occasionally, they said, for a month or two, and then departed. His books and furniture remained there, but he dwelt in the house not more than a third part of the year. Mystery seemed completely to enshroud him,

-a mystery which has remained uncleared to this time, for I have neither seen nor heard tidings of the stranger since.

I left Mantua the day but one following, and returned to England.

THE Sixth General Assembly sat on the twenty-fifth, and three following days of June 1563. The meetings of this Court had hitherto been held at Edinburgh; but this Assembly convened at Perth, or, as it was sometimes called, St. John's Town. The particular place of meeting is not specified; but it is mentioned, that the First Session was opened with prayer by Mr John Willock. After trial had been taken of Superintendents and Ministers, agreeably to an order formerly laid down, Knox reported the proceedings of the Commissioners in the case of Paul Methven, and rendered up the Commission which had been given by the Assembly for that purpose. The particulars of this case were noticed in a former sketch, and need not now be repeated.

The Assembly next proceeded to make arrangements for planting Kirks in those districts which were destitute of the ordinances of the reformed religion. For this purpose, commissions were given, both in this and the other Sessions of the Assembly, to the Superintendents and other leading Ministers. These commissions were generally declared to be only for one year, and authorized those who held them to admit Ministers, Exhorters, Readers, Elders, and Deacons, and to place Schoolmasters. In this Session, Mr John Rutherford, Principal of St. Salvator's College at St. Andrew's, complained that Mr John Balfour usurped the office of the Ministry at Cults, without being duly admitted; and offered, as the Church belonged to him as Principal, to discharge the duties of it according to his ability. The complaint was heard, his offer was accepted, and Rutherford, in presence of the Assembly, took upon himself the office of the Minister of

Cults. Balfour, according to Calderwood, (Large MS., Vol. I., p. 805,) was placed in an obscurer congregation, according to the measure of his gifts.

It is impossible to pass over this case without remarking how little it is in accordance with some representations which have lately been set forth upon this subject. With regard to the general measure of uniting two or more ecclesiastical offices in one person, there may be much room for difference of opinion. But it has been argued, that every such union is in direct opposition to the spirit of our ecclesiastical constitution, and is to be denounced as a monstrous innovation, from the very mention of which our first Reformers would have started back with horror. Our first Reformers, however, do not seem to have had that pure and unmixed hatred of pluralities which has been ascribed to them by some of their admiring successors. They took great pains (although not with complete success) to prevent the union of civil and ecclesiastical offices in the same person; and several of the cases and enactments which have been quoted as condemning pluralities in toto, refer merely to this kind of union, or rather confusion, of offices. Even when there was no direct conjunction of a secular and an ecclesiastical office, Ministers were enjoined to beware of intermeddling too much with worldly affairs. But if they occupied themselves with the proper duties of their profession, they were not prevented from holding more offices than one. It may be said, perhaps, that this toleration of pluralities was, at that time, absolutely necessary. And in some cases it certainly was so. In the Second Session of this same Assembly, it was agreed to supplicate

the Queen and Council, that where two or three Parishes were situated within a convenient distance, they should be united under one Minister, and assemble in one Church. The reasons assigned for this measure were, "becaus the rare number of Ministers suffereth not everie Kirk to have a severall Minister, and the smalness of the Parishes requires not the same." These reasons, however, do not apply to the case of Cults. Mr John Balfour was not declared incapable of the office of the ministry. He was only removed to a place more suitable to his qualifications. The claim and offer of Mr John Rutherford were acknowledged and accepted; yet it would be difficult to shew, that the distance betwixt Cults and St. Andrew's was less on the 25th of June 1563 than it is now, or that the duties of the Principal of St. Salvator's were lighter then than they are at present.

It would appear, that, about this time, it was very common for parties to marry by private contract, as the Assembly, in the Second Session, declared all such contracts to be invalid, till the contractors submitted to discipline, as breakers of good order, and offensive to the church.

To all who are minutely acquainted with the history of the Scottish Church, the difference betwixt Superintendents and Bishops must be very obvious. If any additional illustration were wanted, it might be drawn from the fact, that so long as Superintendents existed, the ordinary Ministers, so far from regarding them as a distinct or superior order in the Church, were very reluctant to submit to them, in the exercise of the powers committed to them by the Assembly. It was ordained, in this Session, that any persons aggrieved by the sentence of the Minister, Elders, and Deacons, of their church, might appeal, within ten days, to the Superintendent and Synodal Convention. A farther appeal might be taken, within ten days, from the Superintendent and Synodal Convention, to the next General Assembly, whose sentence should be final. If the Appellant failed to justify his appeal, the Superintendent and Synodal Convention might, besides ex

penses to the other party, inflict a pecuniary penalty, to be paid to the poor of the parish in which the cause originated. The Assembly, if the appeal was not sustained before them, might appoint another penalty, to be applied in the same way.

