The provincial dean, or the subdean, as the case may be, thereupon issues a citation to the several bishops of the province, which embodies the mandate of the metropolitan or of the dean and chapter of the metropolitical church, as the case may be, and admonishes them to appear, and to cite and admonish their clergy, as specified in the metropolitical mandate, to appear at the time and place mentioned in the mandate. The bishops thereupon either summon directly the clergy of their respective dioceses to appear before them or their commissaries to elect two proctors, or they send a citation to their archdeacons, according to the custom of the diocese, directing them to summon the clergy of their respective archdeaconries to elect a proctor. The practice of each diocese in this matter is the law of the convocation, and the practice varies indefinitely as regards the election of proctors to represent the beneficed clergy. As regards the deans, the bishops send special writs to them to appear in person, and to cause their chapters to appear severally by one proctor. Writs also go to every archdeacon, and on the day named in the royal writ, which is always the day next following that named in the writ to summon the parliament, the convocation assembles in the place named in the archbishop's mandate. Thereupon, after the Litany has been sung or said, and a Latin sermon preached by a preacher appointed by the metropolitan, the clergy are praeconized or summoned by name to appear before the metropolitan or his commissary; after which the clergy of the Lower House are directed to withdraw and elect a prolocutor to be presented to the metropolitan for his approbation. The convocation thus constituted resolves itself at its next meeting into two houses, and it is in a fit state to proceed to business.
The constitution of the convocation of the province of York differs slightly from that of the convocation of the province of Canterbury, as each archdeaconry is represented by two proctors, precisely as in parliament formerly under the Praemunientes clause.
There are some anomalies in the diocesan returns of the two convocations, but in all such matters the _consuetudo_ of the diocese is the governing rule.