When such an assembly was called together under the direct authority of the crown, it was natural that ecclesias tical subjects should be introduced, dis cussed, and in some instances determined by it. The old doctrine was that the con vocation had only authority in spiritual matters, and that they had no power to bind the temporalty, but only the spiritu ally. (Comyns' Digest, Convocation?) The crown, however, had always in its hands the power of controlling this as sembly, by possessing the prerogative of proroguing and dissolving. But at the Reformation an act was passed (25 Henry VIII. c. 19), which expressly deprived the convocation of the power of perform ing any act whatever without the king's licence. The act declares that the "clergy, nor any of them, from henceforth shall presume to attempt, allege, claim, or put in use any constitutions or ordinances, pro vincial or synodal, or any other canons, nor shall enact, promulge, or exercise any such canons, constitutions, or ordinances provincial, by whatever name or names they may be called in .their convocations in time coming, which always shall be as sembled by authority of the king's writ, unless the same clergy may have the king's most royal licence." By an act passed in 1665 (16 & 17 Chas. II. c. 1), the clergy were bound by the act, which was for the raising of a tax, just like the laity, and they were discharged from the payment of the sub sidies hitherto granted in convocation. Though this act reserves to the clergy the right of taxing themselves in convo cation if they think fit, it has never been attempted, and the clergy and the laity are now precisely on the same footing as to taxation. The clergy, instead of being represented by the lower house of convo cation, are now represented in parliament in the House of Commons, not however as an ecclesiastical body, but simply as citizens ; they can vote for a member in respect of their ecclesiastical freeholds, or in respect of any other qualification which they may have in common with the laity.
The decisions of the convocation of the province of Canterbury have always had great authority in that of York ; and sometimes the two convocations have acted as one, either by jointly consenting, or by the attendance of deputies from the province of York at the convocation of Canterbury. One of the most important of the convocations, that in which the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical were established in 1603 [CONSTITUTIONS and CANONS ECCLESIASTICAL], appears to have been only attended by deputies of the Canterbury convocation ; but the king's confirmation of the canons then made extends them to the province of York. No business beyond matters of form has been done in convocation since 1741.
The practical annihilation of the con vocation was a considerable change. It may be viewed as completing the vic tory obtained in England by the civil power over the ecclesiastical. The clergy can now make no canons which shall bind even their own body without the consent of the crown, that is, of the ministers of the crown ; and it is certain that what ever canons they might make, even with the licence of the crown, would not bind the laity. In fact, the British parlia ment now makes canons for the clergy, as we see in the Church Discipline Act. [CLERGY.] The Anglican Church is now completely in the power of parliament, with no other weight there than the bench of bishops in the House of Lords, who may be considered as in some way represent ing the ecclesiastical estate.
But though the convocation has become a nullity, the practice has been continued, and continues to the present day, of sum moning the clergy to meet in convocation whenever a new parliament is called; and the forms of election are gone through in the dioceses, and the meeting for the province of Canterbury is held, usually in St. Paul's Church, when the form is
also gone through of electing a prolo cutor or speaker. The king's writ, as already stated, is directed to the arch bishops, commanding them to summon the bishops and the inferior clergy. The archbishops, in compliance with this writ, summon the bishops, and command them to summon the archdeacons and deans in their respective dioceses, and to command the chapters to elect one proctor each, and the great body of the clergy in each dio cese two proctors, to represent them in the convocation. When assembled, they form two houses in the province of Can terbury, but, as stated above, only one house in the province of York. In the upper house of the convocation of Can terbury sit the bishops ; in the lower, the other clergy, in all 143; viz. 22 deans, 53 archdeacons, 24 canons, and 44 proctors of the inferior clergy. It is the usual practice for the king to prorogue the meeting when it is about to proceed to any business.
There is no convocation for Ireland.
The history of the English convocation may be collected from Gibson's Codex, and Atterbury's Rights, Powers, and Pri vileges of the English Convocation stated and vindicated, London, 1700 ; and from a Charge, delivered at a visitation of the Archdeaconry of Oxford, 1841, by Arch deacon Clarke.
The sketch of the history of convoca tion here given may be tolerably correct as far as it goes, and it pretends to be nothing more. The complicated and in extricable difficulties which beset every attempt to restore the convocation, or to set it to work again, are fully stated in an article in the' Quarterly Review,' No. 150.
This article makes us acquainted with the strange fact (strange enough it seems to us, who have thus heard of it for the first time), that a parliamentary writ issues from the Petty-Bag Office [CHAN CERY, p. 486] concurrently with the con vocation writs from the Crown Office.
The parliamentary writs are addressed to the archbishops and bishops of Eng land and Wales, who are commanded to attend the parliament to be holden at Westminster. The same writ also com mands the attendance of the dean of the bishop's church of Canterbury, Exeter, and so forth, and the archdeacons to ap pear also at Westminster in their proper persons ; and each chapter by one, and the clergy of each diocese by two meet proctors. A similar notice is sent to the Irish archbishops and bishops. These ecclesiastics are summoned to Westmin ster at the day appointed, to consent to what shall be advanced by the common counsel of the United Kingdom. Accord ing to the summons, the clergy ought to appear at Westminster as a component part of the Imperial Parliament ; and the English clergy are required at the same time to appear in convocation at St. Paul's, London, for the province of Can terbury, and at St. Peter's, York, for the province of York. The parliamentary writ was no doubt the original one ; and it is suggested by the writer in the ' Quar terly Review,' that the concurrent con vocation writ was probably introduced to enable the clergy to save their privileges at the expense of their money. Since the conovcation writs have been issued, the practice has been for the clergy to obey the writ of convocation.