rohibition of his nephew, James Melville, to return to Scotland.

Having thus succeeded, by fraud and force, in cutting off the leading
ministers, James next summoned an Assembly to meet at Linlithgow, in
December 1606, naming the persons who were to be sent by the presbyteries.
In this packed Assembly he succeeded in his design of introducing more
generally the prelatic element, by the appointment of constant moderators
in each presbytery. Advancing now with greater rapidity, he instituted, in
1610, the Court of High Commission, which may be well termed the Scottish
Inquisition; and in the same year, in an Assembly held at Glasgow, both
nominated by the King, and corrupted by lavish bribery, the whole prelatic
system of church government was introduced; the right of calling and
dismissing Assemblies was declared to belong to the royal prerogative, the
bishops were declared moderators of diocesan synods; and the power of
excommunicating and absolving offenders was conferred on them.

The government of the Church was thus completely subverted in its external
aspect. Its forms indeed remained. There were still presbyteries and
synods, and there might be a General Assembly, if the King pleased; but
the power of presbyteries or synods was vested in the Prelates, and the
King could prevent any Assembly from being held, as long as he thought
proper. But the Presbyterian Church, though overborne, was not destroyed,
nor was its free spirit wholly subdued. When, in 1617, the King attempted
to arrogate to himself and his prelatic council the power of enacting
ecclesiastical laws, he was immediately met by a protestation against a
measure so despotic. By an arbitrary stretch of power, he banished the
historian Calderwood, the person who presented to him the protestation;
but he felt it necessary to have recourse once more to his previously
employed scheme, of a packed and bribed Assembly, in which to enact his
innovations. This was accordingly done in the Assembly of 1618, held in
Perth, in which, by the joint influence of bribery and intimidation, he
succeeded in obtaining a majority of votes in favour of _the five articles
of Perth_, as they are usually called. These _five articles_
were,--_kneeling at the communion_,--_the observance of
holidays_,--_episcopal confirmation_,--_private baptism_,--_and the private
dispensation of the Lord's Supper_. It will at once be seen that these
innovations were directly contrary to the presby