Resolutioners

In December 1650 the Estates in Scotland ordered the commission of the general assembly to decide whether it was lawful to reinstate those formerly purged from the army by the 1649 Act of Classes, which had excluded from civil and military posts all who were hostile to the National Covenant* and the Solemn League and Covenant.* The commission agreed that it was lawful to reinstate all but a small minority, and this decision was known as the first Public Resolution. In March 1651 the commission was asked about the legality of admitting to the Committee of Estates those who, formerly debarred, had now renounced their anti-Covenanting attitude. The commission recommended the admission of all save a few “pryme actors against the State.” This was the second Public Resolution. Those who upheld these decisions were known as Resolutioners, and they were mostly moderate Presbyterians and moderate Royalists. Those who disagreed were called “Protesters.”*