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A36228
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The antiquity and power of parliaments in England written by Mr. Justice Doddridge and several other learned antiquaries.
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Doddridge, John, Sir, 1555-1628.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing D1791; ESTC R13105
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30,734
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146
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admitting the former general Assemblies of the States but permitting onely Provincial-Synods of the Clergy for compounding of the Ecclesiastical causes where nevertheless they sate as Presidents and the Conquerour himself did not challenge to himself so absolute a conquest but the Laws that he made have this Title Hic Intimatur quod Gulielmus Rex cum principibus suit Constitutam And in giving Laws to this Nation fecit summoniri per universos Consultatus Angliae Anglos nobiles sapientes sua lege eruditos ut eorum jura Consuetudines ab ipsis Archiepiscopis Episcopis audiret And often doth he and his Son William call together Archiepiscopos Episcopos Abbates Comites Barones Vicecomites cum suis Militibus ad Consulendum And likewise oftentimes afterwards until the time of Henry first we find that there was Conventus Episcoporum Abbatum Procerum Regni Londini in Palatio Regis VVherefore Polydore Virgil and Paladine are much deceived if they thought that Henry the first held the first Parliament within this Realm Neither do they seem to be of that Opinion their words being that Regis ante tempora Henrici primi non Consue verunt populi conventum Consultandi causa nisi pro raro facere Therefore they might hold some though not so often as did their successors or agreeing with the Manuscript of Canterbury that the first Parliament wherein the Commons were called aswel as the Peeres and Nobles was 16 H. 1. For it is true that after the Conquest until this time the Commons were not called and so at this time they will have it first called by the name of a Parliament Indeed if the policy of the time be noted that may yeeld some difference The Conqueror and his Son William being strangers had no way to make permanent their victory but by adding other Laws and plucking up the old Roots of Families they found and to plant them in themselves as in new grounds So for that age it was their Wisdome to Rule and not to advise with the people But Henry the first a new bud of the old stock being a natural Englishman himself born at Selly in Lincolnshire in love of the English Nation by whom he sought his strength The Normans at that time standing at terms of revolt from him in savour of his Brother Robert Duke of Normandy he well understanding the love of his people called them to those great Counsels and setling the Authority of his Court of Parliament so established his Throne that neither Britaine Dane nor Saxon could ever after till this day disturbe either him or his posterity from the possession of this Land The making of his Laws were by Act of Parliament The Marriage of his Daughter Mawde and the entayling of the Crown to her were done by Act of Parliament The accord between Stephen and him was made by Parliament And consequently all the succeeding Kings since have ever concluded grandia Regni onely in the Parliament Yet all the times since have not kept the said Form of the Assembling of the three Estates for sometimes the Principal of the Nobility were onely called and they at the end of the Parliament were to impart to the other Barons and their Country what was done in the Parliament Afterwards King John ordained that all the Barons of England should come in their proper persons to the Parliament being Summoned 20 Knights Fees after 20 l. a Fee going to the value of an entire County 15 Knights Fees making an entire Baron by which they sate But King H. 3. after that he had smarted by the tumultuation of the Barons their multitudes bringing confusion ordained that those Earles and Barons onely to whom he directed his Writs should come unto the Parliament and none else And this which Hen. 3. began his son Edw. 1. the Founder of our civil estate calling the Barons and appointing the Knights and Burgesses to be elected and of the Barons selected the wisest and such as pleased him and did omit them and their children which did not equal them and their parents in wisdom and vertue so held it on until the time of Edward the Third there being a Writ then in use de Admittendo fide dignas ad Colloquium Some also at that time being called as William Earl of Nottingham to attend upon the King with one hundred and twenty men at armes Lawrence de Hastings Earl of Pembrook with fifty men at armes and William Clinton Earl of Huntington with sixty men at armes and so divers others The calling was with distinction The Bishops and Barons de Negotiis tractaturum Consilium impensuri The Knights and Burgesses ad faciendum Consentiendum Those times had certain Ordinances besides Estatutes for whatsoever the Lords and Commons agreed upon was presently an Ordinance and whatsoever the King gave his Royal Assent unto it then became an Estatute But if after the Parliament the King did Assent unto any Ordinance it then became an Estatute for the Kings answer is no more but le Roy le veult ou le Roy se avisera And before the Printing of Acts was used they were always engrossed and sealed with the great Seal of England and proclaimed in every Shire which use was continued from the time of H. 3. until H. 7. his days and the form was thus The King by the advice of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal at the special instance of the Commons Assembled in Parliament hath made and established these Ordinances and Statutes to the honor of God the good of the King and Realm In which words you may observe a summary of this great Counsel First the Persons the three Estates Secondly the Ends for which the Parliament was called viz. for the honour of God c. Thirdly the Means by Counsel and consent Each duty of the three degrees is insinuated in these three things viz. Request of the Commons Advise of the Lords and Establishment of the King The first expressing the suitours for the Royal Assent is never prayed by the Lords but by the Speaker the Mouth of the Commons The second distinguishing the house The King hearing the causes debated onely by the Lords The third intimating that no Bill receiveth life until the Royal Assent be given So by looking back it is easie to see the great Antiquity of this high Court delivered as you see from before the Romans but never so dignified as since Queen Elizabeths time Now for the Nature of a Parliament it is Consilium and it is Curia the power of it in matters hereditary and personal the proceedings of it in causes criminal and civil the priviledges of it sedentibus servientibus The Offices Officers and Order we leave to a further discourse thus much onely touching the Antiquity of Parliaments in England Temps Edw. le Confessor le sommons doit estre 40. Jours devant le session THe Summons of the Clergy Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots and Priours that hold
