SInce of these Assemblies few Dieries or ex­act Journall Books are remaining, and those but of late, and negligently entered, the Acts and Ordinances onely reported to posterity are the Rolls.

This Question (though cleer) in generall rea­son and convenience must be wrought out of such incident proofs, as the monument of story and Re­cords by pieces learne us: and to deduce it the cleerer down, some essentiall circumstances of name, time, place, occasion, and person must be in generall shortly touched, before the force of particular proofs be layd down.

This Noble body of the State (now called the Houses of Parliament) is knowne in severall ages by severall names.

Concilia, Ex concilliis Reg: Saxon: Cantuar the Councells in the eldest times, af­terwards, Magnum, Commune & generale Concillium, Curia magna capitalis & curia Regis, sometimes, ge­nerale placitum, Glanvile▪ and sometimes Synodus, and Syno­dalia decreta, Leges Ethel­dredi Regis: although aswell the causes of the Common-wealth as Church were there decided.

The Name of Parliament (except in the Ab­botts Chapters) was never heard of unto the Raign of King John, Ingulphus Croylanden: and then but rarely.

At the Kings Court those Conventions were usually,Regist: Mo­naster and the presence, Privy-chamber, and o­ther Rooms convenient for the Kings in former times (as now) then used; for what is the pre­sent House of Lords but so at this day, and was before the firing of the Palace at Westminster, a­bout 17. Hen. 8, who then and there recided.

Improbable it is to believe the King excluded his own presence, and unmannerly it is for guests to barre him their company, who gave to them their intertainment.

It was at first (as now) Edicto principis, at the Kings pleasure, Regist: Elense.

Towards the end of the Saxon, Amnles Mon and in the first time of the Norman King, it stood in Custome­grace, in Easter, Witsuntide, and Christma, fixed, the Bishops, Earls, and Lords (ex more) then assem­bled, so are the frequent words in all the Annalls;Lib: de bello: the Kings of course vested with his Imperiall Crown by the Bishop, and the Peers assembling, in Recognition of their obliged faith;Regist: Wig▪ present duty, [Page 5]and service, untill the unsafe time of King John, (by over potent and popular Lords) gave discoun­tenance to this constant grace of Kings; and then it returned to the uncertaine pleasure of the So­veraigne summons.

The causes then (as now of such Assemblies, were provision for the support of the State;Mat: Paris: or men and money, and well ordering of the Church and Common-wealth, and determining of such Causes which ordinary Courts nesciebunt judicare (as Glanvill the grand Judge under Hen. 2. saith) where the Presence of the King was still required, it being otherwise absurd, to make the King assent to the judgement of Parliament, and afford him no part of the consultation.

The necessities hereof is well and fully deduct­ed unto us in a reverend monument, not farre from that grave mans time, in these words, Rex tenetur omn mido personal ter interesse Parliamento, nisi per corporalem aegritudinem detineatur; and then to ac­quaint the Parliament of such occasion by severall Members of either House, Causa est, quod solebat clamor & rumor esse pro absentia Regis, quia res dam­nosa & periculosa est toti communitati, Parliamen­to & Regno, cum Rex a Parliamento absens fuerit, nec se absentare debet, nec potest, nisi duntaxat in causâ supra­dictâ.

By this appears the desire of the State to have the Kings presence in these great Councells, by expresse necessity.

I will now endeavour to lead the practise of it, [Page 6]from the dark and eldest times, to these no lesse neglected of ours.

From the year 720, to near 920, during all the Heptarchy, in all the Counsell remaining, com­posed Ex Episcopis, Abbatibus, Ducibus, Satrapis & omni dignitate Optimatibus Ecclesiasticis & Secularibus personis pro utilitate Ecclesiae & stabilitate Regni per­tractatum. Seven of them are Rege praesidente, and but one by deputy; and incongruous it were, and almost nonsense to bar his presence, that is President of such an Assembly.

The Saxon Monarchy under Alfred, Etheldred, Ex Synodis, et Legibus Alfre­di, Etheldredi, et Edgari Edgar in their Synods or placita generalia, went in the same practise and since. Thus Ethelwold ap­pealed Earle Leofrick from the County ad ge­nerale placitum before King Etheldred and Edgyra the Queen, against Earl Goda, to Eldred the King at London, Congregatis principibus & sapientibus Angliae.

