Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/445

i^i.] THE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. 4ji Fleetwood however (afterwards the Recorder of Lon- don) said that the House ' knew that there was a God to be served as well as the bishops ; ' l when Bills were referred to the* Bench, they commonly came to nothing ; ' 1 the bishops would perhaps be slow/ and they could do better without them. The Queen's monition was unheeded, and the dis- cussion went on more fiercely than ever. Mr Snagg insisted on the insufficiency of the Act of Uniformity. In some churches the Common Prayer was not used a f . all. There was only a sermon, and such prayers, ex- tempore, as the minister might choose to offer. Mr Norton broke into invectives on the abuse ' of benefit of clergy/ ' the straining of the law by ecclesiastical judges in favour of offenders in Holy Orders/ * the wrapping clerks in a cloak of naughtiness, and giving them liberty to sin/ The dispensations in the Court of Arches were attacked specially and bitterly. Bishops, it was presumed, ' could do nothing contrary to the Word of God/ yet, like Popes, they kept open offices for the sale of licenses to disobey the law. So the storm broke on all sides, and for three weeks it raged incessantly. Some language was heard not wholly immoderate. Aglionby, the Member for War- wick, raised his solitary voice for liberty of conscience ' He did not approve/ he said, ' of the private oratories in the Great Houses ; he would give the rich no pi ivi- leges which the poor could not share, and both alike should be obliged to appear in their parish church. But receiving the Communion was something more than an