The First Book of Discipline is a practical supplement to the [Confession of Faith, 1560], an exhibition of the function of the Church and a manual for Church policy for clergy and laity. It was prepared along with the Confession and in 1564 was revised by George Buchanan and others. It is based on foreign models, Douglas probably shaping its educational sections, and Knox drafting the body of the work with the aid of the ordinances of the Lutheran and the Calvinistic Churches. . . . The Book of Discipline contains nine articles on Doctrine, Sacraments, Idolatry, Ministers and Readers, Stipends and Church possessions payable for religion and education, Church Patrimony, Discipline, Elders and Deacons, and the Policy of the Church (including marriage, burial, profanity, etc.). . . .

The Book of Discipline, in arranging rules for the organisation of the Church, referred to a manual entitled ‘The Booke of the Common Order, called “the Order of Geneva.”‘ This compilation is a directory of public worship and religious rites. In its remodelled [sic] form it is also styled Knox’s Liturgy, and was in use as a guide ‘for helpe and direction’ till 1645.

J. K. Hewison, The Covenanters, Vol. 1, 39, 42.