he execution of the
writs.

Five characteristic periods.

The history of the convocation of the province of Canterbury, as at
present constituted, is full of stirring incidents, and it resolves
itself readily into five periods. The first period, by which is meant
the first period which dates from an epoch of authentic history, is the
period of its greatest freedom, but not of its greatest activity. It
extends from the reign of Edward I. (1283) to that of Henry VIII. The
second period is the period of its greatest activity and of its greatest
usefulness, and it extends from the twenty-fifth year of the reign of
Henry VIII. to the reign of Charles II. The third period extends from
the fifteenth year of the reign of Charles II. (1664) to the reign of
George I. This was a period of turbulent activity and little usefulness,
and the anarchy of the lower house of convocation during this period
created a strong prejudice against the revival of convocation in the
mind of the laity. The fourth period extends from the third year of the
reign of George I. (1716) to the fifteenth year of the reign of Queen
Victoria. This was a period of torpid inactivity, during which it was
customary for convocation to be summoned and to meet _pro forma_, and to
be continued and prorogued indefinitely. The fifth period may be
considered to have commenced in the fifteenth year of the reign of Queen
Victoria (1852).

First period.

During the first of the five periods above mentioned, it would appear
from the records preserved at Lambeth and at York that the metropolitans
frequently convened congregations (so called) of their clergy without
the authority of a royal writ, which were constituted precisely as the
convocations were constituted, when the metropolitans were commanded to
call their clergy together pursuant to a writ from the crown. As soon,
however, as King Henry VIII. had obtained from the clergy their
acknowledgment of the supremacy of the crown in all ecclesiastical
causes, he constrained the spirituality to declare, by what has been
termed the Act of Submission on behalf of the clergy, that the
convocation "is, always has been, and ought to be summoned by authority
of a royal writ"; and this declaration was embodied in a statute of the
realm (25 Henry VIII. c. 19), which further enacted that the convocation
"should thenceforth make no provincial canons, constitutions or
ordinances without the royal assent and licence." The