Note 281 — Chapter X · THE SECOND BOOK OF DISCIPLINE.

[It is not quite clear which conference Dr Mitchell is here referring to. In the conference held at Stirling in December 1578, the Second Book of Discipline was discussed section by section. The results are preserved not only by Spottiswoode, as mentioned above (p. 227 n.), but also by Calderwood (iii. 433-442), neither of whom, however, says that these results were then noted as having been expressly approved by the king. The heads agreed upon at the Holyrood conference on 17th February 1585-86 do not include anything which can be regarded as the draft of the clause of the Act of 1592 concerning the power and jurisdiction of "particulare kirkis" (Calderwood's History, iv. 491-494). The articles defining the jurisdiction of provincial assemblies, presbyteries, and particular kirks, agreed on by the king in conference with some of the brethren sent to him by the General Assembly in May 1586, are transferred almost verbatim to the Act of Parliament of 1592 (Booke of the Universall Kirk, Bannatyne Club edit., ii. 665, 666; Calderwood's History, iv. 567, 568; Acts of Parliament, iii. 541, 542).]