Let us begin by remembering some general history. It is granted on all sides that the Scots made a major contribution to the work of the Westminster Assembly, but how could so few wield an influence so disproportionate to their number? The Background to the Work of the Westminster Assembly ⤒ ? 2But the Scots commissioners numbered only six in February 1644. In the event, the number attending was closer to sixty and often less. Initially the English divines called to Westminster numbered 120. Not only did the Scots have this rather unusual relationship to the Assembly, their number was also very small in comparison with the majority. Instead they tried to go privately by coach, but the traffic jam was so bad that the horses could not move and the commissioners finished up going 'on foot, with great difficulty, through huge crowdings of people'. With typical Scottish reserve, the visitors from the north declined to do this - 'not loving to place ourselves before all the divines of England'.
The rest of the commissioners were instructed to walk before the divines of the Assembly. But where were the Scots to appear in all this pageantry? One of the Scots commissioners was a nobleman so his place was near the front. After them came the House of Commons and finally the Assembly of Divines. At the head of that procession were the Lords of the Common Counsel in their gowns, then the Mayor and Aldermen dressed in scarlet on horseback, followed, in turn, by the leading officers of the army and navy and more members of the House of Lords. First there was a service at Christ's Church, Newgate, then a mighty procession wound its way through streets, lined by the armed trained bands, to Taylors Hall where the gathering was to take place. On a February afternoon in 1644 a great dinner was held by the order of Parliament in the City of London. This was somewhat humorously illustrated soon after their arrival. As we shall see, they were 'commissioners' and as such their position was an unusual one. The Scots present, strictly speaking, were not members of that Assembly at all for they did not vote, although they possessed the right to speak. The Westminster Assembly was an assembly of English divines, meeting, of course, in the English capital. These texts reveal much of the assembly's work behind the scenes, and explain how the gathering could at once serve as an icon of godly rule, producing classic texts in the history of Christian doctrine and practice, while simultaneously becoming entangled in prolonged debates and the 'democratic anarchy' which characterized the British Revolution.Some surprises soon face the inquirer into the subject now before us. It also includes all known assembly papers, many of them only recently discovered. This edition documents almost 2,000 examinations of preachers for churches, fellows for colleges, and heretics for heresy.
All surviving votes and debates of the assembly are provided here for the first time. The gathering left behind an extraordinary testimony of its reforming activities, and the manuscript minutes constitute one of the most important unpublished religious texts of seventeenth-century Britain. The story of the Westminster assembly's accomplishments, as well as its failures, are told in the texts of this edition. Printers and booksellers INSERT: Included in Starkmann 40% promotion, September-October 2014 theologians and members were paraded down London streets and feasted at banquets. Visitors made their way to the abbey, from an unknown Muslim to the elector palatine of the Rhine. Christians wrote from Europe to ask the assembly for advice. At home and abroad, people perceived the assembly to be a powerful patron. Members of the assembly were involved in every significant political debate of the decade, and the public blamed or blessed the think-tank for radical changes in the church. For more than ten years the Westminster assembly was one of the major institutions of England, Scotland, and Ireland.