[Sidenote: 1660.] II. Parliament took up in detail a variety of business connected with the restoring of Cathedral and parochial edifices, the recovering of what had been taken away, the reinstating of things in their former condition, and the removing of alterations made by Nonconformists. For example: upon a report from the Lords, appointed to compose differences in the City of Exeter, it was ordered that certain churches, of which a list is given, should be repaired at the charge of the respective parishioners, and that all the bells, plate, utensils, and materials, formerly belonging to those buildings, should be delivered to the Churchwardens:--that money still unpaid for their purchase should not be paid; and that bonds for payment should be given up; and that the Chamber of Exeter should forthwith, at their own charge, take away the partition wall built in the Cathedral, and the new-built seats in the Choir, all the materials whereof were to be employed towards "the making up again the churches which were defaced."[112] [Sidenote: ECCLESIASTICAL PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT.] III. Petitions came from the Universities, and the Upper House ordered the Chancellors to take care that the Colleges should be governed according to their statutes, and that persons unjustly ejected should be restored to office.[113] Commissioners also were Royally appointed to hear and determine all questions of claim, and they were engaged through the months of August and September in restoring such as were eligible to their former position as Fellows and Heads of Houses. University honours were offered largely to such as professed attachment to Episcopacy, and a numerous creation in all faculties ensued.[114] Oxford and Cambridge immediately witnessed great changes. Restored Episcopalians occupied the places of the ejected, and the ancient forms of worship were at once resumed. The use of the surplice in Parish Churches, by the Royal Declaration of the 25th of October, fully noticed hereafter, was left at the option of incumbents; but it was enjoined upon those who officiated in the Royal Chapel, in Cathedrals, in Collegiate Churches, or in Colleges of the Universities.[115] Yet, we learn from a letter written by Thomas Smith, at Christ's College, Cambridge, November 2nd, 1660, that the Puritanical party were still powerful there. "In your College," says the writer, addressing Sancroft, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, "half the Society are for the Liturgy and half against it; so it is read one week and the Directory used another; but till the Directory be laid aside, I believe no surplices will be worn."[116] During the progress of these measures, signs appeared in the House of Commons of changes in the relative position of parties which could not but entail important consequences. [Sidenote: 1660.]