Settlement to Covenant

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0:00:37 > 0:00:41People who migrated from Scotland to the north of Ireland

0:00:41 > 0:00:44in the 1690s were actually famine victims.

0:08:03 > 0:08:08The harvests of 1606 and 1607 had stocked the people with grain.

0:08:08 > 0:08:11For the land had never been more productive since that time,

0:08:11 > 0:08:14except for where no plough had gone.

0:08:14 > 0:08:17They would sell this grain to the succeeding, newcoming planters,

0:08:17 > 0:08:19who came the more in number and faster

0:08:19 > 0:08:23because they could sell their grain at a greater price back in Scotland.

0:14:02 > 0:14:05"Conditions to be observed by the undertakers

0:14:05 > 0:14:09"of the escheated lands in Ulster, consisting in three principal points.

0:14:09 > 0:14:15"1 - What the British undertakers shall have of His Majesty's gift.

0:14:15 > 0:14:18"2 - What the said undertakers shall, for their part, perform.

0:14:18 > 0:14:22"3 - In what manner the same performance shall be."

0:16:15 > 0:16:18"From Scotland came many, and from England, not a few.

0:16:18 > 0:16:22"Yet all of them generally the scum of both nations."

0:17:41 > 0:17:43CONGREGATION SINGS

0:17:43 > 0:17:49In a Scottish context, since the late 16th century onwards,

0:17:49 > 0:17:53James had been involved in a battle with the Church of Scotland

0:17:53 > 0:17:55over the issue of who runs the Church.

0:17:55 > 0:18:00So for Presbyterians, the head of the Church was Jesus Christ,

0:18:00 > 0:18:02and that the monarch should have

0:18:02 > 0:18:05little or no jurisdiction in the Church.

0:18:07 > 0:18:12You had a Reformation in England from the top down, from the Crown.

0:18:12 > 0:18:15And Henry VIII made himself the head of the Church of England.

0:18:15 > 0:18:16Whereas in Scotland,

0:18:16 > 0:18:20what you had was a Reformation that was very different in character.

0:18:20 > 0:18:24You had a Reformation led by preachers and nobles, not the Crown.

0:18:24 > 0:18:27And in that context there developed this idea of Christ alone

0:18:27 > 0:18:29being the head of the Church,

0:18:29 > 0:18:33of rejecting royal authority over the Church.

0:18:34 > 0:18:39James I of England and Scotland, he was trying to bring it

0:18:39 > 0:18:42more in conformity with the Church of England.

0:18:42 > 0:18:44So, for example, in 1610,

0:18:44 > 0:18:47he reintroduced bishops into the Scottish church.

0:18:47 > 0:18:50So you had a Presbyterian system there,

0:18:50 > 0:18:54but you also had an Episcopalian system of bishops on top of it.

0:18:54 > 0:18:56So things were still quite fluid.

0:19:01 > 0:19:04The Ulster bishops have a problem - vacant churches.

0:19:04 > 0:19:06They have a real problem.

0:19:06 > 0:19:08They have a Protestant population -

0:19:08 > 0:19:10very few shepherds for the sheep, if you like.

0:19:10 > 0:19:13In Scotland, there's a surplus of Christian ministers.

0:19:13 > 0:19:15They're being sacked, deposed,

0:19:15 > 0:19:18because they will not go for the prelacy,

0:19:18 > 0:19:20they will not bow to a bishop.

0:19:20 > 0:19:24In the 1610s, 1620s, it's more important

0:19:24 > 0:19:26from the point of view of the Crown

0:19:26 > 0:19:29or the bishops that you have got Protestants present,

0:19:29 > 0:19:33leading congregations, preaching to congregations,

0:19:33 > 0:19:37than necessarily that these are clergymen who are fully signed up

0:19:37 > 0:19:40to every single regulation within the Church.

0:19:40 > 0:19:44The theology is very similar, it's very Calvinistic. No problems there.

0:19:44 > 0:19:46They're university educated.

