The superintendents were elected and admitted in the same manner as other pastors. Knox, 263. They were equally subject to rebuke, suspension, and deposition, as the rest of the ministers of the church. In the examination of those whom they admitted to the ministry, they were bound to associate with them the ministers of the neighbouring parishes. They could not exercise any spiritual jurisdiction without the consent of the provincial synods, over which they had no negative voice. They were accountable to the General Assembly for the whole of their conduct. The laborious task imposed upon them is what few bishops have ever submitted to. “They must be preachers themselves;” they are charged to “remain in no place above twenty daies in their visitation, till they are passed through their whole bounds.” They “must thrice everie week preach at the least.” When they return to their principal town of residence, “they must likewise be exercised in preaching;” and having remained in it “three or foure monthes at most, they shall be compelled (unless by sicknesse they be retained) to re‑enter in visitation.” Dunlop, ii. 542. De Regimine Eccles. Scotican. Brevis Relatio, p. 5, 6. Epistolæ Philadelphi Vindiciæ contra calumnias Spotswodi: Altare Damascenum, p. 724‒727. Lugd. Batav. 1708. In the last mentioned tract (of which Calderwood was the author) the difference between {285} the Scottish superintendents and Anglican bishops is drawn out under thirteen heads. Spotswood’s treatise is entitled, Refutatio Libelli de Regimine Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ. Lond. 1620. The _visitors_ or _commissioners_ of provinces exercised the same power as the superintendents; the only difference between them was, that the former received their commission from one assembly to another. Altare Damascenum, p. 727. But these commissions appear sometimes to have been granted for a longer period; for one of Robert Pont’s titles was Commissioner of Murray. Perhaps, in this case, a commissioner differed from a superintendent, merely in not being obliged to have his stated residence within the bounds of the province committed to his inspection.