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Protestant religion… all who are true-hearted and lovers of their country should bind themselves each to other in a Sacred Vow and Covenant’. Subscribers were to acknowledge these distractions to be a punishment for their sins, and to promise not to lay down arms while the papists were in arms; to disavow the late plot and report any future ones; and most importantly, ‘according to my power and vocation, assist the forces raised and continued by both Houses of Parliament, against the forces raised by the King without their consent’. By declaring that ‘I do believe, in my conscience, that the forces raised by the two Houses of Parliament are raised and continued for their just defence, and for the defence of the true Protestant religion, and liberties of the subject, against the forces raised by the King’, the Vow had in effect dropped claims that the armies were fighting for the defence of the King’s honour and person. This was made the substance of a separate short declaration of ‘loyalty to the King’s person, his crown and dignity’. To some extent, or on some readings, it was in direct conflict with the Protestation, and royalist commentators were quick to say so.70 The purpose was clear enough, however: to shore up support for the continued war effort – this was the oath urged by Pym on Essex’s troops following the defeat at Chalgrove and the sacking of Wycombe.

On 12 June the future of the Reformation, a core element of the cause defined by the Vow and Covenant, was put in the hands of an assembly of divines, the Westminster Assembly. This was a consistent part of the negotiation platform of course, but a highly contentious issue – arguably the one at the heart of the instability of the parliamentary coalition. There was a suggestion that this was a means of kicking the issue of church government into the long grass while drawing the Scots back into English politics. Certainly for Sir Cheney Culpeper, a Kentish gentlemen of radical views but no great political influence, this initiative was closely related to the desire for an alliance with the Covenanters and to separate the sheep from the goats. On 16 June he wrote to Samuel Hartlib, with whom he maintained a regular correspondence, commending the ‘covenant lately made for the uniting of ourselves’ but also hoping for another ‘which I hope shortly to see for the stronger union of the 2 kingdoms in their common interest of religion and liberty’. Both would benefit from a confession of faith which in turn would be the basis of ‘a better union and correspondency between all the reformed churches and states, against the civil and ecclesiastical Babylon which God will certainly bring to judgement’. Although the military support from the Covenanters was shortly to be adopted, and was associated with just such a covenant, Culpeper was disappointed in his hopes for a confession of faith. When it became clear that the Covenanters intended to impose a Presbyterian church settlement Culpeper became quite scathing about our ‘geud brethren’. Initially, however, he was hopeful that ‘the well affected in both nations being united by Covenant first with themselves and then with one another, our strength and our enemy’s may be fully known’.71 This mirrored an element of the Waller plot, which had been to take a census of royalist sympathizers in London, parish by parish.72

On 14 June there followed a renewal of press licensing, suggesting that this desire to get the message out was closely associated with a desire to suppress rival or misleading messages and to preserve decency. A Commons order of August 1642 had sought to impose a crackdown on publication by re-establishing the partnership between government and the Stationers” Company, and in March another order turned the parliamentary committee for examinations into a kind of Star Chamber for the press by giving it powers of search, seizure and imprisonment. These elements of the policy were now brought together. The officers of the Stationers” Company along with the Gentleman Usher of the House of Lords and the Sergeant of the