Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/126

 1640 was carried on to put these troubles down, called the Bishop's war.

The Puritans managed to be in the majority in the Parliament, when Parliament ruled in defiance of the king and took the law into its own hands. They were the primary movers in the civil wars, with Cromwell at their head.

I must now show what Parliament did when it became the organ of Puritan wishes and principles, and tell you how it governed the Church. The Puritans set about the consideration of the ritual and liturgy of the Church. In 1643 Parliament ordered that an assembly of divines should be held at Westminster. Its object should be, as defined by Parliament, "For the settling of the government and liturgy of the Church of England, and for vindicating and clearing of the doctrines of the said Church from false aspersions and interpretations." This assembly was comprised of one hundred and thirty ministers and thirty laymen. But most of them were Presbyterians, and some few were Independents. That is to say, that men bitterly opposed to the Church of England should legislate for the Church, and order its rites and ceremonies and teaching, without Churchmen having a chance of explaining the meaning of their customs. At first, however, a few Episcopal clergymen were present at the meeting, and several of these were Bishops of the Church, but they withdrew when the king issued a proclamation forbidding the assembly. This meeting of divines were so far from considering the liturgy and the doctrines of the Church of England, that they determined to extirpate prelacy and popery, as they called