 Relations between the Assembly and Parliament were already deteriorating in 1644 , when Parliament ignored the Assembly 's request that " grossly ignorant and notoriously <unk> " individuals be barred from communion . While members of Parliament agreed that the sacrament should be kept pure , many of them disagreed with the presbyterian majority in the Assembly over who had the final power of excommunication , taking the Erastian view that it was the state . Also , by 1646 , Oliver Cromwell 's New Model Army had won the war on behalf of Parliament . Cromwell , along with a majority of the army , was strongly in favour of religious toleration for all sorts of Christians even if the national church was to be presbyterian . His rise to power as a result of his military victories made the idea of a strictly presbyterian settlement without freedom of worship for others very unlikely . Parliament at least wanted to know which sins in particular were grave enough to trigger excommunication by the church ; the Assembly was <unk> to provide such information , as the majority considered the power of the church in this area to be absolute . 
