ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the political impact of those cultural survivals and its implications, to which Scottish unity and distinctiveness were both maintained and undermined. Many Scots accepted the union with England of 1707 principally because it guaranteed the independence of the Kirk and its protection from Catholic monarchs. In the eighteenth century Scottish universities acquired a world reputation. As the loci of the Scottish Enlightenment they were instrumental in secularizing covenantal ideas and applying them to philosophy, politics, and political economy. The ideas and activities of the Scottish Covenanters were also influential in Reformed circles elsewhere in Europe and the New World. The Swiss Reformed churches, especially in Zurich, were very concerned about developments in Scotland and England. In the continuing Scottish struggle for at least local self-government since 1707, covenantal principles were both useful and were reinforced by the Scottish situation.
