Actually, in April, 1642, just when Henderson gave up the business as
too great for one man's strength, the English House of Commons were
making arrangements for a synod of divines. On the 19th of that month it
was ordered by the House, in pursuance of previous resolutions on the
subject, "that the names of such divines as shall be thought fit to be
consulted with concerning the matter of the Church be brought in
to-morrow morning," the understood rule being that the knights and
burgesses of each English county should name to the House _two_ divines,
and those of each Welsh county _one_ divine, for approval. Accordingly,
on the 20th, the names were given in; on that day the divines proposed
for nine of the English counties were approved of in pairs; and on
following days the rest of the English counties--London and the two
universities coming in for separate representation--were gone over,
pretty much in their alphabetical order, the Welsh counties and the
Channel islands coming last, till, on April 25th, the tale of the
divines "thought fit to be consulted with" was complete. It included one
hundred two divines, generally from the counties for which they were
severally named; but by no means always so, for in not a few cases the
knights and burgesses of distant counties nominated divines living in
London or near it.
In almost all cases the divines named by the knights and burgesses for
their several counties were approved of by the House unanimously; but a
vote was taken on the eligibility of one of the divines named for
Yorkshire, and he was carried by a bare majority of one hundred three to
ninety-nine, and exceptions having been taken on the 25th to the two
appointed for Cumberland on the 20th, their appointment was cancelled
and others were substituted. On the same day on which the list of
divines was completed, a committee of twenty-seven members of the House,
including Hampden, Selden, and Lord Falkland, was appointed "to consider
of the readiest way to put in execution the resolutions of this House in
consulting with such divines as they have named." The result was that on
May 9th there was brought in a "bill for calling an assembly of godly
and learned divines to be consulted with by the Parliament, for the
settling of the government and liturgy of the Church, and for the
vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the Church of England from
false aspersions and interpretations." On that day the bill was read
twice in the Commons and committed; and on the 19th it was read a third
time and passed. The Lords, having then taken the bill into
consideration, proposed (May 26, 1642) the addition of _fourteen_
divines of their own choice to those named by the Commons; and, the
Commons having agreed to this amendment, the bill passed both Houses,
June 1st, and waited only the King's assent. It was intended that the
assembly should meet the next month.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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