The members of the
Westminster Assembly of Divines, sometimes known collectively as the
Westminster Divines, are those clergymen who participated in the Assembly that drafted the
Westminster Confession of Faith. The
Long Parliament's initial ordinance creating the Westminster Assembly appointed 121 ministers of the
Church of England to the Assembly, as well as providing for participation on the part of 30 lay assessors (10 nobles and 20
commoners), as well as six Commissioners representing the
Church of Scotland. Of the original 121 divines, approximately 25 never took their seats in the Assembly. The Parliament subsequently added 21 additional ministers to the Assembly (the additions being known to history as the
Superadded Divines) to replace those ministers who did not show up, or who had died or become ill since the calling of the Assembly.