d that of a Presbyterian "Superintendent." His strong political
sense hindered a conflict on such a ground with the civil power, and
without a conflict it was plain that no change could come. The Regent
Morton, Calvinist as he was, supported the cause of Episcopacy, and the
fact that bishops formed an integral part of the estates of the realm
made any demand for their abolition distasteful to the large mass of men
who always shrink from any constitutional revolution.

[Sidenote: Presbyterianism established.]

But Melville threw aside all compromise. In 1580 the General Assembly
declared the office of bishop abolished, as having "no sure warrant,
authority, or good ground out of the Word of God." In 1581 it adopted a
second Book of Discipline which organized the Church on the pure
Calvinistic model and advanced the full Calvinistic claim to its
spiritual independence and supremacy within the realm. When the Estates
refused to sanction this book the Assembly sent it to every presbytery,
and its gradual acceptance secured the organization of the Church. It
was at this crisis that the appearance of Esme Stuart brought about the
first reaction towards a revival of the royal power; and the Council
under the guidance of the favourite struck at once at the preachers who
denounced it. But their efforts to "tune the pulpits" were met by a bold
defiance. "Though all the kings of the earth should call my words
treason," replied one minister who was summoned to the Council-board, "I
am ready by good reason to prove them to be the very truth of God, and
if need require to seal them with my blood." Andrew Melville, when
summoned on the same charge of seditious preaching, laid a Hebrew Bible
on the Council-table and "resolved to try conclusions on that only."
What the Council shrank from "trying conclusions" with was the popular
enthusiasm which backed these protests. When John Durie was exiled for
words uttered in the pulpit, the whole town of Edinburgh met him on his
return, "and going up the street with bare heads and loud voices sang to
the praise of God till heaven and earth resounded."

[Sidenote: James and the Kirk.]

But it was this very popularity which roused the young king to action.
Boy of eighteen as he was, no sooner had the overthrow of the Douglases
and the judicial murder of Lord Gowrie freed James from the power of the
nobles than he faced this new foe. Theologically his opinions were as
Calvinistic as those of Mel