1643–1649

The Westminster Assembly and the Westminster Confession

In 1640 Charles I was forced to summon Parliament. The Long Parliament, bound to the Scots by the Solemn League and Covenant (1643), convened the Westminster Assembly. It brought together some 121–151 English divines and Scottish commissioners. The Assembly met over a thousand times from 1643 to 1649 to establish a presbyterian settlement for the British Isles.

The result was the Westminster Confession of Faith, adopted by the Church of Scotland in 1646–1647. It came together with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms (1647) and a Directory for Public Worship. This was the classic statement of 17th-century Reformed orthodoxy, in harmony with the decisions of the Synod of Dort. The document became the doctrinal standard of Presbyterianism throughout the English-speaking world, though the Church of England itself never adopted it.