt of the Covenanters. Here they held great conventicles, to which the men came armed. One of the largest of these meetings was gathered at Drumclog, near Loudon Hill, when they were attacked by a body of dragoons under John Graham, of Claverhouse. But Claverhouse was unaccustomed to this irregular way of fighting, and he was defeated. The Covenanters, wild with joy, thought that they saw the special hand of Providence in this success. They gathered in great numbers, and marched on Glasgow. But they did no harm to either the city or the citizens; they only took down from the gates the heads and limbs of their friends who had suffered for their faith, and buried them.
44. Bothwell Bridge.—To put down this revolt, Charles sent his illegitimate son, James, Duke of Buccleuch and Monmouth, with an army of fifteen thousand men. The zeal of the Covenanters was great, but their resources were few, and their leaders unskilful. It was therefore an easy matter for a well-trained army to defeat them, and at the Bridge over the Clyde at Bothwell they were beaten with great slaughter. Twelve hundred fell into the hands of the victors. Seven of these were put to death, some were released on giving sureties for their future good conduct, and the rest were shipped off to the plantations. Cameron fell in this fray. Hackston and Cargill were taken, and brought to trial at Edinburgh, found guilty, and put to death afterwards.
45. Test Act.—While the Duke of York was Commissioner, an Act was passed to the effect that all persons taking office, whether under Government or from the Corporation of Burghs, should take the Test, an oath for the maintenance of the Protestant Faith as it had been established in the first Parliament of James the Sixth. At the same time the King was declared supreme in Church and State, and the hereditary succession was declared to be unchangeable. Now, as it was well known that James, the King's brother and the heir to the throne, was a Romanist, it was clear that the Test gave no security to the Protestant Faith, if James, when King, could make what changes he pleased in the Church.
46. Argyle's Opposition.—Archibald, Earl of Argyle, who had been restored to his father's earldom, was the most powerful chief in the kingdom. His father had lost his life for his attachment to the Covenant, but he himself had hitherto upheld the Government, and had even offered to bring his Highlanders to its support. Now, however, he showed signs of opposition, for he would only take the Test with the protest that he did so only in so far as it was consistent with itself and with the safety of the Protestant Faith. For this reservation he was accused of leasing-making, that is, of making mischief between the King and his people. This offence had, by a most unjust law passed in the reign of James the Sixth, been made treason. By this law Argyle was condemned to death. He escaped and fled to Holland, where he became the centre of a party of his fellow-countrymen who had also left their country because of their political opinions. After this unjust attack on Argyle no one could be sure of his liberty, and a scheme was got up for emigration to Carolina. One Robert Ferguson was connected with this scheme. As this man was concerned in an English plot against the life of the King, called the Rye House Plot, all who had any dealings with him were suspected of being art and part in that too, and were called to account before the Council. Baillie of Jerviswood, a man much beloved and respected, was tried on an accusation of conspiracy, was found guilty, and put to death. His death greatly increased the popular discontent.