"You will surely have heard that the utter abolishing of the bishops and all titular ecclesiastics, with the dependents, hath been agreed upon in the House of Commons, and met with less noes in the debate than the business of the Earl of Strafford had. This day they voted it again, and now it is to be engrossed, a draft of the Act goes herewith.
"The business of the bishops will be of dangerous consequence, they being violent and passionate in their own defence, and having engaged, as it were, the Lords, by their late votes in their favour, to the maintenance of their cause; whereas the Commons seem as resolute to pass the Bill for their utter extirpation, and so transmitting it to the Lords, according to the custom; and then it may be justly inferred the city will prove as turbulent as they were on Strafford's cause."
Sidney Bere became under-secretary upon the appointment of Nicholas, in November, to the chief secretaryship of state.
[194] Rushworth, iv. 279.
[195] Nalson, ii. 529.
[196] Journal, June 7, 1641.
Verney's Notes bear evidence that the same day the feeling of the House was unfavourable to Episcopacy. Monday, 7th June:—"Sir John Griffin, the elder, said, I see it is distasteful to this House to speak for the government of the Church."—Verney Papers, 83.
On the same day, in the course of a debate, the subject of ecclesiastical canons came again under consideration. Mr. Maynard "transmitted the votes about the canons." According to Verney's Notes, (84) in which this appears, the debate touched generally on the power of the clergy to make canons. No formal resolution or vote is recorded.
[197] Sanford's Illustrations, 365.
[198] Clarendon's Hist., 110.