Correspondence

Horowhenua Chronicle, 9 November 1915, Page 3

Correspondence

« £Our correspondents' opinions are their own; the responsibility of editorial ones makes sufficient ballast for the editor's shoulders.] THIS OOVENANTJfIRS. (To the Editor.) Sir,—The sermon by the Rev. G. L. Stuart was interesting reading. .No doubt the "Covenanters" suffered miiuli at the hands of those who differed from them as regards their religious views. Everyone then thought it the proper thing to persecute those who held different religious or political views to themselves. The lionian Catholic* audi the Scotch Episcopalians suffered more or less in tiie same way ■as the "Covenanters." As late as the eighteenth century penal laws pressed heavily upon those who would not conform to the Presbyterian Church which was established by the Sta;e. Episcopacy was proscribed and annihilated as far as Parliament could do it, lor eventually the Scottish clergy belonging to the Episcopal Church were prohibited from conducting worship m any house but their own, with mora than live persons at a time, under penalties of imprisonment and banishment. Churches were burnt and <maiiy clergy were cruelly imprisoned for .!isoboying the law. Amongst these weru

John Skinner. 01 Lenshart, the poet., and tlie first ol' a long line of Scottish ecdiosiastics. At Stonehaven three clergymen, Greig, Petrie and Troup-, used to baptise from the prison windows infants whom the ushenvomon brought in their creels, after wading through the water and clambering up the rocks.. So successful was this cruel persecution of the Scottish Episcopalian churchmen that the number ot their clergy was reduced from fourteen bishops audi ahout a thousand other clergy at the close of tihe 17th century to four bishops and forty clergy at the and of the 18th century. But a great change took place in the Uhurdh'e condition in 1792. A hill was passed by Parliament removing the oppressive laws which forbade Episcopalians in Scotland to worship God' according to their conscience. Since then the Episcopal Church, under \*od's blessing, has grown in numbers and influence so that it now hae seven bishops and nearly four hundred! Scottish clergy. My own reason for writing this letter is to let people know that the "Covenanters" were not the only people m Scotland who suffered lor their religious belief.—l am, etc., TOLERATION.