Thus everything connected with the proceedings showed the utmost despatch; and upon Wednesday the 10th of July "the Bill for establishing the Book of Common Prayer was brought up to the Lords by a very great number of members of the House of Commons, to testify their great desire for the settlement of the Church of England."[269] [Sidenote: PROCEEDINGS OF PARLIAMENT.] The Bill as it left the Commons differed materially from the Act as it ultimately passed. Those differences will appear in the sequel. Although the Bill reached the Upper House on the 10th of July, it did not come under discussion there for more than five months. This may be accounted for. Curious as it may seem, the Bill for Uniformity had passed the Commons before it had been decided what the Uniformity should be. New prayers were composed by Convocation before it broke up in July; but the revision of the Prayer Book by Convocation did not commence until the month of November, four months after the Bill had been sent up from the Commons. The Bill could not be completely carried before the revision was settled; and the Convocation did not accomplish that task until the end of the year. Another cause of delay is seen in the fact, that the Bishops were not restored to their seats until the 20th of November; and it was important, if not constitutionally essential, for them to take part in the decision of a question like this. At the time when the new Bill reached the Lords, they were engaged upon a report concerning the penal laws against Papists. Hoping to share in any relief which might be extended to the last-named religionists, certain Anabaptists and "good Christians," as they called themselves, had presented a petition upon the 5th of July, and were on the 12th permitted to plead on their own behalf. The Lords finished the report on the penal laws against Catholics upon the 16th of the month; and a Committee was then appointed to prepare a Bill to repeal certain statutes concerning Jesuits, also the clause in the Act of the 35th of Queen Elizabeth c. i., respecting Nonconformists, together with the writ _de Hæretico Comburendo_. The reasons of the alterations were to be set forth, and proper remedies were to be devised for preserving the Protestant religion from any inconveniences incident upon the repeal of these ancient enactments. Such proceedings, at first sight, appear as so much progress towards religious liberty; but there is ground for believing that the reference to the statute against Nonconformists, only served to cover some relief designed for the Papists. Whatever the real intention might be, the whole business soon dropped, and no further allusion to it is found in the Journals; nor during the remainder of the year 1661 is any further mention made of the Bill of Uniformity. [Sidenote: 1661.]