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The Convocation of 1710: an Anglican attempt at counter-revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

G. V. Bennett
G. V. Bennett*
Affiliation:
New College, Oxford
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Extract

The Revolution of 1688 began for the clergy of the Church of England an era of grave crisis. It was not merely that the deposition of James II had posed for many of them a critical question of conscience. More serious were the effects of the Toleration Act of 1689 which quickly showed themselves in diminished attendances at church, and in a marked decline in the authority and status of the parish priest. By its literal provisions the act permitted dissenters a bare liberty to worship in their own way; but, as interpreted by successive administrations and by the great majority of the laity, it effected an ecclesiastical revolution. Although various statutes required all Englishmen to attend their parish-church each Sunday, and though the act merely permitted them to go to a meeting-house instead, it was widely held after 1689 that church-attendance was voluntary. The ecclesiastical courts continued to exercise their traditional jurisdiction in matrimonial, probate, and faculty causes, and over the clergy; but their coercive authority over the morals and religious duties of the laity became virtually impossible to enforce.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 7: Councils and Assemblies , 1971 , pp. 311 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1971

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References

Page No 311 Note 1 For a fuller account of the conditions of William’s reign, see Bennett, G. V., ‘Conflict in the Church’, in Britain after the Glorious Revolution (ed. Holmes, Geoffrey), 1969 Google Scholar.

Page No 313 Note 1 The Epistolary Correspondence of Francis Atterbury (ed. J. Nichols), 1789-99 [hereafter referred to as ‘Atterbury EC’], 1, 444-5: Bromley to Atterbury, 23 Sept. 1710.

Page No 313 Note 2 National Library of Wales, Ottley MSS 1534 and 1535: Atterbury to Adam Ottley, 2 and 24 Nov. 1710.

Page No 313 Note 3 Bodleian MS Eng. Th. c. 24, fo. 634: Atterbury to Thomas Brett, 7 Nov. 1710.

Page No 314 Note 1 Christ Church, Oxford, Wake MSS 17: Tenison to Wake, 10 Oct. 1710; Surrey County R.O., Somers MSS E/32: Sunderland to Somers, 6 Nov. 1710; Lambeth Palace MS 1770: the diary of William Wake, fo. 100, 8 Nov. 1710.

Page No 314 Note 2 Wake MSS 18, no foliation.

Page No 314 Note 3 On 28 Feb. the Upper House petitioned and obtained from the queen an ‘explanation’ of the licence which in some measure restored Tenison’s position. See Sykes, N., William Wake, 1957,1, 125-30Google Scholar.

Page No 314 Note 4 Hardwicke State Papers (ed. Philip Yorke), 1778, 11, 485: a memorandum for the queen, written by Harley and dated 30 Oct. 1710.

Page No 315 Note 1 Sharp, T., The Life of John Sharp, Archbishop of York, 2 vols., 1825,1, 531-3Google Scholar, for extracts from the archbishop’s diary, now lost.

Page No 315 Note 2 The convocation sessions of 1710-11 are described in W. Pittis, The History of the Present Parliament and Convocation, 1711 [hereafter referred to as ‘Pittis’], and in The Proceedings of the Lower House of Convocation (1713). A valuable and detailed record is to be found in the diary of White Kennett for 1710-14, British Museum Lansdowne MSS 1024.

Page No 316 Note 1 For copies of draft bills, see Lambeth Palace MSS 929, fos. 105-19.

Page No 316 Note 2 BM Lansdowne MSS 1013, fo. 150: Kennett to Blackwell, 17 Mar. 1710/11.

Page No 316 Note 3 Atterbury EC, iV, 304-6; Pittis, pp. 134-6, 166.

Page No 317 Note 1 On 20 March Atterbury received a reprimand from the secretary-of-state, Lord Dartmouth, for having acted without consulting the queen: Atterbury EC, iv, 304.

Page No 318 Note 1 BM Lansdowne MSS 1013, fo. 146: Kennett to Blackwell, 22 May 1711; Hist. MSS Comm., Portland MSS., vii, 30.