on Robert Montgomery,
minister of Stirling. The Church at once rose up in arms against this
flagrant violation of its authority, put Montgomery on his trial for
contumacy, found him guilty, and sentenced him to deposition and
excommunication. It was at the instance of Melville, who, in this as in
many another crisis in the Church's history in his time, was called to
the Moderator's chair, that the Assembly took action against Montgomery,
and this was done in defiance of a royal inhibition. The inferior courts
to which the judicial process at different stages was remitted showed
the same determined spirit, so deep and widespread was the indignation
that was roused against Lennox by his attempt to thrust bishops anew
upon the Church, and against the minister of the Church who had so
basely lent himself to it. When the case came before the Presbytery of
Glasgow, Montgomery himself appeared, accompanied by the provost and
bailies and an escort of soldiers, and produced an interdict under the
King's hand against its proceeding. The Presbytery paid no heed to the
intruders, and was going on with the business, when the Moderator was
ejected from the chair, assaulted, and taken off to prison. Still the
Presbytery proceeded till it finished the case and carried out the
injunction of the Assembly. Among the crowd gathered at the Presbytery
house was a band of students from the University, who in making a
demonstration of their sympathy with the ministers were charged by the
soldiery, and some blood was shed. The ministers of the East vied with
those of the West in supporting the action of the Assembly. John Durie,
the most powerful and popular among them, distinguished himself by the
boldness with which he spoke against Lennox as the disturber of the
peace of the Church. The sentence of excommunication, which had been
transmitted to the Edinburgh Presbytery, was pronounced by John
Davidson, minister of Liberton, and read in most of the pulpits in
Edinburgh and Glasgow on the following Sabbath. A meeting of the Privy
Council was immediately called, in which proceedings were taken against
the ministers of Edinburgh, and John Durie was banished from the city.

A special meeting of Assembly was called to deal with this serious state
of affairs, Melville being still in the chair. In his opening sermon he
made a vehement attack on the Court for its renewed attempt to overthrow
the Church's order and restore Episcopacy, and spoke of the