Rankin as 'martyr' and 'faithful Abdiel' - competing narratives of the schism

Source: history-of-the-presbyterian-church-in-the-state-of-kentucky-with-a-preliminary-sketch-of-the-churches-in-the-valley-of-virginia
Page: 91
Type: quote
Confidence: high
Date mentioned: 1792
Topics: psalmody-controversy rankin-case martyrdom-narrative presbyterian-response
People: adam-rankin
Places: Kentucky, Mount Zion
Institutions: transylvania-presbytery

Context

Davidson acknowledges that Rankin and his supporters promoted a different interpretation of the trial than the Presbytery’s official version. This section reveals the competing narratives that circulated.

Extract

Artful misrepresentations were industriously circulated, to attract the tide of popular sympathy. The true ground of condemnation was of a personal kind, and Mr. Rankin was punished for being an uncharitable calumniator, and a setter-up of unauthorized terms of communion, under the pretence of Divine sanction; but this was studiously kept out of sight, and, notwithstanding the explicit disavowal of Presbytery, the recommendation of the supreme judicatory, and the actual use of Rouse’s version among certain of the churches without the slightest molestation, (a liberality observed to this day,) it was unblushingly affirmed that the question of psalmody was tried on its naked merits.

The pastor of Mount Zion Church was looked upon as a martyr in the cause of truth, persecuted for righteousness’ sake; the faithful Abdiel, who alone swerved not from his integrity, when all his fellows proved recreant.

[Presbytery’s official disclaimer:] “It is hereby declared, that his particular sentiments merely in the use of psalmody were never considered as any ground of censure, or sufficient cause of alienation of affection: he was censured for unchristian and uncharitable reflections on his brethren for their use of Dr. Watts’ psalms and hymns, his charging them, on this account, with deism, blasphemy, &c., and that, after he had agreed with some of them to exercise mutual forbearance. Those who spread contrary reports cannot produce a single evidence for it; and those who believe it do it on the most unwarrantable foundation.”

Significance

This extract reveals two competing frames for interpreting Rankin’s deposition:

Rankinite frame (rejected by Davidson but clearly influential):

  • Rankin as “martyr in the cause of truth”
  • “Persecuted for righteousness’ sake”
  • The “faithful Abdiel” (Milton’s loyal angel who alone stood against Satan when all others fell)
  • The case was about psalmody “on its naked merits”

Presbytery’s official frame:

  • Rankin was punished for being an “uncharitable calumniator”
  • He was a “setter-up of unauthorized terms of communion” (making exclusive psalmody a test for the Lord’s Supper)
  • His “particular sentiments merely in the use of psalmody were never considered as any ground of censure”
  • The issue was his behavior after breaking a mutual forbearance agreement

The Abdiel reference is particularly significant - it casts Rankin as a lone faithful witness against universal apostasy, a powerful martyrdom narrative that would have resonated with his Scots-Irish Presbyterian followers who knew Milton and valued covenanting history.

Davidson’s dismissal of these claims as “artful misrepresentations” and “unblushingly affirmed” falsehoods shows how contested this history remained even 55 years later.