of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To Our right Trusty and well beloved Counsellor Sir Edward Hide Knight Chancellour of England Greeting Whereas We by our Council for certain great and urgent Causes concerning Vs the good Estate and Common-wealth of this our Realm and of the Church of England and for the good Order and Continuance of the same have appointed and ordain'd a Parliament to be holden at our City of Westminster the eighth day of May next ensuing In which Case divers and sundry Writs are to be directed forth under our Great Seal of England as well for the Nobility of this our Realm as also for the Election of Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the several Counties Cities and Burrough Towns of the same to be present at the said Parliament at the Day and Place aforesaid Wherefore We Will and Command you forthwith upon receipt hereof and by Warrant of the same to cause such and so many Writs to be made and sealed under our great Seal for accomplishment of the same as in like Cases have been heretofore used and accustomed And this Bill signed with our Hand shall be as well to you as to every Clerk or Clerks as shall make or pass the same a sufficient Warrant in that behalf Given at Our Palace at White-hall this Eighteenth Day of February in the Twelfth Year of Our Reign and in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred Sixty and One. Observations and Proceedings on this Warrant THe King of England by his undoubted Prerogative hath and his Predecessors ever had in himself the Power of Summoning as also to appoint the times of beginning continuing discontinuing or dissolving of Parliaments This Summoning for I shall speak of the rest in order or Uniting the chiefest Parts of his Kingdom into a Parliament or Representation of the Kingdom in a less Body than it self is performed by the King's Warrant in his Name and by his Authority only as Supreme not only of his Kingdom but of its Representation and from this Warrant all Writs of Summons for a Parliament are deriv'd The Warrant is in English Sign'd by the King 's own Hand and Seal'd with his Privy Seal or Signet but the Writs are always in Latin or anciently some few in French and are Seal'd with the King 's Great Seal in his Name with a Teste of his Approbation though not manually Sign'd or Seal'd by him The Warrant is General viz. for summoning the Nobility as also for Elections of Knights Citizens and Burgesses but the Writs deriv'd from those Warrants are to particular persons of particular degrees as will be shewn The Form of this Warrant is ancient and hath had little or no variation except in the leaving out of Abbots and Priors ever since the 36 of Henry the 8th and except in leaving out Prelates and Bishops in this very Warrant whereby the Bishops had no particular Writs before the sitting of this Parliament but within three Months after for which Omission Reasons will be given in the 7th Chapter Before this Warrant was issued the King and so former Kings did advise with their Privy Council which is manifested by the Words of the Warrant viz. Whereas We by our Council yet if these words had been omitted at any time and not inserted in the Warrant the Warrant was held good and sufficient for due Summons However for publick satisfaction the words of every Writ are always Quia de advizamento assensu Concilij nostri and this Council is call'd the King's Privy or Private Council of which I shall speak more and is the King 's constant or standing Council as well in time of Parliament as when there is none sitting so as before this Magnum Concilium or Parliament is summon'd this Privy Council consults and deliberates concerning the Motives and Reasons for calling it and after such deliberations and results doth advise the King to send out a Warrant And therefore I conceive it useful to set down the Names of such as were of the King 's Privy Council when the calling of this Parliament was advis'd and resolv'd upon At the Court of White-hall Feb. 1660 1. The KING Present His Royal Highness the Duke of York His Highness Prince Rupert William Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Juxon Edward Earl of Clarendon Lord Chancellor of England Hide Thomas Earl of Southampton Lord Treasurer of England Wriothesley John Lord Roberts Lord Privy-Seal Baron of Truro John Duke of Latherdale Maitland Earl of Guilford James Duke of Ormond Lord Steward of the King's House Butler George Duke of Albemarle Monk Henry Marquess of Dorchester Pierpoint Montague Earl of Lindsey Lord great Camberlain Bertie Edward Earl of Manchester the King's Chamberlain Montague Aldjernoone Earl of Northumberland Piercy Robert Earl of Leicester Sydny Charles Earl of Berkshire Howard Thomas Earl of Cleveland Wentworth George Earl of Norwich Goring Henry Earl of St. Albans Jermin Edward Earl of Sandwich Montague Arthur Earl of Anglesey Annesly Charles Earl of Carlile Howard William Viscount Say and Seal Fiennes Francis Lord Seymour Baron of Troubridge Frederick Lord Cornwallis Baron of Ai. Anthony Lord Ashley Cooper Charles Berkley Knight and Baronet Sir George Carteret Knight Vice-Chamberlain Sir Edw. Nicholas Knights Secretaries of State Sir Will. Morrice Knights Secretaries of State After the Warrant is sign'd and seal'd by the King it is sent from the Signet-Office to the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper and Directions are given to the Heralds to make Proclamation at the Court-gate and Capital City of London of the King's Resolutions of which I shall speak more in the Chapter of Proclamations The Lord Chancellor c. upon the receipt of this Warrant doth issue out his Warrant also to the Master of the Rolls as the chief Clerk of the Pettibag-Office in this Form YOu are hereby requir'd forthwith to prepare for the great Seal of England the several Writs of Summons for the Lords Temporal As also for the Judges and others to appear at the Parliament to be holden the 8th of May next together with the several Writs of Election of the several Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the several Counties Cities Towns and Burroughs within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed as also of the several Barons of the Cinque-Ports to serve in the said Parliament in such Method and Form and directed to such persons as are and have been usual in such Cases all which said Writs are to bear date this present eighteenth of February 1661. and for the so doing this shall be your Warrant Dated c. Upon receipt of the Lord Chancellor's Warrant the Clerks of the Pettibag by the assistance of the former Precedents of Writs and anciently by help of the Masters of Chancery and by advice with the Heralds as to Titles and true Names of Persons do fix a Schedule or digest or Forms of Writs to be issued
Transcript of the Act of Predency 31. Hen. 8. Cap. 10. The Act of Precedency 31. Hen. 8. Cap. 10. FOrasmuch as in all great Councils and Congregations of men having sundry Degrees and Offices in the Common-wealth it is very requisite and convenient that an order should be had and taken for the placing and sitting of such Persons as been bound to resort to the same To the intent that they knowing their places may use the same without displeasure or let of the Council Wherefore the Kings most Royal Majesty although it appertaineth to his Prerogative Royal to give such Honors Places and Reputation to his Counsellors and other his Subjects as shall seem best to his most Excellent Wisdom He is nevertheless pleas'd and contented for an Order to be had and taken in this his most High Court of Parliament that it shall be Enacted by Authority of the same in manner as hereafter followeth First It is Enacted by Authority aforesaid That no Person or Persons of what Estate Degree or Condition soever he or they be of except only the Kings Children shall at any time hereafter attempt or presume to sit or have place at any side of the Cloth of State in the Parliament-Chamber neither of the one hand of the Kings Highness nor of the other whether the Kings Majesty be there Personally present or absent 2. And forasmuch as the Kings Majesty is justly and lawfully Supream head in Earth under God of the Church of England and for the good exercise of the said most Royal Dignity and Office hath made Thomas Lord Cromwel and Lord Privy Seal his Vicegerent for good and due ministration of Justice to be had in all Causes and Cases touching the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and for the Godly reformation and redress of all Errors Heresies and Abuses in the said Church It is therefore also Enacted by Authority aforesaid That the said Lord Cromwel having the said Office of Vicegerent and all other Persons which hereafter shall have the said Office of the grant of the Kings Highness his Heirs or Successors shall Sit and be plac't as well in this present Parliament as in all Parliaments to be holden hereafter on the right side of the Parliament-Chamber and on the same Form that the Archbishop of Canterbury sitteth on and above the same Archbishop and his Successors and shall have Voice in every Parliament to assent or dissent as other the Lords of the Parliament 3. And it is also Enacted That next to the said Vicegerent shall sit the Archbishop of Canterbury and then next to him on the same Form and side shall sit the Archbishop of York and next to him on the same Form and side the Bishop of London and next to him on the same side and Form the Bishop of Durelme and next to him on the same side and Form the Bishop of Winchester and then all the other Bishops of both Provinces of Canterbury and York shall sit and be plac't on the same side after their Ancienties as it hath been accustomed 4. And forasmuch as such other Personages which now have or hereafter shall happen to have other great Offices of the Realm that is to say the Offices of the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer the Lord President of the Kings Council the Lord Privy Seal the Great Chamberlain of England the Constable of England the Lord Marshal of England the Lord Admiral the Grand Master or Lord Steward of the Kings most Honourable Houshold the Kings Chamberlain and the Kings Secretary have not heretofore been appointed and ordered for the placing and sitting in the Kings most High Court of Parliament by reason of their Offices It is therefore now Ordained and Enacted by Authority aforesaid That the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer the Lord President of the Kings Council and the Lord Privy-Seal being of the Degrees of Barons of the Parliament or above shall sit and be placed as well in this present Parliament as in all other Parliaments hereafter to be holden on the left side of the said Parliament-Chamber on the higher part of the Form of the same side above all Dukes except only such as shall happen to be the Kings Son the Kings Brother the Kings Vncle the Kings Nephew or the Kings Brothers or Sisters Sons 5. And it is also Ordained and Enacted by Authority aforesaid That the Great Chamberlain the Constable the Marshal the Lord Admiral the Great Master or Steward and the Kings Chamberlain shall sit and be placed after the Lord Privy-Seal in manner and form following that is to say every of them shall sit and be placed above all other Personages being of the same Estates or Degrees that they shall happen to be of that is to say the Great Chamberlain first the Constable next the Marshal third the Lord Admiral the fourth the Grand Master or Lord Steward the fifth and the Kings Chamberlain the sixth 6. And it is also Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the Kings chief Secretary being of the Degree of a Baron of the Parliament shall sit and be placed above all Barons not having any of the Offices aforementioned and if he be a Bishop that then he shall sit and be placed above all other Bishops not having any of the Offices before remembred 7. And it is also Ordained and Enacted by Authority aforesaid That all Dukes not afore mention'd Marquesses Earls Viscounts counts and Barons not having any of the Offices aforesaid shall sit and be placed after their Ancientry as it hath been accustom'd 8. And it is further Enacted That if any Person or Persons which at any time hereafter shall happen to have any of the said Offices of Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord President of the Kings Council Lord Privy-Seal or chief Secretary shall be under the Degree of a Baron of the Parliament by reason whereof they can have no interest to give any assent or dissent in the said House That then in every such case such of them as shall happen to be under the said Degree of a Baron shall sit and be placed at the uppermost part of the Sack in the midst of the said Parliament-Chamber either there to sit upon one Form or upon the uppermost Sack the one of them above the other in order as is above rehearsed 9. Be it also Enacted by Authority aforesaid That in all Tryals of Treason by Peers of this Realm if any of the Peers that shall be called hereafter to be Tryers of such Treason shall happen to have any of the Offices aforesaid that then they having such Offices shall sit and be placed according to their Offices above all the other Peers that shall be call'd to such Tryals in manner and form as is above mention'd and rehears'd 10. And it is also Enacted by Authority aforesaid That as well in all Parliaments as in the Star Chamber and in all other Assemblies and Conferencies of Councils the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer the Lord President the Lord
Signet and hath four Clerks to attend its Office the other the Privy-Seal and hath also four Clerks to attend its Office and the third is call'd as I said the Great Seal and hath properly six Clerks to attend it but increas'd to many more The Privy Signet is under the Custody of the Chief Secretary of State the Privy Seal under the Custody of the Lord Privy Seal and the Broad Seal under the Custody of the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper so as most matters which concern a declaration of the King's pleasure in writing do take their rise from the Privy Signet and from thence transmitted to the Privy Seal and from thence to the Great Seal to receive its determination 5. But to pass by all private or publick Matters about which these three Officers are concern'd this is certain that the Clerks of these three Offices excluding none in some form or other are concern'd in the Warrants and Writs c. for the Summoning every Parliament 6. When the chief Officer of this Office did pass under the Title of Keeper or Clerk of the Privy Seal most of them were Ecclesiasticks yet having this Office he had his Writ of Summons and Place in the Lords House as may be collected from the Rolls of 15 Edw. 3. when Sir William Keldsly was Keeper of the Privy Seal and 20 Edw. 3. when Mr. Jo. Thoresby was call'd Clerk of the Privy Seal and from 28 Edw. 3. when Sir Michael of Northumberland was Keeper of the Privy Seal Sir being an Epithite given in those days to the Clergy and still in use in the Universities for Batchelors of Arts and from 11 R. 2. and 1 2 H. 4. when Sir Richard Clifford was Keeper of the Privy Seal and these had Writs and from 3 4 H. 6. a Writ was expresly sent Magistro Willielmo Alrevill Custodi privati sigilli and from that time the Rolls and Pawns which speak of them are dormant or wanting to the Pawn of 30 H. 8. when the Writ to John Earl of Bedford is there entred Castos privati sigilli and he being so in 31 H. 8. when the Act was made his Precedency was setled as is therein shewn and there first intituled Lord Privy Seal and so this Officer hath continued in that additional Title of Lord to this time However in the Latin Writs he is styled only Custos privati sigilli without the addition of Dominus and so in the very Pawn of that year and in 36 H. 8. and is no more mention'd in any of the Pawns till 6 and 7 Edw. 6. when John Earl of Bedford was still Custos privati sigilli and from that time those Pawns which are extant do not mention that Officer till 1 Car. 1. when Edward Earl of Worcester was entred Custos privati sigilli and 15 Car. 1. when Henry Earl of Manchester was Custos privati sigilli and had their Writs but in this Pawn of 13 Car. 2. none is mention'd and yet the Lord Roberts was then Lord Privy Seal so as it was an omission of the Clerks as I conceive 7. Most of the Keepers of the Privy Seal as I have observ'd were Ecclesiasticks before 30 H. 8. but since that time this Office hath been conferr'd only upon such as were Temporal Lords above the degree of Barons and not under 8. This great Officer hath also an appartment near the Lords House for his accomodations and sometimes us'd for the Lords Committees as will be shewn 9. These four last mention'd are plac'd in this order in the Lords House whether or not they be of any of the Noble Degrees John Lord Roberts of Truro Lord Privy Seal was Summon'd by Writ of Feb. 1661. See Chap. 2. SECT X. Of the Lord Great Chamberlain of England THE five foregoing Officers of State viz. Vice-Gerent Chancellor Treasurer President and Privy Seal were anciently chosen out of Ecclesiastick Degrees but those which I am now to speak of except the Secretaries being for the most part also Clergy-men were chosen out of Laicks persons of the greatest Merit Fortunes or Families and had their Places as they were annext to the Degrees of the Nobility 2. The learned Institutor saith that if the King gave Lands to a man to hold of him to be Chancellor of England Chamberlain of England Constable of England Marshal of England or High Steward of England c. these Tenures were call'd Grand Sergeanties and these and such like Grand Sergeanties were of great and high Jurisdictions some of them concerned matters Military in time of Wars and some services of Honour in time of Peace 3. This Officer ever was and still is in great Veneration and Use and I conceive though now most of his Imployments are about the King's Court yet the word Camerarius which we call Chamberlain was like to that among the Romans call'd Comes Aerarij and had such relation to the Treasury of the Kingdom as the Chamberlains of London and the Chamberlains of the Palatines of Lancaster and Chester have to their distinct Treasuries of which I shall speak more fully in order as also in my Annotations and I apprehend that these great Officers need not Writs because it is requisite these should be always attending on the Kings Person but when they are otherwise commanded to his Imployments in their Offices and there is scarce any of them especially this but are so glutinated to some Noble Person that it cannot be said whether the Writ be more in respect of the Office or Person that Manageth that Office 4. This Office was injoy'd for many Successions by the Earls of Oxford till Richard the Second by violence took it away the House of Commons 1 H. 4. pray'd the King that it might be restored to Richard then Earl of Oxford being as it was then alledged his due Inheritance yet in 1 H. 6. that King granted it to the Duke of Glocester the 36th of Hen. 8. the Writ was to Edward Earl of Hertford Magno Camerario Angliae and 1 Edw. 6. to John Earl of Warwick Magno Camerario Angliae Afterwards by a Match it was hereditated to the Family of the Berties who after some disputes about the Title did sit in Parliament in the time of Charles the First and this Parliament as Earl of Lindsey and Lord great Chamberlain of England whereby one part which his Lordship is to act as his Predecessors had done is to take care that all things be provided in the House of Lords that may suit with the Grandeur and Conveniencies of the Persons who are there to be imploy'd and for that and other purposes he hath also an Appartment near the Lords House as will be shewn 5. Montague Bertie Earl of Lindsey Lord Great Chamberlain of England was summon'd by Writ Feb. 18. 1661. See Cap. 2. SECT XI Of the High Constable of England IT may be well suppos'd that Constabularius Angliae was instead of Comes stabuli amongst the old Romans which
Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. one who is in Doctrinam mores sacros gregis Inspector and when Bishops grew numerous it was thought fit to place one to look after them and he had the addition of Archos i. e. principalis and so call'd Archi-Episcopus or Arch-Bishop having a certain number of Bishops and their Diocesses reduced to his Province or Care so that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with his own Diocess hath twenty two Diocesses or Bishopricks of the twenty six within his Province and the Arch-Bishop of York hath with his own four which makes in all twenty six besides the Bishop of Man who hath no Writ of Summons Anciently these Arch-Bishops and Bishops with Abbots Priors Deans Arch-Deacons and Proctors making the two Convocation-houses were summoned to appear two days before the Temporal Lords but since Henry the Eighth's time when Abbots and Priors were excluded the Bishops are summon'd to meet the same day that the Parliament begins but as Convocation-houses they are not summon'd to meet at Parliament till two or three days after the Lords Spiritual and Temporal are met and sitting in Parliament and those two Convocation-houses are seldom Adjourn'd Prorogu'd or Dissolv'd in three or four days and sometimes longer after the two Houses of Lords and Commons are Adjourn'd Prorogu'd or Dissolv'd These Arch-Bishops and Bishops considering them upon a Baronial account distinct from the Convocations are entred in all Clause Rolls and Pawns next the Blood Royal except when there was a casual interposition as this last of Vice-gerent and their places distinctly set down as in this Act viz. the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury then the Arch-Bishop of York and the other according to Seniority or Antientry as the word of the Act is till the Bishops of London Durham and Winchester were as by this Act fix'd in their Precedencies to the other twenty one and yet there is another method of Precedencies us'd in the Lords House and in all Solemnities by way of counterchanging of Precedencies between the Lords Spiritual and Temporal as will be shewn These twenty six injoy their Offices of Bishops upon a Spiritual and Ecclesiastical account and therefore are call'd Lords Spiritual their Ecclesiastical serving in ordine ad piritualia These for many Ages did manage the Offices of Chancellor and Keeper of the Great Seal also of Treasurer President Privy-Seal and Secretary of which I shall speak more but since Henry the Eighth's time these five Offices have been distinctly manag'd by Laicks of the chiefest quality and merit and the Bishops in a manner circumscrib'd to the Jurisdiction of their respective Diocesses which are of a kind of mixt nature consisting of Spiritualities and Temporalities In the Lords House they have almost equal Prividledges with the Lords Temporal except in matters of Blood when in respect of their Canons they commonly withdraw themselves appointing Proxies and entring Protestation but these Priviledges are not Hereditary like the Temporal Lords but meerly Successive and their Writs are somewhat of a different Nature from those to the Lords Temporal in point of extent concerning the Convocation-houses which do make a kind of a Parliament annext to a Parliament of which I shall speak more at large But how the Bishops were Summon'd may be read in the seventh Chapter SECT VI. Of the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper Obs THis great Officer being not only recited in this Act but having a peculiar Writ of Assistance in this and other Pawns which the next Ten Officers following have not in respect of their Offices I shall discourse more fully of him so soon as I have given a short view of the Ten remaining to be spoken of Edward Hyde Baron Hyde and Lord Chancellor was Summon'd by Writ Feb. 18. 1661. See Chap. II. SECT VII Of the Lord Treasurer of England Obs THis Officer being joyn'd also in this Pawn to the Earl of Southampton then Lord Treasurer and in former Pawns to other Degrees and being intended to be discours'd of in the fourth Exemplar and in the fifth Section of the Barons of the Exchequer I shall defer its inlargement to those Chapters Thomas Earl of Southampton Lord Treasurer of England was Summon'd by Writ Feb. 18. 1661. See Chap. II. SECT VIII Of the Lord President of the King's Council Obs I THis Officer from the time of King John was call'd Principalis and Capitalis Consiliarius and so continu'd till Queen Elizabeth's time and after not us'd till once in King Charles the firsts time and ever since to the end of this Parliament the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper hath supply'd the duty of that Place though not the Title the difference of granting them was that one was always by Patent and the other only by delivery of the Great Seal 2. There are also other Lord Presidents which sit in the Lords House viz. the President of Wales and President of the North but being not mention'd in this Act and the latter not sitting in this Parliament I refer them to my Annotations as also other Presidents of lower Degrees as of Colleges c. SECT IX Of the Lord Privy-Seal Obs IN Edward the Third's time and long after this Office was call'd Keeper of the Privy or Private Seal distinguishing him from the other call'd the Keeper of the Great Seal afterward he was call'd Clerk of the Privy-Seal Clerk being then a Title of Eminency and Gardien del Privy-Seal and in 34 H. 8. Lord Privy-Seal 2. He hath his Office by Patent but the Keeper of the Great Seal as I said only by delivery of that Seal and 't is very probable that this Office was in imitation of that which was us'd by the Romans the Officer whereof was call'd Comes privatorum and as Cassiodore calls him the Governour of the King 's private Affairs 3. Whilst the Court of Requests was in use he was also call'd the Master of it being Master or Superiour to the Four Masters of Requests who were to receive peruse and present all Petitions to the King or to the Parliament in time of Parliament and direct the Petitioners in the right way of proceeding in their business and for want of this direction many men are ruin'd by crafty and unskilful directors and the Parliament troubled with needless applications for I conceive this Court was plac'd as will be shewn between the House of Lords and House of Commons for the Masters to sit there in time of Parliament as Tryers of Petitions to either House and were to judge whether the matter was proper for either House or any other Court which doubtless did take off a great expence of time from both Houses and from intangling them in matters which were properly relievable in other places 4. There are three forts of Seals which are chiefly us'd for publick Affairs two of them pass under the names of Privy or Private the other the Great or Broad-Seal yet for a clearer distinction one of the two is call'd the Privy
therefore I conceive there is some mistake in Mr. Selden but however the mistake be the first Exemplar Writ to a Duke was not till this year for though Edward Prince of Wales was Duke in the Third or Eleventh year of his Father and Thomas Earl of Norfolk soon after was created Duke of Norfolk and Henry Earl of Lancaster soon after created Duke of Lancaster yet they had not any Exemplar Writs as Dukes but before as Earls so as John Duke of Lancaster in this Parliament of the 37. Edw. the 3d. was the first Duke which had an Exemplar Writ 47 Edw. 3. As I have shewn the first Exemplar to an Earl of the Bloud so this shews the first Exemplar to an Earl not of the Bloud which was this year to Richard Earl of Arundel for though there were many Earls before not of the Bloud yet they had only Consimilar Writs but no Exemplars extant to any of them till this Year 28 H. 6. And though there were many Dukes not of the Blood since the first Creation of that Title yet the first Duke not of the Blood who was thought fit to be an Exemplar was not till this Parliament and the Predecessor of this Duke was an Earl in Edw. 3ds time and even this Duke was Earl in the time of his Predecessors before any Duke was created 6 Edw. 6. Though the first Marquess created in England was in the 9th of Rich. 2d yet none were thought fit to be Exemplars till this 6. of Edw. the 6th that William Marquess of Winchester was made the first Exemplar in Parliament of that Dignity but his Exemplar had the additional Title of Lord Treasurer who is the second Officer of State 36 H. 8. Although a Baron is a more ancient Title with us in England than any of the other Degrees of the Nobles yet we find no Record now extant wherein a Baron singly as Baron had the Exemplar Writ for as I said Thomas Wriothesly Baron of Tichfield being Chancellor William Pawlet Baron of Bazing being Lord Keeper were Exemplars in those Parliaments and had Consimilars appointed them but Edward Hyde Baron of Hindon having a distinct Assisting Writ had no Consimilar allotted him either in respect of his Barony or Assistancy Thus we find that Earls Dukes Marquesses and Barons have been Exemplars but we do not find any Viscounts to be so in any Parliament since the creation of that Dignity which was as I said in Hen. 6ths time to John de Beaumont And the reason is because the word Vicecomes doth imply a Consimilar to Comes so it were improper for Comites to be Consimilars to a Vicecomiti Concerning the additionals of the Titles to those Nobles mentioned in their Exemplars it may be observed That in all those Writs to Hen. the 8ths time the words Consanguineo Charissimo Praedilecto Dilecto Fideli were not so positively sixt to the several Degrees in their Writs but since that time they have past in a more constant method viz. to Dukes and Marquesses Praecharissimo Consanguineo to Earls and Viscounts Charissimo Consanguineo to Barons Praedilecto Fideli and to the Lord Chancellor as chief Assistant Praedilecto perquam Fideli but to all the other Assistants of which I shall speak more only Dilecto Fideli SECT III. Observations on the Consimilars to the former Exemplars WHen Princes of the Blood were made Exemplars there was ever some Prince of the Blood in the Consimilars and then followed in the same Register in every Clause-Roll or Pawn the other Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons without interposition of the Lords Spiritual and Ecclesiastical to the Princes of the Blood and the Temporal Lords not of the Bloud so it continued in that method till the 21. of King James but then the Exemplar being to the Prince of Wales and no Consimilar to him there follows the Exemplar and Consimilars to the Lords Spiritual of which I have spoken and after them follows the particular Writ to John Bishop of Lincoln as Lord Keeper and after that the Exemplar to Lodowick Duke of Richmond who had one Duke one Marquess Thirty eight Earls nine Viscounts and Fourty seven Chevaliers his Consimilars and ever since the 21. Jac. there hath been an interposition either of the Lords Spiritual or Lord Chancellor between the Dukes of the Blood and the Nobles that were not of the Blood and so in the 13 Car. 2. though the Bishops were deprived from that Roll as I have shewn yet the Lord Chancellors Writ did interpose and it may further be observed That when Princes or Dukes of the Blood or not of the Blood were Exemplars other Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons were Consimilars but when Earls were Exemplars there were no other Consimilars admitted of Degrees above them but still under them viz. of Earls Viscounts and Barons and yet when the three Dukes beforementioned were made Exemplars 't is true the Duke of Suffolk and Oxford had Dukes to their Consimilars as formerly being pari gradu but the Duke of Norfolk had no Duke to his Consimilar for he had only four Earls one Viscount and Thirty one Barons of which there is no other precedent that I can find 2. As to the different Titles of these six Degrees viz. Princes of the Blood Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons of whom I have spoke more in the Fifth Chapter it is fit to be hinted here that Prince in English and Principi in the Latin Writ Duke and Duci Marquess and Marchioni Viscount and Vicecomiti have little difference in their Orthography but Comiti in all their Latin Writs and Earl which is their general appellation in English have very great difference concerning which and the other Degrees I have writ more at large before and in my Annotations to which I refer the Reader and so Baron and Baro have but little variation yet this may be observed here of this Title Baro that in all the Consimilar Writs in Clause Rolls or Pawns wherein those of that Degree are enumerated from the 15th of Edw. 2d to the 13. of Car. 2. neither the Titles or words Baro nor of Banerettus are mentioned in the Writs but either the Articles De or Le or La or the words Dominus Miles Equies Auratus or Chevalier are added to the Barons name viz. Hugo de Spencer Johanni de Bello Campo Johanni de St. John de Bazing Roberto de Monte albo Johanni de Sancto amando Willielmo de la Souch de mortuo mare Nicolao de Cantilupo le Quint Johanni de Insula de rubro monte Nicolao de Sancto Mauro Michaeli de la Pool who was then Banneret Admirallo Maris Johanni de Moubray Mariscallo Petro de malo lacu le Quint Hugo de le Spencer Willielmo la Zouch de mortuo mare Johanni le Strange Johanni le Shelton and many more and some only in their Christian names and Sirnames viz. Richardo Gray Richardo Talbot Gulielmo Aincourt
assisting Interests to those three Estates The rest is divided into twenty Chapters with several Sections and Observations in them as followes CHAP. I. SECT I. The form of the Kings Warrant for Summoning this Parliament SECT II. Observations on the Names and Progresses of the Names of our English Kings more Especially and Prophetically of the Names of Carolus or Charles as also of variations of the words in the Titles of several Kings of England fixt in this Warrant SECT III. Observations and proceedings on this Warrant shewing the Kings Prerogative in Summoning Parliaments Of the difference between Warrants and Writs in signing and Sealing in Generals and particulars The variation of the form of Warrants Advised by the Kings Privy Council How that Council differs from the Great Council of Parliament The Warrant is first issued to the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper The Lord Chancellors Warrant to the Clerks of the Pettybag Of the first Digest of Writs kept there called the Parliament Pawn How these Pawns were Anciently us'd CHAP. II. A Transcript of the Pawn for this Parliament began the Eight of May 1661. Divided into twelve Paragraphs whereof the five first concern only the House of Lords the seven other the House of Commons Observations on this Pawn The reasons of placing figures on the Margent of the Pawn The Reason of the different Dates of Writs in the Pawn Why some of the Writs are abbreviated in the Pawn Of General Writs viz. Original and Judicial and of Parlimentary Writs viz. Brevia Clausa Patentia Exemplars and Consimilars The difference of the Lords Writs and Commons Writs The agreement of Writs in the Pawn Derivative Writs not in the Pawn are Equivalent to those in the Pawn Of Exemplar and Consimilar Writs viz. both in the Lords and Commons Houses The method propos'd for treating of these Writs CHAP. III. Of the Act of Precedencies divided into observations That the Act of Precedency is concern'd in the Lords House only The nature of the Act The Title of the High Court of Parliament used in that Act The Siting and calling over the Lords different from the method in the Act Why some Titles are named in the 4th Paragraph of the Act omitted in the 8th Of the Woolsacks in the Lords House Of the four degrees of State Officers which are placed by this Act. How the Pawn and Acts do disagree therein Of such as sit in the Lords House yet not mentioned in the Act but in the Pawn Of former Proceedings in the House of Lords omitted in this Act. CHAP. IV. Of the Degrees concern'd in the Act of Precedency SECT I. Of the Kings Privy Councellors Of the word Council apply'd to individual Persons and to an Assembly Of the Kings Privy Council Of several other of the Kings Councils Of the Kings Great Council or Parliament Of the Number and Quality of the Persons constituting the Privy Council Of the Antiquity of Councils Of the Nature and condition of Councellors in our Councils Elected for merit Of lesser Councils and Parliaments in this Kingdom Of the Privy Council and Parliament how sometimes mixt SECT II. Of the Princes of the Blood Of the seven degrees of the Blood Royal whose places are appointed by the Act of Precedency That any of the seven are Prior to all other degrees of Nobility That in their absence the Arch-Bishop hath precedence SECT III. Of the Kings Vicegerent Declaring the Kings Supremacy in the Church of England The great power granted to the Vicegerent in Church affairs None made since the 31 of H. the 8th but supply'd by Bishops SECT IV. Of Bishops The Antiquity of Bishops The meaning of the Word Of their Jurisdictions Of the Convocation Houses where they sit as Bishops and in Parliament upon a Baronial account How plac'd Call'd Lords Spiritual Anciently they did manage the Chief Offices of the Kingdom Of their Priviledge in the Lords House SECT V. Of the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper Referred to Chap. the 8th SECT VI. Of the Lord Treasurer Referred to Chap. the 9th SECT VII Of the Lord President of the Kings Council Of it's Antiquity Discontinuance and Supply Of other Lords Presidents SECT VIII Of the Lord Privy Seal It 's Antiquity and several Titles How granted Considered as Master of Requests Of his Seals and other Seals Of his Clerks concern'd in the Summons of Parliaments Of his Antiquity in Sitting in the Lords House Formerly supply'd by Ecclesiasticks now by Temporal Lords These three last mention'd Great Officers are thus Plac'd whether they be Nobles or not SECT IX Of the Lord Great Chamberlain Rais'd by Merit Had lands given to hold in Grand Sergiantry consisting of great Immunities The Antiquity of the Title Confer'd on some Noble Person whereby he sat in Parliament Made Hereditary his Employments in Accommadations for Parliaments SECT X. Of the High Constable His Antiquity since the 12 of Hen. 8. granted but pro hac vice at Coronations c. Their Power formidable to former Kings Devolv'd into Lord Marshal Of other Constables of lesser Qualities but still of gaeat use Of such of the Higher sort as were formerly Summoned to Parliaments SECT XI Of the Earl Marshal Of his Power and Jurisdiction Of the Original of the Title Of the Courts and Offices under him especially the Court of Chivalry and Heraulds A description of them Of their Employments relating to Parliaments Of the Earl Marshals Summons to Parliaments and how it became Hereditary SECT XII Of the Lord Admiral of England How the Title sprung Of his Power and Jurisdiction guided by the Civil Laws not repugnant to the Common Always plac'd in the hands of some of the Chief of the Nobility Had antiently their Sumons to Parliaments and so continue SECT XIII Of the Lord Steward Of the Orthography of the Name and Antiquity of the Office Of several Offices under that Title and particularly of the Title of this Office and of his Antient and Present Summons to Parliaments and of his Vses there SECT XIV Of the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings House Of his Authority and usefulness before in Parliaments Of Antient Presidents of Summoning him to Parliaments SECT XV. Of the Principal Secretary of State When the Act of Precedency was made he was the 12th Officer of State a Number of Esteeme the difference of his Writ when his Summons are single without annexing some Noble Degree to it CHAP. V. SECT I. Of the Decrees of Nobles From whence the word Nobility is derived Divided into Majores and Minores The Majores into 5 degrees the Minores into three the Majores makes the Lords House the Minores the Commons House SECT II. Of Dukes Duke from the Latin word Duco Dux Antiently Earls were Prior to Dukes in England How Dukes got the Priority Of the several Titles attributed to Dukes Duke and Earl promiscuously us'd And of the name Grace apply'd to Dukes in England Dukes were in England before they were formally Created The time
