tified by the Parliament
of 1612, and James, having thus secured the position in the Church
which he coveted, proceeded in his endeavors to mould it, as well in
its worship as in its government and doctrine, to his own views.

The Church of Scotland was not allowed to remain long in ignorance of
the King's purpose. Early in 1614 a royal order was sent to the
northern kingdom requiring all ministers to celebrate Holy Communion on
Easter Day, the 24th of April, and this was followed in 1616 by a
proposal from the King to the General Assembly that "a liturgy and form
of divine service should be prepared" for the use of the Scottish
Church. The Assembly (formed as indicated above) with ready
acquiescence heartily thanked His Majesty for his royal care of the
Church and ordained:

"That a uniform order of Liturgy or divine service be set down to be
read in all Kirks on the ordinary days of prayer and every Sabbath day
before the sermon, to the end the common people may be acquainted
therewith, and by custom may learn to serve God rightly. And to this
intent the Assembly has appointed ... to revise the Book of Common
Prayer contained in the Psalm Book, and to set down a common form of
ordinary service to be used in all times hereafter."

The work thus authorized of revising the Book of Common Order was at
once undertaken by those appointed thereto, but although a draft was
made and much labor was expended upon it during a term of several
years, the book in its revised form was never introduced into the
Scottish Church. By the time it had received its final revision at the
hands of the King and his Scotch advisors in London, such events had
transpired, and such a spirit of opposition had been aroused in
Scotland by other measures, that it was deemed wise to withhold it, and
the death of James occurring in 1625, while it was still unpublished,
the book in its revised form was retained by Spottiswoode, Bishop of
St. Andrew's, and appears to have been forgotten for years, even by its
most active promoters. From correspondence in the time of Charles
First, however, it appears that James had not relinquished his aim of
imposing the new book upon the Scottish Church, and it is probable that
his death alone prevented the attempt being made to carry out his
cherished purpose.

Much of the voluminous correspondence, which at this time passed
between James and the leaders of the Scottish Church, is still extant
and it serv