Note 235 — Chapter II

See the First Book of Discipline, reprinted in the first volume of A Compendium of the Laws of the Church of Scotland, 2d edit., Edinburgh, 1837. The superintendents were ‘to set, order, and appoint ministers,’ p. 61; and it would seem (p. 88) that no minister could be deposed without the consent of his superintendent; but this could hardly be intended to interfere with the supreme authority of the General Assembly. See also the summary, p. 114, where it is said of the superintendents, that ‘in thair visitatioun thei sal not onlie preiche, but als examine the doctrine, life, diligence, and behavior of the ministeris, reideris, elderis, and deaconis.’ According to Spottiswoode (History of the Church of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 167), ‘the superintendents held their office during life, and their power was episcopal; for they did elect and ordain ministers, they presided in synods, and directed all church censures, neither was any excommunication pronounced without their warrant.’ See further, on their authority, Knox's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 161. ‘That punyschment suld be appointed for suche as dissobeyid or contemned the superintendentes in thair functioun.’ This was in 1561; and, in 1562, ‘It was ordained, that if ministers be disobedient to superintendents in anything belonging to edification, they must be subject to correction.’ Acts of the General Assemblies of the Kirk, vol. i. p. 14. Compare p. 131: ‘sick things as superintendents may and aught decyde in their synodall conventiouns.’