[1592/4/26]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Our sovereign lord and estates of this present parliament, following the lovable and good example of their predecessors, have ratified and approved and, by the tenor of this present act, ratify and approve all liberties, privileges, immunities and freedoms whatsoever given and granted by his highness, his regents in his name, or any of his predecessors, to the true and holy kirk presently established within this realm, and declared in the first act of his highness's parliament on 20 October 1579, and all and whatsoever acts of parliament and statutes made of before by his highness and his regents regarding the liberty and freedom of the said kirk, and specially the first act of parliament held at Edinburgh, 24 October 1581, with the whole particular acts therein mentioned, which shall be as sufficient as if the same were herein expressed, and all other acts of parliament made since in favour of the true kirk; and also ratify and approve the general assemblies appointed by the said kirk and declare that it shall be lawful to the kirk and ministry every year at the least and after for matters arising, as occasion and necessity shall require, to hold and keep general assemblies, providing that the king's majesty or his commissioner with them to be appointed by his highness be present at each general assembly before the dissolving thereof and nominate and appoint time and place when and where the next general assembly shall be held; and in case neither his majesty nor his said commissioner be present for the time in that town where the said general assembly be held, then and in that case it shall be permissible to the said general assembly by themselves to nominate and appoint time and place where the next general assembly of the kirk shall be kept and held as they have been in use to do these times past; and also ratify and approve the synodal and provincial assemblies to be held by the said kirk and ministry twice each year as they have been and are presently in use to do within every province of this realm; and ratify and approve the presbyteries and particular sessions appointed by the said kirk, with the whole jurisdiction and discipline of the same kirk agreed upon by his majesty in conference had by his highness with certain of the ministry convened to that effect, of the which articles the tenor follows:
Matters to be entreated in provincial assemblies
These assemblies are constituted for weighty matters necessary to be entreated by mutual content and assistance of brethren within the province as need requires. This assembly has power to handle, order and redress all things omitted or done amiss in the particular assemblies. It has power to depose the office bearers of that province for good and just cause deserving deprivation. And generally these assemblies have the whole power of the particular elderships whereof they are collected.
Matters to be entreated in the presbyteries
The power of the presbyteries is to give diligent labours in the bounds committed to their charge, that the kirks be kept in good order, to enquire diligently of naughty and ungodly persons, and to work to bring them in the way again by admonition or threatening of God's judgments or by correction. It appertains to the eldership to take heed that the word of God be purely preached within their bounds, the sacraments rightly administered, the discipline maintained and the ecclesiastical goods incorruptly distributed. It belongs to these kind of assemblies to cause the ordinances made by the assemblies, provincials, nationals and generals to be kept and put in execution, to make constitutions which concern what is fitting in the kirk for decent order in the particular kirk where they govern, providing that they alter no rules made by the provincial or general assemblies, and that they make the provincial assemblies foresaid privy of the rules that they shall make, and to abolish constitutions tending to the hurt of the same. It has power to excommunicate the obstinate, formal process being led and due interval of times observed regarding particular kirks, if they be lawfully ruled by sufficient ministers and session. They have power and jurisdiction in their own congregation in matters ecclesiastical and decree and declare the said assemblies, presbyteries and sessions, jurisdiction and discipline thereof foresaid to be in all time coming most just, good and godly in the self, notwithstanding of whatsoever statutes, acts, canon, civil or municipal laws made in the contrary, to the which and every one of them this act shall make express derogation. And because there are diverse acts of parliament made in favour of the papistical kirk tending to the prejudice of the liberty of the true kirk of God presently professed within this realm, jurisdiction and discipline thereof, which stand yet in the books of the acts of parliament, not abrogated nor annulled, therefore his highness and estates foresaid have abrogated, made void and annulled and, by the tenor hereof, abrogate, makes void and annul all acts of parliament made by any of his highness's predecessors for maintenance of superstition and idolatry with all and whatsoever acts, laws and statutes made at any time before the day and date hereof against the liberty of the true kirk, jurisdiction and discipline thereof, as the same is used and exercised within this realm, and in special that part of the 7th act of parliament held at Edinburgh, 20 March 1437 [1438],† commanding obedience to be given to Eugene [IV], the pope for the time; the 111th act made by King James III in his parliament held at Edinburgh, 24 February 1483 [1484], and all other acts whereby the pope's authority is established; the 47th act of King James III in his parliament held at Edinburgh, 12 October 1467,† regarding the Saturday and other vigils to be holy days from evensong to evensong. Item, that part of the 31st act made by [Mary of Guise], queen