469. Commons', Sept. 25, Oct. 10, March 5.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. March 26.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. April 22.]
ostensibly for the sake of information, in reality to breed dissension and
to procure delay.[1]
When the votes of the house were announced to the assembly, the members
anticipated nothing less than the infliction of those severe penalties with
which breaches of privilege were usually visited. They observed a day of
fasting and humiliation, to invoke the protection of God in favour of
his persecuted church; required the immediate attendance of their absent
colleagues; and then reluctantly entered on the consideration of the
questions sent to them from the Commons. In a few days, however, the king
took refuge in the Scottish army, and a new ray of hope cheered their
afflicted spirits. Additional petitions were presented; the answer of the
two houses became more accommodating; and the petitioners received thanks
for their zeal, with an assurance in conciliatory language that attention
should be paid to their requests. The immediate consequence was the
abolition of the provincial commissioners; and the ministers, softened
by this condescension, engaged to execute the ordinance in London and
Lancashire.[2] At the same time the assembly undertook the composition of a
catechism and confession of faith; but their progress was daily retarded by
the debates respecting the nine questions; and the influence of their party
was greatly diminished by the sudden death of the earl of Essex.
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