148 € Q N 
to attach men, and convent them before themfelves at 
private houfes. Bacon. 
CONVEN'TICLE,/ \_ccnventiculum, Lat.] An a (Tern- 
bly ( ; a meeting.—They are commanded to abftain from 
ail conventicles of men whatfoever ; even, out of the 
church, to have nothing to do with public bufinefs. 
Ayllffi .—An %flembiy for worfnip. Generally ufed in an 
ill fenfe, including herefy or fchifm.—A fort of men, 
who are content to be filled of the church of England, 
who perhaps attend its fervice in the morning, and go 
with their wives to a conventicle in the-afternoon. Swift. 
Who far from deeples and their facred found, 
In fields their fuilcn conventicles found. • Dryden. 
A fecret aflembly; an aiTembly where confpiracies are 
formed: ■ 
Ay, all of you have laid your heads together, 
(Myfelt had notice of your conventicles,) 
And all to make away my guiltlefs life. Shahepcare. 
% 
An a (Terribly, in contempt.—If he revoked this plea 
too, ’twas becaufe he found the expected council was 
dwindling into a conventicle, a packed affembly of Italian 
bifhops; not a free convention of fathers from all quar¬ 
ters. Atterburyc 
The term conventicle, is laid to have been firfb applied 
in England to the fchools of Wickliff, and has been (ince 
ufed to fignify the religious affemblies of all who do not 
conform to the edablifhed dodtrines and worfhip of the 
church-of England. By 22 Car. II. c. 1. it is enacted, 
that if any perfons of the age of fixteen years, fubjedts 
of this-kingdom, (hall be prefent at any conventicle, 
where there are five or more alfembled, they (hall be 
fined five fliillings for the firft offence, and te'11 {hillings 
for the fecond : and perfons preaching incur a penalty 
of twenty pounds. Alfo fuffering a meeting to be held 
in a lioufe, &c. is liable to twenty pounds penalty. Juf- 
tices of peace have power to enter fuch houfes, and feize 
perfons ailembled. And if they neglect their duty, they 
lhu.ll forfeit one hundred pounds. And if any conftable, 
See. know of fuch meetings, and do not inform a juftice 
of peace, or chief magiftrate, he fhall forfeit five pounds. 
But the 1 Will, and Mary, c. 18. ordains, that protef- 
tant dilfenters fliall be exempt from penalties ; though, 
if they meet in a houfe with the doors locked, barred, 
or bolted, fuch dilfenters fhall have no benefit j/ym 1 
Will, and Mary. Officers of the government, prefent 
at any conventicle, at which there fhall be ten perfons, 
if the royal family be not prayed for in exprefs words, 
fhall forfeit forty-pounds, and be difabled. 10 An. c. 2. 
CONVEN'TICLER, f. One that fupports or fre¬ 
quents private and unlawful affemblies.'—Another crop 
is too like to follow ; nay, I fear, it is unavoidable, if the 
conventiclers be permitted ftill to fcatter. Dryden. 
CON VEN'TION,/ [cmventio, Lat. ] The aCt of com¬ 
ing together ; union ; coalition ; junction.—.They are to 
be reckoned amongft the mod general affections of the 
conventions, or alfociations, of feveral particles of matter 
into bodies of any certain denomination. Boyle .—An af- 
fembly ; as the late convention in France.—Public con¬ 
ventions are liable to all the infirmities, follies, and vices, 
of private men. Swift. —A contra£ 1 ; an agreement for a 
tifne, previous to a definitive treaty. 
