which it is customary to issue in the
present day to the metropolitan of each province, is identical in its
purport with the writ issued by the crown in 1283 to the metropolitan of
the province of Canterbury, after the clergy of that province had
refused to meet at Northampton in the previous year, because they had
not been summoned in lawful manner; whilst the mandates issued by the
metropolitans in pursuance of the royal writs, and the citations issued
by the bishops in pursuance of the mandates of their respective
metropolitans, are identical in their purport and form with those used
in summoning the convocation of 1283, which met at the New Temple in the
city of London, and voted a "benevolence" to the crown, as having been
convoked in lawful manner. The existing constitution of the convocation
of the province of Canterbury--and the same observation will apply to
that of the province of York--in respect of its comprising
representatives of the chapters and of the beneficed clergy, in addition
to the bishops and other dignitaries of the church, would thus appear to
be of even more ancient date than the existing constitution of the
parliament of the realm.

Contest between spirituality and crown.

From this period down to the eleventh year of the reign of Edward III.
there were continual contests between the spirituality of the realm and
the crown,--the spirituality contending for their constitutional right
to vote their subsidies in their provincial convocations; the crown, on
the other hand, insisting on the immediate attendance of the clergy in
parliament. The resistance of the clergy to the innovation of the
"praemunientes" clause had so far prevailed in the reign of Edward II.
that the crown consented to summon the clergy to parliament through
their metropolitans, and a special form of provincial writ was for that
purpose framed; but the clergy protested against this writ, and the
struggle was maintained between the spirituality and the crown until
1337 (11 Edward III.), when the crown reverted to the ancient practice
of commanding the metropolitans to call together their clergy in their
provincial assemblies, where their subsidies were voted in the manner as
accustomed before the "praemunientes" clause was introduced. The
"praemunientes" clause, however, was continued in the parliamentary
writs issued to the several bishops of both provinces, whilst the
bishops were permitted to neglect at their pleasure t