It was accordingly resolved that the Archbishop and the six other petititioners should be brought before the Court of King's Bench on a charge of seditious libel.
That they would be convicted it was scarcely possible to doubt.

The judges and their officers were tools of the court.

Since the old charter of the City of London had been forfeited, scarcely one prisoner whom the government was bent on bringing to punishment had been absolved by a jury.

The refractory prelates would probably be condemned to ruinous fines and to long imprisonment, and would be glad to ransom themselves by serving, both in and out of Parliament, the designs of the Sovereign.
[372] On the twenty-seventh of May it was notified to the Bishops that on the eighth of June they must appear before the King in Council.

Why so long an interval was allowed we are not informed.