Lake of Chichester, being seized with a dangerous distemper, signed a solemn declaration, in which he professed his adherence to the doctrine of non-resistance and passive obedience, which he believed to be the distinguishing characteristic of the church of England.

After his death this paper was published, industriously circulated, and extolled by the party as an inspired oracle pronounced by a martyr to religious truth and sincerity.
THE KING GRANTS A COMMISSION FOR REFORMING CHURCH DISCIPLINE.
All the clamour that was raised against the king could not divert him from prosecuting the scheme of comprehension.

He granted a commission under the great seal to ten bishops and twenty dignitaries of the church, authorizing them to meet from time to time in the Jerusalem chamber, to prepare such alterations of the liturgy and the canons, and such proposals for the reformation of ecclesiastical courts as might most conduce to the good order, edification, and uniting of the church, and tend to reconcile all religious differences among the protestant subjects of the kingdom.

A cry was immediately raised against this commission, as an ecclesiastical court illegal and dangerous.

At their first meeting the authority of the commission was questioned by Sprat, bishop of Rochester, who retired in disgust, and was followed by Mew of Winchester, and the doctors Jane and Aldrich.