In the year 1052, under Edward the Confessor, Statutum est placitum magnum extra Londinum, Gesta Ed: Ga­lice. quod Normani (ex Francorum consuetudine) Parliamentum appellant, where the King and all his Barons appea­led, Godwyn for his brother Alrveds death. The Earle denyed it, and the King replyed thus; My Lords you that are my Liege-men, Earles and Barons of the Land here assembled together, have heard my appeale and his answer, unto you be it left to doe right betwixt us.

At the great Councell at Westminster 1072.Regist: Can­tuar: in Easter week, the cause of the two Archbishops [Page 7] Lanfrank and Thomas, Ventilata fuit in presentia Regis Gulielm. and after at Windsor, finem accepit in presen­tia Regis.

At the same Feast Anno 1081. the usuall time of such Assemblies, the King, the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, and chief Nobility of the Kingdom were present, for so are the words of the Record. The cause between Arsast Bishop of Norway and Baldwyn Abbot of Burie,Regist: Sanct: Edmundi: was al­so argued; Et ventilata publico Rex jubet teneri ju­dicium causis auditis amborum.

The diligence of his son (the learned Henry the first) in executing of this part of the Kingly fun­ction, is commended to posterity by Walter Naps, Walter: Map [...] (a learned man trayned up, and deare in favour with Hen. the second) in these words: Omnia Re­gali more decenti (que) moderamine faciebat, neminem vo­lebat egere justitia vel pace; consbituerat autem ad tran­quillitatem omnium, ut diebus vocationis, vel in domo magna sub dio copiam sui faceret us (que) ad horam sextam, (which was till 12. as we now account) secum ha­bens Comites, Barones, Proceres, & vavasores, Hen Hunting Malmsbury: to hear and determine causes, whereby he attained the sir­name of Leo Justitia in all Stories; and so out-went (an quite quiddance of thestate) his bestprogenitors.

The next of his name that succeeded, is remem­bered every where for the debates and disputes he heard in person with Thomas the Archbishop, and others of his part, at the greatest Councells, both at London, Clarendon, and Northampton, for [Page 8]the redresse of the many complaints of the Com­mons against out-rages, and exortions of Clergy­men.

In the yeer 1057. Die Penticostae, apud S. Edmun­dum, the same King, (diademate insignitus) with the Bishops,Regist: Mo­nast de belle: Abbotts, Earles, and Barons of the King­dome, sate daily himselfe and heard all the de­bates concerning the Liberties and Charters of Batteli Abbie: the interlocutory speeches aswell of the King as the Lords, and parties are at full rela­ted in a Register of the Church.

The suit between the Church of Lincoln and S. Albans, Regist: Linc: in praesentia Regis H. Archi-episcoporum, E­piscoporum omnium Angliae, & comitatum & Baro­num Regni, was at Westminster debated and ended, and had the love of memory and truth bin a Prote­ctor to the publick Records of the State, as the awe of the Clergy censure, was a guard to theirs in tempesteous times, we had not been left to the friendship of Munks diligence for example in this kind.

At Lincolne the Archbishop, some Bishops, but all the Earles and Barons of the Kingdome, Vna cum Rege Joanne congregati ad colloquium de concor­dia Regis Scotiae (saith a Register of that Church.)

This use under King Hen. 3. needeth no farther proof than the Writt of Summons, then (as some report) framed, expressing both the Kings mind and practise.

It is Nobiscum & prelatis & magnatibus nostris [Page 9]quos vocari fecimus super premisses tractare, & consil­lium impendere, which word Nobiscum, implyeth plainely the Kings presence.

What the succeeding practise was from the 15th yeer of Edward the fourth, the proper Records of this Inquiry (the Journall Bookes being lost) I am enforced to draw from out the Rolls of Acts wherein sometimes by chance they are remembred.

Edw: the second was present in Parliament the fifteenth yeer of his Raign, at the complaint against the Spencers, and at a second Parliament that yeer for the repeale of their banishment.

