[Sidenote: 1641, May.] It was an odd speech for any man to make who had undertaken so grave a business, and it looked doubly odd that Sir Edward Dering should father such a motion; seeing that, though he was a Puritan, he professed to love the Episcopal Church. Men stared and wondered. A pause followed. Then some one moved, that the Bill might not be read:-- "That it was against the custom and rule of the House that any private person should take upon him, without having first obtained the leave and direction of the House to bring in a new Act, so much as to abrogate and abolish any old single law; and therefore that it was wonderful presumption in that gentleman, to bring in a Bill that overthrew and repealed so many Acts of Parliament, and changed and confounded the whole frame of the government of the kingdom."[190] The Bill, however, was then read a first time. On the motion for the second reading, Sir John Culpeper, one of the popular party, opposed it on the ground, that Episcopal government was not beyond all hope of reformation. He advised the House to see what the Lords would yet do with the Bill sent up to them. D'Ewes supported the second reading. Sir Charles Williams, member for Monmouthshire, opposed it, declaring that he would divide the House, though there should be "but six noes." For this he was called to account, and compelled to apologize, to "the good satisfaction of the House." The second reading passed by 139 to 108. On a resumption of the debate, Pleydell and Hyde took the lead in opposing the measure. The latter argued that Church and State had flourished many centuries under the present ecclesiastical rule, and that the Bill must not be hastily adopted, since it contained matter of great weight and importance. D'Ewes promptly replied, that the existing ecclesiastical rule had hardly reached its hundredth year. Hyde would have rejoined, but the House did not allow him so to do. Holles and Pym followed, contending that bishops had well nigh ruined all religion, and complaining that they had determined to continue in the Upper House, despite the opposition of the Lower. The Commons ordered the Bill to be committed on the 3rd of June. It was then deferred to the 11th of the same month.[191] [Sidenote: _Abolition of Episcopacy._]