The convocation of 1613-15

Extract from a letter of Archbishop William King to the archbishop of Canterbury (12 September 1717)

But as the common law of England, when received in Ireland, was of necessity altered in several particulars and accommodated to the circumstances of things and persons here, so likewise were the ecclesiastical laws, and particularly the form of convocations, which could not be brought in with the conquest since they were not so old in England, but King James took them as he found them in his time and brought them here with this alteration, that whereas in England the convocations are called and sit in the several provinces (and indeed are none other than provincial synods) ours are called by the same sort of provincial writs, but the archbishops are all required to meet and bring their clergy to Dublin; and yet this seems to be left to the discretion of the archbishops. For by the word alibi likewise inserted, it seems to me that each archbishop may summon his suffragans and the clergy to meet in their own province. Your grace will find the provincial writ verbatim in the archbishops’ mandate.

The convocation met with this parliament. But there remains nothing of it but the articles of the Church of Ireland, amongst which are inserted the nine Lambeth Articles, but whether confirmed or no by the king I cannot say. I have likewise seen the licence for them to act, but it is at present mislaid and I cannot come at it. It was directed to the archbishop of Dublin.

This seems to me to be the first convocation we ever had in Ireland in the present form. We had frequent provincial councils or synods, as I observed before, called by the several archbishops in their proper provinces, and some (though rare) national synods, and since the pope's power was received in Ireland, his legate called and presided in them, as may be seen in the forementioned synod of Cashel, where Gilbertus, bishop of Lismore, the pope's legate, presided.