The quarrel between the King and the City now became still darker and deeper. A letter from the Hague, directed to Secretary Nicholas, and brought to London in a Gravesend boat--which was stopped at the moment of shooting London Bridge--contained evidence of the King's negotiations for bringing over foreign troops: this letter consequently was soon printed and circulated through the city. The two Houses ordered the clergy to read it in their churches; and the devoted Lord Mayor requested them to make it a ground of appeal to the parishioners respecting a sum of £30,000 which was about to be raised for Parliament. Churchwardens were to hold meetings after service in the afternoon on the 27th of November, to raise "a proportionable fund,"[318] which we may well imagine that we see accomplished by dim candle-light in churches, vestries, and other places, on that wintry Sunday night. [Sidenote: _Church Politics in London._] The City and the Parliament were thoroughly united this midwinter; and therefore the City and the Sovereign continued in violent opposition. At a Common Hall, held on the 13th of January--when all the companies came in their city habits, and there were present the Committee of both Houses, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and such a confluence of liverymen as had not been seen in the memory of the oldest man--a petition to the King was read, and then the royal answer, in which his Majesty asked his petitioners whether they believed that the indignities done to the Prayer Book, the violent treatment of Episcopal clergymen, and the cherishing and countenancing of all manner of sectaries, were likely to defend and maintain the Protestant religion. Mr. Pym, being present at the meeting, delivered a speech, in which he denied his Majesty's allegations, maintaining that the magistrates did not give countenance to the sectaries; adding this home-thrust, which Charles so often had to meet, that if they did, his Majesty could not consistently object, inasmuch as, having sworn to support the Protestant religion, he, in the meantime, raised an army of Papists.[319] [Sidenote: 1643, January.]