Image: Birthplace of Richard Cameron in Falkland, Fife Scotland

Description: Birthplace of Richard Cameron in Falkland, Fife Scotland. Cameron was born here in 1647 or 1648 and enrolled at St. Salvator's College, St. Andrews on 5 March 1662, aged 13 or 14. After graduating, he returned to Falkland where he was appointed burgh schoolmaster, a post he relinquished after being threatened for attending Covenanter conventicles [open-air services]. He moved to Edinburgh, became a field-preacher himself and was eventually ordained a minister of the church by exiles in the Scots Kirk at Rotterdam. After what seemed like the final defeat of the Covenanters at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679, Cameron returned to Scotland with the avowed aim of reviving the struggle to free the Kirk from royal control. He publicly denounced King Charles II as a tyrant and opposed his brother's succession as James VII in the Sanquhar Declaration of 1680. This precipitated a violent, head-on clash with the authorities. He and his supporters were hunted down and slaughtered later the same year at Airds Moss. After the battle Cameron's head and hands were hacked off his body and taken to Edinburgh to be publicly displayed. "But we are of the opinion that the church shall yet be more high and glorious, and the church shall have more power than ever she had before; and therefore we declare avowedly in opposition to all tyrannical magistrates over Protestants and over Presbyterians, magistrates that are open enemies to God. We declare we will have none such acknowledged as lawful magistrates over us; we will have none but such as are for the advancement of piety, and the suppression of impiety and wickedness. (...) I say this not to disquiet you, but to stir you up to take hold of Christ, and his standard on which it shall be written, 'Let Christ Reign'. Let us study to have it set up amongst us. It is hard to tell, where it shall be first erected; but our Lord is to set up a standard, and oh that it may be carried to Scotland! When it is set up, it shall be carried through the nations; and it shall go to Rome, and the gates of Rome shall be burnt with fire. It is a standard that shall overthrow the throne of Britain, and all the thrones in Europe, that will not kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and in his anger they perish from the way." -- from Cameron's last sermon at Kype Water, Avondale, 18th July, 1680
Title: Birthplace of Richard Cameron in Falkland, Fife Scotland
Credit: Own work
Author: Kim Traynor
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