On the Thursday following, May the 16th, Dr. John Pearson, Archdeacon of Surrey, presented Dr. Henry Ferne, Dean of Ely, as the Prolocutor chosen by the Lower House; and "three elegant Latin speeches were made: one by the presenter, another by the Prolocutor, and a third by His Lordship the Bishop of London, in approbation of their election."[220] This ceremony took place in Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster--whither, from St. Paul's Cathedral, Convocation had adjourned, as to the place of meeting used by the representatives of the clergy before the Civil Wars--and that Chapel, many of those who now ascended the stone steps at the back of the Abbey choir, would consider to have suffered almost as much desecration from the Presbyterian Assembly of Divines, as other parts of the sacred edifice had done from the depredations of the soldiery.
Convocation sat, probably, "in one of the inferior chapels."[221] No one like Robert Baillie--who so minutely describes the Westminster Assembly--has bequeathed us a picture of this Episcopalian Synod twenty years afterwards; but anybody who has witnessed the meetings of the Lower House--the Deans in their scarlet robes as Doctors, and other dignitaries in academic costumes, with square caps in their hands, can picture what a contrast, in these respects, the clergy convened in 1661, in a side Chapel of the Abbey, must have presented to the ministers, who assembled in 1643, within the Jerusalem Chamber. Nor can we find any report of the Debate, like that preserved in the _Diary_ of Lightfoot; but there can be no doubt that the usual characteristics of ecclesiastical councils and conferences might be found on this occasion; that there was much of learning, of eloquence, and of hair-splitting; that some speeches were logical, and others very illogical; that the debates were sometimes wearisome, and sometimes lively; and that, occasionally, irregularities of discussion called for the interference of the Prolocutor.[222]
An early act of Convocation, indeed, one on the very day of meeting, was to deliberate respecting forms of prayer for the two anniversaries so intimately connected with the Royal family--the anniversary of Charles II.'s birth, and return; and the anniversary of his father's death. The Bishop of Ely, one of a Committee appointed for the purpose, presented the first of these to the Upper House on the 18th, and the form was confirmed and issued by the King in Council on the 22nd.[223] On the 18th also, the Bishop of London recommended that a form should be prepared for the baptism of adults,--it being alleged that many people, owing to the diffusion of Anabaptist opinions, had not been baptized in their childhood. That duty was entrusted, like the other, to four Bishops and eight clergymen, and the result appeared and received approval on the 31st. A Committee of Prelates and Presbyters undertook to frame the service for Charles' martyrdom. It is a curious fact, that there were two offices for the 30th of January, drawn up in the year 1661, in one of which, referring to Charles and other martyrs, there occurred the words, "That we may be made worthy to receive benefit by their prayers, which they, in communion with the Church Catholic, offer up unto Thee for that part of it here militant." Such a recognition of the intercession of saints in Heaven, indicating a strong Romanist tendency, has been made a ground of reproach by Nonconformist opponents; on the other hand, Episcopalians have denied the existence of the words in any collect prepared for the occasion. The contradiction is just, so far as the form adopted by Convocation is concerned; but there was an earlier one, laid aside on account of its containing the clause in question.[224] The form in the Prayer Book of 1662 differed from both the forms which made their appearance in 1661.