In this Session it was also enacted, that the teachers of youth, both in and out of Universities, should be such as professsd the reformed faith ; and that they who refused to do so should be removed from their offices. It was also appointed, that some order should be taken for the support of poor scholars.

The Parliament which met immediately before the Assembly passed several Acts highly beneficial to the Reformers. Of these the most important, perhaps, was the act of oblivion for all things done against the Sovereign since the year 1558. With this act, however, the Assembly, as a Court, had nothing to do. By another Act of the same Parliament, it was ordained that the Lords of Secret Council should take steps for "upholding and reparelling of Paroche Kirks and Kirk-yairds." In reference to this Act, the Assembly appointed the Superintendents to see that all churches within their bounds should receive such repairs as might be necessary; and, in case of neglect or disobedience, they were to make complaint to the Secret Council.

The Parliament had also ordained that Ministers should be put in possession of the manses at their respective Churches, or, if the manse was set in tack, that a reasonable and sufficient house in the neighbourhood of the Church should be built by those who had the manse in tack. The Comptroller, the Justice Clerk, and the Clerk Register, being present in this Session, promised to grant letters of execution upon this point to all Ministers, and cause them to be executed without expense.

In distributing the patrimony of the Church, the incumbents were allowed to retain two parts, while a third part was paid to the Queen, from which the Stipends of the Ministers were assigned. The Queen, however, took upon her to remit the payment of their thirds to such beneficed persons as she wished to favour or con

ciliate. Lest the Ministers should suffer by the remissions, the Comptroller was requested to assume, out of the thirds of such benefices as were remitted by the Queen, so much as might sufficiently sustain the Ministers. This measure was to have effect as well for the time past as for the time to come. But it was not to be put in execution upon the thirds which had been remitted to Universities.

While the Assembly thus endeavoured to provide for the independence and usefulness of the Ministers, it was also attempted to add to their comfort, by relieving them from duties quite at variance with the purity of their profession and character. Supplication was appointed to be made for constituting Judges in every province, to take cognizance in cases of adultery.

The Third Session of this Assembly opened with a resolution which calls for some illustration and remark. It was ordained "That no Work sould be sett furth in Print, or published in Writt, tuiching Religion or Doctrine, before it be presented to the Superintendent of the Diocie, revised and approved be hin, and such as he sall call of the most learned within his Bounds; and if they, or anie of them, doubt in anie point, so that they cannot resolve cleerlie in the same, they sall produce the said work to the Generall Assemblie, where Order sal be taken for Resolution of the said Doubt."

From the mention which is made in this enactment of publishing in writ, it is plain that printing had not yet become common in Scotland. So far back as 1507, a licence was granted to "Walter Chepman and Andrew Myllar, burgesses of Edinburgh, for bringing home a printer's press, with all stuff belonging thereto." The only productions of this press which remain, are a Collection of Miscellaneous Pieces, and the Aberdeen Breviary. The Miscellaneous Pieces were published in 1508, and the only copy in the country is in the Advocate's Library. The Aberdeen Breviary appeared in two parts the former in 1509 and the latter in 1510. Complete copies of the work are very rare; but there is one in the University Library at

Edinburgh. The next Scots printer seems to have been Thomas Davidson, who is described as "a northland man, borne on the water of Die." He printed Bellenden's Translation of Boethius, in 1536 or 1537, and the Acts of Parliament in 1540, and following years. Mr Robert Alexander, who was Pedagogue to the Earl of Errol, is said to have set forth in print, about the year 1540, a work on Scottish metre, entitled Lord