regent, in the parliament held at Edinburgh, 1 February 1551 [1552], giving special licence for holding of Easter and Yule. Item, the king's majesty and estates foresaid declare that the 2nd act of the parliament held at Edinburgh, 22 May 1584, shall in no way be prejudicial nor derogate any thing to the privilege that God has given to the spiritual office bearers in the kirk concerning heads of religion, matters of heresy, excommunication, collation or deprivation of ministers or any such essential censures special grounded and having warrant of the word of God. Item, our said sovereign lord and estates of parliament foresaid abrogate, makes void and annul the 20th act of the same parliament held at Edinburgh, the said year 1584, granting commission to bishops and other judges constituted in ecclesiastical causes to receive his highness's presentation to benefices, to give collation thereupon, and to put order in all causes ecclesiastical, which his majesty and estates foresaid declare to be expired in the self, and to be null in time coming, and of no value, force nor effect and, therefore, ordain all presentations to benefices to be directed to the particular presbyteries in all time coming, with full power to them to give collations thereupon and to put order to all matters and causes ecclesiastical within their bounds according to the discipline of the kirk, providing the foresaid presbyteries be bound and astricted to receive and admit whatsoever qualified minister presented by his majesty or other lay patrons.
[1592/4/27]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Our sovereign lord, considering the great abuses which are lately creeping in the kirk through the misbehaviour of such persons as are provided to ecclesiastical functions, such as parsonages and vicarages within any parish, and thereafter neglecting their charge, either leave their cure or else commit such crimes, faults or enormities that they are found worthy of the sentence of deprivation either before their own presbytery or else before the synodal and general assemblies, which sentence is the less regarded by them because albeit they be deprived of their function and cure within the kirk, yet they think they may possess lawfully the profits and rents of their said benefices enduring their lifetimes, notwithstanding the said sentence of deprivation; therefore our sovereign lord, with advice of the estates of his present parliament, declares that all and whatsoever sentences of deprivation either pronounced already or that happens to be pronounced hereafter by any presbytery, synodal or general assembly against any parson or vicar within their jurisdiction provided since his highness's coronation (all persons provided to parsonages and vicarages who have vote in parliament, secret council and session, or provided thereto of old before the king's coronation, and Master George Young, archdean of St Andrews, being specially excepted) is and shall be reputed in all judgments a just cause to seclude the person provided before and then deprived from all profits, commodities, rents and duties of the said parsonage and vicarage or benefice of cure, and that either by way of action, exception or reply; and that the said sentence of deprivation shall be a sufficient cause to make the said benefice to fall vacant thereby; and the said sentence being extracted and presented to the patron the said patron shall be bound to present a qualified person of new to the kirk within the space of six months thereafter, and if he fail to do the same the said patron shall lose the right of presentation for that time only, and the right of presentation to be devolved in the hands of the presbytery within the which the benefice lies, to the effect that they may convey the same and give collation thereof to such a qualified person as they shall think expedient, providing always in case the presbytery refuse to admit a qualified minister presented to them by the patron, it shall be lawful to the patron to retain the whole fruits of the same benefice in his own hands. And further, his highness and estates foresaid declare that the deprivation already pronounced or to be pronounced by any presbytery, synodal or general assemblies against any of the parsons or vicars foresaid shall in no way hurt or be prejudicial to any tacks lawfully set by that person deprived before his deprivation to whatsoever persons.
[1592/4/28]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Our sovereign lord, with advice of the estates of this present parliament, statutes and ordains that the acts of parliament made of before regarding manses and glebes to be given to ministers of God's holy evangel within this realm shall be understood and extended to all abbeys and cathedral kirks within this realm where neither manse nor glebe pertaining to parson or vicar was of before, so that the ministers presently admitted or which hereafter shall happen to be admitted to the office or cure of the ministry within the said kirk shall have a sufficient manse and dwelling place within the precinct of the abbey where he serves, together with four acres of land of the best and most commodious lying contiguous and closest to the said manse, which pertains, or in any time of before pertained, to the said abbey or any member thereof, whether the same land lie within the said precinct or outwith the same, if there be so much as may extend to the quantity of four acres to be designed, inhabited, occupied, laboured, manured, according to the tenor of the acts of parliament made of before regarding manses and glebes to be given to the ministers of God's word within this realm, with special provision that it shall be in the option of the abbots, priors and other prelates and parsons whatsoever, feuars of the said cathedral and abbey places, either to grant a manse to the minister within the precinct of their place or else a sufficient manse lying as near and commodious to the parish kirk.
