Crime & punishment > Times of Claverhouse, or, Sketches of the persecution

THE TIMES OF CLAYERHOUSE.
CHAPTER XII.
The Society People.
After the battle of Both well Bridge, the followers
of Cameron and Cargill separated themselves from
the rest of their brethren, indulged and non-in-
dulged, and formed themselves into a distinct com¬
munity. In the Presbyterian army assembled on
the occasion alluded to, there were eighteen mi¬
nisters, none of whom had taken the indulgence.
Of this number, two, Donald Cargill and Thomas
Douglas, espoused what were deemed the extreme
opinions of Hamilton, the conqueror at Drumclog.
This leader refused to acknowledge the king’s au¬
thority, and regarded his right to the throne as
forfeited by his violation of the covenant which he
had sworn, his long-continued persecution, and
his intolerant despotism. While Hamilton and his
followers did this, they, at the same time, wished
to embody in their manifesto an explicit condem¬
nation of the indulgence, as partaking of the gross¬
est Erastianism. This, with the rejection of the
king’s authority, was objected to by the other six¬
teen ministers, as tending to divide their ranks and
to weaken the entire party at a moment when un¬
animity was of so much consequence. This alter-