Records of Convocation XIX: Introduction

by Gerald L. Bray (Editor)

An introduction to the entire Convocation Records of the Church of England, offering an invaluable survey of this important source.

The convocation records of the Churches of England and Ireland are the principal source of our information about the administration of those churches from middle ages until modern times. They contain the minutes of clergy synods,the legislation passed by them, tax assessments imposed by the king on the clergy, and accounts of the great debates about religious reformation; they also include records of heresy trials in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,many of them connected with the spread of Lollardy. However, they have never before been edited or published in full, and their publication as a complete set of documents provides a valuable resource for scholarship.
The introductory volume presents both a chronological and a thematic survey of the English convocations from 1313 to the mid-nineteenth century, with a postscript bringing the account up to the present day. The chronological survey gives a detailed account of each individual convocation; the thematic survey explains the pattern of membership, the procedures and functions of the convocations and their relationship to other legislative institutions both at home and abroad. Detailed statistics, in tabular form, support the earlier sections, and the volume also includes a complete concordance to David Wilkins' Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae, for which this edition of the convocation records is a partial replacement.

Hardcover

First published March 8, 2011

About the author

Gerald L. Bray (Ph.D., University of Paris--Sorbonne) is director of research for the Latimer Trust, based in London, and a research professor at Samford University, teaching in the Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. A priest of the Church of England, Bray has also edited the post-Reformation Anglican canons. He has edited several volumes of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and Ancient Christian Texts, as well as volume one of the Ancient Christian Doctrine series, all for IVP Academic. General EditorTimothy George (Th.D., Harvard University) is a renowned Reformation historian and author of Theology of the Reformers, as well as many other theological and historical works. He is founding dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and an executive editor of Christianity Today.