Editing English Civil War (section)

==Political control==
During the Wars, the Parliamentarians established a number of successive committees to oversee the war effort. The first, the [[English Committee of Safety|Committee of Safety]] set up in July 1642, comprised 15 members of Parliament.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Committee of Safety |url=https://bcw-project.org/church-and-state/first-civil-war/committee-of-safety |access-date=14 March 2022 |website=BCW Project}}</ref> After the Anglo-Scottish alliance against the Royalists, the [[Committee of Both Kingdoms]] replaced the Committee of Safety between 1644 and 1648.<ref name="Kennedy-96">{{Harvnb|Kennedy|2000|p=96}}</ref> Parliament dissolved the Committee of Both Kingdoms when the alliance ended, but its English members continued to meet as the [[Derby House Committee]].<ref name=Kennedy-96/> A second Committee of Safety then replaced it.

===Episcopacy===
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[[File:William Laud.jpg|thumb|[[William Laud]], Charles I's Archbishop of Canterbury.]]
During the English Civil War, the role of bishops as wielders of political power and upholders of the [[established church]] became a matter of heated political controversy. [[John Calvin]] of Geneva had formulated a doctrine of [[Presbyterianism]], which held that the offices of ''presbyter'' and ''episkopos'' in the New Testament were identical; he rejected the doctrine of [[apostolic succession]]. Calvin's follower [[John Knox]] brought Presbyterianism to Scotland when the Scottish church was reformed in 1560. In practice, Presbyterianism meant that committees of lay elders had a substantial voice in church government, as opposed to merely being subjects to a ruling hierarchy.

This vision of at least partial democracy in [[ecclesiology]] paralleled the struggles between Parliament and the King. A body within the Puritan movement in the Church of England sought to abolish the office of bishop and remake the Church of England along Presbyterian lines. The [[Martin Marprelate]] tracts (1588–1589), applying the [[pejorative]] name of ''[[prelacy]]'' to the church hierarchy, attacked the office of bishop with satire that deeply offended [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]] and her [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] [[John Whitgift]]. The [[vestments controversy]] also related to this movement, seeking further reductions in church ceremony, and labelling the use of elaborate vestments as "unedifying" and even [[idolatry and Christianity|idolatrous]].

[[James I of England|King James I]], reacting against the perceived [[contumacy]] of his Presbyterian Scottish subjects, adopted "No Bishop, no King" as a slogan. He tied the hierarchical authority of the bishop to the absolute authority he sought as King and viewed attacks on the authority of the bishops as attacks on his authority. Matters came to a head when Charles I appointed [[William Laud]] as [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]. Laud aggressively attacked the Presbyterian movement and sought to impose the full [[Book of Common Prayer]]. The controversy eventually led to Laud's impeachment for [[treason]] by a [[bill of attainder]] in 1645 and subsequent execution. Charles also attempted to impose episcopacy on Scotland. The Scots' violent rejection of bishops and liturgical worship sparked the [[Bishops' Wars]] in 1639–1640.

During the height of Puritan power under [[Commonwealth of England|the Commonwealth]] and [[the Protectorate]], episcopacy was formally abolished in the Church of England on 9 October 1646.{{Sfn|King|1968|p=523–537}} The Church of England remained Presbyterian until the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] of the monarchy.