ABSTRACT
Religious grievances formed one of the chief irritant causes of the revolt heralded by the meeting of the Long Parliament in November, 1640. On October 12, 1643, the Parliament ordered the Assembly to confer upon a discipline and government of the Church as might be most agreeable to the Word or God. The Confession of Faith was one of the latest fruits of the Assembly’s labours, and one as to which there was less division of opinion. The respect which has been paid to the memory of the Westminster Assembly is due only to the individual learning of its leading members. The opposition of the Independents to the Presbyterians in the Assembly was simply a prolongation of the same faction fight which was being fought out in the Parliament and in the Army. The scots joined in the fray in the Assembly with just as open and vehement intrigue as they did in the political domain.
