th them in an address to
the King, praying him, as a member of the Covenant with themselves, to
remember his obligations to that sacred institution and zealously to
prosecute its blessed work in all his three kingdoms. Toleration in
things religious was especially denounced as a vast mischief disguised
under the specious pretence of liberty for tender consciences.
Schismatics were to be stamped out as sternly as Papists and Prelatists;
and by Schismatics were meant all men, members of their own Church no
less than of others, who ventured to differ from them on any point of
doctrine whatsoever.

The Committee of Estates, which had resumed its sittings, did not like
the job. They called the deputation a private meeting of some protesting
ministers, and clapped the leaders into prison.

A government had now been formed for Scotland. Middleton was Lord High
Commissioner, a soldier of fortune who had been raised to the peerage
for the occasion. He was also named commander-in-chief of the forces and
governor of Edinburgh Castle. With him were associated Glencairn as Lord
Chancellor, Lauderdale as Secretary of State, Rothes as President of the
Council, and Crawford as Lord Treasurer. The first proceeding of this
Parliament, known in the gossip of the time as the Drunken Parliament
from the too frequent condition of its chiefs, was to pass a Rescissory
Act, repealing all measures that had become law since the year 1633,
including even those passed by the Parliament professing the authority
of Charles himself. This was followed by an Act "concerning religion and
Church government," in which, after some pious but vague protestations
of the royal design to "encourage the exercise of religion both public
and private, and to suppress all profaneness and disorderly walking," it
was promised that the administration by sessions, presbyteries, and
synods would not for the present be interfered with. That present,
however, soon passed. On May 27th, two days before the anniversary of
the Restoration of the Monarchy, the Act for the Restoration of
Episcopacy was made law. A previous Act had ordained May 29th to be kept
holy; and the opposition taken to this by those who objected to all
holidays as idolatrous had in turn produced a measure which practically
marks the beginning of that system of vague bullying, as Dr. Burton has
happily called it, which was in no long time to pass into a persecution
anything but vague. On December 15th, in