ere directed rather to points of outer observance
than to any attack on the actual fabric of Presbyterian organization.
The estates were induced to withdraw the control of ecclesiastical
apparel from the Assembly, and to commit it to the Crown; and this step
was soon followed by a resumption of their episcopal costume on the part
of the Scotch bishops. When the Bishop of Moray preached before Charles
in his rochet, on the king's visit to Edinburgh in 1633, it was the
first instance of its use since the Reformation. The innovation was
followed by the issue of a Royal warrant which directed all ministers to
use the surplice in divine worship.

[Sidenote: The new Liturgy.]

The enforcement of the surplice woke Scotland from its torpor, and alarm
at once spread through the country. Quarterly meetings were held in
parishes with fasting and prayer to consult on the dangers which
threatened religion, and ministers who conformed to the new ceremonies
were rebuked and deserted by their congregations. The popular discontent
soon found leaders in the Scotch nobles. Threatened in power by the
attempts of the Crown to narrow their legal jurisdiction, in purse by
projects for the resumption and restoration to the Church of the
bishops' lands, irritated by the restoration of the prelates to their
old rank, by their reintroduction to Parliament and the Council, by the
nomination of Archbishop Spottiswood to the post of Chancellor, and
above all by the setting up again the worrying bishops' courts, the
nobles with Lord Lorne at their head stood sullenly aloof from the new
system. But Charles was indifferent to the discontent which his measures
were rousing. Under Laud's pressure he was resolved to put an end to the
Presbyterian character of the Scotch Church altogether, and to bring it
to a uniformity with the Church of England in organization and ritual.
With this view a book of Canons was issued in 1636 on the sole
authority of the king. These Canons placed the government of the Church
absolutely in the hands of its bishops; and made a bishop's licence
necessary for instruction and for the publication of books. The
authority of the prelates indeed was jealously subordinated to the
supremacy of the Crown. No Church Assembly might be summoned but by the
king, no alteration in worship or discipline introduced but by his
permission. As daring a stretch of the prerogative superseded what was
known as Knox's Liturgy--the book of Common Ord