s fatal
innovation on Presbytery, and it was agreed to, only after cautions,
proposed by the House, had been accepted by the Commissioner.

That even such a tame Assembly was indisposed to yield up the liberties
of the Church at the demand of the King was shown by the passing of
resolutions intended to clip the wings of the bishops. These resolutions
declared, with the concurrence of the bishops themselves, that they were
subject to the discipline of the Church and amenable to their own
presbyteries.

The King was mightily displeased with his friends in the Assembly
because they had not 'proceedit frielyer'; he was enraged at the bishops
for submitting themselves to the courts of the Church. The Moderator,
Nicolson, Bishop of Dunkeld, at one time James Melville's bosom friend
and a standard-bearer of the Kirk, took the King's displeasure so much
to heart that he fell ill, and when it was proposed to send for a
doctor, replied, 'Send for King James; it is the digesting of his
Bishoprick that has wracked my stomack.'

The presbyteries rose up in arms against the Constant Moderators, as did
all the synods except Angus; and many scenes of violence took place at
the meetings, of these courts through the attempt made by the King's
Commissioner to force the adoption of the Acts of the Linlithgow
Assembly. The King had still some hard work to do before he could
accomplish his purposes. His next step was to propose a conference of
ministers, chosen from both sides of the House, to confer on the
questions at issue; and meanwhile all public discussion on these
questions was to be suspended. The ministers accepted the
proposal--another of these fatal concessions by which they were only
drawn further into the King's net. Confer and discuss as they might, the
King remained the final arbiter, and only one conclusion would be
accepted by him. By the suspension of hostilities between the two
parties in the Church, those who were opposed to the King gained
nothing, and he gained much. While the ministers were silent and
inactive, the bishops were as aggressive as ever; they openly avowed
their intention of conforming the Church to Episcopacy; and they brought
down from London the King's Commissioner and several dignitaries of the
English Church to assist them in the task.

At the next meeting of Parliament, July 1609, the only measure now
needed, so far as Parliament was concerned, to restore a full-blown
Episcopacy, was passed with