William Tyndale ( 1492-1536) The contributions made by William Tyndale and Thomas Cranmer are especially important to the story of the English Reformation as they steered Protestantism through the turbulent years of Henry VIII, Edward VI , and Mary Tudor. The introduction of printing by William Caxton (1422-1491) made available many more copies of  William […]

Knox`s  Appellation. The Appellation is also a helpful reprise of Knox`s doctrine. He taught, that there is no other name by which men can be saved but that of Jesus, and that all reliance on the merits of others is vain and delusive; that the Saviour having by his own sacrifice sanctified and reconciled to […]

. The heartland of resistance by the Covenanters was in Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and the south western counties of Dumfries and Galloway. But there were also pockets of staunch Presbyterians in Stirling, Fife and the Border counties of Roxburghshire and Berwickshire. It was in all these places that the likes of John Welch, Samuel Arnot, […]

The Children of the Underclass or “The Dustbin Kids” In previous articles I wrote of the abuse of children brought about by a hostile environment and ignorance which over time translated into the use and abuse of children throughout the industrial era. There is now a third stage in history – that with social problems […]

Erasmus (1467-1536) Born in Rotterdam 28 October 1467 Desiderius, or Erasmus as he became known, was illegitimate, his parents never marrying. His father was a burgher named Gerard in Torgau; his mother Margaret  was the daughter of Peter, a physician  at Sevenbergen in Brabant. The father`s family refused to allow the couple to marry and […]

Early Christianity in Scotland Nothing was now too gross, too whimsical, or absurd, for the folly, ignorance or superstition of the age; but streaks of light  were beginning  to glimmer athwart this fearful condensity of circumvolving darkness. Select Memoirs, Thomas Smith (1828) The Presbyterians were not the first Protestant church in Scotland although they eventually […]

The Papal Bull sent to Oxford University directing action against Wyckcliffe.  Gregory the Bishop, the Servant of God’s Servants, to his well-beloved Sons, the Chancellor and University of Oxford, in the Diocese of Lincoln, Greeting and Apostolical Benediction,  We are constrained both to marvel and lament, that you, who, considering the favours and privileges granted […]

Execution Property, which was sometimes substantial, was usually forfeit to the Crown when a Covenanter was executed, and if they had a coat of arms it would be rent and thrown down by the Lyon King of Arms. A consequence was that families would be cast out of their home to spend their life in […]

The curious circumstances surrounding the birth of  a son to James II. As told by Bishop Gilbert Burnett in “A History of My Own Times“. Burnett was born in Edinburgh in 1643 ( d 1715) and rose through the episcopal Church of England to become Bishop of Salisbury . A very learned and widely travelled […]

Peden at the Grave of Cameron by Mrs A Stuart Menteath (1843). from ” Lays of the Kirk and Covenant”, W S. Sime, Glasgow,1892. p 72 et seq. A sound of conflict in the moss ! but that hath passed away, And through a stormy noon and eve the dead unburied lay; But when the […]

The Covenanter Prison in Greyfriars Kirk Yard. Precis from The Flodden Wall, the Covenanter`s Prison in the Greyfriars Yard Edinburgh .  by W Moir Bryce (1910), On the day of the battle of Bothwell Brig, 22 June 1679, the Edinburgh militia regiment, under the command of Sir John Nicolson, was quartered at Corstorphine, from where […]

John Spreul of Glasgow, Apothecary. Intercommuned fugitive, horned, tortured, improperly convicted, prisoner on the Bass Rock for over six years, who refused to be freed. The story of John Spreul (the younger) is remarkable. He was one of the better off  Presbyterian tradesmen who was targeted by a greedy government and its officials, keen to […]

Proclamation of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, Edinburgh 4 May 1654. Extract: Diary of John Nicoll 1650-1667. Reproduced in The Book of Old Edinburgh Club Vol VI p 40. (For large image click on thumbnail. )

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED IRISHMEN IN 1791. 1st. This society is constituted for the purpose of forwarding a brotherhood of affection, a communion of rights, and a union of power among Irishmen of every religious persuasion, and thereby to, obtain a complete reform in the legislature, founded on the principles of civil, political, and […]