The rights of patrons had for some years been abolished; and the power of electing ministers had been vested in the kirk session and lay elders.

It was now enacted, that all incumbents who had been admitted upon this title, should receive a presentation from the patron, and should be instituted anew by the bishop, under the penalty of deprivation.

The more rigid Presbyterians concerted measures among themselves, and refused obedience: they imagined that their number would protect them.

Three hundred and fifty parishes, above a third of the kingdom, were at once declared vacant.

The western counties chiefly were obstinate in this particular.