The Power OF THE LORDS and COMMONS IN PARLIAMENT In point of JUDICATURE briefly discoursed. At the Request of a Worthy Member of the House of Commons.  
SIR,  
TO give you a short an account of your Desires as I can; I must crave leave to lay you, as a Foundation, the Frame or First Model of this State.  
When, after the Period of the Saxon Time, Harald had advanced himself into the Royal Seat; the Great men, (to whom but lately he was no more than Equal either in Fortune or Power) disdaining this Act of Arrogancy and Ambition, called in William Duke of Normandy, (the most Active Prince of any in these Western Parts, and renowned for the Victories that he had successfully Achieved against the French King, than the most Potent Monarch in Europe.)  
This Duke led along with him to this work of Glory many of the Younger Sons of the best Families of Normandy, Picardy and Flanders; who, as Volunteers, accompanied the undertaking of this Fortunate Man.  
The Usurper being Slain, and the Crown, by War, gained; to ●●cure Certain to his Posterity what he had so Suddenly gotten, he shared out his Purchase retaining in Each County a Portion, to support the Sovereign Dignity, which was styled Demenia Regni; (now the Ancient Demesnes) and assigning to others his Adventures such Proportions, as engaged to himself the Dependency of their Personal Service (such Lands only ezcepted, as in Free Alms, were allotted to the Church) These were termed Barones Regis or the King's Immediate Freeholders'; for the word Baro imported then no more.  
As the King to These, so These to their Followers, Subdivided part of their Shares into Knights-Fees, and their Tenants were called, Barones Comitis, or the like; for we find, as in the King's Writ, so in Theirs, Baronibus suis all Francois & Anglois, to their Barons, as well French as English; the Royal Gifts, for the most part, extending to whole Counties or Hundreds; an Earl being Lord of the One, and a Baron of the Inferior Donations to Lords of Townships or Manors.  
And as the Land, so was also the Course of Judicature divided, even from the Meanest to the Highest Portion; each Several had his Court of Law, preserving still the Custom of our Ancestors the Saxons, who jura per Pagos reddebant, distributed Justice throughout each Village: And these were termed Court Barons, or the Freeholders' Court, (twelve usually in number) who with the Thame, or Chief Lord, were Judges.  
The Hundred-Court was next, where the Hundredus, or Aldermanus (Lord of the Hundred) with the chief Lord of each Township within their Limits, judged. God's People observed This Form; in the Public Centureonis & Decam Judicabant Plebem omni tempore. Hundreds and Decennaties administering Justice to the People at all times.  
The County-Court, or Generale Placitum, was the next; This was to supply the Defect, or remedy the Corruption of the Inferior: For Vbi Curioe Dominorum probantur defecisse, pertinet ad Vice Comitem Provinciarum; where the Hundred-Court was found Defective, matters were referred to the Lord of the County, The Judges here were Comites & Barones Comitatus, qui Liberas, in hoc, Terras habeant; Earls and Barons of the County, that were Freeholders' in the same.  
The last and Supreme Court, and proper to our Question; was Generale Placitum apud London, the General Council at London; Vniversalis Synodus, the Universal Synod, in Charters of the Conqueror, Capitalis Curiae, the Capital Court; by Glanvil, Magnum & Commune Concilium coram Rege, & Magnatibus suis; the Great and Common Council before the King and his Nobles.  
In the Rolls of Henry the Third, It is not Stative, but summoned by Proclamation. Edicitur Generale Placitum apud London (says the Book of Abingdon) whither Deuces, Principes, Satrapae, Rectores, & Causidici ex omni parte conftuxerunt ad istam Curiam, saith Glanvil, the General Assembly was called at London; whether Dukes, Princes, Peers, Rectors, and Lawyers resorted from all Quarters: And Causes were referred propter aliquam dubitationem quoe emergit in Comitatu cum Comitatus nescit dijudicare; upon any Question or Difficulty which the County Court was not able to solve. Thus did Ethelweld, Bishop of Winchester, transfer his Suit against Le ostine from the County ad Generale Placitum, or the General Assembly: In the time of King Etheldred, Queen Edgine against Goda, from the County appealed to King Etheldred at London, Congregatis Principibus & Sapientibus Angliae; where the Princes and Wise Men of the Land were met together. A Suit between the Bishops of Winchester and Durham, in the time of S. Edward, Coram Episcopis & Princibus Regni in praesentia Regis ventilata & finita; was handled and determined by the Bishops and Princes of the Realm in the presence of the King. In the 10th year of the Conqueror, Episcopi, Comites & Barones Regni potestate adversis Provinciis, ad Vniversalem Synodum, pro causis audiendis & tractandis, convocati; the Bishop, Earls and Barons of the Realm, etc. being assembled at the Universal Council to hear and determine Controversies, (says the Book of Westminster.) And This continued all along in the succeeding Kings Reign, until toward the end of Henry the Third.  
AS this Great Court or Council, (consisting of the King and Barons) ruled the important Affairs of State, and controlled all Inferior Courts; so were there certain Officers, whose transcendent Power seemed to be set for the circumscribing the Execution of the Pinces' will; as the Steward, Constable, and Marshal, fixed upon Families in Fee, for many Ages. They (as Tribunes of the People, or Ephori among the Lacedæmonians) growing by unmanly Courage terrible to Monarchy, fell at the feet and mercy of the King, when the daring Earl of Leicester was slain at Ev●sham.  
This Chance, and the dear Experience H. the Third himself had made at the Parliament at Oxford, in the fortieth year of his Reign; together with the Memory of the many straits his Father was driven unto, especially at Rumny-Mead near Stanes; brought this King to begin what his Successors fortunately finished; in lessening the Strength and Power of his Great Lords. And this was effected by searching into the Regality they had usurped over their peculiar Sovereigns, whereby they were found to be (as the Book of St. Alban termeth them) quot Domini, tot Tyranni, how many Lords, so many Tyrants; and by weakening that Influence and Sway which they carried in the Parliaments, by commanding the Service of many Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, to the Great Council.  