when Created Of two sorts of Dukes how distinguisht A Duke as Generall is not provided for in the Act of Precedency as other degrees of officiall honors are SECT III. Of Marquesses When begun in the Empire and in France When in England the reason of placing him between Duke and Earl From whence the Title is suppos'd to come Noble Actions caus'd Noble Titles and by some Hereditary SECT IV. Of Earls Of the word Comes or Count signifying Earl 6. sorts of Counts according to Selden 22. sorts according to Cassiadore 3. sorts in England Of the incongruity of the words Comes and Earl and from whence the word Earl is derived when first given in England Titutarly and upon what occasion when by Creation Of the Tachygraphy of the word Earl Of the Antient Titular and Created Earls little difference Of Local and Personal Earls here in England SECT V. Of Viscounts Sometimes considered as Equal sometimes of a lesier degree then an Earl Two sorts in England why the Hereditary Viscount interpos'd to Earl and Baron Of the first Created Viscount in England of the Parliamentary dignity of the one and Official Dignity of the other SECT VI. Of a Baron Of the word Baron the Baronial Tenures were the foundation of the Superior Tenures and Degrees Of Contributions to the King from Barons Spiritual Barons how Exempted from Contributions Of several other sorts of Barons The advantages of Created Barons CHAP. VI. Of the Writ to Princes of the Blood Royal. Of the Writ to Edward Earl of Chester Eldest Son to King Edward the 2d Anno 15. Ed. 2. And the Writ to James Duke of York 13. Car. 2. Compar'd Observations on both Writs A Recital or Numeration of the Exemplars of Earls Princes and Dukes of the Blood from Edward the 2d to this Parliament 1661. Observations on the Title of York the Consimilar to the Duke of York Observations on the Consimilars CHAP. VII Of the Writ to the Arch-Bishop and Bishops with Observations Reasons for incerting this Exemplar in this Place shewing that the Idolatrous Jews brought in Paganism into Britain manag'd by Druids and Bards after by Arch-Flamins and Flamins which were Pagan Priests Afterwards Christ Himself or his Apostles or Disciples or some of them brought in Christianity into Britain Bishops had Eleven several Titles according to several Regions given to the first managers of Christian Religion All included in the Word Bishop as Inspector or Father Of the Antiquity of the word Bishop Aristobulus the first Bishop of Britain who were his Successors Of King Lucius his message to Pope Eleutherius and the Popes answer about the first ordering of Christian affairs in Britain Of Linus the first Bishop of Rome and his Successors till the time of Lucius and Eleutherius all subsequent to Aristobulus The Amity between the Bishop of Britain and the Bishop of Rome in that time without any discord about Supremacy Afterwards the Bishop of Rome assum'd the Title of Pope and also a Supremacy to Britain and planted their Dependents there some small Endeavours to oppose it but Fruitless Of several Laws made to lessen the Power and Revenue of the Pope in Britain from the 9th of Hen. the 3. to the 5th of Hen. the 5th Of other wayes us'd by Hen. the 8th from the 9th of his Raign till his death in support of his Supremacy What Countermines were us'd by the Pope Historical passages from Hen. the 8ths Death to the dissolution of this Parliament Anno 1678. against and for the Papal Interest Of the the Titles of Defensor Fidei Supremum Caput how Vs'd disus'd and alter'd from the 12. of Hen. the 8th to the 13. Car. 2d Of Writs to Bishops before and in Edward the 2ds time having both the same and a greater Extention of Power than what is given in the Writs to the Lords Temporal and so to the 31. and 36. of Hen. the 8th and the 13. of Car. the 2d how they continued and alter'd some Observations on the old Writs Of the first Writ in the first Pawn of the 21. Pawns now remaining in the Pettibag Observations on that Pawn Of the 2d Pawn there Of the 3d. Pawn there Of the Pawn of this Parliament begun the 8th of May 1661. wherein Bishops were Omitted though entred in all former Pawns and the reasons of that Omission Of their Writ of Restitution in the same year Aug. 1661. and where Recorded Of their Consimilar Writs Fifteen Observations on their Writs and Temporal Employments CHAP. VIII Of the Writ to the Lord Chancellor Of the Original of the Office of Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper and of the Discription of them Antiently distinct but now Vnited Of their different Seals Of their eminent Imployments Seates and Stations in the Lords Houss Of his single Writ of Summons as Assistant and of his other Writ if otherwise dignified The Office antiently dispos'd of to Ecclessiasticks and of later years wholly to Laicks Of some difference between the Warrant and Writ to Sr. Edw. Hide The form of the Writ Observations on this Writ and the nature of the Office CHAP. IX Of the Writ to the Earl of Southampton Lord Treasurer of England and to the Nobles not of the Blood Of the form of the Writ to the Lords Temporal Observations upon it that the Degrees of Nobles viz. Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons and Titles of the Officers of State are still intermixt in the Writs with some of those fiue Degrees Which of these Degrees are usually made Exemplars Of the Antiquity of the method us'd herein Of their Consimilars Observations concerning the various applications of the Titles Chevaleer Dominus Miles Eques Auratus Bannerettus CHAP. X. Of Patents of Creation enabling the Lords Patentees to sit in Parliament The difference between Writs and Patents and advantages of Patents what the word signifies Patents of 3. sorts viz. of Confirming Reviving and Creating that is given where none was before The form of those 3. sort of Patents Their ellegant preambles The Patents consisting of 4. parts Of the distinct form of the Patents to Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons impowring them to sit in Parliaments Of the Confies of Antient Patents Of Creation money Of the difference in the former and late value of moneys CHAP. XI Of Lords and Peers Of the words Dominus Pares or Lords and Peers what the words signifie When Peers us'd in France and of their number there when in England and of their number there Of the words Praelates Magnates Proceres how to be appy'd Who properly called Peers how placed in the Lords House the words Generally applyed and promiscuously us'd the number increase or decrease according to the pleasure of the King a Corrollary on the Subject CHAP. XII Of Proxies in the Lords House Of the word Procurator Proxie Proctor considered as distinct appellation Proxie only proper in the Lords House Licenced by the King and to whom and sometimes denied A
the effects upon our Souls but in its civil latitude and dimensions as having an influence and interest in every individual Man Woman and Child and in most of the Products of the Earth from their first Being to their Dissolution and this in all the fifty two Counties of England and Wales but for the distinction of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction these are comprised into a lesser number viz. of twenty six and are call'd Diocesses as being given to them from God by the hands of the King to whom they acknowledge a subordination The second Estate and so mention'd in our Laws is the Lords Temporal or rather Militial having the Lieutenancies of all the Counties of England and Wales comitted to their Trust Care and Charge and to these belong the managing of Embassies Treaties of War or Peace and all honorary Actions both Foreign and Domestick as the King who is the Fountain of Honour does usually confer upon them The third Estate is the Commons also mentioned in our Laws and this also subordinate to the King and these consist of Gentry Men of fixt and setled Fortunes designed for things of Gallantry and Hospitality and of the Yeomanry comprised under several appellations viz. Husbandmen Artificers and Labourers all driving on a Commutative Commerce as well to supply themselves as others with what the Land or Sea affords either necessary convenient ornamental or superfluous Besides these three there are three very great Interests which are not call'd Estates but Assistances and in truth they are the very Supporters of these three Estates viz. The first Religion the second Law the third Trade 1. Religion is to be managed by the Clergy of several Degrees as will be shewn some neither Freeholders nor Freemen by their winning of men with a persuasive or exemplary Power into all Pious and Virtuous Actions whereby the Souls and Minds of Men may be united to Love and Obedience and this is the cement of Vnity to the three Estates 2. The Laws are manag'd by Lawyers of several degrees some neither Freeholders nor Freemen by instructing Magistrates in their compulsory Power when occasion requires so as both the Laws of God and Man may be duely observed and that such whom the Clergy cannot invite to Piety and Virtue by Precept and Example may be compelled to it by the Rigour of the Laws and this is the cement of Severity to the three Estates 3. Trade is manag'd chiefly by Merchants some also neither Freeholders nor Freemen these give life to Industry whereby the Rich do help the Poor and the Poor the Rich and thus Trade Commerce and Industry are as necessary Cements to the Three Estates as either Religion or Law respecting only what morally concerns Justice and Obedience and this is the Cement of Prosperity to the whole Fabrick So we see that as there are Three Essential Estates so there are also Three Essential Assistances or Supportations of those Estates and without which those Estates cannot well subsist Now out of these Three Estates in general the King doth abstract a Parliament For when He gives notice of his intentions to have one he orders Writs to Archbishops and Bishops who are chiefly to manage the concerns of the Clergy At the same time He also orders Writs to such of the Nobility as He or His Predecessors have either by Patent created to that employment or otherwise invested with some right thereunto who are chiefly to manage the concerns of the Nobility and Kingdom At the same time He also orders Writs for Electing such a number of Commons out of Counties Shires Cities and Burroughs as may manage the concerns of the Commonalty and yet these three Estates thus distinctly Summoned are so admirably intermixt in this Supream Council or Parliament that these three Estates in that Council seem to have an interchangable power and check on each other in the more Safe and Wise carrying on the Affairs of the whole Kingdom considered either at Home or Abroad And as the Government of the Kingdom hath three sorts of Assistances as is before shewn so those three sorts of Assistances are disposed into three sorts of Assistants For the Bishops have a certain number of Deans Archdeacons and Proctors cull'd out of Prebends Parsons Vicars and the Clergy in general as may be Assistants to the Episcopal Interest The Nobility have a certain number of Lawyers viz. Justices of the Respective Benches and Courts of Judicature in Westminster-Hall as will be shewn cull'd out of the Profession of Lawyers to be Assistants to them The Commons have the bulk of every County contracted into Two Knights or one for each County and of Two Merchants for each City and of Two lesser Traders for each Burrough and yet the Electors of them are not so confined to the Persons Eligible but that such as they hold fit to manage such Imployment are capable to be Elected though they be not Knights Merchants or Traders yet they are confined to a set number as I said and of qualifi'd Persons as well to preserve the Honor of it as to prevent a surcharge of too great a concourse to this Assembling of a Parliament By this easie demonstration it is evident that the Lords Spiritual consisting of Archbishops and Bishops Successive but not Hereditary do Sit in the Lords House and there Represent the whole Clergy of this Kingdom The Lords Temporal consisting of Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons which Five Degrees by a Nobilitated Interest Hereditary and Successive do Sit there also Representing all the Nobility of those Degrees in the Kingdom The Commons consisting of Knights Citizens and Burgesses by an Elective Interest neither Hereditary nor Successive do Sit in the House of Commons Representing all the Commonalty of this Kingdom Over which Three Estates the King for the time being ever was and still is esteemed by an Hereditary and Successive Right the Supream and in the Eye of the Law the Immortal Balance of these Three Essential yet Subordinate Parts Interests or Estates of this Kingdom I say Immortal because our Laws do say that Rex nunquam moritur and thereby gives him a clear distinction from the Three Estates Now to undeceive some that would have the Three Estates to consist of King Lords and Commons because our Government seems to be framed of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy To clear their Judgments the Monarchy stands single but the Aristocracy is double viz. An Aristocracy of the Lords Spiritual and an Aristocracy of the Lords Temporal to which add the Democracy of the Commons and all is reconciled into Two Aristocratical Estates and one Democratical and the Monarchical as Superintendent to those Three and so this Vnity with the Triplicity is the due constitution of our English Parliament and indeed of the Kingdom it self THE CONSTITUTION OF PARLIAMENTS CHAP. I. The King's Warrant to the Lord Chancellor for Summoning the Parliament begun the 8th of May 1661. CHARLES the Second by the Grace
Indentur ' in t ' ipsum Vic' illos c. Nolumus autem quod idem Vic' c. Et Electionem illam in pleno Com' praedict ' sic factam distincte aperte sub sigillo Com' praedict ' sigillis eorum qui electioni illi interfuerint nobis in Cancellar ' nostram Angliae ad dictos diem locum certificetis indilate remitten ' nobis c. ut supra REX Camerario suo Com' Palatini sui Cestriae vel ejus locum tenenti ib'm salutem Quia c. usque tractatum Vobis mandamus firmiter injungend'quod per seperalia brevia nostra sub sigillo nostro Com' praedict ' debite conficiend'detis in mandatis tam Vic' nostro ejusdem Com' Cestr ' quam Vic' nostris Civitat ' Cestr ' quod facta proclamatione in prox ' Com' suis post receptionem eorundem brevium nostrorum tenend'de die loco praed'dictus Vic' dc'i Com' Cestr ' duos Milites gladio cinctos magis idoneos discretos Com' praed' praed'Vic ' dc'ae Civit ' Cestr ' duos Cives dc'ae Civit ' de discretioribus c. Et nomina eorundem Milit ' sic eligend'in quibusdam Indentur ' in t ' ipsum Vic' Civitat ' illos qui hujusmo'i Electioni interfuerint Ac nomina praed'Civium sic eligend'in quibusdam Indentur ' in t ' ipsos Vic' Civitat ' illos qui c. Nolumus autem quod idem Vic' dc'i Com' Cestr ' nec praed'Vic ' Civitat ' praed'nec aliquis c. Et Electiones illas in plenis Com' Civitat ' praed'sic fact ' distincte aperte sub sigillo Com' Palatini praed' sigillis eorum qui Electionibus illis interfuerint nobis in Cancellariam nostram Angliae ad dictos diem locum certifices indilate remitten ' nobis alteras partes seperal'Indentur ' praed'presentibus consut ' unacum hoc brevi T. ut supra REX Vic' Carnarvon salutem Quia c. usque tractatum Tibi praecipimus firmiter injungend'quod facta proclamatione in prox ' Com' tuo post receptionem hujus brevis nostri tenend'de die loco praedictis unum Militem Gladio cinctum magis idoneum discretum Com' praedict ' de quolibet Burgo vocat ' le shire Town ejusdem Com' unum Burgensem de discretioribus c. ut supra in Com' Cornub ' mutatis mutandis T. ut supra Consimilia Brevia diriguntur Vicecomitibus seperal'Com ' sequen ' sub dat' praed'videlt ' Radnor Brecon Carmarthen Mountgomery Cardigan Glamorgan Pembroke Flint Merioneth Denbigh Anglesey de uno Milite tantum eligend ' SECT II. Observations on this Pawn Obs I THis is the full Transcript of the Pawn or Record of the Writs which were issued for the Summoning this Parliament and that my Method in managing of them may be the clearer understood I shall set down some Observations pursuant to it In the Original of this Pawn or Record there are no Figures placed in the Margents of the respective Paragraphs of it but I have thought fit in respect of the several occasions referring to it to add the Figures of I. II. III. IV. V. being Paragraphs particularly relating to the House of Lords and then the Figures of VI. VII VIII IX X. XI XII being Paragraphs particularly relating to the House of Commons for of all these I shall speak distinctly in this and the Second Part of this Treatise All the Exemplar Writs are dated the 18th of Feb. 13 Car. 2. but there being several Creations of Lords or at least their Patents not perfect after the 18th all the subsequent Writs for such Lords were dated the 29th of April following and that is the reason of the different Dates of Writs in the Pawn but all were before the Parliament sat The first Exemplars in this Pawn for the Lords House do begin with the words CAROLUS Secundus Dei Gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor And so the first Exemplar in the House of Commons Fig. 6. begins in the like words yet all the other Exemplars in the Pawn do begin only with the word Rex omitting the other words which must be understood that the single word Rex c. is so entred only for brevity not that the Form of the other Examplar or Consimilar Writs are so concise either in the preamble or body of the Writs for the same reason In respect I do make use of the words Exemplar Writs and Consimilar Writs it is fit I should speak of the Nature of Writs in general The Common and Civil Law calls a WrÃt in Latin Breve quia brevibus paucis verbis intentionem Legis exponit And of these in the Common Law some are call'd Original and others Judicial the Original if I do not miscount them from the Register of Writs are 727 in Number and these are us'd in the respective Courts in Westminster before any appearance had or other Process issued in all matters both real and personal and are always in the King's Name attested by the Chief Justice of the Court from whence they issue the other call'd Judicial Writs if I miscount not the number of them from the same Register are 371 which are sent out by order of those Courts where the original Writ is recorded and the Case depending and these latter do also issue in the King's Name and attested by the chief Justice of the respective Courts from whence they proceed and seal'd with green Wax with the Seals of the respective Courts But the Parliament Writs of which I am to treat are of another nature and quality issued only by the King 's immediate Command and Warrant and seal'd with the great Seal of England and these have two appellations viz. Brevia Clausa or operta and Brevia Patentia or Aperta The Brevia Clausa are Writs of Summons clos'd up in yellow Wax and so seal'd with the great Seal of England and then as will be more fully shewn after I have discours'd distinctly of the Writs sent with Labells to every individual Prince of the Blood Lords Spiritual Lords Temporal and Assistants and to every Sheriff of the Kingdom for Elections of Knights Citizens and Burgesses for the Commons House and so do concern both House of Lords and House of Commons as also the Convocation Houses dirivatively from the Arch-Bishops and Bishops Writs of which last I shall speak more distinctly in this Treatise concerning the Convocation House But the Brevia Patentia do chiefly concern the House of Lords viz. by Patents of Creations as also some Officers as will be shewn and all these are call'd Patentia or Letters Patents because they are not inclos'd but open with the Impression of the great Seal of England at large hanging to them yet all the Created Patentees have their distinct Writs of Summons but not the Official Patentees viz. Clerk of the Crown Clerk of the Parliament Clerk to the House
