extremely obnoxious to
the popular leaders; and the commons hoped that, if he were pushed to
extremity, he would be obliged, in order to justify his own conduct, to
lay open the whole intrigue of the French alliance, which they suspected
to contain a secret of the most dangerous nature. The king, on his
part, apprehensive of the same consequences, and desirous to protect his
minister, who was become criminal merely by obeying orders, employed
his whole interest to support the validity of that pardon which had
been granted him. The lords appointed a day for the examination of the
question, and agreed to hear counsel on both sides: but the commons
would not submit their pretensions to the discussion of argument and
inquiry. They voted, that whoever should presume, without their leave,
to maintain before the house of peers the validity of Danby's pardon,
should be accounted a betrayer of the liberties of the English commons.
And they made a demand, that the bishops, whom they knew to be devoted
to the court, should be removed, not only when the trial of the earl
should commence, but also when the validity of his pardon should be
discussed.

The bishops before the reformation had always enjoyed a seat in
parliament; but so far were they anciently from regarding that dignity
as a privilege, that they affected rather to form a separate order in
the state, independent of the civil magistrate, and accountable only
to the pope and to their own order. By the constitutions, however, of
Clarendon, enacted during the reign of Henry II., they were obliged to
give their presence in parliament; but as the canon law prohibited them
from assisting in capital trials, they were allowed in such cases
the privilege of absenting themselves. A practice which was at first
voluntary, became afterwards a rule; and on the earl of Strafford's
trial, the bishops, who would gladly have attended, and who were no
longer bound by the canon law, were, yet obliged to withdraw. It had
been usual for them to enter a protest, asserting their right to sit;
and this protest, being considered as a mere form, was always admitted
and disregarded. But here was started a new question of no small
importance. The commons, who were now enabled, by the violence of the
people, and the necessities of the crown, to make new acquisitions of
powers and privileges, insisted, that the bishops had no more title
to vote in the question of the earl's pardon than in the impeachme