The convocation records of the Churches of England and Ireland are the principal source of our information about the administration of those churches from middle ages until modern times. They contain the minutes of clergy synods,the legislation passed by them, tax assessments imposed by the king on the clergy, and accounts of the great debates about religious reformation; they also include records of heresy trials in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,many of them connected with the spread of Lollardy. However, they have never before been edited or published in full, and their publication as a complete set of documents provides a valuable resource for scholarship.
This volume details the final stages of the convocation controversy and gives the evidence surrounding the suspension of its proceedings in 1717. It also shows that nobody at the time believed that the convocation had been silenced for good, and presents the evidence of ongoing attempts to relaunch it during the reign of George II.