Marshal and Duke Thomas dying at Padua about the end of this Parliament Henry the Brother succeeded in the Dukedom and sat as Duke of Norfolk and Henry the Eldest Son of the said Duke Henry being then intituled Earl of Arundel did sit as Earl of Arundel and Lord Mowbray so as that Title of Earl Marshal is in Duke Henry and the Title of Mowbray in the Earl of Arundel and that Title of Earl Marshal only inpossibility to come again into Mowbray And this may be added that during Duke Thomas his Life James Earl of Suffolk by Deputation did execute that Office for reasons which I leave to other Writers SECT XIII Of the Lord Admiral of England Obs I THE Kings of England do constantly make Admirals of Squadrons of Ships but the Admiral which I am here to speak of is the highest of all intituled the Lord Admiral of England and may be well call'd Admirals from their seeing and knowing the mirabilia or Wonders of the Deep The Greeks call'd this Officer Thalassiarcha from Thalassa the Sea and Archos the Chief at Sea and from thence the Romans according to the Latin Idiom call'd him Thalassiarchus and of later days Admirallus which is no Latin word and in English Admiral 2. To him is committed the Government of the King of England's Navy and Power to decide all causes Maritim as well Civil as Criminal and of all things done on or beyond the Seas in any part of the World and many other Jurisdictions on the Coasts and in Ports Havens and Rivers and of such Wrecks and Prizes as are call'd by the Lawyers Lagon Jetson and Flotson that is Goods lying in the Sea floting on the Sea or cast by the Sea on the shore admitting some few exceptions and Royalties granted to other Lords of Mannors And these and all other Cases dependant on this Jurisdiction are determin'd in his Courts of Admiralty by such Rules of the Civil Law as do not invade the Common Laws of England 3. And of these Civil Laws which concern Sea assairs there are two most eminent Guiders to Civilians viz. Those made at Rhodes in the Mediterranean by the Grecians and augmented by the Romans call'd Lex Rhodia or the Rhodian Law The other made at Oleron an Island anciently belonging to England but lying on the borders of France by out King Richard the First both of which are still in great veneration 4. So as well for the Laws by which he governs the Maritim concerns as for his great Jurisdiction being as vast as the Ocean he may be said to have alterum Imperium extra intra Imperium and therefore this Honour and Care is intrusted to the hands of some one of the Blood Royal or some one or more joyntly of the most eminent of the Nobility 5. And in respect of this Power there is a constant Converse and Commerce with all parts of the World especially where the Civil Laws are practis'd and therefore it hath been the prudence of our former Kings even to this day to allot him a place in the Lords House as to the Marshal of England for both of their concerns are chiefly manag'd as I have shewn by the Civil Laws so as the Lord Marshal and Lord Admiral may be look'd on as the two Supporters to the learned Professors of those Laws as the other Lords are to the Professors of the Common Laws and possibly the greatest number of the Masters of Chancery of whom I shall speak in order who sit in the Lords House were originally contrived to be Doctors of the Civil Laws upon this ground That if there were at any time just occasion in that House to make use of any points in that Profession they might give their advices or opinions therein 6. This Dignity as I said was ever conferr'd upon some of the chief Nobility by vertue whereof they had their Writs of Summons and their Place in the Lords House and this long before the Act of Precedency for we find the Earl of Arundel in 13 Edw. 3. and the Earl of Northumberland in 7 R. 2. the Earl of Devon and Marquess of Dorset in the same Kings time and so the Earls of Salisbury Shrewsbury Worcester and Wiltshire and others of the like Degrees recited in the Clause Rolls needless to renumerate being Admirals were summon'd and in our extant Pawns in 36 H. 8. Johanni Dudley Vicecomiti Lisle Magno Admirallo and in 1 E. 6. Tho. Dom. Seymer Magno Admirallo and in 7 Edw. 6. Edv. Fenys Domino Clinton Magno Admirallo and in 1 2 3 4 Mariae Phil. Mar. Gulielmo Howard de Effingham Magno Admirallo and in 4 5 Phil. Mar. Edw. Fenys again and Charles Earl of Nottingham in Queen Elizabeth's time and George Duke of Buckingham in King James's time and King Charles the First 's time were still summon'd to Parliament with the Title of Admiral added to their hereditary Titles in their Writs and to this Parliament Jacobo Duci Ebor. Magno Admirallo c. And all these had their places in the Lords House according to the Act of Precedency as those before the Act was made This Office was conferr'd on the Duke of York for this Parliament Vid. Cap. 2. SECT XIV Of the Lord Steward of the King's House AS for the Orthography and Etymology and Antiquity of this Title Steward Obs I. I shall refer them to my Annotations However as it is sometimes writ with a T and sometimes a D it is under four Considerations the first as it represents a Royal Name and Family and therefore for distinction this is writ Stewart with a T and hath the superintendence chief interest and influence in all Parliaments since that Name was of that use in England 2. The other three are Titles official and written Steward with a D and as a further distinction from the first in Latin they are call'd Seneschalli and this the chief of the three is call'd Seneschallus Angliae or Lord High Steward of England of whom I shall give a full account in the Chapter of the Trials per Pares and shew how this great Officer is imploy'd either in or out of Parliaments 3. The last and least Degree of the 3 is call'd also Senescallus such as are the Stewards of Corporate Towns or Mannors which are not concern'd in the Summons or of use in Parliaments otherwise than as considerable Assistants in Elections of Members to serve in Parliaments But the Lord Steward of whom I now speak was call'd in H. the 8th time Magnus Magister Hospitij Regis or the Great Master of the Kings Houshold and ever since Magnus Senescallus Hospitij Regis or the Lord high Steward of the Kings House and he hath not only an eminent Employment Trust and Authority in ordering the Kings Houshold but an Authority above all Officers of that House except the Chappel Chamber and Stables but in all Parliaments is obliged to attend the Kings
Person to adjust their Parliamentary expences Westminster being anciently the Kings Court and still within its Verge and his Lordships Jurisdiction 4. His place is appointed by the Act of Precedency in this order not but that he was Summon'd to Parliaments before that Act as may be seen in several Clause-Rolls of Rich. the 2d c. but after the said Act viz. 36. H. 8. Charles Duke of Suffolk was Summon'd and his Writs directed Magno Magistro Hospitij sui but after that as in this very Parliament 1661. the Writ to the Duke of Ormond was Jacobo D'no Brecon being his English Title by which he sits in Parliament Vid. Cap. 2. Senescallo Hospitij Magnus Magister Senescallus being still the same Officer though varying in Title SECT XV. Of the Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold THat High-Chamberlain before mentioned is called Magnus Camerarius Obs I. but this hath not that Epethite of Magnus and yet his authority is very great within the Verge of the Kings Court so that though there is some Subordination yet in many great Regalios he hath an intire command and even in some things which concern the conveniency of a Parliament and its places of Addresses to the King that the furniture of the Rooms may be sutable to the Majesty and Grandure of such as are imployed there 2. He hath been anciently summon'd to sit there as may be seen in the Clause-Rolls of the 25. and 27. and 28. of Edw. the 3d. in the Summons of Sir Bartholomew Bergehurst Camerario Hospitij he being also Guarden of the Cinqueports and in 1. H. 4. to Sir Tho. Erpingham Baneret Camerario Hospitij he being also Guarden of the Cinqueports and so the 10. H. 6. to Radulpho Cromwel Chevalier or Baron Camerario Hospitij I might instance many others but I shall skip as the Records do to the Act of Precedency 31. H. 8. where he is call'd the Kings Chamberlain and in the Pawns of the 36. H. 8. the Writ was Carolo Duci Suff. Magno Magistro Hospitij sui Praesidenti Consilii sui and in the same Pawn which may be observable the Office of great Chamberlain of England was supplied by Edward Earl of Hereford of a lesser Degree than a Duke in the 6. and 7. Edw. 6. the Writ was Tho. D'no Darcy Chevaleer Camerario Hospitij sui and in the 43. Eliz. to Tho. Cary Lord Hunsden Camerario Hospitij and continues in the same Office he was Summon'd again primo Jacobi and in the 15. Car. 1. Philip Earl of Penbrook was Summon'd Camerario Hospiti sui and to this Parliament first Edward Earl of Manchester Camerario Hospitij then Henry Earl of St. Albans Camerario Hospitij and after him Hen. Earl of Arlington Camerario Hospitij who continued his place and precedency in this Parliament to the Dissolution of it 3. Edward Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold was Summon'd so by Writ 18. Feb. 1661. Vid. Cap. 2. SECT XVI Of the Principal Secretary of State HE brings up the Honourable Rere to all the 12. Officers of State both in this Act of Precedency and in the Pawns and therefore I may the more justifiably defer my Discourse of him till I come to his Writ of Summons and past the method of the Pawn as I have done the method us'd in the Act of Precedency and so conclude these Sections with some few Observations Observations WHen the Act of 31. H. 8. was made Obs I. the State Officers though now but 9 in use were then 12. a Number as I shall shew agreeable to the 12 Judges 12 Masters of Chancery 12 Constituting a Jury and much more of the efficacy of that number cited by the Learned Institutor and Petrus Bongus de Sacris Numeris and this number is thus used by us as t is thought in veneration either to the 12 Tribes of the Jews or 12 Tables Sacred among the Old Romans or to to the 12 Apostles of the Christian Religion or 12 Signs in the Zodiack reverenct in Astrology 2. That if the Writs to any of these Officers be to any of the Lords Spiritual or such Officers as have usually consisted of the Clergy as the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper the Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal then the Writs were like the Assistants Writs to the Judges of which I shall speak in order but if any of these Offices be executed by any of the Temporal Lords then the Writ is the same as to that noble Person to whom the Office is anext or if any be Summon'd meerly virtute Officij without annexation to the Degree of some Lord Spiritual or Temporal Lord then the Writ is only as an Assistant Writ and they sit in the Lords House but as Assistants without Vote c. as will be shewn 3. Sir Edward Nicholas Knight was summon'd by Writ dat 18. Feb. 1661. Vid. Cap. 2. and now I proceed to the fixt Nobility call'd Lords Temporal CHAP. V. SECT I. Of the Degrees of Nobles Obs I Have given a short Character of the Grand Officers and Ministers of State and now according to the Act of Precedency I shall speak of the fixt Nobility as they are consider'd in Distinct Degrees and these are not mention'd distinctly in the Kings Warrant for Summoning a Parliament but referr'd therein to the Lord Chancellor to distinguish them by their Writs 1. As for the Nobility in general most Authors derive the word Nobiles or Nobles in the Plural from Noscibiles viz. Viri Nobiles or Persons indu'd with great knowledge than other men and so conceive it may admit of another Etymology viz. Nobilis quasi Non-bilis i. e. men of such debonair and complacent tempers and so much Masters of their passions that they are not in respect of their better Education subject to choler wrath or fierceness for so the word Bilis is Englisht but of even and serene tempers which dispositions are fittest for Affairs relating to Government but to pass these niceties the Question is amongst some 2. How far the Degrees of Nobility do extend which is partly resolv'd by Sir Tho. Smith in his Republica who saith there be two sorts of Nobles viz. Majores and Minores and this was according to the Old Romans the Majores he calls the fixt Hereditary Nobles diversifide into 6 Degrees viz. Princes of the Bloud of whom I have spoken in Cap. the 4th Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons not of the Bloud and descend no lower and these are capacitated by such Creations and Writs to sit in the Lords House The Minores he begins at Knights for he wrote before Baronets were known Esquires and Gentlemen and descended no lower and out of these the Knights Citizens and Burgesses for Parliaments are Elected and Compos'd and thereby capacitated to sit therein as the Representatives of the Commons of England but of these Nobiles Minores I shall speak more in the second part of this Treatise
but of the Majores now in their Order which consist of 5 Degrees besides those of the Stem Royal of which I have spoke and first of Dukes SECT II. Of Dukes BEfore I proceed to the Writs of Summons to the Individuals of these Degrees Obs I. I shall give a brief description of the nature of them and first as for the word Duke it is the same with Dux in Latin from Duco to lead for they were antiently Leaders of Armies and thereby gain'd that Title as might be shewn from Histories and were it not for hindering my other intentions I might recite most of the Learned Seldens Authorities which he hath rendred from other Authors concerning Dukes but in short he tels us that Comes i. e. a Count or Earl was esteemed of an higher quality than Duke and that Earl was chief in Matters Civil and Duke in Matters Military but in process of time the Sword got the upper hand and prioritie of Earl and further saith that both Dukes and Earls from Substitutes to their Princes in certain dependent Territories became afterwards Soveraigns as the great Duke of Tuscany c. and the Earl of Flanders c. still owning the Titles of Dukes or Earls though they had gain'd an intire and independent Soveraignty 2. The diversity of Names attributed to Dukes both in sacred prophane and modern stories were according to the humour of the region where they sway'd for in some Nations he was call'd Princeps Magnus Illustrissimus Robustus Millenarius that is a Duke or Leader of a Thousand Men in other Countries Grave Waiward and Despot and still the words Duke and Earl promiscuously us'd to one and the same Person but whatever they were or are in foreign parts Dukes are now in England accounted the chief and most honourable Subjects and first Degree of Nobility except Princes or Dukes of the Blood-Royal and as a distinction from the rest is call'd Grace given to no other Spiritual Lord but the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York and to no other Temporal Lord except to the Lord High Steward pro hac vice upon tryal of Peers for the Princes and Dukes of the Blood are intituled Highness and all the other Temporal Lords Right Honourable but any of those being Admiral or General Excellence 3. The Title of Duke was very probably us'd here in England before Edward the Third's time for History tells us of Asclepiodolus Duke of Cornwal in Anno Christi 232. which was in the time of our old Britains and well might he be call'd Duke for disgarrisoning of all the Roman Holds Prideaux Introduct to Hist and for his quick Marches to London and killing the Governour thereof and for many other Heroick Actions in freeing his Country from their Servitude However there were many Dukes Created in Germany about that time But our History tells us That none was Created a Duke in England Selden Speed 's Acts. till 11 Edw. 3. An. Christi 1344. when the King in Parliament Created his eldest Son Edward being first made Earl of Chester then Duke of Cornwal and from thence that County was erected to a Dutchy or Dukedom and many more Dukes both in that King's time and almost in every Kings Reign since that time have been Created to that Title 4. The Dukes of England are of two sorts first those of the Blood Royal i. e. such as have a possibility to inherit the Crown upon a legal succession 2dly Those not of the Blood Royal i. e. such as are not related to the Succession of the Crown or at least so remote that it is not visible to meer probability and these two sorts have sat in former and in this Parliament as will be shewn 5. As they are distinguish'd in their Titles so they are also in their Coronets Robes and Habits c. with which they are invested before they enter the House of Lords which will be in the third Part of this Treatise represented in Figures 6. Here I must not pass over one observable That to this Parliament of 13 Car. 2. there were three Dukes summon'd by Writ viz. George Duke of Buckingham Charles Duke of Richmond and George Duke of Albemarle the Duke of Buckingham was then Master of the Horse the Duke of Richmond of the Blood Royal by the Scotish Line yet neither of those two appendant Titles were mention'd in their Writs but George Duke of Albemarle in his Writ is intituled Generalis exercituum suorum and is plac'd the third in that Record and the reason may be because there was no provision for that great Office in the Act of Precedency whereby to preceed all of the same degree as other degrees do being a Title not mention'd in the Act though on some occasions he preceeds by vertue of his Office the other grand Officers and so being not in the Act he is named in this Pawn the last of the three Dukes without respect to his Office of Generalship Nor do I find in any Clause Roll or Pawn the Title of General annext in any Parliament Writ to any one of the Degrees except this though History does plentifully furnish us with several persons of those several Degrees who were Generals when Parliaments were summon'd and yet as I said there is no provision in this Act for the Place or Precedency of this great Officer as there is for the Marshal Admiral c. although his great merits might well have deserv'd an additional Clause to that Act for his precedency 7. Three Dukes were summon'd 18 Feb. 1661. as in the Pawn vide cap. 2. The next Degree to Dukes are Marquesses SECT III. Of Marquesses THe third Degree of the Hereditary and fixt Nobility is intituled Marquio Obs I. and Marquess in English which began in Germany Anno Christi 925. when Henry Emperour of Germany and the first of that Name in that Empire Created Sigefred then Earl of Kinglesheim Marquess of Brandenburgh who after in the Year 1525. having the addition of Duke of Prussia did exchange the Title of Marquess to be call'd Duke of Brandenburgh However he was the first Marquess of that Empire and probably the Emperour did fix this Title between the Dukes and Earls that there might be no more disputes concerning them for the two Titles of Duke and Earl were promiscuously us'd till this Title of Marquess was interpos'd and the same reason might also occasion Philip the Fair King of France 425 years after viz. Anno Christi 1350. to insert into John Duke of Britain's Patent Vt ne posset saith the Patent in dubium revocari Ducem ipsum qui Comes fuit aliquando c. ut Ducem in posterum deberet vocari c. and the reason is therein given Selden Quod Comitatus ejus potius debet duci esse Ducatus quam Comitatus quoniam sub se habet decem ultra Comitatus and 56 years after viz. Anno Christi 1386. This might occasion also our Richard
