[259] The resolution, that government by archbishops, bishops, etc., was inconvenient, and ought to be taken away, passed both houses unanimously September 10, 1642; _Parl. Hist._ ii. 1465. But the ordinance to carry this fully into effect was not made till October 1646. Scobell's _Ordinances_. [260] _Parl. Hist._ iii. 15. [261] This committee, appointed in February 1644, consisted of the following persons, the most conspicuous, at that time, of the parliament: the Earls of Northumberland, Essex, Warwick, and Manchester; Lords Say, Wharton, and Roberts; Mr. Pierrepont, the two Sir Henry Vanes, Sir Philip Stapylton, Sir William Waller, Sir Gilbert Gerrard, Sir William Armyn, Sir Arthur Haslerig; Messrs. Crew, Wallop, St. John, Cromwell, Brown, and Glynn. _Parl. Hist._ iii. 248. [262] _Somers Tracts_, iv. 533. The names marked in the _Parliamentary History_ as having taken the covenant, are 236. The Earl of Lincoln alone, a man of great integrity and moderation, though only conspicuous in the Journals, refused to take the covenant, and was excluded in consequence from his seat in the house: but on his petition next year, though, as far as appears, without compliance, was restored, and the vote rescinded. _Parl. Hist._ 393. He regularly protested against all violent measures; and we still find his name in the minority on such occasions after the Restoration. Baillie says, the desertion of about six peers at this time to the king, was of great use to the passing of the covenant in _a legal way_. Vol. i. p. 390. [263] Burnet's _Mem. of Duke of Hamilton_, p. 239. I am not quite satisfied as to this, which later writers seem to have taken from Burnet. It may well be supposed that the ambiguity of the covenant was not very palpable; since the Scots presbyterians, a people not easily cozened, were content with its expression. According to fair and honest rules of interpretation, it certainly bound the subscribers to the establishment of a church-government conformed to that of Scotland; namely, the presbyterian, exclusive of all mixture with any other. But Selden, and the other friends of moderate episcopacy who took the covenant, justified it, I suppose, to their consciences, by the pretext that, in renouncing the jurisdiction of bishops, they meant the unlimited jurisdiction without concurrence of any presbyters. It was not, however, an action on which they could reflect with pleasure. Baxter says that Gataker, and some others of the assembly, would not subscribe the covenant, but on the understanding that they did not renounce primitive episcopacy by it. _Life of Baxter_, p. 48. These controversial subtleties elude the ordinary reader of history. [264] After the war was ended, none of the king's party were admitted to compound for their estates, without taking the covenant. This Clarendon, in one of his letters, calls "making haste to buy damnation at two years' purchase." Vol. ii. p. 286.