Hesitancy, if not a deeper feeling, appears in reference to a regular Convocation of the clergy at that time. If the Breda and Worcester House Declarations had meant what they said, an assembly gathered on the principle of former Convocations could not with the least propriety be held at this juncture: however, now that the old constitution of national government had resumed its place, some High Churchmen inferred, and earnestly contended, that ancient ecclesiastical as well as civil arrangements had become virtually re-established; and therefore, that Convocation ought to be summoned at the opening of Parliament. But to summon Convocation would be to nullify the Conference.
Dr. Peter Heylyn—the admiring biographer of Archbishop Laud—was aware of the difficulty, at this crisis, of convoking the clergy after the ancient manner; and at the beginning of the month of March, 1661, he referred to it as raising sad thoughts in the hearts of those who wished for the peace and happiness of the English Sion.[202] The matter came before the Council Board at Whitehall, on the 10th of April; and it was then ordered, that the Lord Chancellor should direct the Clerk of the Crown to draw up the writs for Convocation in the usual form. This occurred more than a fortnight after the date of the Commission, and five days before the Commissioners were to meet. Clarendon remarks that at the time when the King "issued out his writs for convening the Parliament, he had likewise sent summons to the Bishops, for the meeting of the clergy in Convocation, which is the legal synod in England; against the coming together whereof the Liturgy would be finished, which His Majesty intended to send thither to be examined, debated, and confirmed. And then he hoped to provide, with the assistance of the Parliament, such a settlement in religion, as would prevent any disorder in the State upon those pretences."[203]
CONVOCATION.
Not to dwell upon this instance of carelessness respecting dates—inasmuch as the writ for calling a Parliament is dated the 9th of March, and the summons for a Convocation the 11th of April—it is worth asking, what is meant by the Liturgy being finished against the coming together of Convocation? It could not mean that in the Conference the Liturgy was to be finished; for that would be contradicted by the whole policy of the Bishops. Surely it must mean that the King and his Minister intended that the Liturgy should be finished by the Bishops themselves, as it will afterwards appear, it really was by Cosin and others before Convocation met, without any regard to the transactions of the Conference; and if such was the case, the issue of the Conference is seen to have been determined at the commencement.
1661.
When the 15th of April arrived, the Commissioners came together—and the Presbyterians must have been as much vexed as the Anglicans would be pleased, not only with the treatment of the business of the Worcester House Declaration in the House of Commons, but with the prospect of Convocation meeting for business at the same time as they themselves were engaged in the appointed Conference. The Commissioners met upon unequal terms. All London was astir with the approaching Convocation; and the Officers of the Crown and of the Herald's College had just been busy in examining claims and searching precedents relative to the solemnity.
In the order of procession, and the details of the ceremonial, the Bishops who now assembled found, together with other Bishops, places of distinction and functions of importance assigned to them. Sheldon, Bishop of London, was to officiate, in part, in the room of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Juxon, the latter being now old and full of years, and incapable of performing the whole duty pertaining to his office on the occasion. Cosin, Bishop of Durham, was to support the King on one side beneath the canopy borne by the Barons of the Cinque Ports, and to assist His Majesty in certain portions of the ceremony. Warner, Bishop of Rochester, was to deliver the prelates' petition to the King, praying him to preserve to them all canonical privileges. King, Bishop of Chichester, was to read the Epistle before the Holy Communion. Morley, Bishop of Worcester, was to preach the sermon. Gauden, Bishop of Exeter, was to carry the patena. These Bishops, with the rest of their brethren, besides discharging high offices in particular, were generally to swell the grandeur of the procession, and, in doing homage, to kiss the King on the left cheek before any Marquis or Duke was allowed the privilege. Besides—Earle, Dean of Westminster, was to assist at the anointing, to put the coif, with the colobium sindonis, or surplice, upon the Royal person. Heylyn was to carry the sceptre with the cross; while other Doctors of Divinity were to bear the sceptre with the dove, the orb with the cross, King Edward's staff, the chalice, the spoon, and the ampulla.[204]
SAVOY CONFERENCE.
The ceremony of the Coronation, according to immemorial usage, was to be an Episcopalian ceremony. Of course no part could be assigned to Presbyterians, unless—as in the case of the Bishop of Norwich—Presbyterianism clothed itself in the robes of Prelacy. Presbyterians, as such, had been appointed Chaplains and preached before the King; but, as such, they were passed by in the gorgeous ceremonies of Westminster. This fact is very significant, and it bore immediately upon the nature, and on the probable issues of the Conference. It has often been said, that the Presbyterians were in the saddle at the time of the Restoration; it is as plain that the Episcopalians were in the saddle at the time of the Coronation and the Conference. A meeting at the Savoy, between Divines of the two schools, to consult respecting a revision of the Prayer Book, in the spring of 1660, would have been a perfectly different affair from such a meeting in the spring of 1661. Something at least like equal terms might at the former date have been secured, although Presbyters were then beginning to give way to Priests; but it is plain that at the later date the men of Geneva stood no chance with those of Canterbury. Episcopacy and the Liturgy were in possession. Presbyterianism had no chance of displacing or even modifying either. According to the terms of the Commission, all the members stood on an equality, but their positions in point of fact differed exceedingly.