tells us That about this time the Abbots Bishops c. which were placed here by the Pope were so numerous that it was proposed to him by the Commons that he would please with their Revenues to make 150 Earls 1500 Knights 6200 Esquires and Erect 200 Hospitals for maintaining of maimed Soldiers c. But it seems he had not that Courage which Henry the Eighth did after assume and it was needless for one or two to oppose his Power However H. 4. Henry the Fourth went on and in the Second and Seventh Years of his Reign made Acts against Purchasing of Bulls from the Pope for Exemptions or Benefices Also Henry the Fifth H. 5. Anno 5. cap. 4. made Acts against Provisors from the Pope and all these subject to a Praemunire In Henry the Sixth's time H. 6. the Bishop of Winchester being made Cardinal was admitted of the King's Council with this Protestation That he should absent himself in all Affairs and Councils wherein the Pope or See of Rome were concerned which he assented to and also he Enacted That no Alien should be a Broker That Priories and Aliens Lands should be seiz'd in time of War That no Advowson Presentation Collation or Induction be made to any Alien of any Benefice or Ecclesiastick Dignity That Aliens attending the Queen or King be removed and banished except those allowed by the Council That Aliens should lodge only in Englishmens Houses and to serve in War if able That no Priors be Collectors of Disms He also confirmed the Statutes against Provisions by the See of Rome In Edward the Fourth Ed. 4. R. 3. H. 7. Richard the Third and Henry the Seventh's time there was a Calm to that See none of the Laws repealed but so slenderly used that they made no great impression at Rome and though these and former Kings did strive to make their respective Supremacies in Ecclesiastick Matters within their Dominions and to lessen the Pope's Power and Profit yet none could substantially effect it till Henry the 8th who seeing there was no other remedy and that all Laws against the Roman See were evaded and other Essays fruitless he fell to 't with right down Blows which is the only way to master a good Fencer as will appear in this next Section 8. Henry the Eighth did so contrive his matters H. 8. that he did first ingratiate himself with the Pope by writing in defence of the Church of Rome a Book against Luther which so affected the Pope that he immediately sent him a Bull which is in the same nature of a Patent with us and therein gave him the Title of Defensor Fidei Anno 12. which he accepted and for three years Anno 21 22 23. viz. in the 21 22 and 23 years of his Reign went plausibly on by making several Acts about Wills and Testaments Mortuaries and against Pluralities and Sanctuaries and Deeds to Churches but in the 24th he began to discover his Opinion Anno 24. that though he was for the Doctrine of the Church of Rome against Luther yet he had no mind to suffer his Kingdom to be exhausted for the Support of the Court of Rome whereupon an Act of Parliament was made against all Appeals to Rome Anno 25. and the next year Anno 25. That no First Fruits should be paid as formerly out of this Kingdom to Rome And in another Act That not any Imposition should be laid on his Subjects by colour of any Power from the Pope and then to secure himself and rivet his Subjects to him an Act was made declaring his Title and his Successor's to the Crown That being done an Act of Parliament was made Anno 26. to intitle him Supream Head of the Church of England and in the same year a positive Act Anno 26. That no First Fruits or Tenths should be paid out of any Promotions in England to the Pope of Rome In this time the King makes Archbishops Bishops Anno 27. and Suffragans and in the 27th year chuseth sixteen Spiritual and 16 Temporal Lords to settle the Canons for the Church of England and erect an Office of Augmentation so as having gained the two points of his Supremacy in opposition to the Church and Court of Rome viz. Defensor Fidei Supremum Caput one from the Pope himself the other from the Parliament and setled an Office for his purpose In the same year all Monasteries c. under 200 l. per Annum and all the Ornaments Goods and Jewels belonging to those Houses were setled on him and his Heirs by Acts of Parliament And four years after viz. 31 H. 8. it was Enacted Anno 31. That the King and his Heirs should have all Monasteries Abbies Priories and other Religious Houses dissolved or to be dissolved with their Mannors Lands c. And yet it is observable That in this very Parliament of 31 H. 8. there were twenty Roman Bishops twenty four Abbots and two Priors in all forty six and but forty four Temporal Lords the Act for Precedency in the House of Lords made the same year being not as I conceive altogether for regulating Precedencies but for purging the Abbots c. by that Act of Parliament so as doubtless they lost their Interest more by the King's resolution for expunging them than by Vote of Parliament 9. However the Abbots Priors c. being thus dissolved their Baronies by which they did formerly there sit being disposed of to other persons they had no foundation to sit in the Lords House which caus'd the first great Alteration in the Method of the following Writs for such as were to sit there as will be further shewn And in this great Alteration doubtless there was also a Divine Hand for as Pope Boniface the Third before mentioned did put out all the English Bishops and placed Foreigners his creatures in their rooms and made many more Bishopricks than he found so now by the Lex Talionis Like for Like Henry the Eighth did put out all the Pope's dependents and placed such Bishops in their rooms as would justifie the King's Supremacy here and renounce the Pope's And accordingly Bishop Bonner Cranmer Gardiner and others who wrote against the Pope's Supremacy were made one an Archbishop and the others Bishops And he also did erect six new Bishopricks viz. Chester Gloucester Peterborough Bristol Oxford and Westminster which last after one Bishop 〈◊〉 was turned to a Deanary as now 〈…〉 such of the Nobility and Gentry tha◠〈◊〉 to his Resolutions wanted not Lands and Mannors to gratifie them So that now he had the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament and the Kingdom it self on his side and even the Nobility and Gentry of England who formerly were almost entire for the Popes Authority their Judgments were now split in two some for the Court and some for the Church of Rome and so even the King and many of his Council did live
and die in that Persuasion But he did not think himself safe in carrying on so great an opposition as was like to be well knowing how the Papal Interest was dispers'd in all Kingdoms and States of Europe till he had incouraged the off-spring of the Waldenses and other opposers of Rome in France Germany and in other Kingdoms and States to revive their Doctrines as also to imbrace the Lutherans Centum Gravamina and the Calvinian Institutions and others less remarkable yet all serving to his purpose whereby in a few years after almost all Christendom was brought into a Papal and Antipapal Ballance or rather consisted of Professors of the Roman Religion and Protestors against both the Court and Church of Rome as Usurping and Antichristian 10. But on the other side the Pope seeing that he could not by forcible ways withstand this almost universal desertion of him he made his Applications to several Kings and Princes for his assistance And at last by a more plausible way he did obtain a Council of Trent wherein it is observable That he did not think fit to move in his Point of Supremacy till after eighteen years that That Council had been sitting by Adjournments and Prorogations and then the Question was That Episcopus Locum principalem teneret à Pontifice Romano dependentem to which the opposers did so far comply that they allowed principalem Locum sub Romano Pontisice but not dependentem so after that Council had sate nineteen years in the sixth of Queen Elizabeth it was dissolved by 4 Legats 20 Cardinals 3 Patriarchs 25 Archbishops 168 Bishops 7 Abbots 39 Proctors and 7 Regulars of General Orders without Determining that Point to the satisfaction either of England or other Kingdoms and States the Dispute of which begot 7 Civil Wars in France which lasted near 40 years till within 3 years of Queen Elizabeths Death also Inquisitions in Spain and Flanders Tumults and Wars in Germany and near 40 years Wars in the Netherlands between them and Spain and for some few years Fire Fagots and Insurrections in England 11. In this Hurly Burly about Supremacy H. 8. left his Crown to an Infant Edward the 6th Ed. 6. who had the Laws against Rome corroborated and his Revenues augmented by Chappels Chantries c. enjoying them but few years and then the Pope revived fresh experiments by Queen Mary Mary to reverse all especially after she was Married to King Phillip compelling a submission to the Popes Supremacy by Fire and Fagots so as in H. 8. time and even till now upon the suddain Changes of Religion it might be said by the Historian Deus bone hic suspenduntur Papistae illic comburuntur Antipapistae but her time being short the Supremacy was once more reverst and taken up by Queen Elizabeth Eliz. who managed it with such dexterity considering the conjuncture of Affairs in this and other Kingdoms and States that it was needless for the Pope to make any open Attempts but by Mariages Foreign Negotiations and the assurances given by some of the chiefest Nobility and Gentry of the Roman persuasion in this Kingdom who were as they pretended for the Church and not for the Court of Romes Supremacy of their peaceable resolutions the Billows of penal Laws seem'd to be calmed and this Kingdom thought it self as secure as the pretty Halcion in her Nest But those who kept to Calvins Institutions in England and Scotland were finely yoak't together to a disturbance for it being insinuated to them That the Title of Supream Head of the Church given by Act of Parliament was declined and dwindled into an c. and that the Title of Defender of the Faith given by the Pope did only remain with an c. made them call to mind what was alledged in the Council of Trent That the original of Church-Government was Aristocratical and Governed by a certain number of the Presbytery and afterwards it was thought fit to put it into a Monarchical way viz. by a Bishop as Superintendent and finding that the Popes and Kings of England and other Princes had long disputed about this Ecclesiastical Monarchy without determination only in a connivance they thought it convenient to return to the Primitive way of Aristocracy and set up Presbytery that original Government as was pretended and thereupon one all cried against Bishops which bravely workt for the Papal interest the clamour proved so geat that the Learned King James did what he could by Writing to quiet them his unfortunate thought Blessed Son King Charles the First tried it by Action but without Success For the Independent Anabaptist Fifth Monarchy-Men and others coming into the Presbyters assistance he was necessitated after the Wars with Scotland upon the same grounds amongst other condescentions to yield with the Consent of the Lords Temporal 17. Car. 1. and Commons and pass an Act for Abolishing the Bishops temporal Jurisdiction in this Kingdom Now see what followed instead of making of Earls Knights and Squires and maintaining of Hospitals as was proposed to Richard the 2d as I said the Bishops were not only put out of the House of Lords but the Temporal Lords soon after and the Knights and Squires secluded from the House of Commons and the Hospitals and all ruined by an intestine Bloody War the King Sacrificed and every one of the Machineers disappointed of their original plausible intentions and in conclusion by most miraculous Turns in Assairs there was a total submission to a Reestablishment of that Form of Church and State which they had before so zealously overthrown and the Bishops again brought into the Lords House 12. I should now proceed to the Writs which impowred the Bishops to sit in the Lords House but first I think it pertinent to shew how these two Titles of Fidei Defensor Caput Ecclesiae Anglicanae were used disused and altered in theirs and other Writs Though all the Kings of England at their Coronation are Sworn to defend the Christian Faith and the words defensionem Ecclesiae Anglicanae having been in most Parliament-Writs since the 11th of Edward the 3d. Yet the Pope as I said for the good Service which Henry the 8. had done in Writing against Luther sent him a Bull and therein intituled him Defensor Fidei with this Caution that it should be placed next his Title to France and before his Title to Ireland and it may be observed That in the same year he sent the like Bull to the Emperor Charles the 5th intituling him also Defensor Fidei upon which the Emperor took an Oath not only to be Defensor Fidei but Defensor Pontificiae dignitatis Romanae Ecclesiae i. e. Defender of the Court and Church of Rome But Henry the 8th though he accepted the Title did not think fit to be bound by an Oath nor do I find that he stiled himself in any publick Acts Defensor Fidei till the 2.1 of his Reign and then in a
Decree made in the Star-Chamber which is Printed in Poltons Abridgment he is Stiled Defensor Fidei in terra Ecclesiae Anglicanae Hiberniae Supremum Caput which was 5 years before the Supremum Caput was settled by Act of Parliament but as a preparative to it in the 22 of his Reign he is stiled Praepotentissimus Metuendissimus Angliae Franciae Rex and only Fidei Defensor is added and no mention of Supremum Caput Then in the 30 year of his Reign he is Stiled Defender of the Faith and Lord of Ireland and on Earth Supream Head immediately under Christ of the Church of England In the 32. year he left out the word immediately and the next year the words under Christ So that in the 33 of his Reign the Title was Hen. by the Grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland on Earth Supream Head And thus by making himself King of Ireland he disobeyed the Pope in placing Defender after Ireland and this Title continued thus all his Life and the Circumscription on his Great Seal wrot accordingly and so did his Son Edward the sixth on His Great Seal and in Publick Acts. And the like did Queen Mary in the first year of her Reign but upon her Marriage with King Philip in the second year of her Reign and first of both their Title was King and Queen of England and France Naples Jerusalem and Ireland Defenders of the Faith Princes of Spain and Cicily Arch-Dukes of Austria Duke of Milan Burgundy and Brabant Countess of Hasburgh Flanders and Tyroll quite jostling out Supream Head during their Reigns When Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown the Circumscription of her Great Seal was Elizabetha Dei gratiâ Angliae Franciae Hiberniae Regina Fidei Defensor yet she maintained both Titles of Defensor and Supream during her Reign When King James came to the Crown the Circumscription of his Broad Seal was also Jacobus Dei gratiâ Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor and no more yet he maintained the other Point both in his Government and Writings as may be read in his Praemonition to all Christian Monarchs and his Declaration against Vorstius and his Defence of the Right of Kings against Cardinal Perrone and in several of his Speeches in Parliament leaving men at liberty as Queen Elizabeth did to use the Title of Supream Head in their Pulpits and Evidences as they thought fit so as the learned Cambden in his Dedication of his Britannia to King James instead of Defensor writes him Propugnator Fidei When King Charles the First came to his Crown the Circumscription of his Great Seal was Carolus Dei gratiâ Rex Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Fidei Defensor and no more yet to justifie both Titles in the seventeenth year of his Reign he caused the 39 Articles which were agreed on in the fourth of Queen Elizabeth to be reprinted and in the Front did publish his own Declaration in these words Being by God's Ordinance according to our just Titles Defender of the Faith and Supream Governour of the Church within these Our Dominions He therein declares That the Articles of the Church of England allowed and authorized heretofore do contain the Doctrine of the Church of England and requires his Subjects to continue in the uniform profession thereof And then as to the Discipline he further declares himself Supream Governor of the Church of England and that if any difference arise about the external Policy concerning Injunctions Cannons or other Constitutions whatsoever thereunto belonging the Clergy in their Convocations is to order and settle them having first obtained leave under his Majesties Broad Seal so to do and he approving their said Ordinances and Constitutions So here the word Supream Head is changed into Supream Governour When King Charles the Second came to the Crown the Circumscription of his Broad Seal was Carolus Secundus Dei gratiâ Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor and no more yet to justifie both Titles the very same year of his Return Anno 1660. he publish'd a Declaration to all his loving Subjects well worth the reading concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs which shews both his Christian condescention to his Subjects and Justifications to those two Titles for which he is styl'd by Writers Supream Moderator Now though in all Parliament-Writs which have come to my view and in other publick Acts and Writings since the first of Queen Elizabeth to this time after the words Defender of the Faith except in their Broad Seals there is added only one c. which I conceive was done for brevity and must be understood in relation to the Act of 36 Hen. 8. never yet repealed and every man had then and hath still liberty in their Deeds or Pulpits to mention the full Titles but by degrees about the year 1640. it began to cease in Pulpits and soon after in Pens contenting themselves with the c. These and other matters seeming trivial though proving dangerous in the consequences were yielded to as condescentions to gratifie a dissenting party in England who very probably were incited thereunto by underworking Papal Contrivers being excellent Artists in spurring on the least humour of Schism in this Church and so dealing in little things till greater were ripen'd in which latter they often made Attempts as may be read in Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles the First and this present King's time yet without success except in the Assassination of King Charles the first which was manag'd with such dexterity that it was made difficult to judge whether some of the English Dissenters in those times or the Romish Incensors were the chief Actors And after that it was carried on by a subtil way of redeeming their credits in this King's Preservation at Worcester yet still underhand endeavouring to subvert the whole Fabrick of this Kingdom as was discovered about the end of this Parliament 1678. which determin'd my publick Employments and therefore shall leave that Subject to other Pens Thus the new Empire of Rome and the old Empire of England have strugled through many Ages for Supremacy It is the Interest of England to be quiet within its own liquid Arms and so increase it self with other Kingdoms and States by a real mutual Traffick and Commerce But it is the Interest of Rome to be troublesome and increase it self in all Kingdoms and States without any real commutation or advantage to any but it self Yet it is difficult to make the Dissenters to the Church of England believe that the way which they take in opposing Rome will in time be destructive to their own Designs and Opinions Some of the Dissenters to the Church of England see and know this yet are so inveigled by such Dissenters to the Court of Rome who pretend to be for that Church but not for
