Note 249 — CLXI.—To John Stuart, Provost of Ayr.

"The Book of Canons" was, in obedience to the King's orders, drawn up by four of the Scottish bishops,—Sydserff of Galloway, Maxwell of Ross, Ballenden of Aberdeen, and Whiteford of Dunblane. It received the Royal sanction, and became law in 1635. This book, like the Service-Book which followed it, was extremely obnoxious to the people of Scotland, because it was imposed solely by Royal authority, and from the nature of the canons themselves, which prescribed a variety of ceremonial and superstitious rites in the observance of baptism and the Lord's Supper; invested bishops with uncontrollable power; inculcated the doctrine of the King's supremacy in matters ecclesiastical as well as civil,—affirming that no meeting of General Assembly could be held unless called by the King's authority; with other unscriptural innovations.