[1592/4/29]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Forasmuch as, albeit by diverse acts and constitutions made of before, it was statute and ordained that adultery, notorious and manifest, should be punished by death, which nevertheless has not yet been put to due execution, by occasion whereof the crime of adultery daily increases and for the same a great number of married persons have been divorced for adultery committed by one of the parties, and the committer of the offence privately contracts pretended marriages of new with the said person with whom by the said sentence of divorce they are tried to have committed the fault, which is no way to be allowed by the law of God and the public honesty of the realm; and the issue and succession proceeding of the said unlawful marriages breeds many questions in the law and often tends to the great hurt, prejudice and disinheriting of the succession begotten in their former lawful marriage, which of the law of God and man ought to succeed to their inheritance, specially by women heritors who are lawfully divorced from their husbands for their own fault and offence, who after the unlawful marriage with the adulterers, have defrauded and may defraud, hurt, prejudice and disinherit their lawful succession begotten in the said lawful marriage by conveying of their heritage, tacks, steadings, rooms and possessions either to their said unlawful husband or to some other intervening person to his utility and profit, or to the succession proceeding by the said damned marriage after the divorce, which pretended marriage is rather to be accounted a continuation of their former adultery than a lawful and Christian conjunction, such as it is provided by the common laws and in all times bygone has been received in practice within this realm, that the woman being divorced from her husband through and by her own offence shall lose her tocher and all other things given to her in respect and for the cause of the said marriage, so it is provided by the common law that the woman, having committed the said offence, and being divorced on that account and marrying the person with whom she committed the offence for which the said divorce followed, shall not be able to enrich her said unlawful husband, nor the succession following upon the said unlawful marriage, which our said sovereign lord and estates of parliament, upon great and weighty considerations tending to the punishment of the said crime of adultery, have ordained to be observed and kept in all time coming within this realm; and, therefore, it is statute and ordained by our sovereign lord and estates of parliament foresaid that whensoever any woman is, or has been, divorced from her lawful spouse for her own fault and offence of adultery, and completes unlawful and pretended marriage with the same person with whom she committed the said offence, or plainly and openly dwells and resorts in company with him at bed and board, if she have any lands, heritage, tacks, rooms or possessions it shall not be lawful to her to convey, alienate and put away the same in all or in part, either to her said pretended husband and adulterer or to the succession proceeding of that pretended marriage or carnal dealing, nor to whatsoever other person or persons in prejudice and hurt of the heirs and succession procreated upon the said first lawful marriage, or failing of them of her other lawful heirs whatsoever, nor to do any deed directly nor indirectly that may hurt and prejudice them therein; and declare and ordain that the heirs and successors of her procreated in the said first lawful marriage and failing of them her other lawful heirs whatsoever, are and shall be able to succeed to her after her decease in the said lands, heritage, tacks, rooms and possessions, notwithstanding any alienation or disposition made in any time bygone or to be made hereafter in the contrary, which pretended alienations and dispositions made or to be made in manner foresaid, our said sovereign lord and his estates of parliament, decree and declare to have been and to be null from the beginning, and ordain the said nullity to be received and admitted by way of exception or reply without any process or summons of reduction as well before the lords of council and session as before the inferior judges in service of brieves and all other actions and cause wherever the same may occur, and ordain this present constitution to have full effect regarding all dispositions and alienations foresaid, if any be made since the parliament held by our sovereign lord after his perfect age of 21 years complete in the month of July 1587.
[1592/4/30]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Item, forasmuch as cruelty and bloodshed is come to such a height within this land that the house of the Lord and his sanctuary is not free but filthily polluted and defiled therewith in such sort that commonly all revenges of quarrels and deadly feuds are now executed in kirks and kirkyards at the time appointed to the service of God and teaching of his holy word therein, whereby diverse persons, for fear of their lives, dare not resort to the preaching of the Gospel. For remedy whereof, the king's majesty and estates of this present parliament statute, ordain and declare that whatsoever person or persons commit slaughter within any kirk or kirkyard the time of prayers, preaching or administration of the sacraments, that person or persons, committer of the said slaughter, being either denounced rebels or declared fugitive for the same, the king's majesty shall have full power, not only to convey upon their simple escheat of moveables, but also upon the liferent of all and whatsoever their lands, heritages, livings, tacks, steadings, rooms or possessions etc.; and also declare that whatsoever person or persons shall happen to reset any of the said persons who be denounced rebels or fugitive for the said slaughters committed within the said kirks or kirkyards, declarator being first passed upon their said reset, the resetters of them shall incur the same pain and deprivation of their liferents.
