Still greater and more immediately urgent differences were to be anticipated, when on August 31 the Parliament met, like the Assembly, in Edinburgh. The summons had been issued under the presumption of the continuance of the legal forms; but now the King himself had given up the bishops; and the first question was, how the vacancies in the Parliament were to be filled. The King thought of replacing the bishops by clergymen selected by himself; but the Scots were of opinion that in this way Episcopacy [A.D. 1639.] would be abolished only in name, while in substance it was retained; and the nobles did not wish the influence which the bishops had exercised upon the nomination of the Lords of Articles, and upon the deliberations of Parliament, to be revived. Even the Scottish clergy felt no desire for this dignity, to which in fact they traced all the abuses that had crept in; they at that time declared that the participation of the clergy in civil business was as unlawful as Episcopacy itself[157]. It was vainly objected on the other hand, that in this way one of the three estates was abolished, which was a criminal proceeding forbidden under the penalties attaching to high treason. The Scots affirmed that the concessions of the King carried with them at the same time the removal of the episcopal element and the necessity of constituting a parliament of a new kind. They now themselves took in hand the work of reconstitution without delay; for, as they alleged, the King had promised them a free parliament. In fact their design was to give the representatives of the shires an independent position, almost as in the English Parliament; they did not wish to abolish the Lords of Articles, but to draw them from the deputies of the nobility, gentry, and commonalty, as was then forthwith done[158]: it is quite clear that this was not merely a question of form, but also a question of the distribution of power. For by the nomination of other clergy in place of the bishops, the crown would certainly have been able to win back its former influence over the Parliament, and the gentry would have lost the authority which they had derived from their participation in the movements of the Covenanters. But how should the members of the Tables and of the Committees, who had acquired a feeling of independence, have again returned to their former position? They endeavoured, on the contrary, to maintain, even under parliamentary forms, the power which they had acquired, and they succeeded in their endeavour. Not only was the Parliament transformed according to their views, but the most important rights were claimed for it. The Parliament proposed that the King’s [A.D. 1639.] Privy Council should be responsible to it, and that the King should be bound to follow its advice in making appointments to high military commands, especially in the fortified places; and to comply with its recommendation in alterations of the coinage: even the right of conferring