<P> During the Wars, the Parliamentarians established a number of successive committees to oversee the war - effort . The first of these, the Committee of Safety, set up in July 1642, comprised 15 members of parliament . Following the Anglo - Scottish alliance against the Royalists, the Committee of Both Kingdoms replaced the Committee of Safety between 1644 and 1648 . Parliament dissolved the Committee of Both Kingdoms when the alliance ended, but its English members continued to meet and became known as the Derby House Committee . A second Committee of Safety then replaced that committee . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (May 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> During the period of the English Civil War, the role of bishops as wielders of political power and as upholders of the established church became a matter of heated political controversy . John Calvin formulated a doctrine of Presbyterianism, which held that in the New Testament the offices of presbyter and episkopos 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 . </P>

During the english civil war supporters of the king were mostly