Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

Church Discipline. 317
be intimate of new in all the kirkea of this Synode,
with straitt inhibitionne to any persone to resaitt him,
and that evrie Exerceis""' sail try such as salbe found
to failzie herein, and proceid against thame be the
censuris of the kirk."
On the 22nd April, 1G47, the Synod of Dumfries
ordered intimation to be made from all the pulpits
of their bounds, that sentence of excommunication had
been passed upon John, Lord Herri es, Dame Elizabeth
Beaumont, Countess of Nithsdale, Dame Elizabeth
Maxwell, Lady Herries, Dame Elizabeth Maxwell,
elder, of Kirkconnell, and about thirty other persons.
In 1649, James, second Earl of Abercorn, was, on ac-
count of his Popish tendencies, excommunicated by the
Commission of the General Assembly, and ordered to
depart from the kingdom ; his Countess was, at the
instance of the Church, subjected to three years' im-
prisonment at Edinburgh.
Some noblemen of high rank submitted in a struggle
in which the issues were not doubtful. At a meeting
of the Presbytery of Lesmahago, held on the 9th of
May, 1644, the Duke of Hamilton, who had for seven
years endeavoured to escape the meshes of that court,
presented himself to the brethren, and offered " to sub-
scrive the covenant in what manner the Presbiterie
should enjoine." It is curious to remark that he is
styled, in the records of Presbytery, Marquis of
Douglas, though, the year before, he had been raised
to ducal honours. The Duke did not prove faithful
* The " Exerceis" was the original name of the Preshytery, or dis-
trict ecclesiastical judicatory. The name arose from the early prac-
tice of the Brethren " in making exercise," that is, critically examining
in turn a prescrihed text in the original Scriptures.
X