Shaftesbury was attacked, but was saved for the time by a favouring jury.
The next chance was taken in less favouring times.
Acting on the constitutional principle that the king's right to convene did not interfere with the church's independent right to hold assemblies, they sat till the 10th of December, deposed all the Scottish bishops, excommunicated a number of them, repealed all acts favouring episcopacy, and reconstituted the Scottish Kirk on thorough Presbyterian principles.
The bill was carried by the government in April 1895, as well as another important measure favouring the construction of local railways by private contractors.
He was a member of the commission for ecclesiastical causes, and although afterwards he claimed that he had used all his influence to dissuade James from removing the tests, and in other ways illegally favouring the Roman Catholics, he signed the warrant for the committal of the seven bishops, and appeared as a witness against them.
