sentences:  Massey was an autocratic military commander, but his authority in the city was shared with the civilian administration.A committee had been established in December 1642 to manage the Parliamentarian war effort in the county, but Thomas Pury, the member of parliament for Gloucester, was the only committee member in the city.Civic authority was held by a forty-member council, though in practice an inner core of some fifteen aldermen, including the mayor, wielded power.