Tried in his absence by the Star-chamber court, Leighton, a Scots divine, was sentenced to pay 10,000 pounds, to be degraded from holy orders, to have his ears cut off, his nose slit, to be branded on the cheek with S.S. (sower of sedition), to be whipped, and to stand in that condition in the pillory and endure what amounted to perpetual imprisonment: all this for daring to write this book against Laud's popish ceremonies and against prelatic Church government.

He calls prelacy "antichristian" and declaims vehemently against the canons and ceremonies, adding that "the church has her laws from Scripture, and that no king may make laws for the house of God."

This virulent attack on the bishops, "an appeal to political presbyterianism to take the sword in hand," was published anonymously in Amsterdam in 1629.

Leighton was loosed from prison, his fine cancelled, and he was voted 6,000 pounds in compensation when the Long Parliament released him in 1640.

It is an extremely rare work.