Whilst these political designs were in agitation, Charles was deeply engaged with the religious difficulty of giving up Episcopacy and consenting to the dominance of Presbyterianism. He consulted Juxon, the ex-Bishop of London, and gave him leave to advise with Dr. Sheldon and the late Bishop of Salisbury, whether he might not accept Presbyterianism as a man under compulsion, and therefore not really bound by it; and he was at the same time engaged with Alexander Henderson on the Scriptural authority of Episcopacy or Presbyterianism. During this dispute, in which each champion supported his opinion with Scriptural passages, and yet came no nearer than such disputants ever do, the Scottish divine was taken ill and died, and the Royalists declared that the king had so completely worsted him that he died of chagrin. On the 23rd of July the English Parliament at length made proposals of peace, sending the Earls of Pembroke, Denbigh, and Montague, and six members of the Commons, to Newcastle, to treat with him. The conditions were not so favourable as those offered at Uxbridge, things, indeed, being now very different; the great point, however, being the abandonment of Episcopacy. They were to receive an answer or return in ten days; but the king would not yield the question of the Church. The Scottish Commissioners were present, and urged the king warmly to consent to the conditions, and thus to restore peace. The Earls of Loudon and Argyll implored it on their knees. Then Loudon, Chancellor of Scotland, told him "that the consequences of his answer to the propositions were so great, that on it depended the ruin of his crown and kingdoms; that the Parliament, after many bloody battles, had got the strongholds and forts of the kingdom into their hands; that they had his revenue, excise, assessments, sequestrations, and power to raise all the men and money in the kingdom; that they had gained victory over all, and that they had a strong army to maintain it, so that they might do what they would with Church or State; that they desired neither him nor any of his race longer to reign over them, and had sent these propositions to his majesty, without the granting whereof the kingdom and his people would not be in safety; that if he refused to assent, he would lose all his friends in Parliament, lose the city, and lose the country; and that all England would join against him as one man to process and depose him, and to set up another Government; and that both kingdoms for safety would be compelled to agree to settle religion and peace without him, to the ruin of his majesty and posterity;" and he concluded by saying, "that if he left England, he would not be allowed to go and reign in Scotland." This, it must be confessed, was plain and honest, and therefore loyal and patriotic speaking. The General Assembly of the Kirk had already come to this conclusion; but all was lost on the king.