1641, May.
It was an odd speech for any man to make who had undertaken so grave a business, and it looked doubly odd that Sir Edward Dering should father such a motion; seeing that, though he was a Puritan, he professed to love the Episcopal Church. Men stared and wondered. A pause followed. Then some one moved, that the Bill might not be read:—
"That it was against the custom and rule of the House that any private person should take upon him, without having first obtained the leave and direction of the House to bring in a new Act, so much as to abrogate and abolish any old single law; and therefore that it was wonderful presumption in that gentleman, to bring in a Bill that overthrew and repealed so many Acts of Parliament, and changed and confounded the whole frame of the government of the kingdom."[190]
The Bill, however, was then read a first time. On the motion for the second reading, Sir John Culpeper, one of the popular party, opposed it on the ground, that Episcopal government was not beyond all hope of reformation. He advised the House to see what the Lords would yet do with the Bill sent up to them. D'Ewes supported the second reading. Sir Charles Williams, member for Monmouthshire, opposed it, declaring that he would divide the House, though there should be "but six noes." For this he was called to account, and compelled to apologize, to "the good satisfaction of the House." The second reading passed by 139 to 108. On a resumption of the debate, Pleydell and Hyde took the lead in opposing the measure. The latter argued that Church and State had flourished many centuries under the present ecclesiastical rule, and that the Bill must not be hastily adopted, since it contained matter of great weight and importance. D'Ewes promptly replied, that the existing ecclesiastical rule had hardly reached its hundredth year. Hyde would have rejoined, but the House did not allow him so to do. Holles and Pym followed, contending that bishops had well nigh ruined all religion, and complaining that they had determined to continue in the Upper House, despite the opposition of the Lower. The Commons ordered the Bill to be committed on the 3rd of June. It was then deferred to the 11th of the same month.[191]
Abolition of Episcopacy.
Dering's conduct at the time appeared a mystery. Afterwards he explained,[192] that he had nothing to do with the preparation of the measure—that it was entrusted to him by Sir Arthur Haselrig, who had received it from Sir Harry Vane and Oliver Cromwell. It further appears, that he scarcely read the motion before moving its adoption. Haselrig's connection with this bold proceeding, as well as with Strafford's attainder, are proofs of his having then assumed a prominent position amongst ultra-politicians; but the character of the measure would rather suggest that Sir Harry Vane must really have been its author. Cromwell's relation to it is also worthy of notice, as it indicates his advanced opinions at the period, and his already active and influential statesmanship. According to Clarendon, the Solicitor General, Oliver St. John, "the dark-lantern man," had drawn up the Bill—a statement, which, if true, shows another of the republican commonwealth men taking up an extreme position at the outset of the strife.[193]
1641, June.
No doubt the concocters of this design considered that it would meet with better acceptance if presented by a merely doctrinal Puritan; and it indicates the excited temper of the Commons at the moment, and how the resistance of the Lords had wrought them up to a resolution of frightening mitred heads—that the Bill immediately came to a second reading, and that too by such a majority. Moreover, it expressed growing indignation against the course of oppression with which Episcopacy stood identified. For long years the Church had been sowing the wind—now, in a few short hours, it reaped the whirlwind. To those who wished to get rid of Episcopacy altogether, the proceedings of the Lords, although very exasperating, would not be altogether unwelcome, as advanced politicians might gather from it an argument against what they deemed to be half-measures. They asked—since bishops cling so tenaciously to their temporalities, would it not be as easy to get rid of both, as to tear one from the other? Some moderate men, discouraged and annoyed, were thus thrown into the arms of excited companions. Policy led them on to extremes, hoping that the boldness of the people's representatives now in the ascendant, would alarm the Lords, especially the spiritual ones, and induce them to give way, even on a point where they had staked their fortunes and planted the defence of their order.
Debates by the Commons.