[1] They purged the Covenanters' General Assembly and army of "ungodly elements"[2] and crowned Charles II as King of Scotland in 1651, in return for his explicit endorsement of their religious and political agenda in the Treaty of Breda (1650).
In the month before the Battle of Dunbar they chose to institute a searching three-day examination of the political and religious sentiments of the Scottish army.
The result was that the army was purged of "Malignants", 80 officers and 3000 experienced soldiers, while it lay within musket shot of the enemy.
However, they in turn were defeated at the battle of Worcester in 1651,[2] leading eventually to Scotland's incorporation into the Commonwealth of England.
The nickname was later applied (equally offensively) to those, headed by Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, calling for the exclusion of James, Duke of York from the English throne on the grounds of his Catholicism.