This video presents a penetrating look at a movement in 17th-century Scotland that is little known today but whose coura | dG1fWVVKRk1wVzd1eHM
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00:00In a field near the village of Hart Hill in central Scotland, a small group of people
00:14have gathered to carry out an act of worship that dates back more than 300 years. This
00:19simple open-air service, and many others like it in Scotland, commemorates the hundreds
00:24of Scots who were brutally murdered during a 50-year struggle to be allowed to worship
00:30as they believed was right. It was a movement that would, at some stages, unite Scotland
00:36against her king and rulers. At others, it would lead to the division and the bloody
00:41and cruel persecution of thousands of men, women and children. They would hang for their
00:47beliefs and suffer torture and deportation. They would lose everything they owned and
00:52witness the ruination of their wives and families. But throughout, despite being at
00:58the mercy of changing kings and political situations, of the civil war in England and
01:03threats from Europe, the Covenanters fought on, remaining fervent in their love of God
01:09and the belief that no man, king or pope, should have the power over their faith and
01:14the way they worshipped. By the end of the 50-year struggle, the Covenanting movement
01:20would be almost on its knees, but still fighting. It would be the efforts of one or two loyal
01:26Covenanters who would manage to get the Presbyterian religion reintroduced to Scotland, where it
01:31remains the national religion to this day.