The situation changed only when State and Church had different policies to fulfil and different means for their attainment.
The controversy had begun on the threshold of William's accession; but its real commencement dates from 1697.

In that year was published the _Letter to a Convocation Man_, probably written by Sir Bartholomew Shower, an able if unscrupulous Jacobite lawyer, which maliciously, though with abounding skill, raised every question that peaceful churchmen must have been anxious to avoid.

The _Letter_ pointed out the growth of infidelity and the increasing suspicion that the Church was becoming tainted with Socinian doctrine.

Only the assembly of Convocation could arrest these evils.

The author did not deny that the king's assent was necessary to its summons.