COVENANT. 517 COVUNTBY. out peculiar si<jnificance in this connection. Con- sult: Sims, Treati.ie on Covenants (Chicago, iOOl) ; Rawle, Trcalifie on the Laic of Covenants {or Title (5th ed., Boston, 1887). See Bond; Contract; Specialty: Restraint of Tr.de; etc.; and consult the authorities there referred to. COVENANTERS. See Covenants, The; and Presi'.ytekiani.sm. COVENANTS, The. A term by which the Scottish iipo|ile denoted association of 'bands' under oath to support each other in times of dan^jer, or to maintain some principle. The most famous ones are the Xatiunal Corenunt of 1038, and the Solemn League and Core)iant of 1043, which are often referred to simply as the Cove- nant, though they should be clearly distinguished. The Xational Covenant was an agreement signed by all classes in Scotland to resist by force the introduction into Scotland by Charles I. of a modified form of the English Book of Common Prayer, and a new body of canons increasing the nominal power of the Scottish bishops. The nobles disliked the increased power of the bishops because they were l)eginning to look upon them as rivals, and because they feared that Charles would proceed to a recovery of the Cluirch lands : while the commons disliked the Prayer Book, not only because it was English, but also because they looked upon it as a popish innovation. The Covenant w'as based upon a previous one of 1580, ■whose object was to maintain the Scottish Pres- byterian Church against a Catholic conspiracy, Ijut it added numerous citations of Parliamentary acts bearing upon the svibjeet of religion, and a mutual oath "to labor b_v all means lawful to re- cover the purity and liberty of the gospel as it was established and professed before the afore- said innovations." It became the basis of the Scotch resistance to the King, which culminated in the two Bishops' wars and the tenuination of Charles's arbitraiy rule. The Solemn Leagtie and Covenant was an agree- ment belween the Englisli and Scottish Parlia- ments by which the Scotch came with an army to the assistance of the English Parliament in the war against Charles I., on condition that Presbyterianism should be introduced into Eng- land and Ireland. The Parliament accepted the condition somewhat unwillingly, but in view of the Royalist successes in 1043, Scotcli aid seemed indispensable. The Covenant was generally sigiied by the members of the House of Commons and the Assembly of Divines. It was imposed by ordinance upon all persons over eighteen years of age, upon membei's of the uni- versities, and upon officers and soldiers of the New Jlodel, although the ordinances could not be strictly enforced. It was not only the bond of union between England and Scotland during the war, but was used as attest against the rising Independents, and. as such, encountered lively opposition. The signers took oath to labor for "the preservation of the reformed religion in the Church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, . . . the reforma- tion of religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, according to the Word of God. and the example of the best reformed churches," and to endeavor "to brinir the churchps of God in the three kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion, confession of faith, form of Church govcrninent, direction for worship, and catechising." Both covenants were abolished at the Restoration, and their adherents severely persecuted. They are printed in Gardiner, Con- stitutional Doeunients of the Puritan Revolution (London, 1807). Consult, also: Gardiner. IHs- lory of England (London, 1883-84) ; and id., (Ireat Civil' War, vol. i. (London, 1880). See Presbyterianism, CO VENT (kuv'ent) GABDEN (properly Convent (Inrdeu, from having been originally the garden of Westminster Abbey), A s(|uare in London, celebrated for its history and for its great market of fruit, vegetables, and (lowers. As the kitchen garden of the Westminster monks it was a walled inclosure, which extended from the Strand to Longacre. It came, as a Crown gift, into the possession of the Bedford family in 1552. The square was laid out by Inigo .Tones in 1032, and the ancient garden was perpetuated by the continued sale of vegetables, (See Covent G.VRDEN Market.) In the seventeenth centuiy the neighborhood of Covent Garden was a very fashionable quarter of the town, and frequent allusions are made to the place in plays of Charles II. 's time. It has artistic associations of JIarvell, Drj'den, Fielding, Steele, Otway, Foote, Garrick, Hogarth, De Quincey, Charles and JIary Lamb, Turner, and other celebrities. COVENT GARBEN JOURNAL. A short- lived bi-weekly periodical first issued in Janu- ary, 1752, by Henry Fielding, under the name of "Sir Alexander Drawcansir, Knight of the Censor of Great Britain.' It soon involved Fielding in literary quarrels. COVENT GARDEN MARKET. A great London vegetable, fruit, and llower market, es- tablished in the first half of the seventeenth century by small gardeners from the suburbs. In 1829 the rough sheds were succeeded by a mar- ket house, covering about three acres of ground, from designs by jIr. Fowler. In 1859 a flower- market, covered with glass, was built on the south side of the Opera House. COVENT GARDEN THEATRE. A famous London theatre on Bow Street, the home of grand o])era. It was built in 1731 by the harle- quin Rich, under a patent from Charles II, to Sir William Davenant, 1602, It has been several times rebuilt. It was burned in 1808, and rebuilt in 1809 at great cost. The increased prices of admission, intended to defray part of the ex- penses, gave rise to the Old Price Riots. In 1847 it was called the Rojal Italian Ojjera House. On March 4. 1850, it was burned again, and the present structure was erected in 1858. COVENTRY, kuv'en-trl (OE. Coventre, AS. cofatreo, cove-tree, from cofa, cove -+- treo, tree, or tree of Cofa ; popularly etymologized as Con- vent Town, from the convent established there by Leofric). A manufacturing city. Parliamentary and nuniicipal liorough in Warwickshire, Eng- land, on the Shcrbourne, IS^^; miles east-south- east of Birmingham (Map: England, E 4). It stands on ii gentle eminence in a valley, with a ridge of hills on the south, and contains many old houses with timbered fronts projecting into narrow streets, and belonging to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The modern part of Coven- try, however, is well, though not regularly, built. Its most interesting public buildings arc Ihe three churches composing the 'three tall spires' of Coventry; Saint Michael's, built of red sandstone