0:19:46 > 0:19:49It's fellow Scotsmen who are the bishops in Ulster,

0:19:49 > 0:19:53and so the accommodation is obvious, and so the invitation goes out

0:19:53 > 0:19:55and Scottish Christian ministers come to Ulster

0:19:55 > 0:19:58and take up residency in the vacant Church of Ireland parish.

0:20:40 > 0:20:43..agreeable to the word of God and the laws of this church.

0:20:43 > 0:20:45The bishop's report on such services would say

0:20:45 > 0:20:47that he is a bishop ordained -

0:20:47 > 0:20:49"the Reverend So-and-so into such a parish".

0:20:49 > 0:20:54'The Presbyterian account would say "the bishops was present,

0:20:54 > 0:20:56'"but just as one of the presbyters,"

0:20:56 > 0:20:58'so it's a presbytery ordination.

0:20:58 > 0:21:02'The service was plastic enough that each could mould it

0:21:02 > 0:21:05'to their interpretation and live with that accommodation.'

0:21:06 > 0:21:08- Amen.- Amen.

0:21:08 > 0:21:11'And so we enter this very interesting period

0:21:11 > 0:21:14'where we have a functioning Church of Ireland where perhaps

0:21:14 > 0:21:18'the majority of the ministers are Presbyterian.'

0:22:17 > 0:22:21At Oldstone, God used Glendinning to awaken

0:22:21 > 0:22:26the consciences of the lewd, insecure people thereabouts.

0:22:26 > 0:22:32He preached to them nothing but law, wrath and the terrors of God for sin.

0:22:32 > 0:22:36They fell into such anxiety and terrors of conscience

0:22:36 > 0:22:41that they looked on themselves as altogether lost and damned.

0:22:42 > 0:22:46Multitudes were brought to understand their way.

0:22:46 > 0:22:51They cried out, "What shall we do to be saved?"

0:22:58 > 0:23:01People cry out for mercy in the middle of church services,

0:23:01 > 0:23:03people swoon, people faint,

0:23:03 > 0:23:07because they're overcome with guilt or overcome by the Holy Spirit.

0:23:07 > 0:23:11It was Glendinning who was the minister who started it.

0:23:11 > 0:23:13In many ways, he's a sad character.

0:23:13 > 0:23:17The preaching is entirely in the Old Testament mould of condemnation,

0:23:17 > 0:23:20and he was unable to give any word of consolation or forgiveness

0:23:20 > 0:23:22or salvation in Jesus Christ,

0:23:22 > 0:23:24and it was the other ministers coming in

0:23:24 > 0:23:25on the back of the interest

0:23:25 > 0:23:28that Glendinning engendered with his preaching.

0:23:28 > 0:23:31Thousands came to the Antrim area to hear this preaching,

0:23:31 > 0:23:36and he other ministers come in, and that, in effect,

0:23:36 > 0:23:39helped the Presbyterianisation of that movement

0:23:39 > 0:23:42and was one of the things that sparked the confrontation

0:23:42 > 0:23:44with the bishops and the authorities.

0:23:44 > 0:23:47This mass movement, it's breaking the norms.

0:23:47 > 0:23:51It doesn't sit easily with the steady Anglicanisation

0:23:51 > 0:23:52of the Plantation area,

0:23:52 > 0:23:55and this is a sudden rocking of the boat, shall we say.

0:24:22 > 0:24:24The Dean of Down, Henry Leslie,

0:24:24 > 0:24:27talks to Bishop Echlin of Down and says,

0:24:27 > 0:24:29"These people should not be ministering

0:24:29 > 0:24:31"in the Church of Ireland.

0:24:31 > 0:24:34"We need to get rid of them. They're causing problems.

0:24:34 > 0:24:37"They are overturning Royal authority

0:24:37 > 0:24:39"and uniformity of religion."

0:24:39 > 0:24:42As a consequence of that, Robert Blair

0:24:42 > 0:24:48and John Livingstone are suspended, and other ministers as well.

0:24:48 > 0:24:52So, yes, sections of the leadership of the Church of Ireland

0:24:52 > 0:24:54are not happy with what's going on.

0:27:17 > 0:27:20The religious policy is conformity.

