Sir George Mackenzie of Tarbet, known as the "passionate cavalier", was loudest supporter for the Act Rescissory.

John Middleton, 1st Earl of Middleton, Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland replied that, in both cases, the King was not morally a free agent; and an act which obliterated at once the legislation of several years, and vested the government of the kingdom in church and state almost absolutely in the King, was carried with only thirty dissidents.

Meanwhile, the King issued his proclamation for restoring church government by Bishops in Scotland, and the newly appointed Scottish prelates having received ordination from Sheldon, Bishop of London, in Westminster Abbey, went back to Scotland to take the government of the Kirk, and their places in the Scottish Parliament.

After bishops had been procured, consecrated, and seated in the Scottish Parliament, severities increased steadily against the Presbyterians, who formed the majority of the population, especially in the centre and south and west of Scotland.

[8] One result of the Rescissory Act was that all the ministers who obtained livings from 1649 to 1661 were held not to have been appointed at all, and therefore were at once thrust out of their jobs.