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CONVOCATIONS 



44T 



shoe iiiul giving it to liis neighbour ; 'and this was 

 ;i testimony in Israel.' Among tlie ancient (Joths 

 ami Swedes, tin- conveyance of l.unl was made in 

 the presence, of witnesses, who extended the cloak 

 of the Imycr, while tin- seller threw into it a clod 

 of land. Similar to these 8yrnl>olic forms are the 

 old Knglish ami Scottish modes of conveyance by 

 solemn delivery of seisin, sasine, or possession. 

 (Joods have always been transferred with less 

 ceremony than land ; but the customs of ancient 

 markets provided in certain cases for delivery in 

 prc-eiire of witnesses, that frauds and disputes 

 might be avoided. 



Written forms of conveyance are almost as. old 

 a- the art of writing. An early example is given 

 in Jer. xxxii. 9-12, where the prophet describes his 

 I Mirchase of the field of Hanameel, and the book or 

 written evidence of the purchase subscribed by the 

 parties and their witnesses. The Romans carried 

 the art of conveyancing to high perfection. They 

 hail public registers in which formal documents 

 night be recorded ; and the same legal forms were 

 used by notaries and lawyers throughout the em- 

 pire. The Roman law favoured freedom of aliena- 

 tion, and applied the same principles to movable 

 and immovable property. When the barbarians 

 broke into the empire, they brought their primitive 

 customs with them ; and Sir H.Maine has shown 

 that barbarian custom and Roman law combined 

 to form the feudal system. The great aim of 

 feudalism was fixity of tenure ; but the church- 

 men, who were also the lawyers and conveyancers 

 of the period, were led by their own interest, and 

 also by their superior education, to favour free 

 alienation, both inter vivos and by will. 



In England and in Scotland feudal ideas so far 

 prevailed, that for some centuries the owner of land 

 was hampered in dealing with it by the incidents of 

 his tenure. He was liable for military or other 

 service, and his land was subject to many inci- 

 dental claims of a vexatious nature (see COPY- 

 HOLD, ESCHEAT, FEUDALISM, FINE, FREEHOLD). 

 The church lawyers were driven to devise a whole 

 system of conveyancing, the object of which was 

 to enable corporations and private persons to evade 

 the strict rules of the common law. Political 

 insecurity led to the invention of other forms of 

 secret conveyance. In England by the end of the 

 17th century the art of conveyancing had become a 

 complicated mystery, and all dealings with land, 

 in the way of commerce or of. family settlement, 

 were attended with expense and difficulty. Modern 

 conveyancing has been rendered more simple and 

 reasonable, and, on the whole, less expensive, 1>\ a 

 series of reforms extending from the acts prepared 

 on the advice of the Real Property Commissioners 

 in 1832-33 to the Conveyancing Act, 1881, and the 

 Settled Land Act, 1882. 



In Britain it is not necessary to employ a 

 professional person to prepare a conveyance; but 

 the risk run by those who trust to a deed or will 

 drawn by an unskilled person is considerable. Con- 

 veyancing is part of the ordinary work of solicitors, 

 and in Scotland of writers to the Signet. In 

 Kn-land many members of the bar devote them- 

 selves entirely to conveyancing ; and there is also 

 a special class of practitioners known as comw- 

 ancers who are members of the Inns of Court, but 

 not called to the bar. Like solicitors, conveyancers 

 are required to take out an annual certificate. In 

 some of the large cities in the United States, 

 companies have been formed to undertake convey- 

 ancing, and to guarantee titles to real estate. In 

 learning and practising his art, the conveyancer is 

 much assisted by collections of precedents, which 

 contain the styles and forms which have been 

 found most safe and useful. By turning over any 

 o* the books of precedents now in use, even the 



ordinary reader may obtain some notion of the 

 variety and the importance of modern convey- 

 ancers' work. In the United States the lawn of 

 conveyancing are not uniform ; but in general the 

 e-sentialH of a conveyance of land an- that it shall 

 be in writing, signed ;md scaled by the grantor-, 

 acknowledged before the ollicer appointed by la'.v, 

 and delivered and recorded in the olli.-e appointed. 

 In most states conveyancing in done by memlH'tx of 

 the bar, but elsewhere by skilled conveyancers win. 

 are not otherwise lawyers. See DEED. 



Convict. See PRISONS, CRIMINAL LAW. 



Convocations (from Lat. run mi-lire, ' to call 

 together') were originally provincial synods of the. 

 clergy or the ancient ecclesiastical councils of the 

 archbishop, but became incorporated into the Kn;r- 

 lish constitution of church and state, and en- 

 dued with certain parliamentary privileges. Some 

 writers distinguish between councils and convoca- 

 tions the former as being for spiritual purposes, 

 and summoned without authority from the crown ; 

 the latter as being for civil puqtoses, and by com- 

 mand of the crown. This distinction, however, has 

 no foundation in fact, the truth being that the 

 same assemblies discharged ecclesiastical functions, 

 such as the enactment of canons, and civil func- 

 tions, as the voting of subsidies to the crown, since 

 the clergy were not subject to taxation save that 

 levied by themselves in their provincial synods. The 

 circumstances attending the famous assembly at 

 Northampton in 1282, in the reign of Edward I., 

 helped to settle the form which convocations have 

 since assumed. In England the provinces of Can- 

 terbury and York have each their convocation. 

 Previous to the Reformation these were sometimes 

 convened into a National Synod ; but since then, 

 matters have usually been concluded in the con- 

 vocation of Canterbury, and transmitted to York 

 for concurrence. 



A convocation consists of three elements ( 1 ) the 

 archbishop; (2) the suffragan bishops of the pro- 

 vince ; ( 3 ) the clergy of the second order. They 

 originally met in one assembly, but since the begin- 

 ning of the 14th century the clergv in the province 

 of Canterbury have retired into a distinct chamber, 

 presided over by a prolocutor, with officers and 

 journals of their own. These two bodies are called 

 the Upper and Lower Houses. In the Convocation 

 of York the same distinction exists, but on the 

 occasions of their meeting, the business has been 



generally conducted in one assembly. The arch- 

 ishop has the sole power of summoning, presiding, 

 and proroguing ; he has also a veto upon all 

 measures. He cannot, however, summon without 

 authority from the crown. The Upper House is 

 the proper locus synodi, where the bishops have a 

 right to sit and vote, and before the Reformation 

 the mitred abbots had place there also. Tlie Lower 

 House consists of the lesser dignitaries, as deans 

 and archdeacons, and the proctors sent by capitular 

 bodies and by the parochial clergy. In Canterbury 

 the beneficed clergy only elect, and they send one 

 proctor for each diocese ; in York all the clergy 

 elect, and send one proctor for each archdeaconry. 

 The Lower House deliberates on matters proposed 

 by the archbishop ; it may present petitions to the 

 Upper House and state grievances, be with it in 

 judicature on persons convened, and dissent from 

 and so hinder the passing of any synodical act. 

 Till 1534 the provincial synods or 'convocations- 

 could enact canons at pleasure, but in that year 

 was enacted the statute 25 Henry VIII., chap. 19, 

 making a license from the crown necessary before 

 any new canons could be framed or published. 



The passing of subsidies in convocation ceased in 

 1665, and the records were destroved in the fire of 

 London in the following year. Meetings of convo- 



