root and branch petition

views updated

root and branch petition, 1640. Charles I's opponents made most of the running in the Short and Long Parliaments of 1640. On 11 December, the Commons received a petition from Londoners demanding the destruction of episcopacy, ‘root and branch’. A bill to implement it and to substitute a presbyterian form of church government was introduced in 1641 but made no progress. But when the king's position deteriorated rapidly after the attempt to arrest the five members in 1642, he was obliged in February to consent to 17 Car. I c. 27, whereby the bishops were excluded from the House of Lords.

J. A. Cannon