Scottish Presbyterian minister, theologian, and political theorist (1600–1661) whose dual legacy — the rigorous political treatise Lex, Rex and the tender pastoral Letters — makes him one of the most important Covenanter divines. Rutherford pastored at Anwoth in Galloway (1627–1636) before being banished by Archbishop Laud to Aberdeen for nonconformity. Recalled in 1638 with the Scottish National Covenant's triumph, he was appointed professor of divinity at St. Andrews. He served as one of the four Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly (1643–1647), where he was a leading advocate for Presbyterian polity and contributed significantly to the Westminster Standards. His Lex, Rex; or, The Law and the Prince (1644) is the foundational Covenanter argument that civil authority is limited by natural law and divine law — the prince is under the law, not above it. The treatise was ordered burned by the Restoration government in 1660; Rutherford himself was summoned on charges of high treason and died (1661) before he could be brought to trial. His Letters, written to his Anwoth congregation during the Aberdeen exile, remain among the most spiritually rich and Christ-centered pastoral writings in the Reformed tradition. For the patriarchal-Reformed reader, Rutherford is the model of confessional courage: doctrinal precision, political principle, and pastoral tenderness in one man.