ABSTRACT
In July 1880 while Parliament was still debating the Burials Bill, Archbishop Tait received word that the Church Association intended to apply to Lord Penzance for imprisonment of three convicted ritualists who had ignored sentences of suspension given against them: Pelham Dale who had eluded imprisonment in 1877 but later been charged afresh, Enraght of wafer fame, and S. F. Green from Manchester. Ireland compounded these difficulties. It drove news of Church scandals such as the imprisonments off the main pages of the press and out of men's minds. There would never be another session of Parliament like 1874. Irish nationalist M. P.s under their new leader Charles Stewart Parnell was obstreperous in Parliament. Disraeli replied that a commission might do some good, though only if proposed to Parliament by Tait and not the government; any initiative of the government would be interpreted as a step toward disestablishment.
