According to the terms of the Pacification the Scots refrained from demanding a formal ratification of the resolutions of the Assembly of Glasgow. But as to the substance of them, they declared to the Commissioner that they would cling to it as long as the breath of life remained in their bodies. They would not recede a [A.D. 1639.] hair’s-breadth from the assertion that the ground on which they stood was the only legal ground. In open opposition to the King’s opinion, they again enacted that the proceedings of the last Assemblies of the Church which had been held under his father were null and void: if the King would at any rate, under present circumstances, allow a new Assembly to be convened within a year’s time, they on their part were ready to make a permanent statute, prescribing that the Assembly should be held once every year, and if necessary still oftener. The Commissioner on his part could not refuse to permit the abolition of Episcopacy: this was the principal concession made by the King: a dispute however arose about the wording of the resolution, which concerned indeed only one expression, but at the same time affected the main point of the controversy. The King had consented to the measure, on the ground that Episcopacy was contrary to the constitution of the Church of Scotland; the Assembly laid down that it was absolutely unlawful. At last Traquair assented to this expression, but the King showed great indignation, for he thought that what was contrary to the constitution of some one church was not therefore absolutely unlawful[156]: and he was afraid that the expression, if not moderated by a limitation to Scotland, might be applied to the English Church, which, like the Scottish, was a reformed Church. He censured the Commissioner in harsh terms for his compliance.