CAMERONIANI

CAMERONIANS. – Name given to the followers of Richard CAMERON (1648–80). He was a fanatical partisan of the “Covenanters,” defenders of the “Covenant” (1643), the pact by which the Scots had bound themselves to uphold the most rigorous Calvinism in their homeland. When the Covenanters were defeated at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge (1679), during the reign of Charles II (1660–85), Cameron gathered followers and continued the struggle, and in the Sanquhar Declaration (1680) he not only rejected the Anglican ecclesiastical hierarchy but also the monarchy. Slain shortly afterward at the Battle of Aird’s Moss, his followers persisted in their rebellion against the Stuarts until the Revolution of 1688. After the Scottish Presbyterian Church was reorganized following that event, the Cameronians refused to reunite with it because it had not fully restored the Covenant, and they formed the Reformed Presbyterian Church. This church still exists not only in Scotland but also in Ireland and the United States; it represents the most rigid wing of Scottish Presbyterianism and regards itself as the legitimate heir of the old Covenanters, defenders of one of the most fanatical and anti-Catholic covenants.