s
to rend the nation for many a day, and that is not yet finally
settled--Was the Church to be free to shape her own course and do her
work in her own fashion, or was she to be subject to the civil
government? Was the Church to be essentially the Church of Christ in
Scotland, or was she to be the religious department, so to speak, of the
Civil Service?

The first Assembly in which Melville sat met in Edinburgh in March 1575.
Parliament had just appointed a committee to frame a more satisfactory
polity for the Church, and the Assembly nominated some of its members as
assessors to confer with it and report the proposals that might be made.
At the same time it appointed a committee of its own, composed of its
most competent and trusted men, to draft a constitution for its
approval. This committee was reappointed from year to year; the result
of its labours being the 'Second Book of Discipline,' which was laid
before the Assembly and adopted by it at its meeting in the Magdalene
Chapel, Edinburgh, in April 1578.

It was in the next Assembly, held in August of the same year, that the
first blow was struck at the Tulchan Episcopate. This was done by a
resolution brought forward by John Durie, one of the ministers of
Edinburgh; but there is little doubt that it originated with Melville,
who, although he had been home scarcely a year, had taken his place as
the leader of his brethren, and by his teaching and personal influence
had 'wakened up their spreits' to oppose the designs of the Court
against the constitution of the Church. Durie's resolution raised the
question of the scripturalness and lawfulness of the office of a bishop.
In supporting it Melville made a powerful speech, in which he urged the
abolition of the bishoprics and the restoration of the original
Presbyterian order of the Church as the only satisfactory settlement of
her affairs. The House resolved there and then to appoint an advisory
committee to consider and report on the question, which committee
reported against the office. No further step was taken at this time, the
bishops being left as they were. At the next Assembly, however, held in
April 1576, the committee's finding was adopted, and so far applied that
all bishops who held their office 'at large' were required to allocate
themselves to particular congregations.

The Assembly's decision was practically unanimous; its members were at
one in wishing an end to the Tulchan scheme, and the people wer