 On 12 October 1643 , Parliament ordered the Assembly to cease work on the Thirty @-@ Nine Articles and to begin to frame a common form of church government for the two nations . The Assembly would spend a quarter of its full sessions on the subject of church government . The majority of the Assembly members supported presbyterian polity , or church government by elected assemblies of lay and clerical representatives , though many were not <unk> committed to it . Several members of this group , numbering about twenty and including William Twisse , favoured a " primitive " <unk> , which would include elements of presbyterianism and a reduced role for bishops . 
