THE PRIVILEGES Of the House of COMMONS IN PARLIAMENT Assembled.  
Wherein 'tis proved their Power is equal with that of the House of Lords, if not greater, though the King join with the Lords.  
However it appears that both the Houses have a Power above the King, if He Vote contrary to them.  
All which is proved by several Precedents taken out of Parliament Rolls in the TOWER.  
By P. B. Gentleman.  
Decemb 31 London, Printed for J. R. 1642.   

 Tudor rose  French fleur-de-lis  Scottish thistle  
The Privileges of the House OF COMMONS IN PARLIAMENT.  
WHen after the period of the Saxon time, Harold had lifted himself into the Royal Seat; the great men to whom but lately he was no more than equal, either in fortune or power, disdaining that Act of Arrogancy, called in William then Duke of Normandy, a Prince more active than any in these Western-parts, and renowned for many Victories, he had most fortunately 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 Flaunders, who as undertakers, accompanied the undertaking of this fortunate man.  
The Usurper was slain, and the Crown by this Duke was gained; and to secure certain to his posterity, what he had so suddenly gotten, he shared out his purchase, retaining in each County a portion to support the Dignity, Sovereign, which was styled Demenia Regni; and assigning to the rest of his Adventures, such portions as suited to their quality and expense, he retained to himself, dependency of their personal service, except such Lands as in free Alms were the portion of the Church; and these were styled Barones Regis, the King's immediate Freeholders, for the word Baro imported then no more.  
Now as the King to these, so these to their followers, subdivided part of their shares into Knights Fees, and their Tenants were called Barones C●mites, for we (as in the King's Writs) in their writs, Baronibus suis & Francois & Anglois, the Sovereign 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 all course of Judicature divided, even from the meanest, to the highest portion, each several had his Court of Law; preferring still the manner of our Ancestors, the Saxons, who jura per pages reddebant; and these are still termed Court-Barons, or the Freeholders-Court, twelve usually in number; who with the Thame or chief Lord were Judges.  
The Hundred that was next, where the Hundredus or Aldermanus, Lord of the Hundred, with the chief Lord of each Township within their Limits were Judges.  
The County or generale placitum was the next, This was to supply the defect or remedy, the corruption of the inferior Courts. Vbi curiae Dominorum probantur defecisse, pertinet ad vicecomitem provinciarum; and the Judges here were Comites, Vicecomites, & Barones Comitatus quiliberas terras habebant.  
The last and supreme (and upon which I am to treat) was generale placitum apud London, Vniversalis Synodus in the Charters of the Conqueror, Capitalis curia by Glanvile, or magnum & commune consilium coram rege & magnatibus suis.  
In the Rolls of Henry the third, It is not Stative but summoned by Proclamation, Edicitur generale placitum apud London, (saith the Book of Abingdon) whether Epium Duces principes, Satrapae rectores, & causidici ex omni parte confluxerunt ad istam curiam, saith Glanvile. Causes were referred, propter aliquam dubitationem quae emergit in Comitatu, cum Comitatus nescit dijudicare. Thus did Ethelweld Bishop of Winchester, transfer his suit against Leostine from the County, ad generale placitum; In the time of King Etheldred, Queen Edoine against Goda from the County, appealed to King Etheldred at London, Congregatis principibus & Angliae sapientibus, In the tenth year of the Conqueror, Episcopi, Comites, & Barones Regni ad Vniversal●m Synodum pro causis audiendis & tractandis convocati, faith the Book of Westminster; and this continued all along in the succeeding Kings reign, until towards the end of Henry the third.  
As this great Court or Council, consisting of the King and Barons, ruled the great affairs of State, and controlled all inferior Courts: So were there certain Officers, whose transcendent Power seemed to be set to bound in the execution of Prince's Wills, as the Steward, Constable, and Marshal, fixed upon Families in Fee for many Ages; They as Tribunes of the people, (or ex plorin among the Atherians) grown by unmanly courage, fearful to Monarchy, fell at the feet and mercy of the King, when the daring Earl of Leicester was slain at Evesham.  