[1592/4/31]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†The king's majesty and estates of this present parliament, for eschewing of the great inconveniences likely to arise through erection of temporalities and teinds of kirklands in temporal lordships and livings to the prejudice of the kirk and hurt of his majesty's estate and privilege of his crown, ordain and declare that no erections of the foresaid lands and teinds made since the act of annexation shall be ratified or given in this parliament, nor in any time hereafter, and in case any erections happen to be obtained in any time coming, the king's majesty and estates foresaid declare the same to be null and of no effect in the self, excepting always, likewise our said sovereign lord and estates above-written expressly except and reserve, all erections, charters and infeftments granted by his highness of such parts and portions of the kirklands already erected in temporal lordships and baronies to such person or persons as have already since the said late act of annexation received the honours, orders and estates of lords of parliament by the solemn form of belting and other ceremonies observed in such cases and have since entered and sat in parliament as temporal lords, voted in parliament and articles received and admitted to that effect.
[1592/4/32]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†The king's majesty and estates of this present parliament ratify and approve all and whatsoever acts of parliament, secret council and proclamations made of before against Jesuits, seminary priests and trafficking papists and resetters of any of them; and decree and declare that in all time coming the saying of mass, resetting of Jesuits, seminary priests and trafficking papists against the king's majesty and the religion presently professed within this realm is and shall be a just cause to infer the pain and crime of treason both against the Jesuits, mass priests, trafficking papists and resetters of them, providing how soon the Jesuits and seminary priests satisfy the prince and the kirk, the foresaid penalty in no way to strike against the said resetters.
[1592/4/33]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
†Our sovereign lord and whole estates of this present parliament ratify, approve and confirm the act made by his highness, with advice of the lords of secret council, session and exchequer upon 14 February 1587 [1588], in favour of the ministry, their stipends and rents, and decree and declare the same to have the strength, force and effect of a law and act of parliament in all time coming, and all judges within this realm to proceed, decide and administer justice in all actions and cause concerning the said ministers, their assignations, stipends and rents, according to the form, tenor and contents of the said act, in all points, whereof the tenor follows: At Edinburgh, 14 February 1587 [1588], forasmuch as in the month of December 1561, soon after the arriving of [Mary], our sovereign lord's dearest mother, out of the parts of France within this realm, consultation being taken by her majesty with the advice of the lords of her secret council and others of the nobility then present, regarding the provision of the ministry to reasonable and competent livings and support of the public affairs of the realm, and to that effect conference being had with the prelates and others of the ecclesiastical estate, whose offers being heard and considered, it was concluded, determined and ordained that if the fourth part of the fruits of the whole ecclesiastical benefices within this realm might be sufficient to sustain the ministers throughout the whole parts thereof, and support of the prince to maintain and set forward the common affairs of the country, and failing thereof, the third part of the said fruits and more until it were sufficient to the effect foresaid, should be yearly taken up in time coming to be employed to the two uses above-specified only; and thereafter, in the parliament held the first year of our sovereign lord's reign, it was statute and ordained that the whole thirds of the benefices within this realm should then instantly in all time coming thereafter first be paid to the ministers of the evangel and their successors, and they first being answered of their stipends pertaining to every one of them, the rest and surplus should be employed to our sovereign lord's use, through which the same became as an inviolable law and, by virtue thereof, his highness and his late dearest mother were in peaceable possession of the said thirds of kirks' and friars' lands, so that thereby the ministers of God's word were reasonably provided, and a good part of the public affairs honestly sustained. And albeit the plain words of the said acts manifestly declare the use, effect and intention thereof to have tended to no other fine but that the ministry should be reasonably sustained and the charge of the public affairs sufficiently maintained, yet nevertheless, through inopportune suits of some persons more respecting their own particular profit than either the sustentation of the ministers or his highness's honourable estate and the common welfare of the realm, his highness and his late dearest mother have been moved to make disposition of the said surplus in pension or to discharge, and give the same free to certain possessors of benefices or to make tacks and assedations of the same thirds, common kirks, friars' lands and rents thereof, through which there remains little or nothing to be conveyed on, either to be modified, assigned