Parliament had temporised, committing only to a reformation of the Church "in due time as shall best conduce to the glory of God and the peace of the Church," but it was clear that there would be a need for serious concessions to the Scots if hostilities broke out between king and Parliament. Chidley's response to the situation was "The Justification of the Independant Churches of Christ. Being an Answer to Mr. Edwards his Booke". Edwards had attacked the Independents both for separatism and for what he saw as their unstable and fissiparous structures. In particular, he had no confidence in the ability of ordinary people to judge the value of ministers:  Chidley asked for the reader's indulgence, as she knew she did not have the education and experience of the formidable Edwards: However, the Biblical quotations she chose were for the title page were highly provocative. The first, , reports the challenge of David to Goliath. The other was , referring to the Jael, who smashed the skull of an enemy of the Israelites. Both seem to suggest that the age of power and authority is to give way to one of rule by consent and the reversal of order may be suggesting specifically that monarchy is giving way to one of more diffuse localised, authority. She began her response by roundly declaring the lawfulness of separation: She gave vent to considerable bitterness against the clergy of the Church of England, whom she called "those Locusts, which ascended out of the bottomlesse pit, ." Later in the book she listed the ways in which the Episcopalian clergy exploited the poor, including one which refers to the fee extracted for the churching of women, which she had boycotted in Shrewsbury. However, separation, in her view, was an ecclesiological imperative, rather than a political expedient:  Edwards had drawn attention to the lack of ministers in the Independent churches and challenged the authority of those they had. Chidley unpicked the ambiguities in his own claim to authority: Chidley was anti-clerical in tone. She renounced the whole idea of apostolic succession in favour of apostolic mission: Chidley challenged any notion of social superiority or clerical status as a qualification for establishing and governing churches:  Government by elders was common ground between Presbyterians and Independents: However, any superstructure beyond the immediate local level was another matter. Chidley expressed total distrust in any authority not specifically sanctioned by God:  Edwards had rejected Toleration as likely to lead to the rising of subordinate groups in society and to social collapse.