In the fourth of Edward the third, the KING was present at the Accusation of Roger Mortimer, but not the triall, and the next yeere in the Treaty of the French Affairs, Rot. Parl. 4. & Rot. P. 5.

In the sixt yeer, Intererat Rex in Causa, John S. De Gray, & Gulielm De La-Zouch, and the same yeer. 2. Die Parliamenti, the King was present at the debate about his Voyage into Scotland.

In the fifteenth yeer, the King in the Painted-Chamber sitting with the Lords in Consultation, the Archbishop after pardon, prayes, that for bet­ter cleering himselfe, he may be tryed in full Par­liament, which was granted.

In the seventeenth, in Camera alba (now called the Court of Request) Rex cum magnatibus conve­nimet & comunes super negotiis Regni.

In the tenth yeer of Rich: the second, the King departed from the Parliament in some discontent, [Page 10]when after some time; Lords were sent to pray His presence, and to informe His Majesty, that if he forbore his presence amongst them forty dayes, that then, ex antiquo Statuto, they may re­turn abs (que) domigero Regis, to their severall home.

Henry the fourth begun his first Parliament the first of Novemb. and was the 27th day of the same Moneth [...] debate about the Duke of Brittaine, the thirtieth day the cause of the Archbishop was before him proposed onely.

The third of November he was at the debate whether the Commons had right of Judicature yea, or no.

On the tenth he was with the Lords in their consultation about the expedition against the Scots, the Creation of the Duke of Lancaster; and the prohibition of a new Sect from entring this King­dome; some Ordinances were at this time con­sulted of concerning the Stapples, and the sentence against Haxey after dispute revoked.

This KING began bis second Parliament the twentieth of January, and on the ninth of Febru­ary, was present to make agreement betwixt the Bishop of Norwich and Thomas of Erpingham.

On the twentieth day of the same Moneth, he was present at Councell for suppressing of the Welsh Rebells; for revocations of stipends, and con­cerning the Priors Allens.

On the twenty six, they advise before the King of the Sestertian Order.

On the second of March of the Statute of pro­visions, the Keeper of the privy Seale, and relie­ving of the two Universities.

On the ninth of March, the mediate before the King a Reconciliation betwixt the Earle of Rut­land and the Lord Fitzwaters.

He also began a Parliament in his first yeer, upon the tenth of January, and the eighteenth they advise before the King of guarding of the Seas, and the Welsh Rebellion.

On the eight of February, the Earle of Nor­thumberland is charged before the King, and in his presence, and by his permission, divers of whom he knew no harme, were removed from the Court.

The next day at the Petition of the Commons, he tooke upon Him to reconcile the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland: And on the twenty two of Feb: Of Northumberland and Dunbar.

In a Parliament of the twenty seventh of Hen. 6th. A challenge of Seat in Parliament, betwixt the Earles of Arundell and Devonshire was exa­mined, and appointed by the King with the ad­vise of the Lords.

In that great Capitall Cause of the Duke of Suffolke, 28. H. 6. I find not the King once pre­sent at the debate; but the Duke appealing from his triall by Peerage to the King, is brought from out the House of Lords to a private Chamber, where [Page 12]the King (after the Chancellor in grosse had de­clared his offence, and refusall) Himselfe, (but not in place of Judgement) adjudged his banish­ment.

By the Rolls of Edw: the fourth, It appears that he was many dayes (besides the first to last) in Parliament, and there are entered some Spee­ches by him uttered; but that of all the rest is most of marke [...] the report, or then present tells it thus, of the Duke of Florence, and the King: Tristis disceptatio inter duos tantae humanitatis Germannos, Nemo arguit contra Ducem nisi Rex, nemo respondet Regi nisi Dux. Some other testimonies were brougt in, with which the Lords were satisfied; And so Formarunt meum sententiam, damnationis, by the mouth of the Duke of Buckingham, (then Stew­ard of England) All which was much distasted by the House of Commons.