and appointed for livings and stipends for such qualified persons as God may raise up hereafter fit to enter in the function of the ministry or to supply the public affairs of the estate of his highness's realm. For avoiding of which inconveniences, albeit diverse revocations of the said gifts, tacks and dispositions have been made before, and namely by his highness's late dearest mother after her perfect age in the month of September 1566, and thereafter by his highness, with advice of the regent for the time, in the month of August 1573, as also in the parliament held at Edinburgh in 1581 and 1584, and last of all in the parliament held after his highness's perfect age of 21 years complete in the month of July last, by the which revocations respectively foresaid it is found, also by his highness's dearest mother after her perfect age, as likewise by his highness's self and three estates convened in parliament, that the said thirds of benefices and surplus thereof, common kirks, friars' lands and rents being assumed and taken in his highness's hands for sustentation of the ministry and support of the public affairs might not be conveyed nor given otherwise, but applied to the same use and effect that they were ordained to at the beginning and that, specially in respect that there can be no surplus of the said thirds to the time that the said ministers had been sufficiently placed and provided of their stipends, which being variable from year to year, the condition also of the said surplus used to be uncertain and consequently could not be conveyed but from year to year, and that after the said ministers' assignation and sufficient provision of his majesty's house which was specially meant and understood under the name of the said public affairs; and therefore all such gifts, pensions, tacks and dispositions of the said thirds, common kirks, friars' lands and rents thereof granted by his highness's dearest mother or by his majesty's self or other wages by his regents, as well confirmed in parliament as unconfirmed, by express words of the said revocations confirmed in parliament, are decreed and declared to be of no value, force nor effect, without any declarator or process of reduction as the same in themselves at more length purport, yet nevertheless the said revocation be the same as before has been annulled and frustrated, and the said gifts and dispositions partly ratified in his highness's last parliament, partly renewed after his highness's perfect age to the same persons and others of the like quality, through which the first intention of the said acts is likely to be frustrated in all time coming. Likewise also first by act of secret council and next by act of parliament, it is statute and ordained that all benefices of cure under prelacies shall be presented by his highness and the lay patrons in favour of able and qualified ministers, apt and able to enter in that function and to discharge the duty thereof, which in like manner has taken no effect, but against the express statute and meaning thereof, the said benefices have been conveyed to bairns and other persons altogether unable for the said office and function, sometimes by disposition and otherwise by fraudulent resignation of the usufructuaries, with provision nevertheless that the same should remain with the usufructuaries during their lifetimes expressly against all good laws received in any age of before so that the only two means of the advancing of the glory of God, which consisted in the said thirds, common kirks and dispositions of the same small benefices is, by the malice of inconsiderate persons, utterly subverted, whereby great confusion has entered and diverse inconveniences likely to follow if timeous and substantial remedy be not provided. For remedy whereof and reformation of the said abuses of the thirds, common kirks, friars' lands and rents, and reducing of the same to their first institution, our sovereign lord, with advice of the lords of his highness's secret council, session and exchequer all in one voice, finds and declares that the said thirds of benefices, common kirks, friars' lands and rents, being only destined to the two uses above-specified according to the said acts of council, parliament and revocations foresaid following thereupon, might be conveyed, given or employed in no other way but to the said use and effect for which they were appointed to at the beginning; and also that no pensions, tack or liferent of the said surplus or any common kirks might or may be conveyed in time coming for any longer space than the space of a year, and that after the making of the yearly assignations of the ministers' stipends and sufficient provision for sustaining of his majesty's house yearly; and therefore decrees and declares all and whatsoever pensions, liferents and tacks purchased or to be purchased (whereby the said thirds, surplus thereof or the first and best rentals of the common kirks, friars' lands and rents above-written have been diminished or altered since the last assumption of the said thirds) granted either by our sovereign lord's dearest mother or by his highness's self to whatsoever person or persons upon wrong report and inopportune suit without any examination preceding of the sustentation of the ministry within this realm and sufficient provision for sustaining of his majesty's house, to have been from the beginning and to be in all time coming of no value, force nor effect, notwithstanding whatsoever confirmation or ratifications following thereupon; and therefore ordains [Master Robert