morning as early as September 1587, although he was not ordained as a minister. Another minister took over these duties in December 1589. Rollock played a prominent role in the Church of Scotland and its somewhat troubled church politics, and was appointed on several occasions to committees of presbytery and assemblies on pressing ecclesiastical business. In 1590, Rollock was appointed assessor to the moderator of the general assembly, and in 1591 was named to a committee of the presbytery of Edinburgh with negotiated with the king on the affairs of the kirk. In connection with the prosecution of the Earls of Angus, Huntly, and Errol for their attempts 'against the true religion', he was chosen to confer with a committee of the estates. In 1595, he was nominated to a commission for the visitation of Scotland's colleges. In the following year, he was appointed with three other ministers to remonstrate with King James VI for his 'hard dealing with the kirk', and especially for his prosecution of David Black. According to his contemporary David Calderwood, Rollock was "a godly man, but simple in the matters of the church government, credulous, easily led by counsel". This supposed disposition led to him being won over to support the policy of the king in church matters, although Calderwood adds that Rollock understood "his own weakness in following the humours of the king and his commissioners". Rollock supported a proposal made in 1595 that certain ministers should be allowed to sit and vote in parliament as bishops, affirming that "lordship could not be denied them that were to sit in parliament, and allowance of rent to maintain their dignities". Church historian John Row points out that Rollock had previously condemned the office of bishops in his 1590 commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians. Rollock declared shortly before his death that his principal goal had been that church and state "should mutually assist each other, [...] and that no unnecessary war should be kindled". In 1596, Rollock accepted one of the eight ministerial charges of the city of Edinburgh, and took charge of his congregation. His sympathy for the king's policies led to the royal party successfully lobbying for Rollock being chosen as moderator of the General Assembly held at Dundee in May 1597. In 1598 he became minister of the Upper Tolbooth—probably the west portion of St. Giles's Kirk—and on 18 April of