During the imposition of Episcopacy upon Scotland in the Stuart period the dress of the clergy was of a form designed by no less a person than his Sacred Majesty King James I himself. At that monarch's own request the Parliament of 1609 passed an Act authorizing him to do so, assigning in its preface the reasons for this step to be 'that it had been found by daily experience that the greatness of his Majesty's empire, the magnificence of his Court, the fame of his wisdom, the civility of his subjects, were alluring princes and strangers from every part of the world, and that it was fitting that bishops and ministers, judges and magistrates, should appear before those in becoming apparel; it was therefore referred to his Majesty's serene wisdom to devise appropriate garments and robes of office for these different functionaries.' The result of this was an order 'that ministers should wear black clothes and in the pulpit black gowns; that bishops and doctors of divinity should wear "black cassikins syde to their knee" [equivalent to the "bishop's apron" of the modern English prelate and the short Presbyterian cassock], black gowns above, and a black craip [scarf] about their necks. The bishops were ordained to have their gowns with _lumbard_ sleeves, according to the form of England, with tippets and craips about their craigs [necks].' In 1631 Charles I directed the _surplice_ to be worn. In 1633, when he visited Scotland, the bishops and chaplains officiated before him in surplices. He induced Parliament to pass an Act like that of 1609, giving him the power to regulate clerical costume; but this was so much objected to by the clergy themselves (some of whom expressed a fear that his Majesty would order them to wear 'hoods and bells'), that in 1634 they petitioned the King not to interfere with the arrangements of his predecessor; and their request seems to have been granted. § III. THE REFORMED CHURCHES OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. The practices of both these churches are commendably simple: a white tunic, or surplice, and a white stole, are the only vestments or ornaments at any time to be worn, except in sermons or at funerals, when a black gown _may_ be assumed. Deacons wear their stoles in the ancient diaconal fashion, _i.e._, over the left shoulder and under the right arm; presbyters wear theirs round the neck and hanging straight down. § IV. THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. [Illustration: FIG. 29.—A SYNOD MEETING OF THE REFORMED CHURCH OF FRANCE.] We have already shown that in Apostolic times, and the first few years of the post-Apostolic period, robes of office were not worn by the officiating minister. Vestments do not meet us until the moderatorship of the Ecclesiastical Assemblies had crystallized into the Episcopate.