Now began the frequent sending of Writs to the Commons; Their assent not only used in Money, Charge, and making Laws, (for, before, all Ordinances passed by the King and Peers) by their Consent also in Judgements of all Qualities whither Civil or Criminal. In proof whereof I will produce some sew succeeding Precedents out of Record.  
When Adamor (that proud Prelate of Winchester, 
Lib. S. Alban. f l. 20. 7. An. 44. H. 3.  the King's Half Brother) had aggrieved the State by his formidable Insolence; he was banished by the joint sentence of the King, the Lords, and Commons. And this appeareth expressly, by the Letter sent to Pope Alexander the Fourth. who expostulated a Revocation of him from Exile because he was a Churchman, and so not Subject to any Censure: In This the answer is Si Dominus Rex aut Majores Regni hoc vellent (meaning his Revocation) Communitas tamen, Ipsius Ingressum in Angliam jam Nullatenus sustineret; though the King and Lords should consent to his Revocation, yet would the Commons never allow of it. The Peers Subscribe this Answer with their Names, and Petrus de Mountford vice Totius Communitatis, as Speaker, or Proctor of the Commons.  
For by that Style Sir John Tiptoft (Prolocutor) affirmeth under his Arms the Deed of Entail of the Crowns by King Hen. the fourth, 
Charta Orig. sub Sigil. An. 8. H. 4.  in the eighth year of his Reign, for all the Commons.  
The Banishment of the two Spencers in the fifteenth of Edw. 2d. Prelates, Comites, & Barones, & les autres Peeres de la Terre, & Communes de Royalme, the Prelates, Earls, and Barons, and the rest of the Peers of the Realm, and Commons of the Land, do give Consent and Sentence to the Revocation and Reversement of the Former Sentence; the Lords and Commons accord; and so it is expressed in the Roll.  
In the first of Edw. the 3d. when Elizabeth the Widow of Sir John de Burgo, complained in Parliament, 
Rot. parl. 15. Ed. 3, vel. 2,  that Hugh Spencer the Younger, Robert Boldock, and William cliff, his Instruments had by Duresse forced her to make a Writing to the King, whereby she was despoiled of all her Inheritance; Sentence is given for her in these words; Pur ceo que avis est all Rvesques, Counts, & Barons, & autres Grandes, & a tout Cominalte de la Terre, que le discript est fait contre Ley & tout manere de Raison, si faist le dit Escript per agard del Parliament dampue alloquens all liure a la dit Elixabeth, Forasmuch as it appeareth unto the Bishops, Earls, and Barons, and all the Comonalty of the Land, that the said Writing was made against all Law and Reason, it is adjudged by parliament, etc.  
In An 4 Ed. 3 it appeareth by a Letter to the Pope that to the Sentence given against the Earl of Kent the Commons were Parties as will as the Lords and Peers for the King directed their Porceding in these words Comitibus Eagnatibus Baronibus & aliis de Communitate dicti Regni ad parliementum illud congregatis injunximus ut super his discernerent & judicarent quod Rationi & justitioe conveniret habere proe Oculis solum Deum qui eum concordi unanimi sententia tanquam Reum criminis lo so Majestatis mori adjudicarent ejus sententia etc. 
Prela. Parliam. 1. Ed. 3. Rot. 11.  We have commanded the Earls Peers Barons and others of the Commonalty of the said Realm assembled in Parliament to determine in this matter according to Reason and Justice having only God before their Eyes; and by an unanimous consent they have sentenced him to death as guilty of High Treason  
When in the 50th year of Ed. 3. the Lords had pronounced the Sentence against Richard Lions otherwise than the Commons agreed, 
Parl. An. 5. Edw. 3.  they appealed to the King, and had Redress, and the Sentence entered to their Desires.  
When, in the first Year of Richard the Second, William Weston, and John Jennings, were Arraigned in Parliament for surrendering certain Forts of the King's; the Commons were Parties to the Sentence against them given, 
Parl. An. 1. Rich. 2.11.3.8. & 3.5.  as appeareth by a Memorandum annexed to that Record, In the first of Hen. the Fourth, although the Commons refer, by Protestation, the pronouncing of the Sentence of Deposition against King Richard the Second unto the Lords; yet are they equally Interressed in it; as appeareth by the Record: For there are made Proctors, or Commissioners, for the whole Parliament, one Bishop, one Abbot, one Earl, one Baron, and two Knights! Grace and Erpinghan) for the Commons. And to infer that because the Lords pronounced the Sentence, the point of Judgement should be only Theirs, were as absurd, as to conclude that no Authority was vested in any other Commissioner of Oyer and Terminer, than in the Person of that Man only that speaketh the Sentence.  
In the 2d. of Hen. 5. The Petition of the Commons importeth no less than a Right they had to Act and Assent to all things in Parliament; and so it is answered by the King. And had not the adjourned-Roll of the Higher-House been left to the sole Entry of the Clerk of the upper-house, (who, either out of neglect to observe due Form, or on set purpose to obscure the Commons Right, and to flatter the Power of those who he immediately served, omitted them,) there would have been frequent Examples of all Times to clear this doubt, and to preserve a just Interest to the Commonwealth. And how conveniently it suits with Monarchy to maintain This Form, lest others of that well-framed Body knit under one Head, should swell too great and Monstrous, may be seen with half an Eye; it being (in my Opinion) at least equally Liable to suffer a fresh under an Aristocracy, as a Democracy,  
SIR, I am Your most humble Servant. H. S.  
FINIS.