CON 



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COO 



Convoca- precise knowledge of the meaning attached by the 

 t t10 "' courts of law to particular terms, in order that he may 

 """^ "~ be enabled, distinctly and effectually, to express the in- 

 tention of the granter. The forms of legal deeds will 

 come to be discussed in a future article. (2) 



CONVOCATION, a representative assembly of the 

 clergy of the English establishment, summoned to meet 

 at the same time with parliament. It is called by a 

 special writ from the king addressed to the archbishops, 

 and requiring them to summon together all the bishops, 

 deans, and archdeacons, with a certain number of 

 proctors, or proxies, for the chapters and parochial cler- 

 gy in their particular provinces. In that of York, there 

 is' only one house, but on account of the small number 

 of dioceses under its archbishopric, each archdeaconry 

 elects two representatives. The convocation of Canter- 

 bury, like the parliament, is divided into two houses, 

 the upper and the lower ; the former consisting of the 

 bishops, with the archbishop as their president ; and 

 the lower, of 22 deans, 53 archdeacons, 24- prebendaries 

 or proctors of chapters, 44- proctors for the diocesan 

 clergy, and 1 precentor, viz. the precentor of the 

 church of St David's, which has no dean. Each convo- 

 cation has a prolocutor chosen by themselves, whose 

 duty it is to secure the attendance of the members, to 

 collect their votes, and, in the case of the lower house, 

 to report their resolutions to the upper house. The 

 archbishop prorogues and dissolves it by mandate from 

 the king ; and during its sittings, the members in at- 

 tendance have the same privilege of freedom from ar- 

 rest with members of parliament when on duty. 



Till the reign of Henry VI., the inferior clergy ap- 

 pear to have regularly sat by representation in parlia- 

 ment ; and previous to the Reformation, both houses 

 frequently met in convocation, merely by authority of 

 the archbishop's summons, without any writ from the 

 king. At that time, they not -only possessed but exer- 

 cised the power of making ecclesiastical canons, which, 

 so late as the 21st year of Henry VIII. were declared 

 by parliament to be binding on the whole realm, when 

 tbey related to matters within the jurisdiction of the 

 church. Though, as ecclesiastics, they were exempted 

 from regular taxation, yet they were in the custom of 

 granting, from time to time, subsidies to government, 

 under the name of benevolences, and, to enforce the col- 

 lection of these, the censures of the church were em- 

 ployed when necessary. This right they continued to 

 exercise till the time of Edward I. who inserted a new 

 clause in the writs which were usually addresed to the 

 archbishops, (denominated, from the first word, the jwce- 

 miiniens clause,) by which the members of convocation 

 were required to be present with the king in parlia- 

 ment, for the purpose of consenting to the imposition of 

 taxes, and all other matters that should come before 

 thern. Even after this, however, they enjoyed the right 

 of taxing themselves, though, from the reign of Henry 

 VIII. the subsidies which they voted were, in general, 

 confirmed by act of parliament, in order to become ef- 

 fectuaL 



But having incurred the high displeasure of this mo- 

 narch, and afraid of the dangerous consequences with 

 which resistance to hie measures or will might be at- 

 tended, they in ] .530 agreed to the celebrated Act of 

 Submission, which two years afterwards was passed into 

 a law, by which they renounced for ever all right to 

 meet in convocation without the king's writ, or to enact, 

 publish, or execute any new canons without his special 

 assent and sanction, — a law to which they have ever 

 since paid the most implicit subjection. Whether from 



having found the plan of taxing themselves attended Convolvu- 

 with greater difficulty and trouble than they thought " s 

 compensated by the mere possession of the right to do cwk 

 so, or from some other more powerful ecclesiastical or ■^*- Y ~~*'' 

 political reason, they also, in IG67, consented silently 

 to wave their exercise of this privilege, and to allow 

 themselves to be included in the money bills passed by 

 the House of Commons. In the act by which this ar- 

 rangement was legally established, there is a clause 

 Avhich still reserves then- right ; but since that period 

 they have never attempted to revive it, and the only 

 compensation for this which they received and enjoy, is 

 the liberty of voting as electors for members of parlia- 

 ment. 



From the time that this alteration of its prerogatives 

 took place, the convocation has seldom met. At the 

 close of the 1 7th century, indeed, a violent controversy 

 was agitated, chiefly by Dr Atterbury on the one side, 

 and Doctor afterwards Archbishop Wake on, the other, 

 concerning the rights and privileges of the convocation ; 

 but the unfairness and heat with which it was conduct- 

 ed on the part especially of the former, had no tenden- 

 cy to convince the public, that the resuscitation of the 

 jurisdiction and energies of such an assembly would be 

 in the least degree expedient ; and the proceedings 

 which subsequently took place in it, in the case of Dr 

 Clarke in 1714, and at the commencement of the Ban- 

 gorian controversy in 1717, were by no means calcula- 

 ted to induce ministry to wish that it should statedly 

 meet for business. Accordingly, though it has been re- 

 gularly called at the beginning of every new parlia- 

 ment, it has not since that time been permitted to en- 

 ter on any business or discussion, but is generally pro- 

 rogued from time to time, till it is dissolved along with 

 the parliament. See Collier's Ecclesiast. Hist. Hody's 

 History of English Convocations, Fuller's Church His- 

 tory, and Tindal's Continuation of Rapin. (rl) 



CONVOLVULUS, a genus of plants of the class' 

 Pentandria, and order Monogynia. See Botany, page 

 137, 173. 



CONYZA, a genus of plants of the class Syngene- 

 sia, and order Polygamia Superfiua. See Botany, page 

 298. 



COOK, James, whose talents and success as a cir- 

 cumnavigator and discoverer have been seldom equal- 

 led, but never surpassed, was born in the year 1728, at 

 Marton, a small village in the North Riding of York- 

 shire. His parents were in a very humble line of life, 

 but of laudable and distinguished honesty and indus- 

 try : his father was a day-labourer to a farmer in the 

 neighbourhood, and resided in si small cottage, the Avails 

 of which were chiefly mud. Till the age of thirteen, 

 the subject of this article was principally employed in 

 assisting his father in various kinds of agricultural la- 

 bour suited to his years, while, at his leisure hours, he 

 was instructed by a school-master in a neighbouring 

 village, in reading, writing, and a little arithmetic. At 

 seventeen he was put apprentice to a shop-keeper at a 

 populous fishing town, about ten miles from Whitby. 

 This circumstance seems to have decided his future line 

 of life : the sight and neighbourhood of the sea drew 

 off his thoughts from the business for which he was de- 

 signed, and planted in his breast a strong propensity 

 to become a sailor. His master, who observed this, 

 and who discovered in him more solidity of character, 

 and steadiness of application, than are generally found 

 at so early a period of life, agreed to discharge him 

 from his indentures; and he soon after bound himself, 

 for the term of three vears, to Mr Walker of Whitby, wife 

 3 



