English Civil Wars

The English Civil Wars had their immediate origins in the attempts of Charles I to impose elements of the Anglican liturgy, including use of the Book of Common Prayer, on the fiercely Calvinist Scottish Church. These attempts to conform the Scottish Kirk to English practices was naturally met with fierce resistance by the Scots, who, at a meeting of a large number of nobles, burgesses, lairds, and ministers held in Edinburgh in February 1638, endorsed a petition [Page 145]known as the National Covenant, which sought to abolish all forms of episcopacy in the Scottish Kirk. The petition was circulated and received wide support; it was endorsed by a General Assembly of the Kirk held in Glasgow in November 1638, which removed all bishops from office ...