Samuel Rutherford

Samuel Rutherford pastored the country parish of Anwoth in Galloway until the bishops silenced him in 1636 and confined him to Aberdeen, forbidden to preach. Cut off from his people, he wrote to them instead. The letters that came out of those two years — later collected and printed as Joshua Redivivus — are the reason he is remembered: unguarded, homesick, and burning with affection for Christ. He came back to serve as a commissioner to the Westminster Assembly in London and later as principal of St Mary's College at St Andrews. His book Lex, Rex argued that a king holds power under law rather than above it, which the returning royal government considered treason; the hangman burned it publicly and Rutherford was summoned to answer for his life. He was already dying when the summons came, and by his own report he answered that he had a prior summons before a higher court. He died before the state could try him.