Conquerours time there have been 62 Archbishops and Bishops employ'd in these Offices and from the first Institution of Treasurer in William the 2d's time to Ed. the 4ths time there have been 42. Archbishops and Bishops Treasurers but from Ed. the 4th's to this time no Bishop hath been Treasurer except William Archbishop of Canterbury in Charles the 1sts time then Bishop of London they have been also Chief Justices c. But for other Offices in respect I find them not mention'd in any of their Writs of Summons to Parliaments as additional Titles I shall not make any further inquiries but indeed anciently most of the Judicial Offices in the Kingdom or State were under the Care and Management of the Clergy and therefore the Chancellor Treasurer Privy-Seal c. were called Clerici or Clerks as a distinction from the Laity And being men generally of the greatest Knowledge and Learning were thereupon chosen into Offices of the highest nature 16. That though for many Ages before the end of Hen. the 8th's Reign the Bishops were then of the Roman Religion yet whenever they had the least encouragement from the present Kings of England and sometimes without it they still oppos'd the Superintendency and Supremacy both of the Church and Court of Rome as to the Dominions of the respective Kings of England protesting that the same was a destruction of the Realm and Crown of England which hath always said they been Free and hath no earthly Sovereignty but onely God in all Regalities as may be seen in the Parliament Rolls of Rich. 2d Hen. the 6th and in other Kings Reigns and since Hen. the 8th the Bishops and Clergy under them have been almost the only Bulwark against the Storms and Incroachments of Rome upon us 17. It appears by a long concatenation of Records that they have had these various Titles of Honour viz. in the Latin Records Archiepiscopi Episcopi Praelati Pares and in such Records as are writ in French or English Archevesque Evesque Archbishops Bishops Prelates Peers Grantz Grandees or Great ones in distinction of the Lesser Peers or House of Commons of which I shall speak more also Seigniors singly and Signiors du Parlement also Lords and Lords Spiritual and Barons claiming onely a Vital Feudal Tenurial and not Nobilitated Peerage in distinction of the Lords Temporal whose Peerage is Personal Hereditary and Nobilitated 18. Though they absent themselves from the House of Lords upon Tryals of blood yet it was and is still in obedience to the morality of the Canon-Laws for though those Canon-Laws were practised in times of Popery yet the reasonableness and conscientiousness of that Law still continues and now we are free from the bondage of Popery the Protestant Bishops still think themselves obliged to it as the Papal Bishops were before like the 4th Commandment which still morally obligeth Us as formerly it did the Jews yet where they do absent themselves in Cases of blood it is done by leaving Proxy or protestation of their Right of Sitting c. 19. And lastly it may be very well observed though their influence and Interest upon a Spiritual and Temporal account is spread over this whole Kingdom their Revenues great and thereby their Tenants Officiates and Dependents very numerous yet I do not find in Histories that the Bishops of England did ever raise an Army to justifie their interest against any of our Kings or against the other two Estates of Lords Temporal or Commons by Sword or Force but still supported it by their Pen or Prayers 20. Thus I have given an account of the Managers of Religion in this Island and of the Writs whereby they were Summon'd to Parliaments and of other great employments wherein they have been intrusted of a mixt nature part Civil and part Ecclesiastick and both tending to Religious Duties I should now proceed to the Writs which concern Abbots and Priors which till the 36. Hen. 8. were ever entred next the Bishops in the Clause-Rolls and Pawns but there having been no Writs directed to them since the said 36. of H. the 8th except two in Queen Mary's time one to the Abbot of Westminster the other to the Prior of St. John's of Jerusalem I shall follow the Method of the Pawns since the said 36th year referring the Discourse of them to the Chapter of Dissolutions and here proceed to the third Exemplar Writ viz. to the Lord Chancellor being the first Officer of State and Principal Assistant and now annext to a Barony and after to his Title of Earl as will be shewn CHAP. VIII The Third Exemplar of the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper AMongst the Romans this great Officer was called Actuarius Scriba Notarius Principis praesentis Vicarius Cancellarius and so it came into France and amongst the Saxons it had the name of Referendarius but in England we do not find this Title of Chancellor till the first of King John An. 1199 though Lambert and others derive it from Edward the Confessors time This Officer continued in so high an esteem that in the 5th of Richard the 2d The Commons in Parliament in their Exhibits to the King desired that the most wise and able man in the Realm might be chosen Chancellor which made Budaeus one of Hen. the 8ths Orators to give this Description Hunc saith he rerum omnium cognitione omni Doctrinarum virtutumque genere instructissimum ornatissimum ingenioque ad omnia versatili omnia in numerato habere oportere fatendum est This Discription is also to be applyed to the Keeper of the Great Seal which invention of a publick Seal as it was more ancient with the Romans so it seems to be very ancient with us in England that Office being Constituted by William the Conquerer in the Year 1067. and for the honour of both as it is shewn in this Section Geffrey a Natural Son to Hen. the Second was Chancellor and the Queen to Henry the Third was Keeper of the Seal 2. These two Offices were sometimes kept distinct and sometimes united in one Person till the Fifth of Queen Eliz. and then it was Enacted That both those Offices should be accounted but as one and the same and that hereafter both should not be used at one time by distinct Persons 3. Whilst they were distinct they had two Seals the Chancellors was of Gold and the Keepers of Silver the Court esteemed Officina Regis and the Seal Clavis Regni but whenever they were either united or distinctly executed still this high Office was managed by Archbishops or Bishops or by the most eminent Laicks for Learning Integrity and Abilities as may be seen by comparing the History of them with their Catalogues 4. To manifest their Eminency it is evident from the Rolls that in the opening of all Parliaments the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper did constantly by the Command of the King shew them the reasons of Summoning them unless in a Vacancy or
on a special account of Absence and then it was performed by one of the Chief Justices 5. But to pass these being more fully shewn in my Annotations I do not find in any of the Clause-Rolls or in the Pettibag-Pawns that a Chancellor or Keeper had any distinct Writs of Summons to a Parliament till the 28. of Eliz. when Sir Tho. Bromley Knt. being the Queens Sollicitor was made Lord Chancellor and Summoned by a distinct Writ in the same Form as is hereafter set down which very Form hath continued ever since And in the 35. of Eliz. Sir John Puckering being but Serjeant at Law was made Custos Sigilli and had a particular Writ of Summons to that Parliament and in the 39. of Eliz. Sir Tho. Egerton Knt. being then Master of the Rolls was made Custos Sigilli and had this assisting Writ of Summons for that Parliament and the like in the 43. of her Reign and so in the 21. of King James and in the First of Caroli Primi particular assisting Writs were sent to the Bishop of Lincoln in these words Reverendo in Christo Patri praedilecto fideli Consiliario nostro Joanni Episcopo Lincolniae magni sigilli Angliae Custodi So as he had this Writ as an assisting Writ and another Writ virtute Baroniae 6. It may here be observed that this was the only Bishop that was either Keeper or Chancellor from the First of Eliz. to this time whereas before Queen Eliz. for the most part Bishops or Ecclesiasticks did execute those Offices but whenever it was conferred upon the Laicks choice was made out of the most eminent Families as in the 26. of Hen. the Second as I said Gessrey Natural Son to Henry the Second was made Chancellor and in the 15th of King John Ralph de Nevile was made Keeper of the Great Seal and in 22. of Henry the Third Geffrey a Templer and John de Lexington were made Keepers of the Great Seal and in the 37. of his Reign his Queen upon the Kings going into Gascoine which is remarkable as I said had the Custody of the Great Seal and in the 45. of that Ring Walter de Merton was made Chancellor and in the 49. of that King Thomas de Cantilupe was made Chancellor and in the 53. Richard de Middleton made Custos Sigilli and in the 56. John de Kirkley and Peter de Winton made Keepers of the Seal and in the 2. of Edward the Third Henry de Bughersh made Chancellor In the 14. of Edw. the Third John de St. Paul made Keeper of the Seal in the same year Sir Robert Burgtheire Knt. made Chancellor and Keeper of the Seals and the like in the 15th to Robert Parning and in the 17th to Robert de Sadington and in the 19th to John de Offord and in the 20. to John de Thoresby In the Records of the same year it is said that Sir Lionel Duke of Clarence the Kings Son then Lord Keeper of England gave Command by Proclamation That no Arms should be worn sitting that Parliament whose name is omitted in the Catalogue of the Lord Keepers by Mr. Selden in his Discourse of the Office of Chancellor and Keeper and in the 45. to Sir Robert Thorpe and in the 46. to John Knivet and in the 2. of Rich. the Second to Sir Le Scroop and in the 6. of Rich. 2. to Sir Michael de la Pool and in the 11. of Hen. 4. to Sir Thomas Beaufort and in the 32. H. 6. Richard Earl of Salisbury was made Chancellor singly and in the 21. of Hen. the Eighth Sir Thomas Moor Knt. made Chancellor and Keeper and in the 24. of Hen. the Eightht Thomas Audley made Chancellor and Keeper and in the 36. Hen. 8. Thomas Lord Wriothesly made Chancellor and Keeper and in the First of Edw. the Sixth Sir William Pawlet Knt. Lord St. John of Basing made Keeper and in the same year Sir Richard Rich made Chancellor and in the First of Eliz. Sir Nicholas Bacon Keeper and the 21. Thomas Bromley Chancellor who continued so to the 28. of her Reign and was the first that I find as is before mentioned that had a particular Writ of Assistance and though in the Fourteenth of King James Sir Francis Bacon was Keeper in the Eighteenth of Jac. Henry Viscount Mandevile Lord President of the Council and Lodowick Duke of Richmond William Earl of Pembroke Sir Julius Caesar had jointly the Custody of the Great Seal and in the first Car. 1. Sir Thomas Coventry and in the 16. Car. 1. Sir Edw. Littleton and 21. Car. 1. Sir Rich. Lane were Keepers of the Great Seal yet we find no particular Writs in the Pettibag directed to any but such as I have before mentioned and to these which follow viz. in 15. Car. 1. Sir John Finch Knt. Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas was made Custos Sigilli and had a particular Writ of Summons to attend that Parliament 7. As to this Writ of 13. Car. 2. of which I am to treat it is to be observed that the Warrant before mentioned sent to Sir Edward Hyde Knt. and Chancellor to impower him to send out Writs was directed in these words To our Right Trusty and Well-beloved Counsellor Sir Edward Hyde Knt. Chancellor of England but in his Latine Writ of Assistance the words are Praedilecto perquam fideli Consiliario suo Edwardo Domino Hyde Cancellario suo Angliae leaving out Militi or Equiti aurato and putting in Domino and the reason of this variation as I conceive was That the Warrant was agreed on by the King and Council before the Third of November at which time he was Baron of Hindon and therefore in the Warrant he is named only Sir Edward Hyde Knt. but in the Writ Domino Hyde which is the Adjunct Title of a Baron as he then was and I find before the Parliament met he was created Viscount Cornbury and Earl of Clarendon and thereupon had another Writ in relation to those Dignities which was entered in the Pawn and the entry dated the 12th of April before the Parliament met and in the latter Writ he had also his additional Titles so that I observe that if the Chancellor or Keeper be above the Degree of a Baron he hath his Writ according to his Degree and therein only intimating his Chancellorship or Keepership as is before shewn in the 36. of Hen. the Eighth 1 Mariae c. But if he be not a Baron then he hath this Assisting Writ Quatenus Chancellor or Keeper as may be seen in the former Precedents from the 28. of Eliz. to this Writ of 13. Car. 2. If he be a Baron as I said he hath or may require a Baronial Writ besides this Assisting Writ The form of his Assisting Exemplar Writ is as follows the other will be seen among the Barons SECT VIII The Form of the Assisting Writ to the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper CArolus Secundus Dei Gratia Angliae
is remarkable that this William Lord Pawlet Marquess of Winchester was Exemplar in all the Parliament Pawns which are extant in the Pettibag from the first of Edw. the Sixth to the first of King James inclusive which is 55. years and was in that time Lord Treasurer 22. years which was longer than any of his Predecessors continued in that Office except Cicil who continued 27. years 1 Car. 1. Georgio Duci Buckingham for one Parliament Sir Thomas Coventry being then Lord Keeper and had a distinct Writ and Sir Richard Weston Treasurer who was then in Scotland 15 Car. 1. Johanni Marchioni Winchester for one Parliament Sir John Finch being then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and had a distinct Writ also Will. Bishop of London was Lord Treasurer and had his Writ 13 Car. 2. Thomae Comiti Southampton for this Parliament Sir Edward Hyde being then Lord Chancellor and had his distinct Writ this Earl was Grandchild to that Wriotheslly mentioned in the 36. of Hen. 8. and died without Issue Anno. 166 So from the 36. of H. 8. to this Parliament of the 13. of Car. 2. there were three Exemplars to Three Barons Two of them being Chancellors and one Lord Keeper and to Two Marquesses to one Duke and to one Earl and all these not of the Blood Now as to the three Barons having Exemplars which Degree had not any before the 36. H. 8. it may be presumed that the Exemplars were given them in relation to their Offices as Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper or President of the Kings Council And as to the two Marquesses having Exemplars who had not any till the 6. of Edw. 6. one was as he was Treasurer and the other in the 15. of Car. 1. only as Marquess because there was no Duke Summon'd to that Parliament and Sir John Finch was then Lord Keeper and William Bishop of London Lord Treasurer and both had distinct Writs so there was none of the three great Officers of State remaining to be Exemplars except Henry Earl of Manchester then Lord Privy-Seal who according to the fore-mentioned Act of Precedency is placed in the Lords House before all Dukes Marquesses c. not of the Blood but I suppose because there was no President wherein the Lord Privy-Seal had been Exemplar since its first Institution in the 11. of Hen. 4. and being not called Lord Privy-Seal nor that place in the Lords House allotted to him till the 31. H. 8. possibly for those reasons it was not given to the Lord Privy-Seal but to the Marquess singly or else it was an omission in not minding the Act of Precedency These latter Writs from the 36. of Hen. 8. did seem to break the method of the former for before that Pawn of that year no Dukes or Marquesses were made Consimilars where an Earl was made Exemplar but in the Exemplar of the 36. H. 8. Wriothesly Earl of Southampton was made Exemplar and the Duke of Norfolk then Lord Treasurer of England and Charles Duke of Suffolk the Great Master of the Kings Houshold and President of the Council were besides the Marquess of Dorchester and Thirteen Earls and Twenty eight Barons made his Consimilars so as the precedency of his Exemplarity must be ascribed to his Chancellorship which according to the Act of Precedency was to be before all Dukes c. not of the Blood and upon the same reason Pawlet Lord St. John in the first Edw. 6. being then Lord Keeper had the Exemplar Writ and the Duke of Somerset though the Kings Uncle Governor of the Kings Person and Protector of England as also the Marquess of Dorchester and Marquess of Northampton and Thirteen Earls and Thirty Barons were his Consimilars which is the only President which I know of where the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper had the Exemplar to a Duke of the Bloud and upon the like reason as I conceive in the 6 of Ed. the 6. William Marquess of Winchester being Lord Treasurer the next in Precedency to the Lord Chancellor by the Act of 31. H. 8. had the Exemplar to two Dukes one Marquess Fourteen Earls One Viscount and Thirty one Barons all which were his Consimilars and it is probable the reason why this Exemplar was given to the Treasurer and not to the Chancellor was because Thomas Goodrick Bishop of Ely was then Lord Chancellor and so it was not proper for that Bishop to be Exemplar for the reasons before alledged Now in the first Car. primi Thomas Coventry being Lord Keeper and having a distinct Writ the Duke of Buckingham had the Exemplar who had one Marquess Thirty seven Earls Eleven Viscounts and Fourty seven Barons to his Consimilars Also in the 15. Car. 1. John Marquess of Winchester Son to the former Marquess of Winchester was made Exemplar Sir John Finch being Lord Keeper who had a distinct Writ and William Bishop of London being in Scotland but he had no Duke or other Marquess but Fifty eight Earls Five Viscounts and Forty four Barons his Consimilars and so reduced the proper Consimilars to its former method But the 14. Car. 2. Thomas Wriothesly Earl of Southampton Lord Treasurer Grandchild to the former Earl of Southampton altered it again there being now also a distinct Writ to Sir Edward Hyde Lord Chancellor for this Earl had three Dukes one being General Four Marquesses Fifty five Earls Eight Viscounts and Sixty eight Barons his Consimilars I conceive as Lord Treasurer for according to ancient Practice as I have shewn an Earl had not any Dukes entred as his Consimilars The number of all the Exemplar Writs extant from the 15. of Edw. the 2d in An. 1322. to the 13. of Car. 2di An. 1661. are but Twenty and but Fourteen Kings from whom they were granted The number of the Parliaments in which the Nobles did Sit to whom such Exemplars were issued were 107. and these 107. Parliaments were in the space of 341. Years As concerning the years when these Exemplars were first issued to the respective degrees of Nobles before mentioned they are in this order of time 15 Edw. 2. This first Exemplar Writ as I have shewn was to an Earl and 〈◊〉 was of the Bloud viz. to Edward 〈◊〉 of Chester Eldest Son to Edw. 2. and â—â—â—ter King Edw. the 3d. for there was then no Duke in England 3 Edw. 3. The first Exemplar Writ to a Prince of the Bloud was to the same Earl being then made Prince of Wales 37 Edw. 3. The first Exemplar Writ to a Duke of the Blood was not till this year though the first Duke in England distinct from that of Earl as Mr. Selden saith was the Eleventh of Edw. 3d. and then Edward the Kings Eldest Son was in Parliament created Duke of Cornwall yet Speed in his Chronicle of Edw. 3d. makes this Creation in the 3d of Edw. 3d. when saith he he was created Prince of Wales Duke of Aquitain and Cornwall which agrees with the Records of the Tower and
