The Established Church the Deputy regarded as a State Department, to be strictly controlled by the Government, but at the same time to be maintained in such a position of dignity and honour as would command the respect of the people. 

Anything likely to conflict with this  aim, such as absenteeism or neglect of their duties on the part of the clergy ; the alienation of episcopal lands ;   carelessness regarding the conduct of church ceremonies or the condition of the churches themselves, met with severe rebuke, and at times sharp punishment, at his hands.   Like his friend   Laud,   then   Archbishop   of   Canterbury,   he   desired   general uniformity.   

In   order   to   attain   it,   he   summoned   a   meeting   of Convocation, and directed it to supersede the ” Confession of Faith,” passed   in   1615,   and   to   substitute   the English   Articles   of   1562 (see Chap. IV).   When the bishops and clergy hesitated to comply with this order, he called certain of them before him, and so violently rated and threatened them that in terror they submitted, as did the whole body of Convocation subsequently, so that the desired Articles were passed (1634).