portiones of the
Scriptures"; "to restore the Lord's Prayer to more frequent use,
likewyse the Doxologie and the Creed." The Presbytery continued to
meet as usual, and virtually elected its own Moderator. The chief
difference was that at the Synod the Bishop as of right occupied the
chair. At this period we have another interesting glimpse of the
internal condition of the Presbytery. It was complained to one Synod
that "some young men, ministers within the Presbytrie of Ochterarder,
had behaved themselves somewhat irreverendlie and undeutifullie towards
some of the brethren who were older than themselves both for age and
work of the ministrie. The Bishop having taken the samyne to
consideration, desired the Moderator of the Presbytrie of Ochterarder,
that at their first Presbyterial meeting, to admonish such brethren,
that in time coming they should absteine from such unbeseeming
misbehaviour, otherwyse to shew them that he would advert to it
hereafter." The young lions of Auchterarder had evidently {107} begun
to roar, catching something of the independent spirit of their seniors.

In this district there was but little of the Covenanting feeling that
was rampant in the West. An Abdiel, however, was found among the
faithless in the person of William Spence, minister of Glendevon. In
1678 he laid a paper on the table of Presbytery in which he testified
against the errors of the times. He was dealt with with great leniency
and patience, but in the end he proved incorrigible. After long delay
he was at last, in the beginning of 1681, deposed and excommunicated by
the Bishop and Synod. From that time onwards he became a political
agent, and was mixed up in the plots which filled the closing years of
the reign of Charles II. In 1684 he was arrested and questioned.
Though made to undergo the torture of the boot, he refused to disclose
anything. He was then handed over to the tender mercies of General
Dalziel, the "Muscovy beast who would roast men," and was kept from
sleeping for eight or nine days till his enemies themselves were weary.
He had to be thumbscrewed, and told that they would screw every joint
of his body, one after another, before his courage began to fail. "Yet
{108} such was the firmness and fidelity of this poor man," writes
Bishop Burnet, "that even in that extremity he capitulated, that no new
questions should be put to him, but those already agreed on; and that
he should not be obliged to be