Overview

On the surface, the early years of Charles I appear to be a continuation of the familiar pattern of convocation, but underneath tensions were mounting. The king leaned towards the ‘high church’ faction, which he promoted with great zeal, much to the discomfiture of the Calvinist mainstream. Unfortunately, he saw no need to court anyone’ s support, believing that his exalted position commanded assent to his policies, and thus he managed to alienate all but a very small circle around him.

The convocations caused little trouble, but parliament was another matter, and when it was suspended in 1629, they were suspended along with it. They did not meet during the king's personal rule (1629-40), but when parliament was recalled they also resurfaced, only to discover that there was a revolution in mil swing. Unable to get his way with parliament, Charles thought he could rely on convocation instead, playing one off against the other. This raised a most delicate constitutional question, which came to a head when the king dissolved parliament but allowed the Canterbury convocation to continue sitting - and even licenced it to make new canons.

The canons of 1640 became famous in the subsequent debates, and their exact status was not finally settled until 1969, when they were explicitly abolished. Until that time, they existed in a strange legal limbo - not specifically recognized, but not repudiated either, with the result that later generations of ‘high churchmen' occasionally appealed to them in support of practices or beliefs for which they could find no other support.

It may well be true that the tensions in English society at this time would have boiled over sooner or later, whatever the king's policies were, but there can be no doubt that Charles I gave a considerable boost to the process. The second parliament of 1640 was even more radical than the first, and would not be dismissed so easily. The Canterbury convocation, which now contained a number of proctors who would later attend the Westminster assembly of divines, continued in being for a time, but after 3 February 1641 no more is heard of it, and it seems that it simply disappeared in the general breakdown of the church's episcopal government.

The convocation of 1625

Canterbury

Convocation met on 20 June 1625 but did nothing other than grant the king three subsidies of two tenths, on 8 July.