The first subject of a strictly theological kind submitted to the Assembly was the revision of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England. A sub-committee spent ten weeks in debating upon the first fifteen; and the result appeared in a draft of proposed alterations.[351] In the middle of October, we discover the Divines, through the dim light thrown on their proceedings by Lightfoot's Journal, "busy upon the sixteenth Article," and upon "that clause of it which mentioneth departing from grace," when an order came from both Houses of Parliament, commanding them speedily to take in hand the discipline and liturgy of the Church.
The circumstances of the country shaped the proceedings of the Divines no less than those of the Legislators. It may be said of the new system they were engaged to construct that--"the street" of the city was built again, and "the wall, even in troublous times." War had begun to kindle its fires far and wide; and it is necessary for us to turn our attention to military affairs and the fortunes of the battle-field, in order that we may understand what followed in the Westminster Assembly.
A heavy blow had befallen the Parliament in the month of March, 1643, when Lord Brooke had been killed at the siege of Lichfield. He had prepared for an assault on the Royalist troops, who were in possession of the cathedral; and just as he was standing under the porch of a house, and directing a battery against the Close gate--the spot is still pointed out to the visitor in that quiet little city--the Puritan commander was shot by a musket ball. His death created a great sensation, and was differently interpreted by contemporaries, according to their political and ecclesiastical opinions. Laud pronounced it a Divine judgment for Brooke's sins. Parliamentarians celebrated it as a glorious sacrifice offered up in the cause of patriotism and religion.