The conduct of affairs in Scotland remained, at first, unchanged by the death of James VI. The few parliaments of the reign are occupied with taxation, ratification, and other formal business. James had been statesman enough to fear the influence of Laud in Scotland.[125] Charles allowed a meddling ecclesiastic to stretch too far the allegiance of his people to their ancient House. The Parliament of 1628-30 is of no importance in the history of Scotland. It was poorly attended, and its deliberations were a foregone conclusion. The Parliament of 1639 was crowded, and it began its work with a protest against the method of electing the Lords of the Articles. The protest was feeble enough to be the first faint symptom of a revolution; but the revolution had already taken place. The people were led as before, not by the Parliament, but by the Assembly. The Glasgow Assembly of 1638, which continued to meet in spite of its "dissolution" by the king's commissioner, was the means by which a fatal blow was given to the first _régime_ of episcopacy and absolute monarchy. It rendered possible the revolutionary Parliament of 1640. We have already noticed the more important of its proceedings. It continued to look for support to the Assembly. It grounded its resolution against the presence of prelates in Parliament on the Act of Assembly abolishing episcopacy. In 1641 it beseeched the assembly to sit in Edinburgh instead of in St. Andrews, sending "some of everie estait to represent" its sense of "the great necessitie at this tyme of the concurring advyse of both the Assemblie and Parliament," and promising "to sett down ane solid course for the beiring of the chairges of the Commissioners to your yeirlie Generall Assemblies."[126] From 1641 to 1650 Scotland was ruled by the Scottish Parliament, in conjunction with the Assembly. The Estates undertook the management of the war, carried out the negotiations with the English Parliament, and with the king, and were at the same time able to give due attention to the minutest local details. Like the Reformation Parliament of 1560, the Covenant Parliament of 1640 marks a distinct stage in Scottish constitutional history. After we make all allowance for the revolutionary nature of the time, and for its dependence on the Assembly, it remains true that it grew to occupy a position different from that of any of its predecessors. It had learned much from England. Not for the first time, but more emphatically than ever before, do we find the Estates adopting the language of the English parliamentary opposition. On the other hand, the Scottish Parliament was in some ways in advance of its English sister. When Charles I paid his second visit to Scotland, in 1641, he found himself a puppet in the hands of his erstwhile obedient Estates. As we have seen, the Lords of the Articles became open committees of Parliament, and they were jealously watched by their colleagues.