Origin from 1638
On 28 February 1638, Scottish noblemen, gentry, clergy and burgesses gathered at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh to sign the National Covenant, seventy eight years after the Scottish Reformation established Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1560, already recorded here. Drafted by the minister Alexander Henderson and the lawyer Archibald Johnston of Wariston, the document combined the King's Confession that James VI had signed in 1581 with a survey of the Acts of Parliament protecting the Scottish church's own government, and bound its signers to reject King Charles I's attempt, together with the Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud, to impose an English style prayer book and episcopal governance on the Kirk unless the change first passed a free General Assembly and Parliament. Tens of thousands are said to have gathered in the churchyard over the following days in a city of roughly forty thousand people, and parchment copies of the Covenant then circulated to every burgh and parish in Scotland for further signature, gathering support across Scottish society while its signers still professed loyalty to the king himself. Charles I treated the Covenant as an act of treason, and the standoff it created led directly to the Bishops' Wars of 1639 and 1640 between the king and the Covenanters, weakening the crown ahead of the civil wars that followed across England, Scotland and Ireland. The Covenant fixed Presbyterian church government, chosen over bishops, as the cause Scottish Presbyterians would organize to defend for decades, nine years before the Church of Scotland adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith in 1647, already recorded here.
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Dates
StatusEstablished marks the 28 February 1638 signing of the National Covenant at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, asserting Presbyterian church government against King Charles I's attempt to impose bishops and an English style prayer book, a specific dated milestone between the Scottish Reformation establishing Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1560 already recorded here and the Church of Scotland adopting the Westminster Confession of Faith in 1647 also recorded here. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Church of Scotland directly: "for decades, nine years before the Church of Scotland adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith in 1647, already recorded here."
This source names Scotland directly: "established Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1560, already recorded here."
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Adds a specific, dated milestone in Presbyterianism's history between the Scottish Reformation establishing Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1560 and the Church of Scotland adopting the Westminster Confession of Faith in 1647, both already recorded here: the National Covenant, signed at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh on 28 February 1638, asserting Presbyterian church government against the crown's attempt to impose bishops and an English style prayer book.
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