Alexander Henderson

Alexander Henderson (1583-1646), Scottish ecclesiastic, was born in 1583 at Criech, Fifeshire, Scotland. He graduated at the University of St Andrews in 1603, and in 1610 was appointed Professor of Rhetoric and Philosophy, and Questor of the Faculty of Arts.

Soon after, he was imposed on the living of Leuchars by Archbishop George Gladstanes. As Gladstanes was known to sympathize with episcopacy, this settlement was at first unpopular; but he subsequently changed his views and became a Presbyterian. He soon made his mark as a church leader, and took an active part in petitioning against the " five acts " and later against the introduction of a service-book and canons drawn up on the model of the English prayer-book.

In 1637, Henderson emerged as a leader of the opposition to Archbishop Laud's innovations in the Scottish church. He helped organise the prayer book riots in Edinburgh when the new liturgy was introduced, and was among the Supplicants who petitioned against the innovations after he was ordered to use the new prayer book in his parish. In February 1638, Henderson and the lawyer Johnston of Wariston were commissioned to draft the National Covenant to unite the Supplicants. As the Covenanter movement gained momentum, Henderson and Wariston agitated for a General Assembly to settle all religious controversies, resulting in the calling of the Glasgow Assembly of November 1638, at which the Covenanters abolished Episcopacy from the Kirk.

On the 1st of March 1638 the public signing of the " National Covenant" began in Greyfriars Kirk, in Edinburgh. Henderson was mainly responsible for the final form of this document, which consisted of

(1) the " king's confession " drawn up in 1581 by John Craig (1512 - 1600),

(2) a recital of the acts of parliament against " superstitious and papistical rites," and

(3) an oath to maintain the true reformed religion.

The Bishops' Doom

"...we are but short-sighted naturally; we look upon persons and things that are present, and cannot look afar off to things that are past, neither have we a very great prospect to look forward to things that are to come. And as our sight is short, so it is weak also: if we but look upon things here below, our eyes are soon dazzled with the splendor of them, although, when all is done, their luster be not great; we cannot get in with our sight to things that are above. But if we will take the right view of this text, it would help us both in the one and in the other; for you see it leads from that which is past, to that which is to come. The LORD said. This hath an eye to the time to come. There is a time coming when all the enemies of GOD, the most proud and insolent of them, shall be made the footstool of GOD, shall be brought low, and made base and contemptible. ...Now for the time to come: Till I make thine enemies thy footstool... these men that we are to sentence this day, and to give out the censure of this reverend assembly upon, have proven themselves the enemies of GOD, and of his Son JESUS CHRIST, these many years bygone. ...I will cause read a paper unto you, at the hearing whereof I think your heart shall quake, your hair shall stand, and your flesh creep, when ye hear tell that Christians, let be church-men, who reckon themselves the chiefest and most eminent men in the church, and call themselves the pastor of pastors, should have fallen out in such foul acts as these are." (from Henderson's sermon "The Bishops Doom")

In July that year, he travelled north to debate on the "Covenant" with the famous 'Aberdeen doctors', but was not well received by them. "The voyd church was made fast, and the keys keeped by the magistrate," says Baillie.

Henderson's next opportunity was in the Assembly in Glasgow on 21st November 1638. He was chosen as moderator of the Assembly by acclamation, being, as Baillie says, "incomparablie the ablest man of us all for all things" and preached a famous sermon 'The Bishops' Doom' pronouncing the sentence of excommunication on the Scottish bishops.

James Hamilton, 3rd marquess of Hamilton, was the king's commissioner; and when the Assembly insisted on proceeding with the trial of the bishops, he dissolved the meeting in the name of the King. He is said to have given four principal reasons:

• 1. Lay elders were introduced into the Assembly to vote there.
• 2. The ministers chosen commissioners, were elected by lay elders, contrary to custom and practice.
• 3. The few commissioners chosen contrary to the instructions of the Tables, had been thrown out by mere cavils.
• 4. The cited Bishops were to be tried by persons who had already declared against them.

Upon the Commissioner's departure, Henderson delivered the following speech to the Assembly.

"All who are present know how this Assembly was indicted, and what power we allow to our Sovereign in matters ecclesiastic: But though we have acknowledged the power of Christian kings for convening Assemblies, and their power in them, yet that must not derogate from Christ's right, for he bath given warrant to convocate Assemblies, whether magistrates consent or not. Therefore, seeing we perceive his Grace, my lord Commissioner, to be zealous of his Royal master's commands, have not we as good reason to be zealous toward our Lord, and to maintain the liberties and privileges of his kingdom? You all know that the work in hand hath had many difficulties, and yet hitherto the Lord hath helped and borne us through them all; therefore it becometh us not to be discouraged at our being deprived of human authority, but rather that ought to be a powerful motive to us to double our courage in answering the end for which we are convened."

Acting on the principle that the king's right to convene did not interfere with the church's right to hold assemblies, they sat till December 10th, deposed all the Scottish bishops, excommunicated several of them, repealed all acts favouring episcopacy, and reconstituted the Scottish Kirk on Presbyterian principles. During this Assembly it was carried (by a majority of seventy-five votes) that Henderson should be transferred to Edinburgh to become minister at the High Kirk of St Giles.

The Pacification of Birks

While Scotland and England were preparing for the " First Bishops' War," Henderson drew up two papers:'The Remonstrance of the Nobility'; and 'Instructions for Defensive Arms'. The " First Bishops' War " did not last long. At the Pacification of Birks the king virtually granted all the demands of the Scots. In the negotiations for peace Henderson was one of the Scottish commissioners, and made a favourable impression on the king. In 1640, Henderson was elected by the town council rector of Edinburgh University - an office to which he was annually re-elected till his death.

