As it is entitled a catechism, was printed in the vulgar language, is said to be designed for the instruction of the people, and no prohibition of its use is mentioned in the book itself, we might be apt to conclude, that it was intended to be circulated among the people, and to be promiscuously read; and accordingly several writers have represented the matter in this light. But that this was very far from being the design of those who approved and set it forth, is placed beyond all doubt by the directions which the council gave respecting it, both to the archbishop and to the clergy. “Cujus quidem libri exemplaria omnia, ubi excussa fuerint, præsentari ipse reverendismo mandat et ordinat præsens concilium, ut ipse singulas tam suis ecclesiasticis, quam aliis singulis locorum ordinariis, quot cuique diocesi pro rectorum, vicariorum, ac curatorum numero et multitudine sufficere videntur, eis tribuat; reliqua vero apud ipsum reverendissimum remaneant, et firma custodia serventur, prout tempus et necessitas postulaverint, dispertienda. Caveant vero ipsi rectores, vicarii, et curati, ne sua exemplaria secularibus quibusque indiscrete communicent, nisi ex judicio, concilio, et discretione sui ordinarii; quibus ordinariis licebit nonnullis probis, gravibus, bonæ fidei, ac discretis viris laicis, ejusdem catechisme exemplaria communicare, et iis pottisimum, qui videbuntur potius suæ instructionis causa, quam curiositatis cujuscunque eadem expetere.” Wilkins, {420} Concilia, iv. 72. Lord Hailes had therefore reason for saying (in opposition to Mackenzie’s tale of the archbishop allowing “the pedlars to take two pennies for their pains in hawking it abroad”) that the council “uses as many precautions to prevent it from coming into the hands of the laity, as if it had been a book replete with the most pestilent heresy.” Provincial Councils, p. 36. It would have been imprudent to insert the prohibition in the book itself, copies of which, notwithstanding all their precautions, would come into the hands of improper persons; but the canon of the council remained the rule for regulating the clergy in the use of it. Nor is there any thing in the catechism which is inconsistent with the canon, or which implies that it was to come into the hands of the people. It is all along supposed that they were to be instructed by hearing, not by reading it. This is particularly evident from the concluding address. “O christin pepil, we exhort yow with all diligence, heir, understand, and keip in your remembrance, the haly wordis of God, quhilk in this present catechisme ar trewly and catholykly exponit to your spiritual edification.” And again: “Gif ye persaif be frequent heiring heirof your self spiritually instruckit mair than ye haue bein in tymes bygane, geue the thankis thairof only to God.”