Rutherford

Rutherford, SAMUEL (1600?-61), Scotch divine, was born in Roxburghshire, and educated at Edinburgh University. In 1627 he was appointed minister of Anweth, in Kirkcudbright, where be laboured with great zeal and piety. His preaching was Impressive, and he became deeply beloved, but his views were not considered sound, and the bishops, in 1636, ordered him to confine himself to Aberdeen; a virtual exile. He was restored to his people in 1638 amid their rejoicings, but soon after aocepted a professorship of divinity at St. Andrew's, of which he became Rector. In 1643 he published his Lex Rex, an able protest against the theory of the divine right of kings. In 1644 appeared his Divine Right of Presbytery, a learned work, which Milton and others attacked. After the Restoration his Lex Rex was publicly burnt, and he was deprived of office and ordered to answer the charge of high treason, but died before his trial. His name is still held in reverence in Scotland.