Needing themselves a lesson on religious liberty, the Commons resolved to follow up their attack on those whom they considered to be its greatest enemies. "We fell upon the great debate of the Bill of Episcopacy," observes D'Ewes, in his Diary, June 11. "Robert Harley, as I gathered, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, and others, with Mr. Stephen Marshall, parson, of Finchingfield, in the county of Essex, and some others, had met yesternight and appointed, that this Bill should be proceeded withal this morning. And the said Sir Robert Harley moved it first in the House, for Mr. Hampden out of his serpentine subtlety did still put others to move those businesses that he contrived."[197] From this passage it appears, that Pym had within six months made a considerable advance in his advocacy of ecclesiastical reform. It will be recollected, that in January he "thought it was not the intention of the House to abolish Episcopacy," but now before Midsummer he seems to agree in opinion with the "root and branch men." Hampden, probably, entered the Long Parliament with at least a deep suspicion of the inexpediency of upholding episcopal rule: and both he and Pym were now in close conference with Stephen Marshall, the famous Presbyterian divine: who, by the way, affords an instance of the active part in political movements for the overthrow of bishops, which even then had begun to be taken by clergymen of his order. D'Ewes further reports:--"So after a little debate the House was resolved into a committee, and Mr. Edward Hyde (a young utter-barrister of the Middle Temple), upon the speaker's leaving his chair, went into the clerk's chair, and there sat also many days after." The making Hyde chairman was a stroke of policy--so he says himself--on the part of those who were favourable to the Bill, on the ground that thus he would be prevented from speaking against it. According to his own account, he amply revenged himself, and proved no small hindrance, by mystifying questions and frequently reporting "two or three votes directly contrary to each other," so that after nearly twenty days spent in that manner, the Commons "found themselves very little advanced towards a conclusion."[198] The trick indicates the character of the man; and the confession of it years afterwards, is a sign of his effrontery; indeed, the whole of his conduct on this occasion proves how little he could have had at heart the interests of Episcopacy, not to speak boldly on its behalf, and vindicate that which he professed was venerable in his eyes, in this the crisis of its fate and the hour of its humiliation. [Sidenote: 1641, June.]