Overview

The long reign of Edward III was one of great developments in the convocations. In the early part of the reign there was little change from what had gone on before, in that convocations were generally regarded as sub-committees of parliament and treated mainly as a means for raising money for the king. However, there are increasing signs of conflict over this, as the clergy felt more able to set conditions on their willingness to grant subsidies, and to refuse them when their conditions were not met. In 1329 the archbishop of Canterbury felt able to summon a provincial council which concerned itself with long-overdue church reform and turned its back on temporal affairs. By 1334 there were clear signs of breakdown in church-state relations, which were only rescued (temporarily) by the death of Archbishop Mepham and the appointment of John Stratford, bishop of Winchester, to succeed him.

At first it appears that things were returning to normal, but in 1341-2 there occurred a crisis in relations between the archbishop of Canterbury and the king, which resulted in the re-establishment of church government on a foundation somewhat different from that which had previously obtained. The convocations successfully claimed the right to handle the church business which had previously been dealt with in parliament, with the result that the clerical proctors who had been sent to parliament since 1295 gradually ceased to attend it on a regular basis, although they were still officially elected and entitled to do so.

In 1342 the convocation of Canterbury, called in order to grant a royal subsidy, met for the first time in tandem with a provincial council summoned to deal with church business - the first tangible sign that the two institutions were merging into one. Subsidies to the crown continued to be a major part of their business, but in addition to them, there was a major burst of legislation on matters exclusively within the church's jurisdiction, and the canons of 1342 quickly became an integral part of the church's law. Similar legislative activity, albeit on a less comprehensive scale, soon became an accepted, if not always a regular, feature of the convocations from then onwards.

The black death (1347-50) wreaked enormous havoc on church life, though little is said about it in the records.