The Assembly’s Confession of Faith presented to the Parliament (Braye volume: Confession)
Following the outbreak of the English Civil War, the Westminster Assembly of Divines (together with a small cohort of members of both Houses of Parliament) was given the task of reforming the Church of England in its liturgy, discipline and government in 1643. On 26 November 1646 the Minutes of the Assembly recorded that the Confession of Faith was finished and thanks were expressed to those who had perfected it for their “great paines”. A fair copy of the manuscript, described as “whole and entire” on its frontispiece, was prepared by one of the Assessors to the meeting, Cornelius Burges. He had completed all revisions by 3 December. Five hundred copies produced by the Company of Stationers were then distributed to MPs. The printed version produced in April 1647, with “quotations and texts of scripture annexed” to the margins, as had been requested, was also limited to the Assembly and members of both Houses. Further amendments were incorporated. It was from the sixth edition, published in 1648, “with authority” from the two Houses, that other printings followed. Some precision in the punctuation, as set down by Burges, was not always adopted.
Margaret Thompson
Westminster College
Cambridge
Information about this document
- Physical Location: Westminster College, Cambridge
- Classmark: Braye volume: Confession
- Alternative Title(s): The Westminster Confession
- Subject(s): Presbyterianism
- Author(s): Westminster Assembly of Divines
- Scribe(s): Burges, Cornelius, 1589?-1665
- Origin Place: London
- Date of Creation: 1646 (this version – see above)
- Language(s): English
- Extent: The volume has been foliated (recto only) in pencil, the Confession being at folios 111 to 145 (pages 229 to 293), and Chapter I, “of the Holy Scripture”, begins on folio 114 (page 235). The manuscript itself runs to 59 pages, marked in ink at top right, and is the final document in the volume.
- Material: Paper
- Format: Codex
- Condition: Although some leaching of the ink has occurred, the text is legible, and contains Burges’s own corrections.
- Binding:
Red leather, 32.5 x 23.5 x 3.5mm
- Script:
In the hand of Cornelius Burges. His signature appears along with those of other assessors and scribes, folio 143 (page 293).
- Decoration:
Title on spine (in “gold”) WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES 1644-46
- Provenance:
In normal circumstances, documents given parliamentary approval would have been retained at Westminster, but the Clerk to the House of Lords, John Browne (1638-91) removed various manuscripts. His descendants, the Brayes, retained them in their library at Stanford Hall near Rugby. The volume came to the attention of Dr S W Carruthers, a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church of England, during his research on the Westminster Assembly.
It contained five papers on church government, mainly concerned with points raised by a group known as the Dissenting Brethren – there were seven in total - and the responses to them. (In order, these are two statements Concerning Church Government, The Answer… unto the Reasons given… by the dissenting Brethren, The Reasons of the Dissenting Brethren against the Third Proposition concerning Presbyteriall Government, The Answers… to the reasons of the dissenting Brethren against the 3: Proposition, concerning Presbyteriall Government), and finally, Burges’s rendering of the Confession of Faith.
When this was put on the market, in a sale at Sotheby’s in February 1943, Carruthers had already extracted promises from thirteen friends and acquaintances that they would contribute to its purchase. His strategy was successful, the John Rylands Library in Manchester agreeing not to bid against him. The volume was presented to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of England in Liverpool on 4 May 1943 to mark the 300th anniversary of the opening of the Westminster Assembly. The Historical Society of which Carruthers was vice-president was given custodial possession, that responsibility passing to the United Reformed Church in 1972. (The House of Lords library has secured the return of the other Braye papers).
- Author(s) of the Record: Margaret Thompson
- Bibliography:For detailed analysis of the work of the Assembly of Divines, see Chad Van Dixhoorn (ed) with David F Wright, The Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly, 1643-1652 in five volumes (OUP, 2012). An article by S W Carruthers, “The Original Manuscript of the Westminster Confession of Faith” may be found in the Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society of England, Vol VII, no 4, pp.151-54, (1943). Carruthers also commented on the scripture proofs of the Confession in the same volume at pp. 102-108.
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- Physical Location: Westminster College, Cambridge
- Classmark: Braye volume: Confession
- Alternative Title(s): The Westminster Confession
- Subject(s): Presbyterianism
- Author(s): Westminster Assembly of Divines
- Scribe(s): Burges, Cornelius, 1589?-1665
- Origin Place: London
- Date of Creation: 1646 (this version – see above)
- Language(s): English
- Extent: The volume has been foliated (recto only) in pencil, the Confession being at folios 111 to 145 (pages 229 to 293), and Chapter I, “of the Holy Scripture”, begins on folio 114 (page 235). The manuscript itself runs to 59 pages, marked in ink at top right, and is the final document in the volume.
- Material: Paper
- Format: Codex
- Condition: Although some leaching of the ink has occurred, the text is legible, and contains Burges’s own corrections.
- Binding:
Red leather, 32.5 x 23.5 x 3.5mm
- Script:
In the hand of Cornelius Burges. His signature appears along with those of other assessors and scribes, folio 143 (page 293).
- Decoration:
Title on spine (in “gold”) WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES 1644-46
- Provenance:
In normal circumstances, documents given parliamentary approval would have been retained at Westminster, but the Clerk to the House of Lords, John Browne (1638-91) removed various manuscripts. His descendants, the Brayes, retained them in their library at Stanford Hall near Rugby. The volume came to the attention of Dr S W Carruthers, a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church of England, during his research on the Westminster Assembly.
It contained five papers on church government, mainly concerned with points raised by a group known as the Dissenting Brethren – there were seven in total - and the responses to them. (In order, these are two statements Concerning Church Government, The Answer… unto the Reasons given… by the dissenting Brethren, The Reasons of the Dissenting Brethren against the Third Proposition concerning Presbyteriall Government, The Answers… to the reasons of the dissenting Brethren against the 3: Proposition, concerning Presbyteriall Government), and finally, Burges’s rendering of the Confession of Faith.
When this was put on the market, in a sale at Sotheby’s in February 1943, Carruthers had already extracted promises from thirteen friends and acquaintances that they would contribute to its purchase. His strategy was successful, the John Rylands Library in Manchester agreeing not to bid against him. The volume was presented to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of England in Liverpool on 4 May 1943 to mark the 300th anniversary of the opening of the Westminster Assembly. The Historical Society of which Carruthers was vice-president was given custodial possession, that responsibility passing to the United Reformed Church in 1972. (The House of Lords library has secured the return of the other Braye papers).
- Author(s) of the Record: Margaret Thompson
- Bibliography:For detailed analysis of the work of the Assembly of Divines, see Chad Van Dixhoorn (ed) with David F Wright, The Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly, 1643-1652 in five volumes (OUP, 2012). An article by S W Carruthers, “The Original Manuscript of the Westminster Confession of Faith” may be found in the Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society of England, Vol VII, no 4, pp.151-54, (1943). Carruthers also commented on the scripture proofs of the Confession in the same volume at pp. 102-108.
- Title: Two statements Concerning Church Government
- Title: The Answer… unto the Reasons given… by the dissenting Brethren
- Title: The Reasons of the Dissenting Brethren against the Third Proposition concerning Presbyteriall Government
- Title: The Answers… to the reasons of the dissenting Brethren against the 3: Proposition, concerning Presbyteriall Government
- Title: Burges’s rendering of the Confession of Faith
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