Withers had proposed a disputation against vestments, which the university would not allow; his thesis affirming the excommunicating power of the presbytery was sustained.
Anticipating the order of chronology slightly, it may be mentioned here that in 1873 Prince Edward Island (q.v.), which had in 1865 decisively rejected proposals of the Quebec conference and had in the following year repeated its rejection of federation by a resolution of the legislature affirming that no terms Canada could offer would be acceptable, now decided to throw in its lot with the Dominion.
His wealth and power were enlarged by gift of the parliament which met on the 14th and rose on the 19th of April - a date made notable by the subsequent supper at Ainslie's tavern, where Bothwell obtained the signatures of its leading members to a document affirming his innocence, and pledging the subscribers to maintain it against all challengers, to stand by him in all his quarrels and finally to promote by all means in their power the marriage by which they recommended the queen to reward his services and benefit the country.
On the 10th of January, 1569, the judgment given at the conference acquitted Murray and his adherents of rebellion, while affirming that nothing had been proved against Mary - a verdict accepted by Murray as equivalent to a practical recognition of his office as regent for the infant king.
Here it suffices to say that these issued in the congress of Troppau (October 1820) and the proclamation of the famous Troppau protocol affirming the right of collective " Europe " to interfere to crush dangerous internal revolutions.
