Series 1 > Diary of Sir Archibald Johnston of Wariston 1632-1639

xlvi
DIARY OF LORD WARISTON
The Assembly having been summoned to meet in Glasgow
on 21st November, the leaders of the Covenanting party set
about making preliminary preparations for the conduct of the
business. The most important matter they had to consider
was the form of process by which the bishops should be
brought to the bar of the House for trial. It was resolved to
proceed by Summons or Complaint in which the charges
against them should be formulated; and the Commissioner
was asked to grant out process in his own name for citing
them as rei. On his refusal to do this, another course was
adopted, viz. to present to the presbyteries of the bounds
within which the bishops respectively resided a formal Com¬
plaint at the instance of certain Covenanters who were not
members of Assembly against the bishops for the crimes
therein specified, beseeching the presbyteries, as the ordinary
j udicatories of the Church for trying these offences, to take them
into consideration or else refer the Complaint to the approach¬
ing Assembly. The presbyteries, acting under instructions con¬
veyed to them in certain articles or letters drawn up by
Wariston, minuted that the Complaint had been made to
them, and that in respect of its importance they remitted the
whole matter simpliciter to the General Assembly. Further,
they ordered the Complaint and their Reference to the
Assembly to be read in all the churches on the following
Sunday with a citation to the prelates to be present at the
next Assembly to answer to the complaint. This order
was obeyed. In the College Church the complaint, reference,
and citation were by desire of Rollock read by Wariston him¬
self.1 This was done ‘for schortning the work and distinct
reading of it, quhairin,’ he writes, ‘I served my Lord and
read it over, trusting and praying that I may heirafter seie his
providence in casting the reading of it in my hand.’2
Except as regards the appointment of Henderson as
1 ‘ A layman and a fierie Advocate ’; Large Declaration, p. 225.
2 P. 396.