Convocation of 1563


The Convocation of 1563 was a significant gathering of English and Welsh clerics that consolidated the Elizabethan religious settlement, and brought the Thirty-Nine Articles close to their final form. It was, more accurately, the Convocation of 1562/3 of the province of Canterbury, beginning in January 1562.

Summary

who was Archbishop of Canterbury had prepared documents outlining further reform in the Church of England, as had other bishops. A more thorough-going reform agenda was supported by over 30 of the participants. A compromise version, the "six articles", was narrowly defeated on a vote. The result was that the momentum for reform of the Church by its constitutional procedures was halted. Parker steered the outcome towards the via media. "Swiss-inspired reformists" were headed off.
The Convocation restored the position of the Thirty-Nine Articles in the Church of England. More accurately said, the Forty-Two Articles of Edward VI were reduced to a draft at this point, which was widely supported, and eventually enforced after 1571. There were further proposals from reformers, in particular on canon law and liturgy, some of which originated from a group among the bishops. These, however, proved contentious, and did not pass. Subsequent contestation of the same issues made some of them a matter of authority.
Collinson comments that
Moves to improve the settlement in the convocation of 1563 were led by the bishops rather than by 'Puritans' in the lower house

Dawley writes that probably the surprise of the Convocation
was not the amount of support given to the Precisians but the unexpected extent of loyalty to the existing regulations,

"Precisian" being the term used by Parker for his opponents on the issue of clerical dress.

Participants

Bishops

Of 20 bishops of the time, there were 12 who had left the Kingdom of England under Mary Tudor: the "Marian exiles". Of those who had remained, some had done so covertly.
NameExile?SeeComments
Gilbert BerkeleyFrankfurtBath and Wells
Richard CheyneyNoBristol, GloucesterDid not subscribe the 39 articles
Matthew ParkerNoCanterbury
William BarlowGermany, Poland, EmdenChichester
Thomas BenthamZurich, BasleCoventry and Lichfield
Richard CoxFrankfurtElyProbably a reforming bishop
William AlleyNoExeterdrafts
John ScoryEmdenHereford
Nicholas BullinghamEmdenLincoln
Edmund GrindalFrankfurtLondonReformer, supported attempts to revise the Prayer Book rubrics.
John ParkhurstZurichNorwich
Edmund ScamblerLondonPeterborough
Edmund GheastNoRochesterdrafting of article XXIX
John JewelStrasbourg, Zürich, PaduaSalisbury
Robert HorneZurich, Frankfurt, StrasburgWinchester
Edwin SandysFrankfurt, Augsburg, Strasbourg, ZürichWorcesterDraft on the sign of the cross in baptism
Rowland MeyrickNoBangor
Hugh Jones, as proxyNoLlandaff
Thomas DaviesNoSt. Asaph
Richard DaviesGenevaSt. David's

Of these bishops, 19 attended at the start—not Jones, who was acting as proxy for the aged Anthony Kitchin.

Lower House

There were 27 in the Lower House of Convocation who had been émigrés of Queen Mary's time. An estimate of over 50 who had conformed in Mary's reign has also been given. Carlson argues for a definite group of 34 Puritan reformers in the Lower House.

Deans

, Dean of Canterbury, did not attend.

Archdeacons

Proctors

Procedure

The Convocation was called simultaneously with a Parliament, and took place in London, in St Paul's Cathedral. Its sessions took place from 11 January to 14 April 1563. Robert Weston opened the Convocation on 12 January, formally, with a prorogation to the following day. The actual proceedings of Convocation opened on 13 January, when the Litany was sung, and a Latin sermon by William Day preached.

The 39 Articles, to 1571

The subsequent passage of the 39 Articles into the orthodoxy of the Church of England was tortuous. There are various versions of the Articles: manuscript from the Convocation, printed in Latin and English by John Cawood and Richard Jugge ; printed later. A bill in the Parliament of 1566 to confirm the articles from the Convocation was halted in the House of Lords, by pressure from the Queen.