 Between 1688 and 1717 political tensions ran high between the lower houses which was predominately high church in theology and often Jacobite politically and the bishops who were mainly Whigs and latitudinarians and after 1717 their meetings were limited to the formal sessions required at the beginning of a new parliament.Pressure for the reactivation of the convocations began to mount in the 1840s as people began to realise that the Church of England and the state were no longer coterminous and that the Church of England needed to find some means of expressing its mind and will; Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, was a leading figure in pressing for their revival.In 1852 the Lower House of Canterbury acted on its own initiative and held a proper debate and from then on, despite strong opposition, many doubts and much debate, both houses of Canterbury gradually increased the range of their activities.