At this time the nobility had gone down to their country-seats to enjoy the summer months; the Bishops generally were engaged in their visitations. Charles, at Hampton Court, was joking with his lords, toying with his mistresses, rambling in the green alleys, lounging in the cool saloons, watching games in the tennis-court, and feeding the ducks in the broad ponds. However unwilling to attend to business, he found that a Council must be held. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of London and Winchester were therefore summoned, together with Chief Justice Bridgman, and the Attorney-General, the Duke of Ormond, and the Secretaries of State. The King's promise was communicated to the Council. "The Bishops were very much troubled that _those fellows_ should still presume to give His Majesty so much vexation, and that they should have such access to him." As for themselves, they desired "to be excused for not conniving in any degree at the breach of the Act of Parliament, either by not presenting a clerk where themselves were patrons, or deferring to give institution upon the presentation of others; and that His Majesty's giving such a declaration or recommendation, would be the greatest wound to the Church, and to the government thereof, that it could receive."[384] [Sidenote: THE BARTHOLOMEW EJECTMENT.] Sheldon vehemently urged, that it was now too late to alter what had been done; the Sunday before he had ejected those who would not subscribe; the King had thus provoked them, and that now to admit them to the Church would be for him to put his head in the lion's mouth. He further urged that resolutions of Council could not justify contempt for an Act of Parliament. The argument is thoroughly constitutional, and so far Sheldon appears right; but before he completed his speech, he manifested his real spirit by contending, that if the importunity of disaffected people were a reason for humouring them, neither Church nor State would ever be free from disturbance.[385] [Sidenote: 1662.]