COVENANTERS. Covenants or bands of a secular char acter, binding the subscribers to common action, were a feature of Scottish history previous to the Reformation. The first religious covenant dates from Dec. 15S7, when the leading adherents of the Reformation bound themselves to maintain the evangelical movement in Scotland. A quarter of a century later (1581) an other, drawn up by John Craig and largely signed, was the outcome of a widespread fear of a Romanist reaction. Its renewal in 1638, under the name of the National Covenant, was occasioned by the determination of Charles I. in the previous year to impose a new liturgy on the Church of Scotland without asking the consent of the Scottish parliament or the General Assembly. His action aroused a storm of opposition and Johnston of Warriston sug gested the revival of the Covenant of 1581 with additions to meet the special situation. As thus expanded it condemned all recent and previous ecclesiastical innovations as subversive of the Ref ormation and the laws and liberties of the kingdom, and bound its subscribers to forbear the practice of, and resist them until they had been considered in a free parliament and assembly.
The consequence was the abolition of episcopacy by the Gen eral Assembly, which met at Glasgow in November in spite of the prohibition and withdrawal of the royal commissioner, the mar quess of Hamilton. In the face of this drastic defiance of the royal authority, Charles determined to repress the movement by force, but his attempt to overawe the army of the Covenanters miscar ried and he was fain to negotiate and agree to withdraw the service book and ratify whatever a new General Assembly should decree (June 18, 1639) . The Assembly renewed the abolition of episco pacy and the Parliament, under the leadership of the earl of Argyll, not only abetted its action, but passed measures materially limit ing the royal authority. An invasion of England in the summer of 1640 to enforce acceptance compelled Charles to summon the Long Parliament, and thus the Covenanters, by their resolute action against his arbitrary rule in Scotland, contributed to initiate the great struggle against this rule in England. In this struggle they ultimately intervened on the side of the parliament on the basis of the Solemn League and Covenant, which stipulated that the constitution of the Anglican Church should be reformed according to the Word of God and the example of the best Re formed Churches (Sept. 1643).
On this condition the covenanting army took an active part in the great civil war which resulted in the surrender of Charles to it in May 1646. On his refusal to accept the Solemn League and Covenant the Scots handed him over to the commissioners of the English parliament. Ultimately he went the length of agreeing in the "Engagement" to the provisional establishment of Presby terianism in England as the price of securing their intervention in his favour, but the concession was nullified by Cromwell's defeat of the Scottish army at Preston in 1648. After his execution in 1649 the Covenanters transferred their allegiance to Charles II. on condition of his subscribing the Solemn League and Covenant. But Cromwell's conquest of Scotland put an end to his kingship for the time being and greatly weakened the covenanting regime.
The Restoration of 1660 was followed by the abrogation of all the acts in favour of Presbyterianism, the restoration of episco pacy, and the execution of its most obnoxious opponents. There after came 25 years of brutal repression, during which the more extreme Covenanters several times rose in rebellion and ultimately in a couple of declarations renounced allegiance to a tyrannic king. So embittered and fanatic did a section of them become that they refused to recognize the ecclesiastical settlement of the revo lution of 1689, which re-established the Presbyterian Church government but did not renew the Covenants. Though narrow and doctrinaire in the maintenance of their religious convictions, they deserve the credit of defending civil liberty throughout those years of arbitrary and despotic government.