There was doubt about the legality of the sederunt and the cancelling or the prorogation of the assembly; several of the ministers denied that the king had the authority in what they regarded as a purely spiritual matter.
At the date of King James's accession to the English Crown the Church of Scotland was as thoroughly Presbyterian in form as in 1592, the only difference being that certain of the ministers, in addition to their pastoral duties, had been admitted to have voice in Parliament.
Representative as it was, this Commission never failed to maintain its character as " the King's led horse," for, with the exception of the two Melvilles, Davidson, and Bruce, the moderate party now included all the leading men in the Church; but, as every Assembly meant the appointment of a new Commission, it greatly concerned the King to maintain his influence in the Assembly, and with that view to fix at pleasure its time and place of meeting.
[8] The Melville party, or what remained of it, had now some reason to be alarmed; for, if the Assembly did not meet on the day fixed, the right to summon such a court would pass wholly from the Church to the Crown.
The letter, however, proved to be an order to dissolve at once without appointing any new meeting; and when the ministers insisted on adjourning to the first Tuesday of September, Straiton, who had hitherto made no opposition and had even suggested Forbes as Moderator, protested that he had never acknowledged them to be a lawful Assembly, and charged them to disperse on pain of treason.
But the prisoners were ably defended by their counsel; Forbes and Welsh both made eloquent speeches; and after the jury had been coaxed and worried by Dunbar for more than six hours, nine only out of fifteen, and these his "private kinsmen and friends" could be brought to convict the accused; and of the minority, one said boldly in open court that he took them for "honest ministers, faithful servants to Christ, and good subjects."
By such questionable means James got rid of fourteen formidable opponents; and in August of this year he had disposed of eight more, including the two Melvilles, by calling them up to London to confer with him and their brethren on the state of the Church.