 The Assembly was called by the Long Parliament before and during the beginning of the First English Civil War . The Long Parliament was influenced by <unk> , a religious movement which sought to further reform the church . They were opposed to the religious policies of King Charles I and William Laud , Archbishop of Canterbury . As part of a military alliance with Scotland , Parliament agreed that the outcome of the Assembly would bring the English Church into closer conformity with the Church of Scotland . The Scottish Church was governed by a system of elected assemblies of elders called presbyterianism , rather than rule by bishops , called <unk> , which was used in the English church . Scottish commissioners attended and advised the Assembly as part of the agreement . <unk> over church government caused open division in the Assembly , despite attempts to maintain unity . The party of divines who favoured presbyterianism was in the majority , but political and military <unk> led to greater influence for the congregationalist party . Congregationalists favoured autonomy for individual congregations rather than the <unk> of congregations to regional and national assemblies entailed in presbyterianism . Parliament eventually adopted a presbyterian form of government , but it lacked the power the presbyterian divines desired . During the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 , all of the documents of the Assembly were repudiated and episcopal church government was reinstated in England . 
