man he would give him his right. In the discussion warmth was displayed by some of the deputies, but Ferguson succeeded in giving a new turn to the topics at critical points, the result being that as they took their leave 'the king laid his hands upon every one of them.' In August of the same year Ferguson and six other ministers were cited by the king to attend a convention at St Andrews to answer for certain proceedings of the assembly. On 12 May 1596, on the renewal of the covenant by the synod of Fife at Dunfermline, Ferguson gave an address, with reminiscences of his experiences of the early reform period. At a meeting of the synod of Fife, held at Cupar in February 1598, in regard to a proposal to give ministers a vote in parliament, Ferguson, the eldest minister at that time in Scotland, after relating pat difficulties of the church in contending against efforts to introduce episcopacy, opposed the proposal, which he compared to the 'busking up of the brave horse' for the overthrow of Troy. He died 13 August 1598. His position as minister of Dunfermline was filled by John Fairfoul who translated from Aberdour to the east. Works In 1563 Ferguson published a reply to René Benoît, confessor to Mary Queen of Scots. It was printed in Tracts by David Ferguson, edited by David Laing for the Bannatyne Club in 1860. On 13 January 1572 he preached a sermon before the Regent Mar at the meeting of the assembly in Leith, when a modified episcopacy was established. It protested against the alienation of the spoils of the church to the private uses of the nobility or to purposes of government, instead of their being applied to the establishment of churches and schools, and to meet the necessities of the poor; and was in vernacular Scottish. At the assembly held at Perth in August 1572 it was submitted to the revision of five ministers, all of whom gave it their approbation, after which it was printed at St. Andrews by Robert Lekprevick, the dedication to the Regent Mar bearing the date of 20 August. John Knox gave it his recommendation: 'John Knox with my dead hand but glad heart, praising God that of his mercy he leaves such light to his kirk in this desolation.' It is in the volume edited by Laing. The