The Assembly went on rapidly with its business. All the acts of the Assemblies since 1605, including the five articles of Perth, were annulled. Acts were passed condemning the Book of Canons, the Liturgy, the Book of Ordination, the High Commission, and Episcopacy. The bishops themselves were tried and condemned, though none of them were present in the Assembly. The probation of the libels against them was referred to a committee. As the result, they were all deposed, and eight of them excommunicated. The nation did not want bishops, and that was deemed an all-sufficient reason for casting them down. They had always allied themselves with the despotic tendencies and the arbitrary proceedings of the Crown; they were in reality the tools of the King: they belonged to him, and not to the people; they were intended to be, and had been, to the limits of their power, the pliant ministers of the royal will, not the servants of the nation, and hence the suddenness and the completeness of their fall.

As the Assembly had abolished Episcopacy, it naturally followed that the presbyterian polity should be restored, with its appropriate organisation. Acts were passed concerning the visitation of colleges and schools, and for planting schools in the country; acts, forbidding ministers to accept civil offices, for repressing popery and superstition, and for better observance of Sunday; acts, for dealing with those who spoke or wrote against the Covenant, prohibiting the printing of books touching Church affairs without the warrant of Archibald Johnston, Clerk to the Assembly, and legal adviser of the Church, and many other acts. Finally, on the 20th of December, the Assembly agreed to address a letter to the King justifying their proceedings, and requesting his approval; and then closed its work by appointing the next General Assembly to meet at Edinburgh, in July, 1639.28

28 Peterkin's Records of the Church of Scotland; Large Declaration, pp. 234-324; Baillie's Letters and Journals, Vol. I., pp. 123-176; Balfour's Annals, Vol. II., pp. 301-316.

Presbyterians have long looked back to the General Assembly of 1638, as the date of their second Reformation, though it is not to be compared to the revolution of 1560. Though its proceedings were violent, all revolutionary movements must be so, as they are the result of the preceding and existing states of society-the outcome of its dominant thought and sentiment and feeling. As explained in the last volume, the degree of violence connected with a revolutionary change originated among the people, just depends upon the state of their civilisation at the time of its occurrence.29 In this instance, the amount of violence which flowed from the hostile movement in Scotland against the King and his government is not by any means all attributable to the Scots; England, Ireland, and even more distant lands participated in the struggle.

The firm establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland was the end of the Covenanters, and this was interesting to the adherents of a similar polity in England. Indeed, in the circumstances of Europe at that time, the cause of the Scots appeared to be the cause of Protestantism, which lately had been everywhere placed at a disadvantage by the defeat of Nordlingen. The arms of the Catholics in 1637 had asserted their supremacy on the Rhine and in the Netherlands: and the marked advance which Catholicism was once more making roused the Protestant spirit to the utmost vigilance.

We are now arrived at the time when an intimacy sprang up, and mutual relations were formed between the Covenanters and a vigorous party opposed to the policy of the King in England, both being prompted by a common dislike to Episcopacy. The ruling motive in the policy of Charles I. was to maintain and to complete the Tudor principles of government in Church and State in England, and to extend them to Scotland. But the Scots met him in an attitude of opposition unexampled in any other monarchy. He had hoped, and vainly tried to crush them by the strength of his influence in England. The

29 Mackintosh's Hist. Civilis. Scot., Vol. II., pp. 122-123.

results of his action were that the movement spread into England itself.

The origin and the causes of the Covenanting struggle having been indicated at some length, it would be superfluous to burden this work with the details of the civil war which ensued, save so far as is requisite for the appreciation of the sequence of leading events.

After the conclusions of the Glasgow Assembly, civil war became certain, and both parties were actively preparing for it. The Covenanters had begun to buy arms and to enlist men. At this time, fortunately for them, the fury of war in Europe was abated; and many Scotchmen who had been engaged in it were then returning home, where the signs of the coming contest were already unmistakable. One of the most distinguished of these military adventurers was General Alexander Leslie, who became leader of the Covenanting armies. He was a man of comparatively humble birth, but in the German wars he had gained much experience and attained to rank. He speedily organised a Scottish army, and equipped it for the field. The Covenanters seized the Castles of Edinburgh and Dumbarton and other important posts, and made every preparation for the approaching conflict.30

The King had ordered his army to muster and meet him at York, in April, 1639; and though the English clergy naturally contributed largely to the support of the army, the war was unpopular. Charles proposed to lead his army in person, and sent a fleet into the Firth of Forth, under the command of the Marquis of Hamilton, to interrupt trade, to threaten Leith, and to favour the rising in the north of the Marquis of Huntly, who had received a royal commission of lieutenancy. But ere the King arrived at York, the whole of Scotland was in the hands of the Covenanters. In the end of May, the Covenanting army was encamped at Dunse Law, and Charles had