In a political fenfe, the term convention is rather applied 
to the meeting of the lords and commons, without the 
alfent of, or being, called together by, the king ; and 
which can only be jollified ex neccjftate rei f It was in 
cafes of this extraordinary nature, that to one convention 
we are indebted for the re/loration of our conditution ; 
and to another for its prefervation. Yet, after the French 
revolution, there is fo me thing which may appal the 
flouted heart in the contemplation of what mitjl precede, 
and what may follow, the fitting of a convention. The 
meeting of luch an alfembly implies, in a great meafure, 
the previous diffolution of government, or of the confti- 
C G N- . ■ 
tution. This was not indeed the cafe in America, which 
had not, before a convention met, what might be truly 
called a general or fcederal conftitution for the whole of 
the thirteen dates; though each date, in particular, had 
one: but, with refpedt to England, as well as France, 
the obfervation is founded in hidorical truth. When 
Cromwell died, this country had no conditution ; it was 
freed, by his death, from a downright ufurpation, in his 
own perfon, of the rights and liberties of every deferip- 
tion of the people. The convention which then met in 
confequence of the general cry for a free parliament, re¬ 
called the king, re-inveded the peers with their legifia. 
tive charadter, and redored the old conditution of Eng¬ 
land. There was no other power at that time in the 
country to effedt fuch a meafure, and therefore a con¬ 
vention was abfolutely neceffary. 
When James II. fied,' he left no one behind him to 
exercife the royal fundtions, nor to carry on the execu¬ 
tive government; the conditution, as far as lay in him, 
was dedroyed; there was .no parliament in being, and 
there was no conflitutional authority fi r calling one : all 
the powers of the date were paralyfed. In fuch a cafe, 
alfo, a convention was abfolutely neceffary ; for it was 
fuch an affembly alone that could apply an adequate re¬ 
medy to the public difeafe. Hence, in 1688, the lords 
and commons, by their own authority, met in a conven¬ 
tion, and therein difpofed of the crown and kingdom. 
And it is declared by datute 1 Will, and Mary, c. 1. that 
this convention was really th’e two houfes of parliament, 
notwithdanding the want of writs or other defeats of 
form. If, therefore, we may be allowed to fuppofe a 
pollible cafe, that the whole royal line fhould at any time 
fail and become extinct, which would indifputably va¬ 
cate the throne ; in this fituation it feems reafonable to 
prefume that the body of the nation, confiding of lords 
and commons, would have a right o meet and fettle the 
government; othenvife there mud be no government at 
all. But whenever the thrbne is full, no national meet¬ 
ing, nor any meeting pretending to be fuch, can be legal, 
but the parliament affembled by command of the king. 
The conditution of Great Britain having placed the re. 
pref'entation of the nation, and the exprec.on of the na¬ 
tional will, in the parliament, no other meeting or con¬ 
vention even of every individual in the kingdom, would 
be a competent organ to exprefs that will; and meet¬ 
ings of fuch a nature tending merely to fedition, and to 
delude the people into an imaginary adertion of rights, 
which they had before delegated to their reprefenta- 
tives in parliament, could only tend to introduce anarchy 
and confufion, and to overturn every fettled principle of 
government. 
CONVEN'TIONAL, adj. Stipulated; agreed on by 
compadt. —Conventional lervices referved by tenures upon 
grants, made out of the crown or knights fervice. Hale. 
CONVEN'TIONARY, adj. Adding upon contract; 
fettled by dipulations.—The ordinary covenants of mod 
conventionary tenants are, to pay due capon and due harved 
journeys. Carcw. 
CONVEN'TUAL, adj. \_convcntuel, Fr.] Belonging to 
a convent; monadic.—Thofe are called conventual pri¬ 
ors, that have tire chief ruling power over a monadery. 
Ay (iffe. 
CONVEN'TUAL,/'. A monk ; a nun; one that lives 
in a convent.—I have read a fernion of a conventual, who 
laid it down, that Adam could not laugh before the fall. 
Addifan. 
CONVEN'TUAL CHURCH,/. A church that con- 
fids of regular clerks, profeffing Tome order of religion, 
or of dean ahd chapter, or other locieties-of fpiritual men. 
To CON VER'GE, v. n. [ convergo, Lat.] To tend to 
one point from different places.—Where the rays from 
all the points of any objedt meet again, after they have 
been made t6 converge by refiedtion or refraction, there 
they will make a pidture of the object upon a white body. 
Newton. \ 
Enfweeping 