vicesimo primo Novembris Anno regni dicti Domini nostri Caroli Secundi Dei gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Regis fidei defensoris c. Annoque Dom. 1662. 17. All derivative Proxee-Writs made either from a Lord Spiritual or Temporal to any of their own Degrees or of other Degrees do not continue longer than one Session without a new Derivative License or Proxee-Instrument 18. As to the places of the Proxees in the Lords House they are not mention'd in the Act of Precedency so I shall conclude with Mr. Elsing That surely they did not sit in the Lords Seat whose Proxee he was yet in all Councils and Dyets beyond the Seas he does 19. Though they are Nobilitated by sitting as Proxees yet they are not to be accounted Peers unless they were Peers before they were Proxees Thus having said as much as I think fit of Writs to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal both Original and Derivative I am come to the Fifth Exemplar concerning the Assistants to those Lords Peers and Proxees CHAP. XIII Of the Assistants to the House of Peers comprized in the Fifth Exemplar of the Pawn 1. HAving done with all the Degrees which are mention'd in the Act of Precedencies and given an account by four Exemplars of the Writs to the Princes of the Blood of the Writs to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Writ to the Lord Chancellor of the Writs to the Hereditary Nobles of Parliament viz. Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons as they are mention'd in the Pawn and also given an Abstract of such Patents of Creation as Intitle some of them to be the more capable of Summons as also of Peers and their Proxies I come now to the Degrees which are not mention'd in the Act of Precedency but are compriz'd under the fifth Exemplar-Writ recited in the foremention'd Pawn viz. to the Lord Chief Justice of England and of the Consimilars to his Writ and these are different from all the former except the Lord Chancellors of which I have spoken because these do not sit in the Lords House by vertue of any Tenure or Patent of Creation or according to the Act of Precedency but only by Writs as Assistants for none do sit there without Original Writs except Proxies and Masters of Chancery c. as will be shewn But before I treat of them distinctly I shall set down some Observations on their Professions 1. These Assistants do all profess the Study and Knowledge of Laws and therefore have their Places allotted in the very heart of the Lords House that they may with the more ease give their Advice to that Noble Body in all Matters which concern either the Theory or Practice of what is just or fit to be done 2. Now there are certain Faculties and Vertues springing from the Profession of these Assistants viz. Jus or Right Justitia or Justice Judicium or Judgment Ratio or Reason Prudentia or Prudence Aequitas or Equity Discretio or Discretion Sapientia or Wisdom and Scientia Legum or Knowledge of the Laws to whith it is presum'd they have attain'd and are thereby made fit for Assistants yet that these Vertues may be the more distinctly discern'd I shall take the freedom to explain them Jus the Latin for Right is the foundation on which Justitia or Justice is built Justitia is status or statio Juris quia Jus stat vel exercetur per Justitiam So that Jus is the principal Justitia the Efflux of it Judicium or Judgment is the fix'd resolution determination or sentence of what is true or false good or evil just or unjust Reason is a Ray of Divine Light which guides a man to judge what is Just or Justice Prudence is in the nature of Providence from Providere to foresee the conveniencies or inconveniencies of so doing or not doing right to one man that it may do good to one and not hurt another Discretion is also to discern the nature or difference of things represented and to manage them to their right end and by this Equity is usher'd in which is a conscientious care that all things may be equally and proportionably done towards those who exspect Justice when the matter concerns distinct persons or interests and then Sapientia or Wisdom advanceth it self and includes the Scientia Legum or Knowledge of the Laws and that imploys all the Faculties of the Soul and hath a particular Intellect and Inspiration to see improve and manage all things to a just and right end and teacheth the Professors to instruct others in the principal Rules of perfect Conversation with each other viz Honeste vivere neminem laedere suum cuique tribuere which is to live soberly and temperately to offend no man wilfully and to give tribute to whom tribute belongs and to every man what is their right to enjoy or in our power to perform All these do constitute a wise man and the Professors of Laws have more opportunities to demonstrate them to others and by these Vertues they become Accomplish'd Assistants to a Parliament both in Divine and Human Matters 3. But the Imbecility of our Human Nature is such that no man is so universally knowing in all things as to give a true Judgment of all particulars without a light or information from others whereby to judge of what is just right or fit to be done especially in the contentions arising from the Mechanick Arts or Trades and some other Sciences which are a significant part of the Fabrick of any Kingdom or State for supposing two Artificers professing different Arts are both imployed to the perfecting of some Publick Work wherein their joint Skills are necessarily required in which they are at variance upon some mystical parts in their Trades and without determination of their differences and concerns neither of them can proceed in the joynt Design and thereupon they refer themselves to one of the Professors of the Law to settle the matter between them But it is vulgarly thought beneath one of these eminent Professors to dive into Mechanick Trades or lesser Sciences yet both of these Artists informing him of the true state of the mysteries of their respective Trades the Judge from thence makes a rational determination of what is fit to be done as well for the support of their Trades as for the common good to others by preventing fallacies or circumventions or the like contests and this he gains from the impartments and arguments of these Artists and so weighing their alternate allegations in one balance and the common good in another he makes so peculiar a determination and Sentence as to convince both parties and this from the ground of their different Arts and Impartments Now the Judge or Justice even by these dayly accidents and references doth dayly gain Knowledge and by justly managing this Knowledge grows to be generally esteem'd a wise Man not only from these lower particulars upon which the Opinion of the Vulgar is founded
but from his insight and transacting in matters of a more transcendent nature which dayly also come before him either of Publick or Private Concerns But in all Transactions in this World there is a Right and a Wrong which latter is term'd Unjust and sometimes it may be positively judg'd to be so yet it may so happen that summum jus may do injury whereupon there is a necessity of interposing Equity lest the Wrong by Custom should prove an esteem'd Right or that Right by necessary fix'd Rules which may be safe at one time and not at another or an unlimited use or power should slide into Wrong so as the due and critical time of applying this Equity to summum jus which is gain'd by reading Law and Precedents doth still improve and exalt the Character of a wise Man 4. But because most men are either negligently or wilfully ignorant in the way of attaining these excellent Vertues the wisdom of all Governours hath by the help of these learned Professors establish'd certain Rules to direct men which the Latin call Regulae from Regere intimating the care of Governours in Exhibiting such Rules for the good of those who are under Tuition but generally such Rules are called Laws which the Latins term Leges from Legere to Read so as every man who is not careless of his own Felicity or Justice towards others may thereby be instructed to what he ought to perform 5. In ancient times when People were not dispers'd into various Regions nor into great Societies of Towns Cities and Kingdoms but consisted of some few Families or Villages it was no hard matter to transmit those Rules or Laws to one another by singing them in Meeter or some other ways of Tradition but when those lesser Societies grew into the greater forms of Government their Legislators invented a more certain way or art of communicating their just Rules or Laws by legible Characters Words and Sentences either Writ or Printed containing those Rules which as I said were originally only certain tunable unwritten Instructions and after when mens dispositions grew more and more deprav'd there was something of Coertion added to those Laws which Coertions or inflicting of Penalties for disobedience to those Laws increas'd with the increase of unconformable tempers and herein there is nothing so great an argument of a wise and good disposition as when he makes it his study to satisfie himself and thereby able to inform others in the knowledge of such Laws or Rules as may make our Lives in this World happy and conscientious which can no ways be obtain'd but by knowing and obeying good Laws 6. For these are they as the learned Sir John Davies says to which all Kingdoms and Common-wealths are indebted for all their temporal blessings of Peace Plenty Civility and all moral parts of honesty By these saith he we injoy our Relations Lands Goods good Names or what ever is sweet or dear unto us for quid sunt Regna nisi magna latrocinia sine Justitia Legibus the Land would be full of Thieves the Sea of Pyrats the Commons would rise up against the Nobility the Nobility against the Crown without these there would be nothing certain no Contracts no Commerce no Conversation but Confusion and even Dissolution of Human Society for good Laws are Comforts to the Griev'd Counsels to the Perplex'd Reliefs to the Circumvented Preventions of Ruin to the Improvident Preservations to the Innocent Supports to the Impotent they Relieve the Oppress'd protect the Orphan Widow and Strangers they are Oculi Caecis Pedes Claudis Cures for lame and blind To sum up all they are the Secular Arms to defend both the Church True Religion and the Common-Weal of the Kingdom or State 7. For these reasons the Successive Kings of this Island have constantly as rewards set such a mark upon those who are Professors of the Laws and whose study and experience in Laws have attain'd to so great a sagacity as to know how to apply them to the publick good that the chief of them is made Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England of whom I have spoken who for the most part hath been a Professor of Divinity Law or Equity the next of whom I am now to treat is made Chief Justice of England his very Title Justice rendring him in one sence even Superior to the Law it self for the Law it self is but Lex tacens but he that distributes that Law is Lex loquens 8. This Title of Justice given also to every one of the twelve Judges or chief Dispensers of Laws is so ancient that in former times they were call'd Justitiae as containing that vertue not only in the singular but in the plural number and afterwards they were call'd Justitiarii Angliae and Justitiarii without addition of Angliae and after Justitiarii Regis which last Title was to the four Justices of the Kings Bench the chief of which four was anciently called Summus and at this day Capitalis Justitiarius Angliae which generally we term in English the Lord Chief Justice of England there was also anciently another sort of Justitiarii ad placita applyed only to the four Justices of the Common Pleas the chief of which was and is to this day also called Capitalis Justitiarius omitting Angliae and which we in English term the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. And to ease the People from going for Justice to them these Justices did go to the People to distribute Justice These Motions in process of time were call'd their Circuits because they did in a manner go round the Kingdom and for these Motions they were called Justitiarii Itinerantes Justitiarii ad Assisas Juratas Certificationes There were also anciently another sort of Justitiarii which it may be for distinction sake were called Barones Scaccarii consisting also of four and this Title is applied only to the Exchequer where their Justice was to be shewn in the management of the Revenue of the Crown and these four also were and are constantly mixt with the other Eight in their Itineranciis in all making Twelve 9. And for further Honor to these Eminent Professors as well out of Parliament as in Parliament they have peculiar Courts as Regalias allotted to them wherein they have daily opportunities to manifest their Wisdom These Professors I divide into three Orbs and their Courts accordingly viz. to the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper the Court of Chancery to the Lord Chief Justice of England the Court call'd the Kings Bench to the Master of the Rolls or Keeper of the most eminent Office of Records the Rolls Chappel in the nature of a Court to the other Lord Chief Justice the Court of Common Pleas to the Lord Chief Baron the Court of Exchequer and these are the five Courts or Regalias belonging to five of the first Orb of that Profession yet not excluding the other Nine so as The second Orb
consists of Nine more viz. three Justices of the Kings Bench three of the Common Pleas and three other Barons of the Exchequer and these have gradual interests in those three Courts as will be shewn and with the other five do make fourteen of the first and second Orb and as a further addition of Honor twelve of these fourteen in their Circuits twice every year have Courts also provided for them almost in every County of England as will be shewn The third Orb of the Professors of Law are not usually above six in number yet sometimes more sometimes fewer as will be shewn I mean of such only as have Summons to sit in Parliament and these have Courts also allotted for them viz. the Kings Serjeants at Law the Kings Attorney General the Kings Sollicitor General have the Inns of Courts though common also to under Graduates and Students and the two principal Secretaries of State have the Kings Court or Palace for their Regalias so as the before mentioned five of the first Orb and nine of the second Orb and six of the third Orb these three Orbs being the most eminent of that Profession have not only the Jurisdiction and an Interest in the said Courts but as an higher mark of Honour and Esteem though they were no Lords or Barons of the Realm yet they were and are usually Summon'd by Writs to the High Court of Parliament when ever it Assembled and there they are also dignifi'd with peculiar Places appointed for them and many Priviledges of which with their Number and the Causes of Variation of that Number I shall give an Account in the ensuing Sections 10. These as I said are imploy'd in the Lords House to be Assistants with their sage advices who are perfect knowers both of general and particular Laws viz. in the Laws of God and Nature the Civil Laws practised in most parts of Europe the Ecclesiastick Laws of other Nations but more particularly of our own of our Common Statute Municipal and Customary and By-Laws which are alterae Leges and many others of other Titles which we derive and still retain from the old Roman Empire Saxons c. And thus fraught with knowledge of Laws they bring them for the most part into the Hive or compass of our Common and Statute Law and their universal knowledge makes them esteem'd Learned their Learning indues them with Wisdom their Wisdom enables them to be Justices or Judges out of Parliament and in Parliament to be Assistants there for the better carrying on of Publick Actions and Consultations so as the present Laws may be preserved or such new ones made as their Wisdoms shall think fit to advise there being sometimes as much necessity of making new or correcting altering explaining or inlarging the old as in possitively preserving them for when a Buttress hath sustain'd an House many years and is it self decayed by time it is to the safety of the House to have another Supporter in its room for tempora mutant mores and mores may justly mutare leges considered according to the diversity of circumstances and herein consists the great Master-piece of advice by turning a nolumus mutare into a rational volumus 11. Having now given a short discourse of Law and the Professors of it in general occasioning just grounds for their Assistance I shall proceed to the particular Titles of the chiefest Professors of it and according to my first propos'd Method go on with the fifth Exemplar mention'd in the aforesaid Parliament Pawn viz. to the Lord chief Justice of England The Form of the Fifth Exemplar-Writ to the Lord chief Justice of England CArolus Secundus Dei gratia Angl ' Scot ' Franc ' Hibern ' Rex fidei defensor ' c. Dilecto fideli suo Roberto Foster Militi Capitali Justiciario nostro ad placita coram nobis tenend'assign ' salutem Quia de advisamento assensu Consilij nostri pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotijs nos statum defensionem Regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernen ' quoddam Parliamentum nostrum apud Civitatem nostram Westm ' octavo die Maij prox ' futur ' teneri ordinavimus ibidem vobiscum cum magnatibus proceribus dicti Regni nostri Colloquium habere tractatum vobis mandamus firmiter injungend ' quod omnibus alijs pretermissis predictis die loco personaliter intersitis nobiscum ac cum caeteris de Concilio nostro super dictis negotijs tractatur ' vestrum Consilium impensur ' Et hoc nullatenus omittatis Teste me ipso apud Westm ' decimo octavo die Februarij Anno regni nostri tertiodecimo The next words in the foremention'd Pown are consimilia Brevia diriguntur personis subscriptis But before I speak of those Consimilars I shall add some few Observations on this Exemplar Observations on the Exemplar and its Consimilars I Did think to have made distinct Observations on this and the following Consimilars but finding how curiously they in their Jurisdictions Power Authorities and Operations are intermix'd separated and yet united I shall speak of them as they spring up from my Recollections on which others may graft more as best suiting to theirs 1. Neither this chief Assistant nor any of the following Assistants which are call'd Consimilars in the Pawns are mention'd in the Kings Warrant to the Lord Chancellor for summoning a Parliament otherwise than in these words Wherefore We Will and Command you forthwith upon receipt hereof and by warrant of the same to cause such and so many Writs to be made and seal'd under our great Seal for the accomplishment of the same as in like cases hath been us'd and accustom'd as may be seen in the first Chapter And thereupon the Lord Chancellor according to the ancient Custom and such Precedents as I have and shall set down sends his Warrant to the Clerks of the Pettibag in haec verba as in the first Chapter You are hereby required forthwith to prepare for the great Seal of England the several Writs of Summons for the Lords Spiritual and Temporal as also for the Judges and others to appear at the Parliament to be holden c. in such method and form and directed to such persons as are and have been usual in such cases c. Now that the Lord Chief Justice and the Consimilars of which I am to speak have been anciently and usually summon'd I have and shall shew in their following order 2. In the Act of Precedency there is no mention made of the Places of these Assistants but there having never been any dispute among themselves of their Places or Precedencies for they are perfect in their own Regularities and Seniorities c. it had been but expense of time and Paper to insert them and therefore according to the constant order by which they have sat anciently in the Lords House I shall treat distinctly of them so soon as I have ruin through
