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COVENANT 178 COVENTRY signed, sealed, and delivered, whereby they agree to do, or not to do, some specified act. In theology, the promises of God as revealed in the Scriptures, conditional on certain terms on the part of man, as obedience, repentance, faith, etc. In international politics an expres- sion used to designate the terms on which agreements between nations are based. See League of Nations. COVENANT, in Scotch history, the name given to a bond or oath drawn up by the Scottish reformers, and signed in 1557, and to the similar document or Confession of Faith drawn up in 1581, IB which all the errors of Popery were explicitly abjured. The latter was sub- scribed by James VI. and his council, and all his subjects were required to at- tach their subscription to it. It was again subscribed in 1590 and 1596. The subscription was renewed in 1638, and the subscribers engaged by oath to maintain religion in the same state as it was in 1580, and to reject all innova- tions introduced since that time. The Solemn League and Covenant was a solemn contract entered into between th General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and commissioners from the English Parliament in 1643, having for its object a uniformity of doctrine, wor- ship, and discipline throughout Scot- land, England, and Ireland, according to the word of God and the example of th-e best reformed churches. In 1662 it was abjured by act of Parliament, both in England and Scotland. COVENANTERS, in Scottish history, the name given to the party which struggled for religious liberty from 1637 on to the revolution; but more especially applied to the insurgents who, after the passing of the act of 1662 denouncing the Solemn League and Covenant as a seditious oath (see above article), took up arms in defense of the Presbyterian form of Church government. The Pres- byterian ministers who refused to ac- knowledge the bishops were ejected from their parishes and gathered around them crowds of their people on the hill- sides, or any lonely spot, to attend their ministrations. These meetings, called "conventicles," were denounced as sedi- tious, and to frequent them or to hold communication v^ath those frequenting them was forbidden on pain of death. The unwarrantable severity with which the recusants were treated provoked them to take up arms in defense of their opinions. The first outbreaks took place in the hill country on the borders of Ayr and Lanark shires. Here at Drumclog, a farm near Loudon Hill, a conventicle was attacked by a body of dragoons under Graham of Claverhouse, but were successful in defeating their assailants (1679). The murder of Archbishop Sharp on Magus Moor, and this defeat, alarmed the government, who sent a large body of troops under the command of the Duke of Monmouth to put down the insurgents, who had increased in number rapidly. The two armies met at Bothwell Bridge, where the Covenanters were totally defeated (June 22, 1679). In consequence of the rebellious pro- test called the Sanquhar Declaration, put forth in 1680 by Cameron, Cargill, and others, as representing the more ir- reconcilable of the Covenanters (known as Cameronians), and a subsequent proclamation in 1684, the government proceeded to more severe measures. An oath was now required of all who would free themselves of suspicion of com- plicity with the Covenanters; and the dragoons who were sent out to hun<- down the rebels were empowered to kill anyone who refused to take the o?th. During this "killing time," as it was called, the sufferings of the Covenanters were extreme; but notwithstanding the great numbers who were put to death, their fanatic spirit seemed only to grow stronger. Even after the acces- sion of William some of the extreme Covenanters refused to acknowledge him owing to his acceptance of Episco- pacy in England, and formed the earli- est dissenting sect in Scotland. COVENT GARDEN, corrupted from Convent Garden, from having been orig- inally the garden of the Abbot of West- minster, is a spacious square in London, celebrated for a gi'eat market held with- in it of fruit, vegetables, and flowers. The square was formed about 1631 from the designs of Inigo Jones. In the 17th century Covent Garden was a very fashionable quarter of the town. The market, now so famous, appears to have originated about 1656 in a few wooden sheds and stalls. It was long the prop- erty of the noble House of Bedford, but in 1913 the Duke of Bedford sold the property. London's most famous opera house, the Covent Garden Theater, is lo- cated there. COVENTRY, a city in England, county of Warwick, 85 miles N. W. of London. It was formerly surrounded with lofty walls and had 12 gates, and was the see of a bishop early conjoined with Lichfield. Parliaments were con- vened here by the earlier monarchs of England, several of whom occasionally resided in the place. Pageants and pro- cessions were celebrated in old times with great magnificence, and a remnant