COURT OF CONVOCATION, eccles. law. The name of an English ecclesiastical
court. It is composed of every bishop, dean, and archdeacon, a proctor for
the chapter, and two proctors for the clergy of each diocese in the province
of Canterbury, for the province of York, there are two proctors for each
archdeaconry.
2. This assembly meets at the time appointed in the king's writ, and
constitute an ecclesiastical parliament. The archbishop and his suffragans,
as his peers, are sitting together, and composing one house, called the
upper house of convocation the deans, archdeacons, and a proctor for the
chapter, and two proctors for the clergy, the lower house. In this house a
prolocutor, performing the duty of a president, is elected.
3. The jurisdiction of this tribunal extends to matters of heresy,
schisms, and other mere spiritual or ecclesiastical causes. Bac. Ab.
Ecclesiastical Courts, A 1.