The Pacification of Birks had been wrung from the king; and the Scots, seeing that he was preparing for the " Second Bishops' War," pressed into England so vigorously that Charles had again to yield everything. The maturing of the treaty of peace took a considerable time, and Henderson was again active in the negotiations, first at Ripon (October 1st) and later in London. While in London, he had an interview with the king, to seek assistance for the Scottish universities from the money formerly used to support the bishops. On Henderson's return to Edinburgh in July 1641 the Assembly was sitting at St Andrews. To suit the convenience of the parliament, however, it removed to Edinburgh; Henderson was elected moderator of the Edinburgh meeting, where he proposed that " a confession of faith, a catechism, a directory for all the parts of the public worship, and a platform of government, wherein possibly England and we might agree," should be drawn up. This was approved unanimously and was left to Henderson to undertake; but it led to noimmediate results. During Charles's second state-visit to Scotland, in the autumn of 1641, Henderson acted as his chaplain, and managed to get the funds formerly belonging to the bishopric of Edinburgh applied to the university. In 1642 Henderson, who had striven to keep Scotland neutral in the war which had now broken out between the king and the parliament, was corresponding with England on ecclesiastical topics; and, soon after, was sent to Oxford to mediate between the king and his parliament; but his mission proved a failure.

At a meeting of the General Assembly in August 1643, Henderson was elected moderator for the third time, and presented a draft of the " Solemn League and Covenant," which was received enthusiastically. Unlike the " National Covenant " of 1638, which applied only to Scotland, this document was common to the two kingdoms. Henderson and others were sent to London to represent Scotland in the Assembly at Westminster. The " Solemn League and Covenant," which pledged both countries to the extirpation of prelacy, leaving further decisions about church government to be decided by the " example of the best reformed churches," after slight alterations, passed the two Houses of Parliament and the Westminster Assembly, and became law for the two kingdoms.

As Scottish commissioner to the Westminster Assembly, he was in England from August 1643 till August 1646, drafting the directory for public worship. Early in 1645 Henderson was sent to Uxbridge to aid the commissioners of the two parliaments in negotiating with the king; but nothing came of the conference. In 1646 the king joined the Scottish army; and, after retiring with them to Newcastle, he sent for Henderson, and discussed with him the two systems of church government.

Meanwhile Henderson was failing in health. He sailed to Scotland, and eight days after arriving died, on the l0th of August 1646. He was buried in Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh; and his death was the occasion of national mourning. On the 7th of August Baillie had written that he had heard that Henderson was dying " most of heartbreak." A document was published in London purporting to be a "Declaration of Mr Alexander Henderson made upon his Death-bed "; and, although this paper was shown to be false in the General Assembly of August 1648, the document was used by Clarendon as giving the impression that Henderson had recanted. Its foundation was probably certain expressions lamenting Scottish interference in English affairs.

Next to John Knox, Henderson is the most famous of Scottish ecclesiastics. His statesmanship was so influential that " he was," as Masson observed, " a cabinet minister without office." He made a deep mark on the history, not only of Scotland, but of England; and the existing Presbyterian churches in Scotland are largely indebted to him for the forms of their dogmas and their ecclesiastical organization. He is thus considered the second founder of the Reformed Church in Scotland.

Appreciation

Dr Thomas M’Crie, who had intended to add a life of Henderson to his lives of Knox and Melville, wrote:—

"Alexander Henderson was enriched with an assemblage of endowments which have rarely met in one man. He possessed talents which fitted him for judging and giving advice about the political affairs of a nation, or even for taking an active share in the management of them, had he not devoted himself to the immediate service of the Church, and the study of ecclesiastical business. He was not more distinguished by the abilities which he displayed in his public conduct, than by the virtues which adorned his private character. Grave, yet affable and polite; firm and independent, yet modest and condescending, he commanded the respect, and conciliated the affection, of all who were acquainted with him; and the more intimately his friends knew him, they loved him the more. The power of religion he deeply felt, and he had tasted the comforts of the gospel. Its Spirit, equally removed from the coldness of the mere rationalist, and the irregular fervours of the enthusiast, breathed in all his words and actions. The lose of liberty was in him a pure and enlightened flame; he loved his native country, but his patriotism was no narrow, illiberal passion; it opened to the welfare of neighbouring nations, and of mankind in general. . . . .Called forth by the irresistible cry of his dear country, when he found her reduced to the utmost distress, by the oppression of ambitious prelates, supported by an arbitrary court and corrupt statesmen, he came from that retirement which was congenial to him, and entered upon the bustle of public business, at a time of life when others think of retiring from it. Though he sighed after his original solitude, and suffered from the fatigues and anxiety to which he was subjected, yet he did not relinquish his station, nor shrink from the difficult tasks imposed upon him, until his feeble and shattered constitution sunk under them, and he fell a martyr to the cause."

References

• Alexander Henderson Encyclopedia Britannica eleventh edition
• M'Crie's Life of Alexander Henderson (1846)
• Aiton's Life and Times of Alexander Henderson (1836)
• The Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie (1841-1842)
• J. H. Burton History of Scotland
• D. Masson Life of Drummond of Hawthornden
• Masson's Life of Milton
• Andrew Lang, History of Scotland (1907), vol. iii.