Crimes and
sufferings of the Scottish Clergy from 1560 – 1690 Cited as an appendix in
Hewisons The Covenanters Vol.1 (1908)
|
1560-1638 |
1638-1660 |
1660-1690 |
Executed |
2 |
2 |
8 (laity
197) |
Murdered |
2 |
4 |
2 |
Killed |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Imprisoned |
31 |
21 |
78 |
Banished
or made fugitive |
18 |
13 |
17 |
Deposed |
35 |
126 |
46 |
Deprived |
14 |
12 |
548 |
Suspended |
3 |
7 |
4 |
Outed
and rabbled |
1 |
3 |
142 |
|
107 |
190 |
848 |
Offences for which they suffered.
|
Immorality |
11 |
11 |
21 |
Scandalous irregularity, ministerial insufficiency |
18 |
15 |
15 |
Murder |
2 |
1 |
1 |
Petty
offences |
16 |
15 |
13 |
Witchcraft |
|
3 |
|
Political offences |
40 |
80 |
22 |
Drunkeness |
2 |
12 |
32 |
Nonconformity to Episcopacy (Presbyterianism) |
34 |
5 |
275 |
Nonconformity to Presbytery (Episcopacy) none
adoption of the Liturgy |
14 |
70 |
345 |
The Test |
|
|
45 |
J K Hewison,
who compiled these figures from a multiplicity of sources,
rightly warns that it is impossible to be definitive.
Ministers were frequently charged with several offences
and it is sometimes difficult to assess which offence was
the most incriminating, and to differentiate between
political and ecclesiastical offences. What the numbers do
show is a steady ramping up of the pressure on the
Presbyterians by Charles I and for a short while by
Charles II. But after the Restoration of Charles II in
1660 the iron fist was a major part of the King`s
increasingly tyrannical policies.
|