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My Lord's Testainent." Errol is known to have had many of the most comfortable passages" of the New Testament by heart, and to have taken pleasure in reciting them to others: and it is not improbable that this work of Alexander's may have taken its name from being a metrical version of these passages. That singular production, the "Complaint of Scotland," seems to have been printed at St. Andrew's in 1548 or 1549. The preamble to an Act passed by the Parliament which met at Edinburgh in February 1551, states, that there were then "divers Prentaris in the Realme, that daylie and continuallie prentit bukis." Few of these "bukis," however, have come down to us. Archbishop Hamilton's Catechism was printed at St. Andrew's in 1552, but has not the name of the printer. Knox's "Faythfull Admonition," &c., bears to have been "Imprinted at Kalykow, the 20th day of Julii 1664." This place is probably meant for Kelso, but it is doubtful whether the book was actually printed in Scotland. Cockburn's Meditation on the Lord's Prayer was printed at St. Andrew's by John Scot in 1555. In 1558 Ninian Winzet began to set forth his pieces in defence of the Catholic faith. And Keith seems to think (History of Scotland, p. 524) that this resolution of the Assembly, which has led to these notices, was prompted by the impression which was produced by the publications of Winzet. The policy of the measure, however, cannot be defended or excused by the circumstances which led to it. The Reformers, it is true, in asserting a claim to review all works upon religion, were claiming no more than what the Catholics had done before, and both Protestants and Catholics have done since. But the

struggle for religious liberty, from which they had scarcely emerged, should have led them to exercise more toleration towards the opinions and principles of others, and to place more confidence in the truth and stability of their own.

In this Session, the Superintendents of Angus and Fife were desired "to draw the towns of Dundee and St. Johnston to an agreement." These were both very ancient burghs, with peculiar and extensive privileges. Some time before this, disputes between them, as to precedence and other matters, had been keenly agitated. Boethius, who was a native of Dundee, asserts in his Chronicles, that the ancient town of Perth had been overflowed by the river, and that the town, as it stood in his day, was not of great antiquity. There is no good evidence, however, in support of this; and it is not impossible that the partiality of Boethius, as a native of Dundee, may have led him to give more importance to the supposition than it really merited. The efforts of the Superintendents seem at this time to have been ineffectual; or if they succeeded in quieting the difference which then existed, another soon broke out; for in Birrel's Diary, under the year 1567, is the following entry :-"Ye Regent raid to ye Parliament Hous, and ves much troubled to compose these two turbulent towns of l'erth and Dundee."

Except the granting of commissions to plant kirks, and to consider cases of complaint and appeal, the only other business of any importance which was transacted in this Session, or indeed in this Assembly, was the reversal of a sentence which had been passed so far back as 1534, against James Hamilton, of Kincavell, Sheriff of Linlithgow. He was brother to the famous Patrick Hamilton, the proto-martyr of the Scottish Reformation. In August 1534 he and his sister Catherine were summoned before the Bishop of Ross, who sat in the Abbey of Holyroodhouse as Commissioner for the Archbishop of St. Andrew's, to answer a charge of heresy. According to Calderwood, (large MS. Vol. I. p. 96.) the King advised Hamilton to leave the country, as, in the event of his being convicted, the royal favour

could not save him. He therefore fled; and in his absence was condemned as a heretic, and had his property confiscated. His sister compeared, and being charged with maintaining, "that works could not save," a long reasoning betwixt her and Mr John Spens, a lawyer, ensued, which she concluded in these words, "Work heir, work there, what kind of working is all this? I know perfectlye, that no kind of workes can save me, but onlie the workes of Christ, my Lord and Saviour." The King, (James the V.,) who was present, hearing these words, "turned him about and laughed, and called her unto him, and caused her to recant, becaus she was his aunt; and so she escaped."

Some years after this, James Hamilton obtained from the Pope a remission of the sentence which had been pronounced against him. In the Parliament which met at Edinburgh in the month of August 1546, "My Lord Governor and thre estatis admittit the bull and process of pardoun, and remitt grantit and gevin to James Hamiltoun, sumtyme of Kyncavill, be the Papis Halines and his deligatis-without prejudice of the Quenis grace ryt, and partis havand interest thairto." Against this admission by the Parliament a protest was entered in the name of James Hamilton, son and heir of Sir James Hamilton of Finnert, who had died in possession of the lands of Kincavill, and others. In like manner, when the Assembly declared the articles, upon which the Sheriff of Linlithgow had been condemned, to be "good and godly," and that he should be restored to his " honour, fame, and dignity," James Gibb of Carrudder compeared, and protested, that this declaration" sould not be prejudiciall to him and his rights whatsoever." But what interest he had does not appear.

No roll of the members remains; but it would appear that this was not a frequent Assembly; for, in the fourth and last Session, the Superintendents were instructed to "warne the Shires, Townes, and Parish-Kirks, to send their Commissioners in times cuming." It would also appear, that not only burghs, but also shires, were represented in our early Assemblies.