Of the Parliamentary leaders, the most renowned and influential at the commencement of the struggle was John Pym. That "grave and religious gentleman"--burgess for the good town of Tavistock--appeared as conspicuously in religious business as in that which was strictly political. His countenance had a lion-like dignity, and, with a touch of melancholy in eyes and lips, there blended an expression of invincible firmness, while his shaggy mane-like hair, disarranged, as he spoke with tremendous energy, were in keeping with the rest of his majestic appearance. For eight and twenty years he had struggled against the policy of King, Court, and Church. Wise in council, and eloquent in speech, though quaint and tedious in the style of his oratory--a trifling drawback, however, in that age--he stood forward the most formidable antagonist with whom the High Church party had to deal. So closely at one time did John Pym connect Church and State--in this respect widely differing from Sir Harry Vane--that in 1628, he declared, "It belongs to the duty of a Parliament to establish true religion and to punish false; we must know what Parliaments have done formerly in religion. Our Parliaments have confirmed General Councils."[79] This now would be called a thoroughly Erastian style of speaking. It proceeded on the theory of the Church being subject to the State, and in this view many of the ecclesiastical reformers of that age were _practically_ agreed, however diversified their notions of Church government might be. Pym, though never a Nonconformist, but simply professing himself "a faithful son of the Protestant religion," from the beginning of his career opposed the spirit and proceedings of Anglican prelacy; and as to the questions affecting Episcopacy, he at last acted with those who sought its overthrow. He had a large share in calling the Long Parliament, as he prepared the petition for that purpose, and went to York to present it to the King. After the writs had been issued, Pym and others proceeded on an electioneering crusade, urging the voters to support representatives who would maintain the liberties of their country, then so threatened and imperilled. As popular opinion counted him the author of the Long Parliament, so common consent assigned to him the position of its leader. [Sidenote: _Members of the Long Parliament._]