He and Bennett, his colleague, were required by His Majesty and the Committee of Estates to repair to Perth, 19 February 1651, to answer for preaching against the Public Resolutions agreed to by Church and State in order to a levy, but they refused.

The sentence of forfeiture was rescinded by Parliament 22 July 1690, and his skull, after being a public spectacle for about twenty-eight years, was removed by Alexander Hamilton, then a student at the university, who afterwards succeeded the Holy Rude Church in Stirling.

From his determined support of Presbyterian principles, Guthrie was named siccar foot (the Scots term for a sure-footed person), the avowed leader of the Protesters, and their secretary and champion.

He married Jane (buried in Greyfriars, 15 March 1673), who was the daughter of Ramsay of Sheilhill, and had issue – William, died on the eve of being licensed at Edinburgh April 1674; Sophia, who, along with her mother, was in 1666 banished to a lonely prison in Shetland for having in their possession a copy of John Brown's Apologeticall Relation of the Particular Sufferings of the Faithful Ministers and Professors of the Church of Scotland.

In January 1639 Samuel Rutherford was made divinity professor at the University of St Andrews, and under his influence Guthrie became a Presbyterian.

[12] The origin of the dispute goes back to the year 1647, when, after difficult and intricate negotiations, Charles was delivered up to the English Parliament, and after an attempt to escape from Hampton Court was taken and committed as a prisoner to Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight.

While there, a secret treaty was framed between him and representatives from Scotland, in which he agreed under certain conditions to accept the Solemn League and Covenant, and to establish Presbyterianism for three years in England.

This treaty, known as the "Engagement," though approved by the Scottish Parliament, was rejected and condemned by the Commission of Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which instructed every minister to preach against it, and to use his utmost influence to prevent the Marquis of Hamilton's expedition for the relief of the King from proving successful.

[13] James Guthrie wanted the full force of the Covenants in national life in all parts of the kingdoms and opposed the Engagement and supporting the army which backed it; he became a Remonstrator.

According to the act, the various ranks of Malignants or Engagers were declared incapable of holding any office of public trust or employment, whether in Church or in State.

[17] On 14 December 1650, the Commission of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at Perth replied to a question from the government as to who would be allowed to fight in the army.

[19][20] By and by, when the Engagers returned to power, the Act of Classes was repealed, and a new army was levied which, to a large extent, was officered and filled by men who were regarded as unfaithful to the Covenant.

In favour of this proceeding, however, the Church, forsaking the higher sphere, issued certain Resolutions, which were strenuously protested against by a large and influential minority.

[14] Those in favour of the loosening of the conditions for fighting were known as Resolutioners, a name derived from their approval of the resolutions of Commission and Parliament for the levy of 23 December.

[6][24] Not satisfied with expressing in a letter to the Commission of Assembly their dissatisfaction with the aforesaid Resolutions, they continued to preach against them and to denounce them as involving the nation in sin.

For this they were cited to appear before the Committee of Estates at Perth, where Charles II was now holding his Court, and, having done so, they refused to acknowledge the King's right to interfere with them in the discharge of their ministerial functions.

On 17 October Guthrie, by the "Western Remonstrance", withdrew from the royalist cause; on 14 December he sent a letter to the general assembly at Perth denouncing Middleton as an enemy of the Covenant, and proposing his excommunication.

[27] Guthrie was appointed to pronounce the sentence next Sunday, and, despite a letter from the assembly bidding him delay the act, carried out the original order.

[28] The same meeting of commission which ordered Middleton's excommunication had passed a unanimous resolution authorising the acceptance of the military services of all but "obstinate" enemies of the covenant.

[28][29] The attack on the resolution was led at the next meeting of the General Assembly at St. Andrews (16 July) by John Menzies, divinity professor in the Marischal College, Aberdeen, Guthrie strongly supported him.

The champion of the "resolutioners" was James Sharp, afterwards archbishop, whose arguments led Cromwell to refuse the plea of the "protesters" for a commission in their favour.

The cause of the "protesters" was further weakened by the defection of some of them (including Menzies) to independency, a development which increased Guthrie's opposition to Cromwell's government.

Guthrie and nine others met in Edinburgh (23 August 1660) and drew up a "humble petition" to the king setting forth their loyalty, and reminding him of his obligations as a covenanter.

[28] The charges against Guthrie were six in number: (1) His contriving, consenting to, and exhibiting before the Committee of Estates the paper called The Western Remonstrance.

His name ("famous Guthrie's head") is commemorated in the rude lines on the "martyrs' monument" in Greyfriars Churchyard, Edinburgh.

The widow and daughter after being brought before the privy council on 8 February 1666, on a charge of possessing a treasonable book, and sentenced to banishment, were permitted, on 15 January 1669, to return to Edinburgh for a month, in consequence of the son's illness.