Note 197 — Chapter IX

Parl. Hist. 774, 794, 817, 910, 1087. The Lords had previously come to resolutions, that bishops should sit in the House of Lords, but not in the privy council, nor be in any commission of the peace. Id. 814.

The king was very unwilling to give his consent to the bill excluding the bishops from parliament, and was, of course, dissuaded by Hyde from doing so. He was then at Newmarket on his way to the north, and had nothing but war in his head. The queen, however, and Sir John Colepepper, prevailed on him to consent. Clarendon, History, ii. 247 (1826); Life, 51. The queen could not be expected to have much tenderness for a protestant episcopacy; and it is to be said in favour of Colepepper's advice, who was pretty indifferent in ecclesiastical matters, that the bishops had rendered themselves odious to many of those who wished well to the royal cause. See the very remarkable conversation of Hyde with Sir Edward Verney, who was killed at the battle of Edgehill, where the latter declares his reluctance to fight for the bishops, whose quarrel he took it to be, though bound by gratitude not to desert the king. Clarendon's Life, p. 68.

This author represents Lord Falkland as having been misled by Hampden to take an unexpected part in favour of the first bill for excluding the bishops from parliament. "The house was so marvellously delighted to see the two inseparable friends divided in so important a point, that they could not contain from a kind of rejoicing; and the more because they saw Mr. Hyde was much surprised with the contradiction, as in truth he was, having never discovered the least inclination in the other towards such a compliance."—i. 413. There is, however, an earlier speech of Falkland in print, against the London petition; wherein, while objecting to the abolition of the order, he intimates his willingness to take away their votes in parliament, with all other temporal authority. Speeches of the Happy Parliament, p. 188 (published in 1641). Johnstone of Wariston says there were but four or five votes against taking away civil places and seats in parliament from the bishops. Dalrymple's Memorials, ii. 116. But in the journals of the Commons (10th March 1640-1) it is said to be resolved, after a long and mature debate, that the legislative power of bishops is a hindrance to their function.