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The Covenant Idea as a Revolutionary Symbol: Scotland, 1596–1637*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

S. A. Burrell
S. A. Burrell
Affiliation:
Barnard College
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Extract

I should like to call attention once again to the old home truth that ideas, while they may not be completely independent of their environment, are still possessed of a heredity of their own that can and often does transform the material circumstances of man and affect the course of history. the course of history. I have chosen for purposes of illustration the covenant or federal theological conception, which worked a powerful influence in Scottish society during the early decades of the seventeenth century and which, in turn, was peculiarly influenced and reshaped by that society until it evolved into a symbol for the revolution which terminated in the overthrow of the monarchy of Charles I. In brief, it is my conviction that this rebellion against Charles and his government was primarily and mainly, though not solely, the result of a religious ferment that had been brewing for forty years.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , December 1958 , pp. 338 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1958

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References

1. Cf. Hewison, James K., “‘Bands’ or Covenants in Scotland, with a list of Extant Copies of the Scottish Covenants,” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 4th Ser., VI (1907–1908), 166–7.Google Scholar

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