A Broad Church polemic held that the Articles were drawn up so that both parties might subscribe, and that Convocation was a mixed assembly of "both persuasions;" no canon, he said, enjoined bowing at the altar, and Bishop Morton left people to use their own liberty as to that practice; this gentleman was against Conventicles. A more prudent debater wished to veil the infirmities of his mother rather than proclaim them in Gath and Askelon; he advocated comprehension, and thought an end would be put to Nonconformity by making two or three Presbyterians Bishops. These brief notices of the debate will afford an idea of the diversity of opinion which was expressed on this occasion.[548] [Sidenote: 1668.] [Sidenote: NEW CONVENTICLE BILL.] Instead of the Bill described by Barlow, or any measure of a similar kind for comprehension and toleration, a Bill for reviving the Conventicle Act was submitted to the Commons. The Conventicle Act of 1664 had been limited in its operation to the end of the next session of Parliament after the expiration of three years, and therefore it remained no longer in force. Leave was now given to bring in a Bill for the continuance of it. The High Church party, by a majority of 176 against 70, negatived the proposal that His Majesty be desired to send for such persons as he might think fit, in order to the uniting of his Protestant subjects: the first instance, as Hallam says, "of a triumph obtained by the Church over the Crown in the House of Commons."[549] Upon the 28th of April, the Bill for revising the Conventicle Act was carried by 144 against 78. The new Conventicle Bill, sent up to the Lords, was by them read a first time on the 29th of April; but it does not appear to have reached a second reading, as the House, on the 9th of May, adjourned until August, then again to November, and then again to the following March, 1669, when Parliament was prorogued. Consequently the Bill fell through; and the law with regard to Conventicles underwent a change, through the expiration of the Act of 1664. CHAPTER XX. [Sidenote: MANTON AND BAXTER.]