The Mise of Lewes contained seven articles, the most important of which prescribed the employment of native counsellors, and bound the king to act by the advice of the council which would be provided for him. Measures were also taken for obtaining a new arbitration. Thus England for the second time within seven years passed under a new constitution. The system devised at the Council of Oxford in 1258 was not revived, but a parliament was called for June 22, to devise or ratify a new scheme. This assembly comprised four knights from each shire, as well as the ordinary elements, the bishops and abbots, earls and barons, who formed the usual parliament. In it the new form of government was drawn up. This time the king was bound to act by the advice of nine counsellors. Three electors or nominators were first to be chosen--whether by the whole body of the parliament or by the barons only, it is not said; and these three were to name the nine. Of the nine three were to be in constant attendance on the king, and his sovereign authority was, in fact, to be exercised by and through them. They were to nominate the great functionaries of the state and the other ministers whose appointment had before rested with the king, and their authority was to last until all the points of controversy were settled by the arbitration provided in the Mise of Lewes. The three electors chosen were the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester and the Bishop of Chichester, Stephen Berksted, a man who comes into prominence now for the first time, but who was probably the agent of the constitutional party among the clergy, which had been hitherto represented by the Bishop of Worcester. [Sidenote: Conduct of the new Government. ] These men governed England until the battle of Evesham. But their reign was not an easy or peaceful one. The Pope was still zealous for Henry, and left no means untried by which the bishops might be detached from the barons. The queen collected a great army in France and prepared to invade England, assisted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, her uncle, and all the English refugees who had come under the rod of Earl Simon. Mortimer also made an attempt to prolong the state of war on the border. Nothing, however, came of these preparations during this year: the new government professed itself to be provisional, and negotiations were resumed, by which the king of France, now better informed, was to settle all controversies. In December a summons went forth for a new parliament. [Sidenote: The Parliament of Simon de Montfort. ]