e time and place mentioned in
the mandate. The bishops thereupon either summon directly the clergy
of their respective dioceses to appear before them or their
commissaries to elect two proctors, or they send a citation to their
archdeacons, according to the custom of the diocese, directing them to
summon the clergy of their respective archdeaconries to elect a
proctor. The practice of each diocese in this matter is the law of the
convocation, and the practice varies indefinitely as regards the
election of proctors to represent the beneficed clergy. As regards the
deans, the bishops send special writs to them to appear in person, and
to cause their chapters to appear severally by one proctor. Writs also
go to every archdeacon, and on the day named in the royal writ, which
is always the day next following that named in the writ to summon the
parliament, the convocation assembles in the place named in the
archbishop's mandate. Thereupon, after the Litany has been sung or
said, and a Latin sermon preached by a preacher appointed by the
metropolitan, the clergy are praeconized or summoned by name to appear
before the metropolitan or his commissary; after which the clergy of
the Lower House are directed to withdraw and elect a prolocutor to be
presented to the metropolitan for his approbation. The convocation
thus constituted resolves itself at its next meeting into two houses,
and it is in a fit state to proceed to business.

The constitution of the convocation of the province of York differs
slightly from that of the convocation of the province of Canterbury,
as each archdeaconry is represented by two proctors, precisely as in
parliament formerly under the Praemunientes clause.

There are some anomalies in the diocesan returns of the two
convocations, but in all such matters the _consuetudo_ of the diocese
is the governing rule.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Wilkins, _Concilia Magnae Britannia et Hiberniae_ (4
vols. folio, 1737); Gibson, _Codex Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani_ (2
vols. folio, 1713); Johnson, _A Collection of all the Ecclesiastical
Laws, Canons and Constitutions of the English Church_ (2 vols. 8vo,
1720); Gibson, _Synodus Anglicana_ (8vo, 1702, re-edited by Dr Edward
Cardwell, 8vo, 1854); Shower, _A Letter to a Convocation Man
concerning the Rights, Powers and Privileges of that Body_ (4to,
1697); Wake, _The Authority of Christian Princes over their