The Tories thus need to adopt a self-denying ordinance.
His military service terminated at the time of the Self-denying Ordinance in 1645; he had associated himself with the Presbyterian faction, and naturally enough was not included in the New Model.
The lords and the Scots vehemently took Manchester's part; but the Commons eventually sided with Cromwell, appointed Sir Thomas Fairfax general of the New Model Army, and passed two self-denying ordinances, the second of which, ordering all members of both houses to lay down their commissions within forty days, was accepted by the lords on the 3rd of April 1645.
To the saintliness of the cloister he added the wisdom of the man of the world; he was constant in misfortune, not elated by prosperity, never "carrying things to the sweating-point'," but preserving, in a time of universal corruption, unreality and self-indulgence, a nature sweet, pure, self-denying, unaffected.
Debarred from election to the second National Assembly (known as the Legislative) by the self-denying ordinance passed by the "constituents," Talleyrand, at the close of 1791, sought to enter the sphere of diplomacy for which his mental qualities and his clerical training furnished him with an admirable equipment.