e; whereupon the Moderator dissolved the Assembly and fixed a
day for its next meeting. The law-officers of the Crown were immediately
instructed to prosecute the ministers who had attended, and fourteen of
them were tried and sentenced to imprisonment--two of them, Forbes the
Moderator and John Welch, Knox's son-in-law, being sent to Blackness.
Six of them having declined the jurisdiction of the Council, were tried
for high treason by a packed jury, and found guilty by a majority. So
great was the indignation felt throughout the country at the prosecution
and the manner in which it had been conducted, that the Council had to
inform the King that the Court could not go on with the trial of the
others. Eight of the condemned ministers were banished to the Highlands
and Islands; and the six who had been found guilty of treason were sent
to Blackness and then banished to France. In all the proceedings against
those who had made such a manly stand in defence of the Church's
liberties, Melville identified himself with his brethren, did all that
was in his power to procure their acquittal, and after their sentence
visited them in prison.

The King now took another step in his campaign against Presbytery. He
ordered all the synods of the Church to meet, in order to have articles
submitted to them which provided that the bishops should have full
jurisdiction over the ministers, under his Majesty, and that the King
should be acknowledged supreme ruler of the Church under Christ. These
articles were rejected by Melville's synod, and referred to the Assembly
by the others. A meeting of Parliament was summoned to pass the articles
into law, and to this Parliament Melville was sent by his presbytery to
watch over the interests of the Church. It having been ascertained that
it was the King's intention to propose that the statute of the year
1587, annexing the temporalities of the prelates to the Crown, should be
repealed, and that the bishops should be restored to their ancient
prerogatives and dignities, the ministers lodged a protest beforehand,
with Melville's name at the head of the signatories; and when the
measure came to be adopted by Parliament, and Melville rose up to renew
his protest, he was commanded to leave the House, 'quhilk nevertheless
he did not, till he had maid all that saw and heard him understand his
purpose.' Melville seldom failed in any circumstances to make those who
saw and heard him understand his purpose,