ops to
demit their office and give in their submission to the provincial
synods. The resolutions of the Assembly were carried without a single
dissenting voice, and within a year the bishops with only five
exceptions had surrendered their sees.

During the six years Melville had been the leader of the Assembly great
results had been reached. The Church had gradually withdrawn from the
Tulchan compromise, and had at the same time elaborated a constitution
for itself on the basis of pure Presbytery. Mention has already been
made of the adoption of this constitution--the Second Book of
Discipline--in 1578. It is not necessary to describe it, as it is seen
in its living embodiment in all the Presbyterian churches of Scotland
to-day; though there is one important part of it which was never carried
out, namely, the allocation of the patrimony of the Church to the
purposes of religion, education, the maintenance of the poor, and the
undertaking of public works for the common good. It enunciates the
principle of the two jurisdictions--'the two swords'--which has played
so important a part in Scottish history, and it protects the rights of
the people in the election of their ministers. One significant
difference between the Second Book of Discipline and the First may be
mentioned--the abolition of the office of Superintendent. This office
had been used as a handle by those who wished to introduce an order in
the Church above the ministry; it thus lent itself as an inlet to
Episcopacy, and so it was resolved to put an end to it.

The unanimity of the Assembly in the adoption of the 'Discipline,' and
in all the steps towards the deposition of the bishops, was remarkable.
The House never once divided. In all its counsels and labours Melville
had the principal share, and it was mainly by his learning, by his
energy, by his mastery in debate, by his unyielding attitude to the
Court, that they issued as they did in the re-establishment of the
Church on its original Presbyterian and popular basis.

James Melville has left us some charming pictures of the Assemblies of
that period and of the private intercourse of its members. 'It was a
maist pleasand and comfortable thing to be present at these Assemblies,
thair was sic frequencie[6] and reverence; with halines in zeall at the
doctrine quhilk soundit mightelie, and the Sessiones at everie meiting,
whar, efter ernest prayer, maters war gravlie and cleirlie proponit;
overtures maid be