Some members of the Council of State proposed that means should be taken to re-unite these factions; but Vane advised a very different course. Let them fight it out, he said, in the inferior courts of their Church. By this means their attention will be diverted from secular matters, with which they are too fond of interfering, and confined to their own private squabbles. At the same time, if we forbid the General Assembly to meet, they will be powerless for either good or evil. This policy was carried into effect. The Assembly met at Edinburgh, and the members were about to proceed to business, when an officer entered, and asked by what authority they had met. Was it by the authority of the Parliament of England, or of the commander of the English forces, or of the English judges in Scotland? The ministers answered that the Assembly was an ecclesiastical court, deriving its authority from God and established by the law of the land. The officer said that he had orders to dissolve the meeting, and ordered those present to follow him, or he would drag them by force out of the room. Uttering protests against this violence, the members rose and followed him. A guard of soldiers surrounded them, and led them along the streets, “all the people gazing and mourning, as at the saddest spectacle they had ever seen.” Presently a halt was called. The names of the ministers were taken down; and they were told that all future meetings were forbidden. On the following morning, by sound of trumpet, they were commanded to leave the town, on pain of instant imprisonment if they disobeyed.[82]