some few mix'd Observations 3. This great Minister of Justice was anciently made by Letters Patents with the Clause of Quam diu nobis placuerit and so it continued till about the end of Henry the Third and then and ever since he hath not been constituted by Commission or Patent as all the other Judges are but by Writ only in this form Rex c. R. F. Militi salutem Sciatis quod constituimus vos Justitiarium nostrum Capitalem ad placita coram nobis tenend'durante bene placito c. Teste c. And this Writ makes him capable of his Parliament-Writ before recited 4. The Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal as I said is admitted Chancellor or Keeper by delivery only of the Great Seal to him and taking his Oath without Patent or Writ but this Lord Chief Justice is admitted to his Office by Writ only and all the other Assistants of whom I shall speak do injoy their Offices in their respective Courts by Patent only and all of them durante bene placito except the Master of the Rolls whose Patent is durante vitâ as will be shewn 5. But neither the delivery of the Great Seal to the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper nor the aforesaid Official Writ to the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench nor the respective Patents by which the other Justices enjoy their respective Offices do intitle them to sit in the Lords House without such an especial Parliament Writ of Assistance as is shewn in the Exemplar before recited to which all the other Assisting Writs have a Consimilitude 5. This Parliament or Assisting Exemplar Writ to the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench and all the Consimilars to it mutato nomine titulo Officii agrees in all parts with the Writ to the Lord Chancellor as I have before shewn except the alteration of the words Praedilecto perquam Fideli into Dilecto Fideli which are in this and in all the Writs to the following Assistants 6. The differences between this Writ and that to the Hereditary Lords in Parliament are partly shewn in the Observations on the Lord Chancellors Writ the rest will be shewn 7. This Parliament writ diffeers but in few words from the form of the writ issued in the 15th of Edw. 2 d. from whence I take my rise nor from the Successive Writs to this time which for the satisfaction of others whereby they may see that no new form is obtruded on them I have set here down Verbatim Rex Dilecto Fideli suo Willielmo de Bereford salutem Quia super diversis arduis negotiis nos statum Regni nostri specialiter tangentibus in instante Parliamento nostro die Domincâ prox ' futur ' ante Festum sancti Laurencii prox ' futur ' fecimus summoneri vobiscum cum caeteris de Concilio nostro colloquium habere volumus tractatum vobis mandamus firmiter injungentes quod omnibus aliis pretermissis dictis die loco personaliter intersitis nobiscum cum ceteris de Consilio nostro super premissis tractatur ' vestrumque Consilium impensuri Et hoc nullatenus omittat ' Teste c. In this Writ the words after Regni nostri viz. Ecclesiae Anglicanae are omitted for the Church in those days was almost wholly manag'd by Ecclesiastick Persons who were Conversant in the Civil and Canon Laws c. but in the 26th of Henry the Eighth when the power of the Pope was here abridg'd those words Ecclesiae Anglicanae were entred and continued to this day Also after the word Vobiscum these words ac cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus are omitted but as near as I can collect some of the most eminent of the Professors of the Law as the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chief Baron c. were sometimes Summon'd by Peeral Writs that is by such Writs that were sent to the Nobles and then the words ac cum Praelatis c. as in Richard the Seconds time to Jo. Cavendish Capital'Justic ' and in Henry the Fifths time to William Hanckford and many more were inserted but when ever they were Summon'd meerly as Assistants the words cum Praelatis c. were left out and so have been ever since Edward the Fourths time 8. This Parliament Writ is directed Capitali Justitiario nostro ad placita c. and so is his Writ by which he enjoys that great Office yet his common and general appelation is Capitali Justitiario Angliae which we call Lord Chief Justice of England and sometimes Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench and by some one of those Titles he is called so in several Acts of Parliament and ancient Records as I have hinted and though the word Lord be added to his appellation both in his Assistancies and Office and so to some other of the Assistants yet neither he nor they are to be counted Lords of Parliament for his Writ by which he enjoys his Office which is the Inducement to his Assisting Writ is but durante Placito honore Officii and his Assistance being but durante Parliamento neither of them can six the Title further than the continuance of his Office or Assistance And here it may be observed that the word Vos a word of great eminency always signifying a plural though sometimes apply'd to a single Person is us'd in this Official Writ before mentioned to the this Lord Chief Justice but is not in his Parliament Writ nor in any of the Patents or Parliament-Writs to the other Justices of whom I shall speak in order 9. The antiquity of this great Minister of Justice and his Court is doubtless more ancient under various Titles than from Hen. the Thirds time from whence we vulgarly compute it for the Civilians do acknowledge that Justitiarii sunt umbrae quaedam illorum qui olim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Graecos dicebantur designati ad Custodiam Juris aequitatis However Sir Edward Coke to prove its antiquity tells us of an Epitaph in Ramsy Abby ingraven on Stone in these words Alvinus incliti Regis Edgari Cognatus totius Angliae Aldermannus saith that by Aldermannus is meant Capitalis Justitiarius Angliae and consequently his Assistance in all Councils before the name of Parliament and since that name hath always been esteem'd necessary and as he saith all these Courts of Justice are so ancient that they seem to have their Originals from Custom rather than by Commission 10. His Jurisdiction is so great as well out of Parliament as in Parliament that often times the Lords do wave their own Power and Priviledges of using their own Officers and do direct the Chief Justice to send out his single Warrant to Seize on Persons in case of Treason or Suspicion of it or for other high Crimes or Misdemeanors and the House of Commons have likewise sent to him to come to their House upon the like occasions
determin Causes yet appealable to the Lord Chancellor 5. There are other Masters of Chancery call'd Extraordinary and six Clerks of eminent Quality and other Clerks imployed both in the Chancery and Rolls but these are not Summon'd to Parliaments of whom I shall speak more but in in those capacities which I have mention'd the Master of the Rolls as Master of the Rolls or chief Clerk of the Pettibag or both or chief Master of Chancery or in all three Capacities he is very Assisting to a Parliament especially in the business of Summons c. For as I have shewn in Cap. 2. whenever the Kings Warrant is sent to the Lord Chancellor to issue out Writs for a Parliament his Lordship either sends it or a like Warrant to the Master of the Rolls who as chief Clerk of the Pettibag causeth the other Clerks of the Office to ingross all the Writs both for the House of Lords and House of Commons so as they may be fit for the Great Seal and these being thus done and fairly abstracted and ingross't into a Roll which is call'd the Parliament Pawn and lies there as a Memorial and Record of what they have done and as a President for the future all the particular Writs mention'd or intimated in that Pawn being fitted are carried to the Lord Chancellor and being in his presence Seal'd they are immediately delivered to Messengers belonging to the Chancellor who do take care to dispose some to the Persons to be Summon'd for the Lords House and others to the respective Sheriffs of all Counties and Comitated Cities for Elections of such as are to sit in the House of Commons and so the Master of the Rolls and the Clerks of the Pettibag having done all their parts and the Messengers and Sheriffs theirs the same Writs which concern the Lords House are or ought to be return'd to the Clerk of the Lords House at the first Sitting and the Writs for Elections are to be return'd by the respective Sheriffs to the Clerk of the Chancery Crown Office and not to the Pettibag as hath and will be shewn for they come no more there till some time after Dissolution of a Parliament and then for ease of that Office and more safely preserving them they are order'd to be carried to the Rolls and from thence to the Tower all which will be more fully shewn which method I often repeat in this Treatise because I find it so much neglected As to the Imployment of the other Eleven Masters of the Chancery in time of Parliament I shall shew it in a distinct Chapter This Master of the Rolls doubtless hath been anciently Summon'd to Sit in the Lords House yet I find no Writs issued to him till the 36th of Henry the Eighth and then as Master of the Rolls not as chief Master of Chancery and after that he was Summon'd to all Parliaments except the 39th of Eliz. and first of King James and in this very Parliament a Writ was prepared for him but being Elected a Member of the House of Commons his attendance was not requir'd in the House of Lords for what reason I know not but he hath his place whenever he Sits there next to the Lord Chief Justice of England upon the second Woolsack as will be shewn in the Chapter of Places The Consimilar Writ to the Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas THE Patent which invests this Chief Justice to his Imployment in this Office is in haec verba Carolus c. Omnibus ad quos Patentes Litterae nostrae pervenerint salutem Sciatis quod Constituimus dilectum fidelem Orlandum Bridgman Militem Capital'Justitiarium nostrum de Banco suo Duran ' bene placito Teste c. Observations HIS Writ of Summons to Sit in Parliament is also Capitali Justitiario nostro de Banco mutato nomine in all other words agreeing with the Exemplar and here it may be again observed to prevent vulgar misunderstandings That the Lord Chief Justice of England is Chief Justice of the Kings Bench or upper Bench and this is Chief Justice of the Common Bench and sometimes one is call'd Chief Justice of the Pleas of the Crown as in the Latin words De placitis Coronae and this Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas or Communia Placita yet in the Latin Writ it is de Banco so as both Courts are call'd Bancks or Benches and both call'd also Courts of Pleas in respect of Pleas or Pleadings one properly concerns the King in matters Criminal the other concerns the Pleas or Pleadings of the Commonalty or Common People among themselves in matters Civil and one also is call'd the Upper Bench the other the Common Bench and therefore what ever the Patent or Writs are yet for an easier distinction I here intitle one the Chief Justice of the Kings Bench the other Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas 2. As for the names Bench or Banc Pleas or Placita I refer them to my Annotations 3. The Chief Justice hath three more Justices to assist him in this Court 4. That which makes the eminency of this Court is That only the learned Serjeants of the Coife of whom I shall speak in order being the next Degree to Judges do Plead in this Court yet not prohibited from Pleading in all other Courts but all other Graduans of Law have the liberty to Plead in all other Courts but not in this 5. The Pleas of this Court cannot be so well ascertain'd as that of the Kings Bench because the Pleas held by Common Persons or between Subject and Subject are devided into as many Branches as Actions and the Actions into as many Causes as there are variety of Contests in the Kingdom yet all these Actions Causes and Contests are included under three notions Real Personal and Mixt which are here tried as they happen according to the strict Rules of Law As for Personal and Mixt Actions they are tried in other Courts but Real Actions are only Pleadable here nor are any Fines of Concord which is observable levied in any Court but this so that as Sir Edward Coke saith the Motto of this Court may be Haec est finalis Concordia 6. Upon these and other considerations the necessity of requiring Assistances from the Justices of this Court may appear For as the Justices of the Kings Bench may acquaint the Lords with what concerns the King so the Justices of the Common Pleas may most properly acquaint them with what concerns the People whereby Laws for either may be corrected repeal'd or made de novo as shall be thought most expedient 7. The Justices of this Court are not concern'd in the managing of any Summons to a Parliament as the Lord Chancellor and Master of the Rolls are Of the Consimilar Writ to the Chief Baron of the Exchequer THE Title of this is different from the two Chief Justices for his Pattent is thus Carolus c. Omnibus ad quos Patentes Litterae nostrae pervenerint Sciatis
stand fair but if divulged they are sure not only to lose the credit of the Event but double the disrepute if both be bad Herein some men are naturally of a more reserved temper than others however those are only fit to be Counsellors and Secretaries of State who have no Windows in their Breast that is no such transparent Eyes as men may easily see their disposures of Affairs but can wisely keep the Secrets of State from other mens Inspections and in Parliaments I conceive such Tempers are very useful for if the People Trust them they do well in performing their Trust but appealing again to the People shews a diffidence in their own Judgments Thus having shewn the Kings Warrant in the Front and the Secretaries Writ in the Rear and fix't the Noble Lords betwixt those who manage the Laws Divine and those who are Assistants in Human Laws and run through the most constant Writs which are us'd for Summoning such as are to fit in a Parliament either as Essential or Assisting Members thereof I should now proceed to the House of Commons but I shall crave leave First To speak of some accidentall Writs for Assistants Secondly Of the manner of return of all the aforesaid Writs Thirdly Of such as sit there without Writ or Patent Fourthly Of such as sit there only by Patent and Fifthly Of some other Officers who are imployed there by vertue of Patents CHAP. XIV Of Consimilar Writs and Patents upon Emergent occasions 1. I Find in Mr. Prins Breviary That he cites many Records long before Henry the Eighth which I shall not examine because some of them have been so long disus'd Of Knights Justices of North Wales Treasurer of Carnarvan Treasurer of the Kings House Chancellor of the Exchequer Deans Archdeacons Escheators and one Magister Thomas Yong which he takes to be a Master of Chancery that have been Summon'd by Writ to sit in Parliaments in the Lords House but since Henry the Eighth in the Pettibag several Writs of Assistants were issued as I have shewn in the 11th Chap. Sect. 9. to shew the Kings Power some of which were Professors of the Law and some not 2. There was another Writ viz. to the Warden of the Cinqueports which was not constant but occasional for sometimes it was directed to an Earl and sometimes to some one Person under the Degree of a Baron yet by vertue of the Writ he was impowr'd to sit in the Lords House but since Henry the Fourths time when that Office was supplied by the Prince of Wales after called Henry the Fifth who had a Writ with the addition of Guardian ' Quinque Portuum that Trust hath been committed to some one of the Blood Royal and from that Writ other Writs are derived to all the Cinqueports But in respect this Writ as to a Parliament is mostly concern'd about Election of 16. Members to serve in the House of Commons I shall refer the Discourse of it to the second part in that Chapter which particularly treats of the Cinqueports 3. If at any time the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper be absent upon just occasion as when the Lord Keeper Bridgman in this Parliament was Sick a Patent was made for Sir John Vaughan then Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas to supply his place and the like to Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Common Pleas also c. and though for the most part this happens in time of Parliament yet because it may happen between the time of Summons and the Sitting of a Parliament which is the chief design of this part of this Treatise I have thought fit to enter the form of that Patent in this place rather than defer it viz. CHARLES c. To Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Sir Francis North Knt. Chief Justice of Our Court of Common Pleas Greeting Whereas Our Right Trusty and Welboved Councellor Heneage Lord Finch Our Lord High Chancellor of England is often so infirm that he is not able constantly to attend in the upper House of this Our present Parliament now holden at Westminster nor there to supply the room and place in the said upper House amongst the Lords Spiritual and Temporal there Assembled as to the Office of the Lord Chancellor of England hath been accustomed We minding the same place and room to be supplied in all things as appertaineth for and during every time of his absence have named and appointed you And by these Presents do Name Constitute and Appoint and Authorize you from day to day and from time to time when and so often as the said Lord Chancellor shall happen at any time or times during this present Parliament to be absent from his accustomed place in the said upper House to Occupy Vse and Supply the said room and place of the said Lord Chancellor in the said upper House amongst the Lords Spiritual and Temporal there Assembled at every such day and time of his absence and then and there at every such time to do and execute all such things as the said Lord Chancellor of England should or might do if if he were there personally present Vsing and Supplying the same room Wherefore We Will and Command you the said Sir Francis North to attend to the doing and execution of the premisses with Effect and these Our Letters Patents shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge for the same in every respect In Witness whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patents Witness our Self at Westminster the Nineteenth day of March in the Nine and twentieth Year of our Reign Per ipsum Regem propria manu Signat And having now dispatch't all the Writs and Patents which concern the Summoning of such as sit in the Lords House it is proper to shew the manner of returning of those Writs which is usual in all Courts and ought to be strictly observed here CHAP. XV. Of Returns of Writs relating to the Summoning of such as are to Sit in the Lords House IN all Judicial Courts from whence Writs do issue there is care taken for their due Returns as may be seen in Fitz Herbert and such Authors who have treated of the nature of Writs and their Returns but none of them giving a full account of Parliament Writs and Returns gives me occasion to insert this Chapter As to the Return of the Writs to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Assistants they ought by every individual Person who had a Writ to be deliver'd to the Clerk of the Parliament before the House Sit or immediately upon their Entrance into the House at the Table and by the said Clerk they are to be kept with the Records of that House By the omission of this method many inconveniencies have and may happen to their Successors or Posterity and therefore it is wisht there were more care taken in their due Returns to which they may be incourag'd being of so little trouble in the performance But as to the