Crimes and sufferings of the Scottish Clergy from 1560

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.