Douglas, provost of Lincluden], collector general, by himself, his chamberlains and under-receivers in his name, to ask, crave, receive, intromit with and take up all and whole the thirds of benefices within this realm unassigned to the ministry, together with the whole common kirks, friars' lands and rents thereof (where the first and best rentals are altered or diminished since the first assumption of the said thirds) of this instant crop and year of God 1587, and also yearly in time coming, according to the rentals made account of in the year of God 1584 and last assumption thereof; and if the said thirds be diminished or hurt in any way by the said last rentals and assumption thereof since the first assumption of the said thirds made account of in the year of God 1561, ordains the said collector to have recourse to the first assumption for so much as the same are diminished by the last assumption, and to charge for the same without respect of any pension, tack, liferent or discharge of the said thirds, surplus or any part thereof, or of the said common kirks, friars' lands or rents of the same altered or diminished in the rentals since the first assumption of the thirds as said is; and also ordains that the lords of council and session shall in no way grant any suspension or relaxation from the horn to any person or persons charged or denounced for payment of the said thirds, common kirks and others foresaid altered or diminished from the first and best rentals as said is until the sums and victuals charged for be first paid to the general collector, notwithstanding whatsoever pension, tack, liferent or discharge purchased or to be purchased of the said thirds, kirks, common lands and friar lands and other rents pertaining thereto (where the first and best rentals are altered or diminished as said is) of this instant crop and year of God 1587, and also yearly and termly in time coming, but that they held repute and esteem of the same as null in the self, and the said nullity to be received as well by way of exception as action, without prejudice nevertheless of whatsoever infeftment heritably granted by our sovereign lord whereby the condition of the said thirds are altered or diminished. And albeit the tack made to the bairns lawful and natural of Robert [Stewart], earl of Orkney, of the thirds of the abbey of Holyroodhouse falls and is declared null, nevertheless his highness, with advice foresaid, wills and ordains Adam [Bothwell], bishop of Orkney, now having the possession of the same thirds by title of the said bairns, still to possess and hold the same thirds (in addition to the yearly sum paid out of the same to the ministers of the kirks of Holyroodhouse these years bygone) in consideration that he has transferred the right of the warrandice competent to him in the person of our sovereign lord, for which his highness commands the said collector to charge and make account and payment this present year and crop 1587 and in time coming. Moreover, his highness, with advice foresaid, decrees and ordains all gifts and dispositions of benefices of cure under prelacies given or presented since his highness's coronation to such persons as are not in the present function of the ministry, nor able to discharge the duty thereof according to the act of parliament made relating thereto, whether the said benefices fall vacant by decease or demission, to be likewise null from the beginning, and to be in all time coming of no value, force nor effect, and the said nullity to be received by whatsoever judge as well by way of exception as action, notwithstanding any dispensation or act of parliament to be made in the contrary, excepting always the benefices conveyed to the senators of the college of justice, and which are lay patronages, the same being always presented to qualified persons, according to the act of parliament made relating thereto, and the archdeanery of St Andrews provided to Master George Young, his highness's secretary depute. And for the better direction of the execution of this present act, his highness gives and grants full power and commission to [John Maitland, lord Thirlestane], his chancellor, treasurer,† [David Seaton of Parbroath], comptroller, [Master Robert Douglas of Lincluden], collector, [Sir John Cockburn of Ormiston], justice clerk, [Alexander Hay of Easter Kennet], clerk register, Alexander [Seaton], late prior of Pluscarden, Master John Lindsay, parson of Menmuir, Master John Graham, parson of Killearn, Master James Elphinstone of Invernochty, Master David Chamber, chancellor of Ross, Master David Carnegie of Colluthie [and Kinnaird] and Peter Hay of Megginch, or any five of them jointly, to make and conclude the assignations of the ministers' stipends and to divide exactly that which shall belong to them and their assignations in time coming etc. firm and stable etc.; and that letters be directed for publication hereof at the market crosses of this realm and other places needful and this present act and declaration grounded upon the said acts of parliament. His majesty, with advice foresaid, promises in the first word to ratify in his next parliament and that the same shall have the full effect and force of law in the meantime, providing that the lords of council and session have the immunity as justly they may claim or as shall be found reasonable by his highness and auditors of his majesty's exchequer at the hearing and consideration of every particular cause, and specially the same immunity that they had in the time of the queen, his highness's mother of good memory.