Knox and his covenanting associates maintained that it was righteous procedure on the part of the State to adopt, and to see that the subjects accepted, a religion. But the difference between the Reformed and the Romanist position was this, that the acceptor in the latter case had to accept and say nothing, in the former, the believer had the right to appeal directly to the Holy Writ as the sole authority on matters of faith. This privilege . . . it broke the keys of Rome.

J. K. Hewison, The Covenanters, Vol. 1, 36-37.