30 Spalding's Memorials of the Troubles, Vol. I., p. 130; Baillic's Letters and Journals, Vol. I., pp. 111, 195-198.

advanced to Berwick, and posted his force on the opposite side of the Tweed. The two armies thus lay for some days watching each other, both seeming unwilling to strike. The Covenanters knew their advantages, but if they could have induced the King to grant their requests without battle, they would have been glad. In the words of one of themselves:-"We sought no crowns; we aimed not at lands and honours; we desired but to keep our own in service of our prince, as our ancestors had done; we loved no new masters. Had our throne been vacant, and our votes sought for the filling of Fergus's chair, we would have died ere any other had sitten down on that fatal marble but Charles alone." " Accordingly, negotiations were opened, which led to the following arrangement: the King published

31 Baillie's Letters and Journals, Vol. I., p. 215. He gives an interesting account of the Scottish Covenanting army as it lay encamped. "It would have done you good to have cast your eyes athort our brave and rich Hill, as I oft did, with great pleasure and joy; for I was there among the rest, being chosen preacher by the gentlemen of our shire, who came late with my Lord Eglinton. I furnished to half-a-dozen good fellows muskets and pikes, and to my boy a broadsword. I carried myself, according to custom, a sword, and a couple of Dutch pistols at my saddle; but I promise, for the offence of no man, except a robber by the way; for it was our part to pray and preach for the encouragement of our countrymen, which I did to the utmost of my power cheerfully. Our hill was garnished on the top, towards the south and east, with our mounted cannon, nearly to the number of forty, great and small. Our regiments lay on the sides of the hill, almost round about: the place was not a mile in circle, a pretty round rising in a declivity, without steepness, to the height of a bowshot; and on the top somewhat plain; about a quarter of a mile in length, and as much in breadth, and capable of containing tents for forty thousand men. . . Our captains, for the most part, were barons or gentlemen of good note; our lieutenants almost all soldiers who had served abroad in good charges; every company had, flying at the captain's tent-door, a brave new colour, stamped with the Scottish arms, and this "For Christ's Crown and Covenant," in golden letters. . . The councils of war were held daily, in the castle at the foot of the hill; the ecclesiastical meetings in Rothes' tent. The general came nightly for the setting of the watch on their horses. Our soldiers were lusty and full of courage; the most of them stout young ploughmen; and a great cheerfulness in the face of all the only difficulty was to get money to pay them. None of our gentlemen was any the worse of lying some weeks together in their cloak and boots on the ground, or standing all night in arms in the greatest storm.

"Our soldiers grew in experience of arms, in courage, and in favour daily; every one encouraged another; the sight of the nobles and their beloved pastors

a declaration, stating that the religious matters in dispute were to be referred to a General Assembly to be held in Edinburgh, on the 6th of August, 1639, and that a Parliament was to meet on the 20th of the same month. The King promised to recall his fleet and disband his army; the Covenanters were to disband their forces within forty-eight hours, to restore the castles to the Crown, and to hold no public meetings except those authorised by the law. This treaty was accompanied with explanations which afterwards caused much dispute. Peace was proclaimed in the English and in the Scottish camps, on the 18th of June, but mutual confidence between the King and the Scots was not fully restored.32

The General Assembly met at Edinburgh, on the 12th of August, 1639, and the Earl of Traquair attended as Royal Commissioner. The Assembly again condemned Episcopacy in clear and emphatic terms, and the King's Commissioner

daily raised their hearts; the good sermons and prayers, morning and evening, under the roof of heaven, to which their drums did call them for bells; the remonstrance very frequent of the goodness of their cause, of their conduct hitherto, by a hand clearly divine; and also Leslie, his skill and fortune, made them all so resolute for battle as could be wished. We were afraid that emulation among the nobles might have done harm, when they should be met in the fields; but such was the wisdom and authority of that old, little, crooked soldier, that all, with an incredible submission, from the beginning to the end, gave over themselves to be guided by him, as if he had been Great Solomon. Certainly the obedience of the nobles to that man's orders was as great as their forefathers' wont to be to their king's commands: yet this was the man's understanding of our Scots humours, that gave out, not only to the nobles, but to the meanest gentleman, his directions in a very homely and simple form, as if they had been but the advices of their neighbour and companion; for, as he rightly observed, a difference should be used in commanding soldiers of fortune and of volunteers; and of the latter the greater part of our camp consisted.

"Had you lent your ear in the morning, or especially at even, and heard in the tents the sound of some singing psalms, some praying, and some reading scripture, you would have been refreshed. True, there was swearing, and cursing, and brawling in some quarters, whereat we were grieved; but we hoped, if our camp had been a little settled, to have taken some way of dealing with these disorders."-Letters, Vol. I., pp. 211-214. Baillie himself made his will before he joined the army. Ibid., P. 245.

32 Balfour's Annals, Vol. II., pp. 324-332; Baillie's Letters and Journals, Vol. I., pp. 218-221.