86 INTRODUCTION. presented by the puritans who had been many years under, close confinement ; when the parliamentfavourably received them, releas, (1 the prisoners, and voted them to receive considerable sums out of the estates of their persecutors, by way of damages. They released Dr. Leighton, who had been imprisoned ten years ; Mr. Smart, eleven or twelve years ; arid Mr. Brewer, fourteen years. Also, Burton, Prynne, Bostwick, Walker, Lilburne, Bishop Williams, and many others, now obtained their liberty. The above canons were, at the same time, condemned, in the house of commons, as being against the king's prerogative, the fundamental laws of the realm, the liberty and property of thesubject, and as containing divers other things tending to sedition and dangerous consequence. For which several of the bishops were impeached of high crimes and misde- rneanours.. The archbishop was impeached of high treason, and committed to the Tower.+ The committee of accommodation was appointed by the upper house, to consider of suchinnovations as were proper to be taken away. It consisted of ten earls, ten bishops, and ten barons. They also appointed a sub-committee of bishops and learned divines, to prepare matters for debate, Bishop Williams being chairman of both. I The result of their conference was drawn up for the debate of the com- mittee, in a number of propositions and queries. But all attempts at an accommodation were blasted by the obstinacy ofthe bishops, and by the discovery of the'plot for bringing the army up to London to dissolve the parliament. This widened the distance betwixt the king and the two houses, and broke up the committee, without bringing any thing to perfection. The moderation and mutual compliance of these divines, it is justly observed, might have saved the whole body of episcopacy, and prevented the civil war : but the court bishops expected no good from them, suspecting that the puritans would betray the church. Some hot * Rushworth's Collec. vol. iv. p. 359. + Prynne's Breviate of Laud, p. 23, 24. f The names ofthese bishops and learned divines, were as follows : Dr. Williams, bishop of,Lincoln, Dr. Richard Holdsworth, Dr. Usher, archbishop of Armagh, Dr. John Racket, Dr. Morton, bishop of Durham, Dr. WilliamTv', isse, Dr. Hall, bishop of Exeter, Dr. Cornelius Burgess, Dr. Samuel Ward, Mr. John White, Dr. John Prideaux, Mr. Stephen Marshall, Dr. Robert Sanderson, Mr. Edmund Calamy, Dr. Daniel Ferttley, Mr. Thomas Hill. Dr, Ralph Brownrigg, Fuller's Churchflist. b. xi. p.174.
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