The layman's power in the Episcopal Church is equal to that of the clergy and the bishops. Not only in the management of the parish, as a member or a vestryman, but in the legislation of the Diocese, in the Diocesan Convention, and in the legislation of the Church as a whole, in the General Convention, all action must be taken with his consent. There must be a concurrence between the clerical and lay vote. In the Diocesan Convention each parish is represented by the clergyman and the lay delegates; and in the General Convention, each diocese is represented by four clergymen and four laymen and the bishop. This procedure is such a radical departure from the law of the Church of England, which planted the Church in the Colonies that an inquiry into its development and growth may be of value in analyzing American conditions and tendencies. Dr. S. D. McConnell in his history says: “The provision in its fundamental law for the admission of the laity into the Church's governing body as an independent estate is an arrangement which had not been in operation for fifteen centuries. It was a return to a practice of the most primitive period, and had no contemporary illustration.”