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 contains all the evidence for the northern convocation in the later middle ages, as well as that for provincial councils and diocesan synods held during the time. Much of the material from the archbishops' registers as well as from other sources in Durham, Carlisle and London has never been printed before, and will thus add considerably to knowledge of the period.