the barons in their courts, as with the king in the fupreme council of the nation: change only a fingle name, in the place of baron fubftitute king, and you behold a parliament in its first rudiments, and observe the first exertion of those powers, which its members now poffefs as judges and legiflators, and difpenfers of the public revenues. Agreeable to this idea are the appellations of the king's courts, by which parliaments were anciently distinguished; and fuitable to this likewife were the constituent members, of which it was compofed. The vaffals, in all feudal kingdoms, were bound to pay fuit and service at the court of their baron; and the barons, who held immediately of the crown by military tenure, were bound by the condition of their tenure, and owed the fame as a service at the court of the king. When the king found it neceffary to demand any fervice of his barons or chief tenants, beyond what was due by their tenure, he affembled them, to make his will known unto them; and when it was neceffary at

any

any time to determine any controverfy among themselves, he called them together, and had the matter difcuffed in their prefence: feldom any momentous affair was tranfacted without their advice. Though the king had the fupreme legiflative power lodged in his own hands, and could, with or without his great council, determine all matters, we do not find, till king John's time, that he was obliged to confult his great council; yet for his own convenience, and for the more effectual execution of his orders, he fummoned the barons and great men. Indeed, the magna charta of king John provides, that no tax or fcutage fhall be impofed, but by the confent of the great council; and, for more fecurity, it enumerates the perfons entitled to a feat in that council, the prelates and inmediate tenants of the crown, without the fmallest mention of the commons. The bishops, abbots, and greater ecclefiaftics, who held poffeffions immediately of the crown, were deemed fubject to the burthen of attending the king's fummons.

The

The prelates fate by a double title: by prescription, as having always poffeffed that privilege, through the whole Saxon period, from the firft establishment of Christianity; and by their right of baronage, as holding of the king in capite by military service. These two titles of the prelates were never accurately diftinguished. When the ufurpations of the church had risen to fuch a height, as to make the bishops affect a separate dominion, and regard their feat in parliament as a degradation of their epifcopal dignity, the king infifted that they were barons, and on that account obliged, by the general principles of the feudal law, to attend him in his great council.

When William the Conqueror invaded England, he found that the clergy had entirely thrown off their dependance on the civil magiftrate; but he brought them again into fubjection by their baronies to the fame feudal fervices with the other barons, and even fet the Pope himself at defiance; for which they confidered him

as

as the wickedeft of all tyrants. The bifhops and abbots, when required, were obliged to furnish the king, in time of war, with a number of knights or military men, proportioned to the extent of property poffeffed by each fee or abby; and, in case of failure, he made them liable to the fame penalties, which were enacted from the laity.

Parliamentary meetings had their beginning from this cuftom. The great barons generally made a vifit at court, to pay their duty to the king, on the three great feftivals of Christmas, Eafter, and Whitfuntide, more as a compliment to his majefty, as the ceremony of the coronation was at these times repeated, than for any other reason; and thofe, who did not voluntarily attend, the king, for the fplendor of the ceremony, convened by fummons. When the feafting was over, they often used to affemble in a parliamentary way, to confider any business that wanted to be dispatched. Poft natale Domini, in fefto converfionis Sancti Pauli, venit dominus

rex, pater, ufque Nottingham, & ibi celebravit magnum concilium de ftatutis regni, & coram rege, filio fuo, & coram archiepifcopis, epifcopis, comitibus, & baronibus regni fui, communi omnium concilio. After Christmas, in the feaft of the converfion of St. Paul, king Henry the father came to Nottingham, or Northampton, and held a great council there, concerning the ftatutes of his kingdom, before the king, his fon, and before the archbishops, bifhops, earls, and barons of his kingdom. (Hoved. fol. 313. a. n. 50.)

Befides thefe grand feftivals, the king, at other times, on any fudden emergency, when the affairs of the nation required the advice of the great men, or when he had a mind to have a fplendid appearance at court, was accustomed to call them together. And this cuftom continued after the Norman conqueft, till the reign of Henry II. from that time till the reign of Edward III. it was by degrees laid afide, at laft entirely difcontinued, except upon preffing occafions. As the king had a