Committees and Religious Politics at the Scottish General Assemblies, 1638–39

This article explores the role of the Scottish General Assemblies of 1638 and 1639 in opposing the religious policies of Charles I. It investigates the activity of the committees that met during the General Assemblies and explores how they contained a range of competing voices. The article demonstrates that, against a background of greater public participation in the political debates of the 1630s, it was in the privacy of committee meetings that members of the General Assemblies found ways to maintain the unity of the protest movement against Charles I. The article contends that the assemblies’ greatest success was in holding together the competing voices of the movement and it underscores the importance of private deliberations in a moment of increased public political participation.