hich they were expressly
empowered to dispose of. The tendencies of the institution were so
manifest, and the powers it speedily assumed so undisguised, that Queen
Elizabeth became alarmed, and insisted on the suppression of it
throughout the province of Canterbury, notwithstanding the
remonstrances and entreaties of the good Archbishop Grindal, and his
repeated and urgent petitions that she would rather endeavour to confine
it to the original purpose, in which it had been of great service, than
suppress it altogether. In the province of York, where the institution
had taken firmer root, and where the contentions between Papists and
Protestants had gained more prominence than those between Puritans and
anti-Puritans, it was tolerated for a considerably longer period. When
in 1581 Scotland was regularly divided into presbyteries, the exercises
previously existing in particular towns were merged in, and their work
devolved on, these; and in the beginning of the seventeenth century,
when episcopacy was restored, the name of presbytery was again
frequently exchanged for that of exercise.

[Sidenote: The General Assembly.]

Of these several church courts perhaps the most distinctive as well as
the most important was the General Assembly, which was originally held
to represent the whole church; and which may still, after the lapse of
ages, be held substantially to do so--having representatives not only
from each of the presbyteries but also from each of the universities and
royal burghs in the kingdom. It has been wont to meet not (as such
national synods have generally done elsewhere) occasionally and chiefly
for legislative purposes, that is, authoritatively to explain the
church's creed and enact canons to regulate the administration of
discipline, but frequently and at short stated intervals to review the
proceedings of the inferior judicatories of the church, as well as to
legislate regarding matters of doctrine and discipline. Whether its
peculiar vitality in the Scottish Church is to be ascribed to its
popular constitution, or to the fact that it has in general faithfully
represented the national sentiments in those controversies which in
successive generations have been agitated in our country; or whether the
groundwork of it had not been laid long before in those national
councils of the church which the popish ecclesiastics had, under the
bull of Pope Honorius III.,[202] deemed themselves warranted to hold
every y