than to depart out of this miserable life; and
thus, without pain, in November 1572, after bearing the burden and
heat of the day, he fell asleep.

With him and his contemporaries the second generation of the reformers
came to an end. They had fought out the battle against the papacy, and
had established the foundations of a divergent system: now however a
third generation arose, which had to encounter violent storms within
the pale of the new confession itself.

In Scotland the Regents Mar and Morton now thought it necessary, even
for the sake of the constitution, in which the higher clergy formed an
important element, to restore episcopacy, which had been laid low in
the tumult of the times; and to fill the vacant offices with
Protestant clergy, appointed however in the old way, by the election
of the chapters on the recommendation of the Government: it was
desired at the same time to invest them with the power of ordination
and a certain jurisdiction. Knox was at least not hostile to this
measure. The resolution to convene an assembly of the Church at Leith
was formed while he was still alive, and was ratified by Parliament in
January 1573.

But in the Church, which had formed itself in perfect independence by
means of free association, this project, which besides was spoiled by
many blunders in the execution, necessarily provoked strong
opposition. Andrew Melville may be regarded as Knox's successor in the
exercise of the authority of leader; a man of wide learning, who had
in his composition still more of the professor than of the preacher,
and united convictions not less firm than those of Knox with an equal
gift of eloquence. He however on principle excluded episcopacy in any
form from the constitution, as, in his opinion, the Scriptures
recognised only individual bishops: he especially disapproved of the
connexion between the bishops and the crown. The spiritual and the
temporal powers he considered to be distinct kinds of authority, of
which the one was as much of divine right as the other. But he did not
regard the clergy or ministry of preaching as alone charged with
spiritual authority: he thought that the lay elders formed the basis
of this authority: that, once elected, they were permanent, had
themselves a spiritual rank, watched over the purity of doctrine, took
the lead in the call of the preachers, and, together with these,
formed assemblies by whose conclusions every member of the
congregation wa