Records of Convocation VII: Canterbury, 1509-1603

Book excerpt: 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. This volume reconstructs the history of the convocation in the early years of Henry VIII and reproduces the abstracts made of the records from 1529 onwards, which were burnt in the great fire of London in 1666. Of particular interest are the notes of Peter Heylyn, which were only rediscovered in 1999, and have never been printed before. Also included are the canons and articles of religion passed by convocation in the sixteenth century.