This chance, and the dear experience, Henry the third himself had made at the Parliament at Oxford, in the fortieth year of his reign, and the memory of the many straits his Father was driven unto (especially at Rumny-Mead near Stanes) brought this King wisely to begin what his Successor fortunately finished in lessening the strength and power of his great Lords; and this was wrought by searching into the Regality they had usurped over their peculiar Sovereign, whereby they were as the Book of Saint Alban● termeth them, Quot domini tot tiranni; and by the weakening that hand of Power which they carried in the Parliaments, by commanding the Service of many Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, to that Magnum consilium, or generale placitum, which we still call Parliament.  
Now began the frequent sending of Writs to the Commons, their assent being used not only in Money, Charge, and making of Laws, (for before all Ordinances were passed by the King and Peers) but their consent is likewise used in all Judgements of all Natures, either Civil or Criminal: In proof whereof, I will produce some few precedents out of Record.  
When Adamor that proud Prelate of Winchester, the King's half Brother, had grieved the State by his daring Power, he was exiled by joint sentence of the King, the Lords and Commons; and this appears expressly by the Letter sent from Pope Alexander the fourth, Expostulating a Revocation of him from banishment, because he was a Churchman, and so not subject to any censure; to this the answer was, Si dominus Rex & regni Majores hoc vellint (meaning his Revocation) Communitas tamen ipsius ingressum in Angliam nullatenus sustincret. The Peers subsigned this answer with their names; and Petrus de Mountford vice totius communitatis, as Speaker of the Commons. Lib. S. Alban. fol. 20. Anno 44. H. 3.  
And by that style, Sir John Tiptofe, Prolocutor, affirmeth under his Arms, the deed of entail of the Crown by King Henry 4. in the 8. year of his reign for all the Commons.  
The banishment of the two Spencers in Edward the seconds time, praelati Comites & Barones & les auters Peers de la terre & Communes de be Roialme, give consent and sentence to the Revocation and Reversment of the former sentence; The Lords and Commons accord, and so it is expressed in the Roll.  
When Elizabeth the Widow of Sir John de Burgo complained in Parliament, that Hugh Spencer the younger, Robert Boldock, and William Clift 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 Evesques Counts & Barones & les auters grandes, & a tout Cominalte de la terre que le dit escript est suit encounter le ley, & tout manner de raison si suist le dit escript per agard del Parliament damn elloques all liure a le dit Elizab.  
In Anno the fourth of Edward the third, Prarl. Prim. rot. 11. It appears by a Letter to the Pope, That to the sentence given against the Earl of Kent, the Commons were Parties, as well as the Lords, or Peers; for the King directed their proceeding in these words; Comitibus Magnatibus Baronibus & alliis de Communitate dicti regni ad Parliamentum illud congregatis injunximus ut super his discercerent & judicarent quod rationi & justitiae conveniret, & haberent pro oculis solum deum qui eum concordi, etc.  
When in the fortieth year of Edward the third, the Lords had pronounced the sentence against Richard Lions, otherwise then the Commons agreed to. The Commons appealed to the King himself, and had redress, and the sentence entered to their desires; Yet this does not prove that the King's Power is so fare beyond the Parliaments, as that he can do what he will, notwithstanding them.  
When in the first year of Richard the second, William Weston, and John Jennings, were arraigned in Parliament, for surrendering certain Forts of the Kings; the Commons were parties to the sentence given against them as appears by a Memorandum annexed to that Record.  
In the first of Henry the fourth, Although the Commons referred by Protestation, the pronouncing of sentence of deposition against Richard the second, unto the Lords; yet they are equally interressed in it, as it appears by the Record. For there was made Proctors or Commissioners for the whole Parliament, one B. one Abbot, one Earl, one Baron, and two Knights, Grey and Erpingham, for the Commons; and to infer, that because the Lords pronounced the sentence, the point of judgement should be only theirs, wer● as absurd as to conclude, That no authority was left in any other Commissioner of Oyer and Terminor, then in the Person of that man solely that speaks the sentence.  
In the second of Henry the fifth, 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 was answered by the King; and had not the adjournall Roll of the higher House been left to ●he sole entry of the Clerk of that House (who either out of his neglect to observe due form, or out of purpose to obscure the Commons right, and to flatter them, which he immediately served) there would have been frequent examples of all times to clear this doubt, and to preserve a just interest to the Commonwealth; and most conveniently doth it suit with Monarchy to maintain this form, lest others of that well framed body, knit under one head should swell too great and monstrous: Monarchy again may sooner groan under the weight of an Aristocracy as it once did, then under Democracy, which it never yet either felt or feared.  
FINIS.