Idem Constitutionem pro Institutione ponit ut inuit haec non instituta fuisse suo proprio Arbitrio sed multorum Consilio And the said King Canutus in the Preamble of his said Laws sheweth that he decreed his said Laws in this manner Convocato itaque Comitum Procerumque Conventu ut Episcoporum Abbatum caeterorum Nobilium nec non caeteris nobilitatis sapientiaeque totius Angliae Consilio satagebat communi decreto ut in quantum humana ratio valuit ea quae justa fuerant stabiliret c. And in the said Preamble is set down that before his time Synodes or Assemblies for the Commonwealth were very rare saving Ecclesiasticae institutiones synodorumque conventus apud Anglos Inusitati adhuc fuerunt And the reason I suppose was that before Canutus the Realm was governed by sundry Kings but he having conquered them all and reduced them into one Monarchie alleadgeth in his Preamble Sicut sub uno Rege ita una lege Universum Angliae Regnum regeretur so as I conclude in this point that before Canutus there were no Parliaments in England the reason I have shewed before which was the diversity and continual interwar between the Heptarchy by him reduced to a Monarchy Since his time I find that Edward the Confessor in his Charter made to Westminster-Abbey did seal and signe the same at a Parliament for thus he saith Hant Igitur donationis libertatis chartam in Die dedicationis praedictae Ecclesiae recitari jussi Coram Episcopis Abbatibus Comitibus omnibus optimatibus Angliae omni populo audiente vidente where note these words Omnibus optimatibus Angliae and omni populi audiente vidente which cannot be but in a general Assembly by Summons and that is proved by the number and diversity of the witnesses being Bishops Abbots Knights Chancellors Kings Chaplains Dukes Earles Ministri Milites c. And William the Conqueror in his Charter of the Ratification of the liberties of that Church after he hath subscribed the cross with his name and besides him a great number of others of the Clergy and Nobility in stead of Cummultis aliis hath these words Multis praeterea illustrissimis virorum personis Regum principibus diversi ordinis omissis qui similiter huic Confirmationi piissimo affectuâ— testes fautores fuerunt Hii etiam illo tempore a Regia potestate e diversis provinciis urbibus ad Universalem Synodum pro causis Cujuslibet Sanctae Ecclesiae audiendis tractandis ad praescriptum celiberrimum Caenobium quod Westmonasterium dicitur Convocati c. And in another Charter of his to the said Abbey are these words Anno Incarnationis Dom. 1081. regni etiam praenonominati gloriosi Regis Willielmi iv Convenientibus in unum cunctis primis primatibus in nativitate D.N. I. C. I read not in Rufus time of any Parliament But it appeareth in the Red Book of the Exchequet that H. 1. before the Constitution or making of his Laws setteth down Quae Communi Consilio assensu Baronum Regni Angliae c. And then proceedeth Omnes malas consuetudines quibus Regnum Angliae opprimebatur inde aufero quas ex parte suppono Testibus Archiepiscopis Episcopis Baronibus Comitibus Vicecomitibus optimatibus Regni Angliae apud Westimonaster ' quando Coronatus fui The marriage of his daugter Mawde and the entayling of the Crown to her and her heirs was done by Parliament the Accord also between him and Stephen was done by Parliament and so consequently all matters of Importance were done and concluded in Parliament and of such force is an Act of Parliament here in the governance of the State of the Realm as it is deemed as an Oracle from Heaven and resteth onely in the Kings and Queens power to qualifie and mitigate the severity thereof And thus much of the Antiquity I leave to others to discourse of the manner how they that are to treat therein are to be called and of their priviledges and so I end AGAR Of the Antiquity of Parliaments THe diligent observers of the Antiquities of this Realm do very well know that Acts of Parliament are of so high a nature that they do not onely tie the Inheritance of every man but what is there ordained every subject of the Land is bound to take notice of at his peril and because no man that should desire to inform himself therein should be ignorant what was done in Parliament as now we use printing of the Acts so before printing all the Ordinances affirmed by royal assent were recorded and then published under the great Seal of England with a general preface and proclaimed in every Shire this you may see continued from the time of H. 3. till about H. 7. his days and ordinarily the form was thus The King such a day and such a place as at Westminster the 20 day of April in the second year of the raign of King H. 6. by the advice of his Lords spiritual and temporal and at the special instance and request of the Commons Assembled in Parliament hath made and established these Ordinances Acts and Statutes to the honour of God the good of the King and Realm in form following and then sets forth every Act in particular Chapters Here you may see the persons assembled the end of their meeting and the means to make it effectual the persons which meet at the Parliament are the three Estates of the Realm first the King Secondly the Nobles spiritual and temporal Thirdly the Commons of the Land The end of the meeting is to do something to Gods glory the Kings good and the benefit of the whole Land and the means to effect the same is by consultation and consent The particular duty of each of these three seems to be insinuated in these words first the request of Commons secondly the advice of the Lords thirdly the establishment of the King the Commons being most in number and such as live in all the parts and places of the Land are like to have most and best notice of such things as are most likely and meet to be provided for and being weak in power and most subject to feel such inconveniences as greatness may lay upon them and therefore are fittest either first to lay open their griefs and pray Reformation or though they be not able at the first with Judgment to foresee ensuing dangers yet the same being once proposed and instantly apprehended they may with instance importune allowance of such Laws as may turn to their good and our own experience teacheth us that the Royal Assent is never prayed by the Lords but by the Speaker who is the mouth of the Commons In the presence of a prince a common person will scarce have the audacity to speak but when necessity maketh him crave help and therefore 't is properly said That the King advised with the Lords because he heareth the