"This book proposes a new model for understanding religious debates in the churches of England and Scotland between 1603 and 1625. Setting aside 'narrow' analyses of conflict over predestination, its theme is ecclesiology - the nature of the church, its rites and governance, and its relationship to the early Stuart political world. Drawing on a substantial number of polemical works, from sermons to books of several hundreds of pages, it argues that rival interpretations of scripture, pagan and civil history, and the sources central to the Christian historical tradition lay at the heart of disputes between proponents of contrasting ecclesiological visions. Some saw the church as a blend of spiritual and political elements - a state church - while others insisted that the life of the spirit should be free from civil authority. As the reign went on these positions hardened and they made a major contribution to the religious divisions of the 1640s."--BOOK JACKET.