0:27:20 > 0:27:23The land policy is to make as much money as possible,

0:27:23 > 0:27:25so he's investigating everyone's terms

0:27:25 > 0:27:28of which they've got their grant in the Plantation,

0:27:28 > 0:27:31and if he finds any anomalies there, there are fines.

0:27:31 > 0:27:33People are threatened by this on all levels

0:27:33 > 0:27:37and deeply unsettled right across the society.

0:27:48 > 0:27:52"I see plainly that so long as this kingdom continues Popish,

0:27:52 > 0:27:56"they are not a people for the Crown of England to be confident of."

0:29:30 > 0:29:32"If he neglect to hear the Church,

0:29:32 > 0:29:35"let him be unto Thee as a heathen man and a publican."

0:30:06 > 0:30:11Mr Hamilton, perpetual silence within the diocese.

0:31:05 > 0:31:10Seas came in over the roundhouse and broke a plank or two on deck,

0:31:10 > 0:31:12and wet all those that were between decks.

0:31:12 > 0:31:17Mr Blair was much of the time sickly. I was sometimes sick.

0:31:17 > 0:31:21An aged person and one child died, and were buried at sea.

0:31:21 > 0:31:22That which grieved us most

0:31:22 > 0:31:25was that we were like to be made a mocking

0:31:25 > 0:31:27to the wicked on our return.

0:33:33 > 0:33:38In the very same year, in Glasgow, a General Assembly is set up,

0:33:38 > 0:33:40which says that the Church of Scotland will not have

0:33:40 > 0:33:44the Book Of Common Prayer, will not have kneeling at Communion,

0:33:44 > 0:33:47it will not have the paraphernalia associated with

0:33:47 > 0:33:50the Church of England and Anglicanism.

0:33:50 > 0:33:53So 1638's very important in terms of bringing to a head

0:33:53 > 0:33:56the discontent that has been bubbling under the surface,

0:33:56 > 0:34:00and you have Scottish Presbyterians and others joining together

0:34:00 > 0:34:02to sign something known as the National Covenant.

0:34:02 > 0:34:06The idea of a Covenant is really engrained in that Presbyterianism

0:34:06 > 0:34:11from Old Testament covenants and the Covenant Of Grace In Jesus Christ.

0:34:11 > 0:34:14It's a pledge that binds a community together in their beliefs

0:34:14 > 0:34:19and their determination to see through and stand together on this issue.

0:34:19 > 0:34:2160,000 people signing on the first day,

0:34:21 > 0:34:24promising to protect and honour the King,

0:34:24 > 0:34:29but in this one vital area of conscience on how to worship God, by freedom of conscience,

0:34:29 > 0:34:32they would not conform to what the Government and the King desired.

0:34:51 > 0:34:54The National Covenant is seen as something

0:34:54 > 0:34:56that could be dangerous in Irish terms.

0:34:56 > 0:34:58So the State in Dublin moves rapidly

0:34:58 > 0:35:02to try and impose an oath on Scottish people in Ireland

0:35:02 > 0:35:06to prevent them, in a sense, following that Covenanting agenda.

0:35:06 > 0:35:10So the idea is to prevent the spread of this infection.

0:36:17 > 0:36:20Many of the people of Scottish extraction

0:36:20 > 0:36:23are keen to sign the National Covenant, and did sign.

0:36:23 > 0:36:26So the entry just says "the Black Oath", as we call it.

0:36:26 > 0:36:29All of Scottish extraction, 16 years and above,

0:36:29 > 0:36:30are to take this oath,

0:36:30 > 0:36:32where they swear full allegiance to the King.

0:36:32 > 0:36:37And many, many of the Presbyterians just refuse to do it.

0:36:37 > 0:36:41They went back to Scotland or they left into the hills.

0:36:41 > 0:36:42That year, the harvest,

0:36:42 > 0:36:47there were a lot of farms sitting with no workers, no tenants, no-one able to take this.

0:36:47 > 0:36:48People imposing the Black Oath,

0:36:48 > 0:36:51it's the Church of Ireland providing the numbers and tally lists.

0:36:51 > 0:36:54So that sours relations as well.