The Raigne of Hen. the seventh affords upon the Rolls no one example (the Journall Bookes being lost) except so much as preserves the passa­ges of eight dayes, in the 12. of his Raign, in which the King was some dayes present at de­bates, and with his own hand, the one and thir­tieth day of the Parliament, delivered in a Bill of Trade there read; but had the memoriall remained, it is no doubt but he would have beene found as frequent in his great Councell of Parliament, as he was in the Star-chamber, whereby the Regi­ster of that Court appeareth, aswell in debate at [Page 13]private causes, that touch neither life nor member, as those of publique care; he every yeear of all his Raigne was often present.

Of Hen. 8. Memory hath not beene envious, but if he were not often present, peradventure that may be the cause of the disarder, which the learned Recorder Fleetwood in his preface to the Annalls of E. 5. R. 3. Hen. 7.8. Hath obser­ved in the Statutes made in the Kings dayes; for which cause he hath severed their Index from the former, and much lay in the Will of Wolsey, who was over unwilling to let that King see with his owne eyes.

Edward the sixt in respect of his young yeers may be well excused, but that such was his pur­pose appears by a memoriall of his owne hand, who purposing the affairs of Councell to severall persons, reserved those of greatest waight to his owne presence, in these words: These to at­tend the matters of State, that I will sit with them once a weeke to heare the debating of things of most importance.

Unfitnesse by Sex in his two succeeding Sist­ers to be so frequently present as their former Ancestors, led in the ill occasion of such opini­on and practise.

In consultations of State, and decisions of private plaints, it is cleer from all times, the King was not onely present to advice and heare, but to determine also.

In the cases criminall and not of blood, to barre the King a part were to seclude him; but the doubt is allowed in crimes meer Capitall; and if in such a case the King sits not, and yet the judgement of the two Houses be lawfull, why may they not be lawfull in other cases without the King, seeing the King refuseth to joyne with them?

The example in the cause of the Duke of Suf­folke. 28. H. 6. Where the King gave judge­ment, was protested against by the Lords.

That of the Duke of Carence, 6. E. 4. Where the Duke of Buckhingham the high Steward, and the Lords gave judgement, was protested against by the Commons; in both of these the King was sometimes present. But which of these wi [...]l suit these times I dare not ghesse.

However this I dare affirme (as inevitably con­sequent from these precedent Presidents, so anci­ently derived unto these present times,) that the Kings personall absence from the station of highest power is inconsistant with the power it selfe, and so long as there is a Triple coordination in that E­state, to wit, of Supream Judicature there ought to be no personall absence whatsoever, either of Head or Member, especially of the Head, except in case of sicknesse or the like; for as it is prejudiciall to the power it selfe, and incongrous to the nature thereof, so it is an infringment of a trust commit­ted, [Page 15]and of obnoctious consequence to the Com­mon wealth, for whose good onely those powers that are, are ordained of God. Therefore if the unite existence be taken away, with it the essentiall Triplicity or triple being thereof ceaseth, and those that have thus unnaturally laboured vi & a mis to make this Triplicity at odds by this Capitall se­peration, are murtherers of that body whereof He is the Head, which though it be the Receptacle or Cabbinet of the sences and vitall Spirits, yet the body thus wounded it must needs be in a langui­shing and expiring condition; so that the Authors of this decollation are the Kings executioners and Butchers of the Kingdome, however their faire pretences for King and Parliament carry another face. Now the power of consultation and con­sent committed to this Judicatury or mixt Monar­chy, aswell Head as Members, and the Sword of Justice to the unity thereof, it will follow that a voluntary separation or division there from of one or the other, is unwarrantable either by ancient Presidents or common reason, and the party thus seperated cannot retain the unity and mixture of that power, for tis impossible that that Unity should move out of its Centure of Triplicity, must remaine inseperable (though violated) with them who continue stedfast in that station; what enor­mities soever accrue upon it or them (which nei­ther can nor are a few) in case of such Division.

How necessary then the Soveraigns Persons is required in the present Councells or Assemblies of the state, aswell at consultations as at the conclu­sions, let the rationall man judge, and how health­full to the weale-publicke of the Land, let the bleeding miseries of our present condition tell; Let all therefore who love the good of King or King­dom, or of themselves or their posterity, dayly pray and labour that all instigation in this unhap­py devision, both of one side and the other may cease; that welcome PEACE may set a period to this division: and that through a blessed Uni­on, both present and succeeding Ages, May behold No Parliament without A KING.